Shabbat Menu! (I haven't posted one of these in a while)

 

It's been a really long time since I shared a Shabbat menu here!

I have been feeling rather burned out in the kitchen - so my goal today was to make lots of yummy food with minimal effort. I feel like I MOSTLY succeeded. This is for 6 people age 13+, all fasting the 10th of Tevet, including a chayal who's home for Shabbat.

I had two ovens on for 2.5 hours. I tried to be efficient but I know I wasn't perfect.

Anyhow, here's what we have for Shabbat:

1 huge challah

4 smallish challot

2 pans of chicken

Roasted potatoes

Baked sweet potatoes

Cauliflower kugel

Roasted Broccoli (try it! better than steamed)

Sesame Green Beans

Roasted Onions and Garlic

2 pans of brownies

We'll also have a yummy mushroom barley soup, but that was cooked on the stove. I may prefer oven cooking, but I only do oven soup when I've accidentally overlooked ordering a new gas balloon!

(And yes, it IS possible to make soup in the oven. I do it in my enameled cast iron pot. Just don't break your wrist moving it!)

Hopefully that's enough, because I'm done!

SHABBAT SHALOM everyone!

Looking forward to the day when we can have guests and pot lucks and the like!

Shabbat Menu

I'm home, cooking for Shabbat again! And looking forward to a day of rest, food, Torah, and family time (with no SCREENS)!

So here's the plan:




Friday night

Whole Spelt and Oat Bran Challot (freshly made, they are rising as I type this!) 
Vegetable Soup
Spicy Roast Chicken
Potato Kugel
Apple Crisp
Roasted Kohlrabi
Roasted Root Vegetables
Lettuce salad the cherry tomatoes and red peppers

Shabbat lunch

Whole Spelt and Oat Bran Challot
Spicy Roast Chicken
Black Bean Cholent with Vegan Kishke
Potato Kugel
Apple Crisp
Roasted Kohlrabi
Roasted Root Vegetables
Cherry Tomatoes with Basil and Olive oil
Some other Salads
Chocolate Chip Squares (wheat-free, vegan) for dessert

Seudah Shlishit

Challah Rolls
Egg Salad
Chumus
Carrot and Cucumber Sticks
etc

What's your plan for this Shabbat? Do you make everything from scratch, too?

Shabbat Menu

This week flew by! I can't believe Shabbat is almost here already, this week did not seem to have enough days. Isn't it strange how that happens?

This week we are having 5 adults plus a baby for our Friday night guests, I hope I have enough food - this really just sneaked up on me!

Here's the plan:

Homemade Challot
Salad Course: Chumus, cut veggies, fennel salad, roasted eggplant, cabbage salad...
Spicy Roast Chicken
Brown Rice
Potato Kugel
Butternut Squash Kugel
Sweet Potato Kugel
Roasted Kishuim 
Roasted Cauliflower (maybe)
Polenta with Tomato-Lentil Sauce and nutritional yeast

Black Bean Cholent will be served at lunch

Dessert: Watermelon, Cinnamon Cake

Seudah Shlishit:
Challah and all the leftover salads and watermelon 

Hopefully this will be enough! What's on your summer Shabbat Menu?

Shabbat menu!

Suddenly, at least half the family is "under the weather" and that is so sad. It's hard when the kids are sick, and if I were to be super honest, I'm not 100% myself either. But Let's Pretend I never said that, because I a NOT giving in to being sick this week!

But keeping in mind this dragging feeling, and the fact that our vegetarian son is not home this Shabbat, I am going to try to keep our Shabbat menu ever-so-simple. And I'm even going to do the cooking tonight!

So here's the plan:

Challah rolls from the freezer
Some sort of one-pot wonder dish: I have turkey breast and plan to make it with rice and vegetables, haven't yet figured out the recipe (turkey breast was on sale this week)
Spicy Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Potato Kugel
Black Bean Cholent for lunch

Cake from the freezer
Melon

Seudah Shlishit - whatever I can find. I'm not cooking specially for it.  

What do you plan to have this Shabbat?

Shabbat is coming! (Here's our menu)

I must confess. I try to write up these menus every week, and then, without fail, I change it. I just don't tell you about it. Usually I get tired and swap something time consuming for something easy, but sometimes I just cook or bake extra... So now you know, these menus are my guides, but they are not set in stone!

