Summer Shabbat!

Shabbat is almost here again!

We are trying out making early Shabbat here this week. We figure that an extra hour of rest can't hurt, and in the winter we manage to have everything ready for Shabbat WAY earlier than is required for early Shabbat in the summer! It's gotta be manageable, right?

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling like our days and weeks are so full and the things we need to do just never end, so an extra hour of worry-free Shabbat time sounds AMAZING. Also, there's the added bonus of not being able to check the news on Shabbat, so we can believe we are really living on our little secluded island of serenity for all of Shabbat (hopefully)...

Speaking of little islands, I have this little pull out cart in my kitchen. It stays tucked away most of the time, acting as storage for potatoes and onions. 


But on Fridays, it morphs into a mini kitchen island: it's a little tiny bit of magic. You just pull the cart out of its storage spot under the edge of the counter (it's on wheels), and set up the top surface by lifting the piece of wood that folds down, and slide the piece of wood underneath it into place to hold it secure so it is a small piece of counter.

(Um, please don't judge me that the contact paper I covered it with before Pesach is still on it!)

It is awesome, and gives me a little more space to set up some helping hands with a cooking or prepping job! Since I don't have space right now for a kitchen island, I feel like I really have the next-best thing! (And maybe it is, in fact, the best of all worlds!)

So this island is my savior on days when my counters become so cluttered I wouldn't dare share a picture of them here (ahem, that is most days, honestly)! I know that there is always a small surface, free of clutter, to use for cooking.

I do clean my counters at the end of cooking on Friday, I'm just not good at cleaning as I go along. I'm sure some of you out there can relate!

Anyhow, so this cart allows me to do things like make challah and cakes along with other things on my Shabbat menu!

So here's what I'm making this week, using mostly foods that were already in my pantry and freezer:

Spelt and Oat Bran Challot
Vegetable Soup
Black Bean Cholent
Date Honey-Ginger Chicken
Spicy Turkey Breast (there's been this turkey breast in my freezer for a while - I figured it's high time we used it!)
Brown Rice
Broccoli Kugel
Potato Kugel
Salads

And we have watermelon and cherries for dessert! Lovin' the summer fruits all around! (Did you notice that watermelon making a cameo appearance earlier?)

Shabbat Shalom, everyone! 

Pantry Challenge Dinner

Pantry Challenge. I've been doing them for YEARS...

Actually, I used to subscribe to a Yahoo Group by that name, where people supported each other through their pantry challenge weeks - the support was great, even if the suggestions didn't always work for a kosher home! I loved the creativity and the resourcefulness of that group!

What's a pantry challenge all about anyway? It's about not shopping. Instead, you focus on using up whatever is already in your house - the purpose being to reduce spending and use up food that typically sits in the pantry or freezer and doesn't get used, becoming a waste of money AND space.

I do them at different times for different reasons.

Most of my pantry challenges have been inspired by the need to clear out the pantry. Whether pre-move or pre-Pesach, or pre-big event - there are times when you just must use up what you already have!

Then there are the times when I've had to do a pantry challenge due to lack of funds to buy more food, and those tend to be rather... interesting, as those are really designed just to "get by" until there's more cash available, and they don't always coincide with times when the fridge or freezer is full! That's when you figure out how to make the most creative meals, in my experience - when you somehow have to make a meal out of whatever odds and ends you have!

Here's the anatomy of a typical pantry challenge meal in my house - at least at the beginning, when we're still relatively well stocked.

Grains ~ Frozen Veggies ~ Beans or Lentils ~ Cheap fresh veggies ~ 

So this time here's what it looks like:

Homemade bread (this time it came out of the freezer, but it was made of whole spelt and rye flour (the whole rye flour was really cheap at Rami Levy one day, I think it was under 5 shekels/kg - so I stocked up)



Rice - this was long brown rice, bought in bulk from a dry goods store - I think it was 7 shekels/kg, and this was about 1/2 a kilo of rice...

 

Veggies - I picked up red peppers at the makolet from the sug bet rack today, so they cost 2 shekels/kilo - I used about half a kilo for this dinner. I simply cut them, tossed with olive oil, and roasted them!

