Tuesday Night, March 28, 2011

Working on the pantry challenge... I'm having a hard time with this right now. I have so many little odds and ends left in the freezer that I'm not sure what to do... Right now I am focused mostly on the fridge, but I'll try to find ways to use the freezer stash as well.

Tonight, we're going to have:


Minestrone Soup (found a few small containers of leftover minestrone from other times. If it's not enough to go around, I'll add a few more veggies and  no one will be the wiser. The real question is, can I mix in the pureed cauliflower that stares me in the face every time I open the freezer?!)

Baked potatoes (actually, not sure if we really need these; maybe I'll rummage through the freezer and find something to use up! I'm afraid some of my labels rubbed off and I'm left with mystery food... does that ever happen to you?)

Cottage Cheese pancakes (we like these slightly salty. mix cottage cheese, eggs, flour, salt, and pepper. cook in a skillet just like pancakes)

Make-your-own-salad

Let me know if you're also doing a pantry challenge. How's it going?

Monday Night, March 28, 2011

Ok -
Quick! What's for dinner? It's a busy day and I'm sneezing my head off... and trying to stick to my pantry challenge...
Quick survey of the kitchen reveals lots of tomatoes and leftover whole wheat bread...

So I made:
Tomato Soup -  I used every shortcut I can... saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Add diced, fresh, ripe tomatoes (I used about 7-8 good sized ones), cover the pot and simmer for about 10 min. over med-low heat. Add water, salt, pepper, and a teaspoon or 2 of honey. Bring to a boil, then simmer for as long as you can manage. Puree with your handy-dandy immersion blender. I also added 1/4 tsp of baking soda to cut the acid for my reflux-girl.

Grilled Cheese sandwiches

Cut veggies

Sunday Night, March 27, 2011

Oops! The day flew by; we were doing some major clean up and organization projects! At least I can look at the playroom and know that it is organized and we threw out LOTS of junk that had accumulated. I promised myself that I will not allow the children to buy any more toys from the shekel store again! It's just destined for the garbage, so let them keep it, and let me keep my hard-earned shekels!

Anyhow, quick supper plan for tonight:
Breakfast for supper! (Can you tell this is just for me and the kids? Hubby is coming home late...)

Oatmeal - I said I had to use up the oats I have on hand!
Toast with peanut butter and jelly
Yogurt, Cheese, etc
Carrot Sticks, Cucumber sticks

Shabbat Parashat Parah (March 25-26, 2011)

I'm going to continue using up whatever I can this week!

We're mostly using stuff that's here in the house that needs to be used before Pesach, although I did buy some fresh produce...

Here's the plan:

Lentil Soup
Stew of some kind - I have no idea yet what - in the crock pot
Steamed Broccoli
Shnitzel/Other chicken that I found in the freezer
Brown Rice (made with the soup stock I made earlier this week)
Cut Vegetables
Carrot Kugel (from the freezer)
Brownies

Wednesday night - March 23, 2011

I'm really hoping to bake some bread in the morning on Wednesday (let's see if I can really do it this time. Every time I have planned to since our Aliyah, I have given up before getting started). So I don't want to spend much time in the kitchen in the afternoon. (I think this is a common theme. I never seem to want to spend much time cooking. Life has just gotten too busy...)

So, with that in mind, here's what we're having for supper:

Garlic Bread

Spaghetti with Roasted Vegetables (Tomatoes, Red Peppers, Onions)

Make-your-own-Salad (we have lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, purple cabbage)

Fruit Salad (my 6 year old's specialty!)

What are you making? Please join in our pantry challenge! Let us know how you're using up your pantry in preparation for Pesach.

Tuesday Night, March 21, 2011

Wow! What a week it's been so far!
Things were crazy going from Shabbat to Purim, and then trying to get tons of stuff done on Monday. Of course, not enough got done, but we'll get there.
We're trying to figure out how to get ready for Pesach, and still live our lives. I jokingly told the kids we were taking the idea of living me'avdut l'cherut (from slavery to freedom) to a different level, and they would all get to feel like slaves for the next few weeks.
My 3 yr old promptly dumped out every toy in the playroom. AGAIN. sigh. (she made it very clear that she isn't playing the slave game...)

Anyhow, here's our menu for Tuesday, with an emphasis on foods in my fridge, freezer, and pantry. Oh, and a focus on "easy".

Cheese "quesadillas" - really we'll just use pitot or laffahs.
Lentil soup
Salad - lettuce, purple cabbage, cucumbers, and honey-cinnamon'd oranges

Purim is over... Pesach is coming

Will you join in my  pantry challenge?
Take some time to go through your fridge, freezer, and pantry. List what you have, and let's try to use it up!
I think tonight we're finishing off the Shabbat leftovers, but after that we're up for a major pantry challenge!

Here's a partial list of things I've found:
olive oil
cocoa
a few pkgs of pasta
whole wheat couscous
ketchup
mustard
vinegar
garbanzo beans
black beans
white beans - not sure what kind they are
green lentils
frozen phyllo dough
frozen bourekas
assorted frozen leftovers
frozen peas
frozen green beans
corn meal
oat bran
sesame seeds
sesame butter
soynut butter
peanut butter
various fruit spreads
honey
date honey
popcorn

So I'm going to try hard to use up my the stuff in the house. This is a great opportunity to make sure things get used up before they're out of date, and minimize the shopping in the weeks prior to pesach so that the pesach shopping bill doesn't feel so insane! (save money now, spend it later....)
Who's in?

Shabbat Zachor

Quick Shabbat menu rundown:

(This is turning into a crazy day!)


Here's what I'm making - we'll be eating the same things for both Friday night and Shabbat lunch, just swapping Friday night's soup for the stew...


Vegetable Soup / Some random stew in the crock pot
Roast Chicken 
Broccoli-Cauliflower Kugel from the freezer
Carrot Kugel
Artichokes
Roast Zucchini
Salad - whatever I manage to throw together! (gotta start having the kids make the salad...)
Fruit Salad


Shabbat Shalom

Thursday Night, Post-Taanit Ester

Looks like I have a feast to prepare. Several of them!

I wonder if I can double-up some of the preparation, and serve some things more than once.

Here's how we'll be breaking the fast:

Vegetable Soup (my usual, saute onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and any other soup worthy vegetables. lower the flame and cook, covered, for 10 min. then add soup stock, spices, salt and pepper. simmer until you need to serve it. the longer it cooks, the more complex the flavor...)

Broccoli Quiche - if I run out of time, this will be a crustless quiche.

Baked Potatoes

Artichokes - love those dancing children! (see Tuesday's post if you're not sure what I mean!)


Salad - right now I have tomatoes, purple cabbage, cucumbers, and red peppers. perhaps i'll throw in a sliced carrot, too.

Wednesday night - March 16, 2011

It was so gorgeous out today! And we all got busy and the afternoon. So I didn't really have a supper plan.

This is what we managed to throw together:

Baguette with butter

Garden Pea Soup - this soup is so quick, easy, and yummy too. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil, add frozen green peas, water, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Puree, and serve. Easy as pie. Actually, easier than pie!

Omelets

Melon

For some reason, I couldn't push myself to make a salad tonight. It just didn't happen. At least we had the garden pea soup!

What's your favorite quick recipe?