So this week, I spontaneously invited some friends to join us for Friday night, pot-luck style. I'm really looking forward to their company, plus a few other guests that will be making their way to our table. Should be lots of fun!

So here's the plan:

Fresh Whole Wheat and Oat Bran Challot for all the meals

Friday night:

Vegetable Soup
Spicy Roast chicken
(something with tofu, not sure what, for the vegetarian)
Oven-Rice with roasted garlic
Potato Kugel
The food our friends are bringing
Salad - lettuce with honey-cinnamon oranges
Brownies

Lunch:

Black Bean Cholent
Roast Chicken
Tofu (same as Friday night)
Potato Kugel
Roasted Vegetables (whichever ones we have - kishuim, eggplant, peppers, fennel, cauliflower...)
Make your own salad
Brownies
Fruit (friend is bringing those!)

Seudah shlishit:

Peanut Butter and Jelly
Potato Salad
Egg Salad
Vegetable Sticks

I know this may look like a lot of food at first glance, but really a lot is simple, and much is being made in volume - for both Friday night and Shabbat lunch.

What's going on your table this Shabbat?

Shabbat Menu Planning

Now that those long Fridays are here, I no longer have to feel like a crazy person for the whole day. We can do our usual morning things and then in the afternoon, do all the Shabbat prep! Definitely makes things easier!

Just want to make it clean though, I usually do not start cooking before 3 pm. Sometimes it's even later. I think tomorrow will be one of those later days, since I already made the chicken...

Here's the menu (it's just us this week)

Fresh whole wheat and oat bran challot
Vegetable soup
Oven-fried chicken
Pan-fried tofu (for the vegetarian)
Roasted Peppers (got a bunch from the sug bet rack)
Spicy Roast Sweet Potatoes
Roasted Beets (got a bunch from the sug bet rack)
Garlic Roasted Potatoes
Salad (lettuce, honey-cinnamon oranges, sunflower seeds)
Black Bean Cholent
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Seudah Shlishit:
Challah rolls
Spreads - peanut butter, jelly, chumus
cut vegetables (we have lots of carrots and sweet peppers)
cottage cheese, yogurt
grapefruit
melon (from the sug bet rack)

That ought to do it! (Notice how all of my vegetable side dishes can go in the oven at the same time?)

What's on your Shabbat Menu?

Shabbat Menu Planning

Here's my plan for this post-Pesach Shabbat!

I'm still a bit under the weather (yes, it's getting ridiculous already), so I hope this plan is not too ambitious. Most of the oven cooking will be done all at the same time, and I'm putting my kids to work chopping all the various vegetables...

Fresh Challot
Vegetable-noodle soup
Black bean Cholent with vegetarian kishke (have to write up that recipe someday soon)
Oven Fried Chicken
Baked Rice with garlic
Apple Crisp
Roasted Vegetables (I've got kohlrabi, kishuim, eggplant, and peppers)
Make your own salad

For seudah shlishit, I'm making challah rolls and salads:
pasta salad
potato salad
chumus
cut veggies

For dessert, I will have one of the kids make a chocolate chip cake 

What's on your Shabbat menu?

Shabbat Menu

I'm a little overwhelmed this morning. I woke up with a nasty headache, a disaster in my house, and too many things to take care of. 

I'm still debating at 8:45 whether I've got to put some challah dough together right now, or if I will cave and buy a couple of challot to get us thru Shabbat.

But let's assume I will take the lazy route, since at the moment I cannot find my kitchen counter... (It has been a crazy week)

So here's the plan for Shabbat:

Challot
Mushroom Barley Soup (friday night)
Black bean cholent with vegan kishke (lunch)
Oven fried chicken and shnitzel
Baked Rice
Roasted Vegetables - I have kishuim, cauliflower, turnips, peppers, and more. I plan to roast each in its own pan.
Tomato and Avocado Salad
Lettuce salad with honey cinnamon oranges

Dessert is whatever cake I find in the freezer, I know I saw something in there the  other day!

What's doing in your kitchen?

Shabbat Menu

This week's menu is going to feature all the produce I got from the sug bet rack, and some other things I have in my house. We did not do any big shopping this week!


Here's the plan:



Whole Wheat and Oat Bran Challot

Vegetable Soup (got kishuim and celery from the sug bet rack, the rest were regular cheap veggies)

Spicy Roast Chicken (had a chicken in the freezer from the last time I found it for 9.90/kg!)