Green beans - these were picked up on sale for 5 shekels a bag (a deal I couldn't pass up - even though we don't eat tons of frozen green beans!), tossed with garlic, black pepper, smoked paprika, and a smidge of olive oil.




Chick-pea Fritters - these were made of chick pea flour, ground flaxseed, and a whole bunch of spices, like salt, pepper, parsley flakes, granulated garlic, and cumin. Pan-fried and a big hit.

I had some spicy sauces around, and some of us mixed up bowls of rice with veggies and spicy sauce. Others prefer to eat everything separately.

I've spent the last decade trying to figure out ways to make meals acceptable to all of my family members - even though there are hardly even 2 things they will all agree to eat at the same time! That's why the majority of our meals are made of of individually cooked foods that can be combined in different ways, including this one. No one has to feel that they weren't thought of, and I don't have to spend all day catering individual meals! It's a recipe for success - even when we're doing a pantry challenge!

Anyone else out there doing a pantry challenge this week? Let me know what you're serving!

Pantry Challenge Shabbat

Not my pantry, but I have lots of shelves and glass jars too!

Last week, on Shabbat, our fridge called it quits. As I struggled to figure out what do with food that would quickly begin to spoil, I realized I may have allowed myself to stock up a bit more than is ideal. So I announced, "no grocery shopping next week"! And resolved to cook meals using whatever we have in the house. Some of the things I found (and had to transfer to the other freezer with difficulty) had been frozen for perhaps longer than ideal - so I'm trying really hard to use them up! We're doing well, actually - no one's starved and we've eaten a somewhat wide variety of foods this week!

So for this Shabbat, we're having whatever I find in the freezer or can make using items in the pantry and fridge...

Looks like we'll be having chicken from random other Shabbatot - there are all sorts of packages of 2 servings and 3 servings of chicken that were left, and it's time to use them up.

We have several challot and challah rolls in the freezer.

There's vegetable soup, that I'm making with whatever soup veggies are left in my fridge (onions, carrots, kishuim, celery, garlic...)

I'll cook some rice, and the sweet potatoes that are begging to be used, and a vegan cholent.

We've run out of tomatoes, but we still have cucumbers, yellow and red peppers, carrots, and kohlrabi for making a vegetable platter!

We have plenty of apples, so we'll make either apple crisp or baked apples...

And I might make a cake!

Next week we'll probably have to do some shopping again, but for now, I think we're doing well with this pantry challenge. We've eaten lentils a few days, random freezer leftovers once or twice, pasta with cheese I had stashed in the freezer, salmon that was the one thing that had defrosted before I realized what was going on with the fridge (cooked it after shabbat)... It's all good for eating, so we might as well use it up! But after Shabbat, I think we'll be very low on fresh fruits and veggies (except for carrots - we seem to have tons of carrots!), so we'll have to shop again!

So even though we had to fix the fridge this week (unexpected expense!), I'm blessed that we were able to salvage most of the food and make it work without shopping!

Shabbat Shalom - wishing everyone a restful and peaceful Shabbat!

One month (a bit less) till Pesach - Pantry Challenge Week!

Since we have a month to go till Pesach, I decided it is HIGH time we get a move on using up our pantry/freezer stash.

So the plan for the week is to use whatever we can from the freezer! But I will buy fresh milk and fruits and vegetables.

We have all sorts of random foods to use up, so that's what we're doing.

What about you?

(Some things we have are single servings of salmon, pans of pasta, containers of soup, and I'm sure plenty of other foods I will find as I embark on my archaeology expedition!)

Let me know if you're also doing a pantry challenge!

(We will have fresh food for Shabbat, though, I'm reserving my pantry challenge for weekdays only at the moment)

I'd love to hear about your pantry challenge!

Tonight I found a couple of packages of gnocchi hanging out in the pantry, some fried fish, some corn shnitzels, and served that with some of the veggies/salads we had in the fridge.

Tomorrow, we'll have another surprise for supper, and I'm making tomato-rice soup for lunch, using leftover rice from Purim seudah.

Shabbat Menu

This week has been a minimal shopping week, for a variety of reasons - among them an overly full freezer! - so we've been eating what's here in the house and I had to fill in a few things like milk, and altogether I've spent 105 shekels on food purchases this week. I got some eggplant and purple cabbages for 2 shekels /kg and some butternut squash for 3 shekels/kg, so they will play starring roles in our menu!

Not bad, but 105 shekels was a bit more than I'd planned to spend this week - I think that's because I was hungry when I was at the store and I got tempted by a sale! Oops.

So this Shabbat is a mostly use-up-what's in the house Shabbat menu.
I still have to go through the freezer a bit better to take a real inventory, but here's what I think we'll be eating:

Challah from the freezer
Butternut Squash Soup for Friday Night
Crock Pot Split Pea Soup for Lunch
Chicken Wings two ways - some roasted with Garlic and Herbs, and some baked in Honey-Ginger Garlic Sauce
Tofu in Honey-Ginger-Garlic Sauce for the vegetarian son
Rice with Roasted Garlic
Purple Cabbage Salad
Eggplant with Techina
Any fresh vegetables that are left
Dessert: Melon, Wheat-free chocolate chip squares

We'll also pop some popcorn, as usual, and we have some oranges for snacks too. Now that we've changed the clocks, it gets difficult to have a "real" seudah shlishit, so I'm not yet sure what we'll do about that.

What's doing at your place for Shabbat this week?

Sick Day Menu Planning

I got sick.
I tried SO hard not to get sick, but once the kids brought a respiratory virus into the house, there was no real way to avoid it, no matter how hard I prayed and hoped it would skip me.
So I'm sick - the kind where I get feverish and can't sleep, can't breathe, headache, sore throat, and all.

So I have no idea what we'll eat this week or when we'll buy fresh food.

I think that means we're doing an unplanned pantry challenge. We're dangerously low on vegetables though, so I will have to solve that problem somehow.
(Snacks will be apples and pears - we have a bunch of those in the fridge - and popcorn)

Here's the plan:
Sunday lunch: random foods we found in the fridge plus sandwiches
Sunday supper: Shabbat leftovers

Monday lunch: Rice, red lentil dahl, cottage cheese pancakes
Monday supper: Baked Ziti, Steamed vegetables

Tuesday: Erev Yom Kippur
we'll do brunch (not sure what) and a seudah mafseket - but I don't know what that will be yet.

Wed night - break the fast
Honey Cake
Coffee
Split Pea Soup
not sure what else

Thursday lunch: Sandwiches, carrot sticks
Thursday supper: pizza/polenta pizza, oven fries, whatever veggies are left 

And hopefully this won't overwhelm me while I'm sick! I do plan to put kids to work helping out!
What's your menu plan for this week?

Sug Bet Haul!

I was passing by the makolet, and as I approached, I had few hopes of finding anything good on the sug bet rack.

From afar, I saw mostly empty boxes, as the top layer of boxes was deceptively empty.

When I got closer, I found full boxes of produce, stacked at ground level instead of on the racks. Some of the produce was not useable at all, but I managed to pulled out plenty of decent produce in the end!

I know I said I was sort of doing a pantry challenge, but I am always ok with buying some fresh fruits and vegetables (especially fruits!!), especially when it's a great price, and we can either use them this week or prep them and freeze for some other time!

Here's what I got for a total of16.70 NIS:

The breakdown is (approx weights):

850g artichokes (4 of them)
600g assorted peppers
200g not-yet-ripe tomatoes
2 kg cauliflower
200g carrots
900g kishuim
140g pears (actually 1 pear)
250g shesek (loquat)
290g lemons (2 lemons)
180g fennel
1.2 kg peaches and a nectarine
1.3 kg eggplant 

And now, I must go fit it all into the fridge (except the tomatoes) until I get back to them later!

Have you found any deals this week that were too good to pass up? 

Menu for the week

Friends, it is time to plan a menu for the week!

We were actually supposed to have a family menu-planning session, but haven't gotten back to it. Have you ever done that? 