Rice Pilaf - brown rice, wild rice, green lentils, onions, and orange peppers (peppers from the sug bet rack) with spices

Stir fried veggies with cashews (radishes (peeled), green peppers, and bean sprouts were sug bet) 

Potato Kugel

Black Bean Cholent

Lettuce Salad with honey-cinnamon oranges and chopped nuts (lettuce was fine, but sold on sug bet rack, oranges are cheap right now)

Chocolate Cake and fresh fruit for dessert

What are you making?

Shabbat menu

Last week, I did a ton of work for Shabbat, so I figured I could have a slightly easier Friday this week! Plus, my freezer seems to be full no matter what I do, and it is SERIOUSLY time to start emptying it.
So -- Here's my stress-free Shabbat menu this week:



Fresh Whole Wheat and Oat Bran Challot
Vegetable Soup
Cholent with vegetarian kishke

(that's all I'm making fresh, plus a vegetable platter, and maybe a fruit salad. Also making a platter of vegetables to take over to a friend for her kiddush)

From the freezer:
Chicken
Potato Kugel
Random Sides
Tofu Shnitzel
Cake

What are you making for Shabbat? Or are you taking a break from cooking too?

Shabbat menu planning

This week, I'm planning my Shabbat menu on Wednesday night, because I suddenly glanced at my notes for the week and I noticed that I have a LOT of guests this Shabbat!
SO I must, must get started! I almost did my baking today, but in the end I couldn't, as we ended up with a million things to take care of that got in the way of baking.

So here's the plan:

Friday night (13 people total)

Fresh Whole Wheat and Oat Bran Challot/maybe Spelt Challot from guest
Chumus (guest making), Other salads (TBD, I have to check what I have ingredients for)
Mushroom-Barley Soup
Spicy Roast chicken (making a whole chicken plus pieces - I've got legs and thighs and wings)
Potato Kugel
Roasted Kishuim (summer squash) with garlic
Roasted Root Vegetables
(baked tofu shnitzel for the vegetarian)
Apple Cake (guest bringing)
Cookies or Brownies

Shabbat Lunch (15 people total)

Fresh Whole Wheat and Oat Bran Challot
Cholent + Vegetarian Kishke
Oven-friend chicken
Roasted Kishuim 
Potato Kugel
Fresh Vegetable Platter
Apple Crisp
Cookies/Cake

That's as far as I've gotten. I'm really tired right now, so maybe tomorrow I will suddenly remember something I'd planned to make but forgotten?!

What's doing at your house this Shabbat?

Shabbat menu (pantry challenge style)

This has been one roller coaster of a week. We had most of the week with my hubby out of the country, but he should arrive home soon. We had a leaky roof repaired. We had the fiery death of the transformer so I need to buy some new kitchen gadgets. We found out about the death of my father's cousin. My sister had a baby girl. Another sister is making a bat mitzvah this weekend, but the family things are all 6000 miles away. The country was shocked by terrorist attacks. We celebrated our youngest child's loss of her first tooth. And more.

So it's been quite a week, and to be honest, I just want to go to sleep. But I will have to cook...

Still trying to stay out of the supermarket, so here's our pantry challenge Shabbat menu:

(I DID buy some sug bet produce this week, so we've got some sort of vegetable selection)

Challah from the freezer, probably 

Split pea soup (with carrots and celery)

Spicy Roast chicken with rice

Vegetarian Fried Rice (for the vegetarian child)

Potato Kugel

Roasted Kohlrabi

Spicy Roast Sweet Potatoes

Butternut Squash (not sure how, roasted or kugel?)

Cucumbers and other veggies

Black Bean Cholent

Cake from the freezer for dessert

The clock change has made Shabbat afternoons really short, so at this time of year, we finish lunch and have dessert as seudah shlishit.

How do you handle short Fridays and long Friday nights?

Shabbat Menu!

YAY!
My family will be reunited for Shabbat (B'ezrat Hashem)!

My husband and the two boys have been away for about a week and a half.

The girls and I have managed pretty well, but it's been rather quiet around here.

Anyhow, looking forward to a fun, peaceful, meaningful (and probably jet-lagged) Shabbat together this week!

Here's the menu:

Fresh Challot
Vegetable Soup with noodles
Chicken Wings (one pan with honey-teriyaki sauce, one pan with garlic and herbs)
Oven-friend Shnitzel
Rice
Potato Kugel
Corn on the Cob
Salad (I'm putting together lettuce, red pepper, avocado, cucumber, mango, sunflower seeds, and dried cranberries)

Dessert will be fruit, marble cake, and assorted cookies

Seudah Shlishit is not yet planned. We'll figure something out!