I'm not 100% sure I recommend it, but we do them anyway. We have had so many unrealistic suggestions (ice cream and m&ms do NOT make a meal, my dear children!), that I regret having them sometimes...  But I do feel it's good to check in with the family, hear what they have to say about meals and menus, discuss the basics of healthy eating, and try to accommodate the stronger preferences they may express (but no, no matter how many times they ask, we will not have pizza and pasta on a daily basis, sorry everyone!).

So here's the plan for the week


Sunday: Pizza night

Monday: Shabbat leftovers

Tuesday: Lentil Soup, rice, stir-fried veggies (with seitan? I found some in my freezer, that was bought on sale at some point)

Wednesday: Tomato soup with rice, scrambled eggs, salad

Thursday: Baked potatoes with assorted toppings, leftovers from the week

Lunches will be sandwiches, pancakes, and random things I find in the freezer


Besides the focus on really inexpensive foods, this menu is basically a pantry challenge menu - I will need to buy eggs and some fresh vegetables, but otherwise I think we have enough to get by. (We may be running out of flour, I should really check!)

Looking forward to a productive week without spending far too much (time and money) on food!

Some notes about the cost of food: I use brown rice (I normally pay 7-8 shekels/kg), whole wheat flour (4.50/kg) and red lentils  (8-9 shekels/kg) regularly.  This way we are still eating healthy complex carbs, but not spending a lot of money on them. We've been buying potatoes, carrots, cabbages, onions, and more for 1-2 shekels/kg, and celery cost me 2 shekels/bunch last week, so I have plenty. Also I managed to get the largest head of lettuce I've ever seen - certified no pesticides - for 4 shekels. I'll be eating lettuce all week long, for just 4 shekels! I'm sure it would cost me more in water and fertilizer to grow my own. And lately, I have not been so interested in foraging greens (my spring allergies are acting up and making me sneezy and sleepy!), so finding inexpensive greens is a really good thing.

What inexpensive pantry staples do you rely on? What about inexpensive vegetables? Do you have access to vegetables for 1-2 shekels/kg?

Planning for Pesach!

Purim is now behind us, so we have less than one month to go until Pesach. It's time to plan, so that the week before the holiday is not crazier than absolutely necessary, and so that we can manage to make the holiday without spending way too much money.

So first I am announcing a pantry challenge, with modifications.

This week, the only grocery shopping we'll be doing is fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, and any pesach items that we see for a great price, or chicken if there's a great sale, because most of the chickens I've seen are already sporting "kasher l'pesach" on their tags, and we can stick it in our freezer. If there is no sale, we may just make it a chicken wings Shabbat, and keep our whole chickens in the freezer for Pesach.

So who's up for a pantry challenge?

This week will not be difficult for me, because I'm actually super well stocked, but next week you may see me getting a little more "creative".

I'll try to post our menus soon!

In the meantime, here's a glimpse into my messy, overstuffed, disorganized pantry. I'm sure none of you out there are jealous of my lack of organizational skills!

Pantry challenge menu for this week

We are pretty well stocked up at the moment, and I see no reason to go out and buy anything this week - especially with a cold winter storm on the way (with the exception of milk and a few fruits and veggies, which I plan to get today when I'm out (we're out of apples and carrots and down to only 2 bananas!). Although I reserve the right to stock up on something if there is a "can't miss" sale, but I haven't seen that yet, and I don't plan to do much running around...

So, we have plenty of legumes, rice, pasta, and most staples, and we even have a lot of veggies, either fresh or frozen. Here's what I came up with using the things I see I have on hand:

Monday:
Lunch: Pasta with tomato sauce and vegetables, (rice or baked potato for the kids who aren't feeling great)
Supper: Split Pea Soup, baked sweet potatoes, and fresh bread with spreads

Tuesday:
Lunch: Lentil and vegetable stew (leftover from Sunday), sandwiches if anyone wants, using Monday's bread
Supper: Vegetable soup with noodles, Rice, Black bean "burgers"

Wednesday:
Lunch: Split pea soup (leftover from Monday) with some kind of muffins
Supper: Tuna patties with Wakame,  roasted potato wedges, salad

Thursday:
Lunch: any and all leftovers 
Supper: Eggplant lasagna (I have breaded eggplant in the freezer), baked ziti from the freezer for those who won't eat eggplant, Green Vegetable Soup

For snacks, we have muffins (my freezer is well stocked with muffins), banana cakes galore in the freezer, kiwis I picked up for 2 shekels/kg because they are funny shapes, oranges, and some homemade granola; We also have cakes from the kiddush in the freezer if there's any reason to pull out cake!

I truly hope I don't spend more than 50 shekels this week on groceries! Anyone else feel like doing a pantry challenge this week?

Pantry challenge manu!

I'm hoping to buy very little this week, but I will be buying fresh milk, and fruits and veggies. Other than that, I am trying to do a pantry challenge!

So here's the plan: breakfasts will be mostly oatmeal and fruit

Lunches will be random - sandwiches and veggies, or leftovers from the previous night's supper.



Suppers:

Sunday night: Shabbat Leftovers

Monday night: Lentil and vegetable soup, Rice, stir fried veggies

Tuesday night: Baked Ziti, Cut vegetables

Wednesday night: Scrambled eggs, Corn bread muffins, salad

Thursday night: Garlic bread, Vegetable-Barley Soup, ?? 

Anyone else out there trying not to shop? How's your pantry stocked?

Menu Plan for the Week - Pantry Challenge

I keep shoving things into my freezer and it's time to use some of it up.

In reality, my pantry shelves are getting a little bare, but I have too much in my freezer, so I'm hoping to get away with minimal shopping this week.

(Full disclosure, I will buy a few things - fresh milk and some fresh produce, plus I really am low on olive oil so I need to restock that, and perhaps a couple of bags of pasta and cornmeal, since I'm out of those essentials...)

So the plan is to do a mostly pantry challenge week - so we use up things that have been hanging around for a while. In light of that, I'm not planning a menu, I'm just going to have to see what I find in the freezer and fridge to use up and DO it.

I'll try to blog some interesting menus during the week! I know there's a strange mix of stuff in my freezer!

Anyone else doing a pantry challenge?

I'm actually sharing a picture of my ridiculously over-full freezer for all of you to see. PLEASE don't jump down my throat if you see something odd or completely junky in there. Yes, even here, we occasionally succumb to temptation and buy the junk! Please be kind to me when I just bared the contents of my normally private freezer.

(I feel so exposed.)

Weekly Meals

Somehow, my supplies are beginning to run low!

I'm out of oats, black beans, split peas, and sugar. Almost out of pasta, rice, green lentils, honey, and chick peas.

I wasn't actually planning to do much shopping this week, so I guess we'll be "making do"

One day this week I plan to make some food for a  friend who just had a baby, so I'm sure I will end up buying a few supplies to make her a nice meal! (Thinking of making her a lasagna. Or maybe not. I will have to see what I have on hand when I actually get around to cooking! She's a fish-eating vegetarian.)

Here's the plan:

Lunches will be sandwiches and soups and leftovers from supper

Suppers (just listing the main components)

Sunday: Pasta with tomato sauce and veggies and goat cheese


Monday: Whatever is left from Shabbat, supplemented with a fresh potato kugel

Tuesday: Cornbread and Scrambled Eggs (will improvise for the egg allergic daughter)

Wednesday: Baked Potatoes, Something with frozen peas

Thursday: Celebratory post-dance recital meal out ?

Do you plan your weekly menu? Let me know what's on yours this week!

Now that Purim is behind us...

Now that Purim is behind us, it is officially time to consider the impending arrival of doom, er, I mean Pesach.

Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy Pesach when I can manage to escape from my kitchen! And after all the cleaning, kashering, planning, and shopping is done too...
That actually leaves me very little time to enjoy the chag, but this year I'm hoping to do better.

So starting now, I'm doing a mostly pantry challenge month. I want to stay out of the supermarkets and not buy anything extra - just fresh produce and milk, if at all possible. That way, when the time comes to do that outrageously expensive Pesach shopping (Hello, shmurah matzah for 18 for the seder, anyone?! Gasp! What was I thinking inviting 12 guests for seder?!), I'll hopefully be able to more or less stick to budget.