What are your shabbat plans this week?

Shabbat Menu

It's turning into quite a busy Shabbat for me.

A had invited a family (who is new in town) to join us for Shabbat lunch. That's normal. But usually, we have quiet meals (just us) on Friday night. However, today it came to my attention that a second new family in town had not been invited out for meals, and their kitchen is not yet functional, so... I invited them to join us for Friday night and set them up with another family for lunch.

And I wouldn't want to run out of food, so I just ran out and spent another 50 shekels on food I hadn't planned to buy, but all will be good. I think we'll have plenty to go around now!

Here's the plan:

Friday night

Homemade Whole Wheat and Oat Bran Challot
Vegetable Soup (the only kind my whole family will eat!)
Roast Chicken
Chicken Wings in BBQ sauce
Potato Kugel
Broccoli Kugel
Various salads with the vegetables I bought
(I've got lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, kohlrabi, radishes, eggplant, cabbage, cherry tomatoes, etc)
Oven baked rice
Chocolate Cake

Shabbat Lunch

Homemade Whole Wheat and Oat Bran Challot
Vegetarian Liver (maybe)
Black Bean Cholent
Oven-fried chicken
Potato Kugel
Zucchini/Kishuim- not sure yet how I'm preparing them
Various salads again
Watermelon
Chocolate cake 

Seudah Shlishit

More Challah
Salads
Spreads
Apple Crisp

Ok, now I must get off the computer and start cooking or I will never finish. I somehow ended up with a LOT of lettuce to check - but I want to be eating more leafy salads, so that's a good thing!

With lots of hope for a truly peaceful Shabbat for all of Israel, I wish you all a Shabbat Shalom.

Shabbat Menu!

We are planning for a VERY VERY hot Shabbat, there's a major heatwave starting!
Just a reminder to stay cool and drink a lot. Dehydration is really no fun.

So besides the heat, it's my husband's birthday Shabbat, and I wanted to try to stick to only foods I know he likes. Hopefully I will succeed. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I just don't. Don't ask me why, cuz I don't know.

Here's the plan - no soup or cholent this week, I feel like it's way too hot!

Fresh Challot
Vegetarian liver served on a bed of lettuce and with homemade crackers
(If I manage to take some pictures, I plan to post the vegetarian liver recipe soon!)
**UPDATE** Click here for the Vegetarian Liver recipe!

Roast Chicken (probably in a BBQ sauce marinade)
Potato Kugel
Stir Fried Veggies (whatever I have on hand - I definitely have peppers and carrots and cabbage and kishuim)
Rice
Salad - Lettuce, red and yellow peppers, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, and honey-cinnamon oranges
Chocolate Chip Cookies and Brownies
Fruit Salad, or perhaps I will turn it into a sorbet

Also making: banana muffins for breakfast, caramel popcorn for snack, hard boiled eggs and salads for seudah shlishit.

What are you making this Shabbat?

Shabbat menu! (and Oven-Fried Chicken/Shnitzel Recipe)

Time to plan for Shabbat!

With a chag in the middle of the week, do any of you also feel like doing a really minimalist Shabbat?

I know I do, and I don't think I have much choice - my carpenter will be dominating my kitchen tomorrow installing the new kitchen cabinet doors and drawers!

(When they are in, I'll post some pics for everyone to see, if you want me to!)

So here's my minimalist Shabbat menu - everything I'm cooking can go in the oven at the same time about 1 hr before Shabbat!

Challot (from the freezer)
Split Pea Soup (intentional leftovers from Yom Tov)
Baked Shnitzel (recipe below)
Oven Baked Rice
Apple Crisp
Roasted Carrots
(Black Bean Cholent?)
Make-your-own-salad

Seudah Shlishit will be more salad, sandwiches, and whatever else I scrounge up

We have a banana breakfast cake in the freezer, and lots of watermelon and other melon and peaches.

So we're good to go!

How about you?

Recipe:
Baked Shnitzel

mix equal parts whole wheat flour and yellow corn meal with spices (I usually use black pepper, cayenne pepper, parsley, and granulated garlic) in a "ziploc"-style bag, or in a bowl.