And as far as the Pesach prep goes, I'm happy to say that we've pretty much enforced a no-food on the second floor rule since we moved into our home, so I'm not worried about Pesach cleaning upstairs (just regular cleaning, which is hard enough!), and the downstairs shouldn't be so bad once we have the kitchen cabinets finished, and then we'll have a place to actually unpack our Pesach dishes into! I was hoping to have new counters, but it doesn't seem to be in the cards for pre-pesach, so we'll just have to kasher what we have (yes, they are granite, but just not the kind I really want). I'm hoping to get away without staying up too many late nights or rubbing my knuckles raw, what are the chances?

And as it gets closer, I really hope to come up with some no-fuss menus that will let me enjoy the chag and stick to all of our various food restrictions and avoiding allergens (aah, pesach with an egg allergic child and a nut allergic me. what fun!)...

I'm planning to be the one at the shuk buying everything I can for 2 shekels/kg at closing time. And then we'll eat a lot of vegetables.

Who else is doing a pantry clean-out now? Let's share some menu ideas!
 

Weekly Menu!

Here's my menu for the week! Trying to use up what's here in the house, plus do minimal cooking. I feel like I keep adding to my pantry but have not made enough of an effort to use up what I've bought, so now's the time to start. 

I am planning to have some work done in my kitchen soon, so I will be able to get more organized soon! (Think of it -- just about doubling my cabinet space! But not putting in the coveted island, the carpenter thinks the space cannot handle it. But he came up with some creative ideas to help me maximize the existing counter space -- he was here when I made no effort to clean up and saw just how cluttered my kitchen can be. It was nice that he was non-judgemental and had all sorts of cool ideas!)

Breakfasts will be oatmeal and fruit and banana muffins

Sunday:
Lunch: Red lentil soup, brown rice, carrot sticks and cucumber sticks with chumus,
Supper: Green vegetable soup (leftover from Shabbat), Baked potatoes, Cottage Cheese and other random items, roasted red peppers

Monday
Lunch: Pb&J sandwiches, carrot sticks and red pepper sticks with chumus
Supper: Whatever was left from Shabbat, embellished if need be

Tuesday
Lunch: Red lentil soup with brown rice, pineapple, avocado, etc
Supper: Macaroni and Cheese, Steamed broccoli (I bought some quite impulsively!), sliced tomatoes

Wednesday
Lunch: Leftovers from the week
Supper: Fresh Rolls, Minestrone Soup, pineapple

Thursday
Lunch: Picnic stuff
Supper: Scrambled eggs and other easy to make foods

Menu Plan for the Week

Sunday
Lunch: Pasta with sauteed veggies, Pita crisps (wedges toasted with olive oil and spices)
Supper: Grilled cheese sandwiches (baking fresh bread), carrots and cucumber sticks, 

Monday:
Lunch: PB&J Sandwiches, cut veggies
Supper: Whatever is left from Shabbat!

Tuesday:
Lunch: Pancakes, apple crisp
Supper: Stuffed Peppers (with roast veggies, burgul, and lentils), Baked Potatoes with cheese

Wednesday:
Lunch: Bagels if I have the energy, otherwise sandwiches, salad
Supper: Pizza, salad, French fries

Thursday:
Lunch: All the leftovers from the week or if there aren't any, ???
Supper: No idea yet.

Shabbat Menu

We are now about 5 weeks away from moving.

Seriously, we MUST use up the food in the house. We have been doing random pantry-challenge type meals this week, but I don't really want Shabbat to feel like a pantry challenge!

BUT we also had a broken sink for the last couple of days (it was just fixed at 2:30 pm on Friday!), and we went on a tiyul on Friday as well.

So here's our plan for Shabbat, we'll use up some of the food from the freezer but we'll still have some freshly made food!


Challot from the freezer
Soup from the freezer (I think the container says split pea soup)
Roast chicken (bought some sale chickens at Yesh, we'll use the last of the freezer stash another week)
Roasted vegetables - we have potatoes, kishuim, and beets. They'll each get roasted in their own pan.
Bulgur with mushrooms (baked, too)

Cut vegetables - cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots

Watermelon for dessert!

What are you making? Are you also moving this summer? I know so many people end up moving in the summer!

Weekly meal plan!

Here's my meal plan for the week, assuming we don't go grocery shopping until Friday.

This is just using whatever I have in the house, my plan for now is to try to use up the staples I have in my pantry so we can start fresh after we move (more on that another time).

Sunday:
Lunch: pasta with alfredo sauce, cucumbers
Supper: Sandwiches, salad, and watermelon

Monday:
Lunch: Sandwiches, carrot sticks and tomatoes
Supper: homemade pizza, home-fries, cucumbers

Tuesday:
Lunch: Lentil and potato stew with vegetables, garlic bread sticks, make-your-own salad
Supper: Grilled cheese sandwiches, spicy roast carrots, stove-top grilled peaches with leben

Wednesday:
Lunch: vegetable soup with potato dumplings, crackers with chumus and homemade leben cheese with zaater
Supper: Pasta with tomato sauce and cheese, roasted cauliflower, salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, purple cabbage, feta cheese)

Thursday:
Lunch: anything leftover from the week
Supper: Tomato soup, salad, lentil-sloppy sams on homemade rolls

For snacks we'll have popcorn, various muffins, and whatever fruit we happen to have on hand...

Suburban Harvest

I'm in the middle of this (mostly) pantry challenge week, and what I love most about it is that we are managing just fine. Which means my house was better stocked than I had realized.
(Well, we did buy some bananas and 1 kg of carrots)

So we are getting closer to the end of the week, and I KNOW that I have to pick up a few things on Friday. But I'm really loving not having my bank account depleted. And that got me thinking more about harvesting...

So I was out walking...

 

I came across a couple of large bushes with fruit on them that look like not yet ripe raspberries. Do raspberries grow around here? I'd love to take the kids to pick some when they ripen, if they ARE really raspberries!

And as my girls and I walked home from their dance and gymnastics classes, we happened upon a crate of red peppers in a driveway (remember the people who just put "spare" produce in their driveway? They've been putting stuff out in smaller quantities, and with less frequency, so I think they are trying to rein in their overbuying.)... I took a whole bunch, as I know that stuff just rots there if I don't! So now we have lots of red peppers! (They look like "sug bet" peppers, but I really am not picky about that!)

 

And lastly, as we walked up our walkway, I remembered our almond tree. I'm wondering how we can tell if our almonds are the sweet kind, and when they are usually harvested. And how we would know when to harvest them?

Weekly Menu!

This week I am running dangerously low on all sorts of staples, since I never really did grocery shopping or a health food store trip last week!


This ought to be interesting. Now that I'm thinking about it though, maybe we'll skip the grocery run this week and do a pantry challenge...

Sunday 
Lunch: Whole wheat biscuits, Vegetable-noodle soup
Supper: Fried rice (with soy sauce, vegetables (mostly cabbage) and egg) Not sure if we need more than just this one food. If yes, well. Really not sure what it would be.

Monday
Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwiches on homemade whole-wheat bread, tomatoes and cucumbers
Supper: Bulgur with lentil "meat balls" and sweet and sour sauce, lettuce, honey-cinnamon oranges (we're harvesting the last of our oranges this week)

Tuesday
Lunch: PB&J sandwiches (on homemade bread), kohlrabi, shesek from our tree
Supper: Red lentil soup (the last of the red lentils), Homemade pizza 

Wednesday: 
Lunch: Red lentil soup, whole wheat biscuits, cabbage salad?
Supper: Pasta with tomato sauce and cheese, some sort of vegetables and sprouts, assuming the sprouts are ready! (I'm sprouting this week - I have mung beans and a clover/radish/fenugreek mix for sprouting)

Thursday
Lunch: whatever is left from the week
Supper: Grilled cheese sandwiches and any fruits and vegetables that are left

I am actually planning a freezer-take-out Shabbat this week, so we'll just need to buy some fresh fruits and vegetables and milk to take us through to next week!