Coat shnitzel pieces with mixture. 

Arrange in a well oiled baking pan, and bake, covered, at 200 C - coating will get all deliciously crispy. Usually done in about 25 min, but I don't use super-thin shnitzel. 

I do the same with cut up pieces of chicken, only those cook for much longer! I usually leave those for about 1.5 hrs.


This is the very same recipe that I served to my next door neighbor in Florida one Shabbat. The good Southern Rabbi ate some and exclaimed,  "You make good southern fried chicken!"

I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't fried. :-)
 
 

What I'm making for Shabbat

I say the same thing every week - how did the week slip by so quickly?!

We've been super busy around here and we are sooo looking forward to a quiet, restful Shabbat. (And then maybe, maybe, a free museum on Monday?)

But we'll probably be a little nutty and do a Friday tiyul first.

So the plan is to do some cooking (not a lot) tonight, and then most of the work between 4 pm Friday and candlelighting time.

Focusing on getting everything into the oven and hardly using the stovetop, it is just too hot for an open flame in my kitchen these days (no, we have not begun using the A/C yet, you'll hear about it when we do. Not using the A/C should hopefully help keep our electric bills under control...)

Fresh Whole Wheat and Oat Bran Challot
Vegetarian Pate (instead of soup) - haven't written up this recipe, if I have time, I will.
Black Bean Cholent because my family doesn't think there's a problem eating cholent in the summer
Chicken in honey-mustard marinade (I never blog my chicken recipes because I only make them immediately prior to shabbat!)
Oven-baked rice
Roasted Kishuim
Potato Kugel
Purple Cabbage Salad
Make-your-own-salad with whatever other vegetables we have

Baking: Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Banana Cake

Seudah Shlishit will be sandwiches, spreads, salads, and corn bread cake

Shabbat!

Wow, these weeks just keep flying by!

I have no idea how it is already Thursday night. Or how I will muster up the energy to cook.

But, setting that aside, here's the plan:

Challot from the freezer
Split pea soup (I have a bag of split peas to use up!) (at night)
Black Bean Cholent at lunch
Spicy Roast Chicken 
Potato Kugel
Roasted Peppers, Summer Squash and Garlic
Salad - lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil
Apple Kugel or Apple Crisp
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Seudah Shlishit: Challah and spreads, grapefruit, banana muffins

And that's the plan. Now, I might just go to sleep, I'm so tired.

Shabbat Menu

Oh my, it's Thursday night and I have not spent more than 3 seconds thinking about Shabbat food!

I'm out of potatoes and kishuim and bananas and I haven't baked challot.



I have a bunch of basics here so I should be able to pull it together...

(Just took a big break in the middle of writing this blog to check what I've got in the house!)
Since I have 2 butternut squashes and granny smith apples galore, I'm going to have to make Butternut Squash and Apple soup, which thankfully can be served cold (garnished with fresh basil might work!) because someone just told me it's supposed to be VERY hot here over Shabbat (leaning against running the A/C, though. I haven't decided. Will you be running yours?)...

So here's the plan:

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
Honey Teriyaki Chicken Wings (Friday night)
Baked Shnitzel for lunch
Brown Rice
Snap Peas (got some fresh ones this week!)
Roasted Cauliflower (I've had one in the fridge that if I do not use NOW will be no good)
Salad - lettuce, roasted orange peppers, craisins and cucumbers
Tomato-Basil salad


Baking: Apple Cake with cinnamon crumb topping (for seudah shlishit treat), chocolate chip cake, gingerbread cookies, and whole wheat and oat bran challot.

What are you making for Shabbat?

Shabbat!

I had cooking overload on Pesach, so today I am trying to make a super simple Shabbat menu.

Here's the plan:

I have an abundance of peppers!

Homemade Challot
Soup of some sort (thinking of roasted peppers and red lentil soup?)
Oven-fried chicken
Brown Rice
Pan fried tofu for the vegetarian
Roasted Kishuim
Garlicky Roasted Potatoes
Salad - lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, pickles, olives - whatever I can find!
Black Bean Cholent (even though it's hot)
For dessert, we'll have chocolate chip cookies and fresh peaches

Suedah Shlishit will be random sandwich fixings and more salad and an apple crisp

If I work quickly in the late afternoon, I can get most of this food into the oven at the same time an hour before Shabbat and all will be fresh and ready for meal tonight...

What's your Shabbat plan? I'd love to hear!