Saturday, March 29, 2008

Weekly Menu Plan

This is more for internal management then anything else, but if you're interested in anything let me know and I'll email you the recipe or post it.

Saturday

Supper - Sausages with Peppers and Onions in my new pressure cooker, which I'll be writing about on Monday.

Sunday
Breakfast - Berry Buttermilk Pancakes
Lunch - Turkey BBQ Sandwiches, Veggie Tray with Dip
Supper - Lemon Rosemary Roast Chicken, Roast Asparagus, Mashed Potatoes, Candied Carrots, Broccoli Salad, Surprise Cookies - one of our VERY favorites. (from the new Martha Cookie book!)

Monday
Breakfast - Cheese Omelettes, Fruit Smoothies
Snack - Orange Wedges, Surprise Cookies
Lunch - Leftover Roast Chicken, Polenta Squares (The Baby LOVES these!), Carrot Sticks
Supper - Spinach Salad with Marinated Mushrooms and Ricotta Fritters (with gf Macaroni and Cheese for the kids as well)

Tuesday - APRIL FOOL'S DAY!
Breakfast - Oatmeal, which isn't very silly.
Snack - Half Bagel with Cream Cheese, Mock Sushi, Red Grapes
Lunch - At School.
Supper - Fauxberry Pie, Blueberry Fool

Wednesday
Breakfast - Whole Wheat Banana Waffles
Snack - Red Grapes, Whole Grain Crackers and Hummus
Lunch - At School - Pizza
Supper - Salmon Cakes, Baked Potato Skins, Green Salad, Purple Cauliflower, Baked Nectarines

Thursday
Breakfast - Poached Eggs and Toast, Fruit Smoothies
Snack - Applesauce, Pineapple/Carrot Muffins
Lunch - Hummus/Veggie Wraps, Grapes
Supper - Pasta with Rainbow Veggies

Friday
Breakfast - Cereal and Toast
Snack - Carrot Oatmeal Muffins
Lunch - Egg Salad Sandwiches, Starwberries, Baby Carrots with Ranch Dressing

Monday, March 24, 2008

A Carrot Cake For My Baby

2 cups gluten-free flour blend (one cup rice flour, 3/4 cup teff flour, 1/4 cup potato starch)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon (doesn't that sound like a TON of cinnamon? It really wasn't over-powering, though.)
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple (the kind without any added sugar)
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated carrots

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly oil a 9x13 pan and set it aside.
Sift the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices into a bowl. Set it aside.
In a food processor, combine the pineapple, raisins, and 1/4 of the white sugar. Pulse for a little while - you don't want the ingredients pureed, but just sort of mushed together a bit. Set that aside, too.
With an electric mixer, combine the remaining white sugar, the eggs, brown sugar, vegetable oil, applesauce, vanilla and the pineapple-raisin glop. Beat until everything is well combined. Lower the speed and add the flour mixture, then add the carrots and beat just until everything is combined. Spread into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a butter knife comes out clean. Let cool and frost with a cream cheese icing (I used four ounces of softened cream cheese with 3 tbsp soft butter and 1/2 cup white sugar, well-blended.).

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Califlower Soup

My kids are really very cheerful about eating vegetables, it must be said. There was no magic trick that we performed, aside from a) serving them a wide variety of vegetables all through their lives and b) eating a wide variety of vegetables ourselves. So all three of my kids were very enthusiastic about this soup, while your kids might not be. It's a VERY yummy soup - flavourful and creamy and good - so perhaps your munchkins will love it, too.

Heat up some olive oil in a largish saucepan. Chop up an onion and cook until soft in the oil. Add:
1 head of chopped cauliflower
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups milk (I used a bit of cream as well that I had in the fridge and it was very nice)

And that's it! Let it simmer until it's tender, which should take about 15 minutes. Now you're going to pureer it in batches in your blender or with an immersion blender. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve. You can grate some Cheddar on top if you like.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

This week's menu...

.... a study in over-reach. Lunches are easier when the kids are home and I tend to become verrrry relaxed about breakfasts, too. They're lucky there's still fifteen feet of snow on the ground and I can't send them outside to forage.

Tonight:
Three homemade pizzas (and a mini gluten-free one, too)- right now, I'm thinking one with Sweet Thai Chili Sauce (we eat too much of that stuff), goat cheese, chicken and broccoli, one vegetarian with feta, and one VERY STANDARD PIZZA with turkey pepperoni and green peppers. Guess who eats that one. Anyhow, those pizzas are likely going to be mentioned in this week's Kitchen Party post, complete with lovely pictures, so stay tuned.
And then we're making homemade Twinkies, which I'll write about later this week.

Sunday
Breakfast - These mini maple cinnamon rolls. Lordy. I'll have to get up at 6 to get them ready before church, which is sort of sad. Oh, and some fruit salad, so we don't get scurvy.
Lunch - A big Greek salad.
Supper - Cabbage Rolls, scalloped potatoes, peas.... and some pink fluffy mini cupcakes because it's Barbie's birthday and we're celebrating.

Monday
Breakfast - A bowl of cereal. I like making hot breakfasts for the kids when they're off to school and I don't get to see how much else they eat during the day, but it's March Break and I'm probably going to have a headache AND a certain cereal company has watches in its cereal right now, which my kids have decided they need more than ANYTHING. So cereal it is!
Lunch - Open-faced egg salad sandwiches with goofy vegetable faces.
Supper - Vegetarian 3 Bean Chili and a Yeast Corn Bread Loaf

Tuesday
Breakfast -Poached Eggs on Toast and some orange slices. My kids love poached eggs, which is kind of odd, since poached eggs are the grossest member of the egg family.
Lunch - Quesadillas and some sliced mango
Supper - Pork Tenderloin with Garlic-Orange Vinaigrette and Sauteed Spinach, Brown Rice, and Roasted Tomatoes

Wednesday
Breakfast - Cereal again! Or oatmeal.
Lunch - Spinach Pasta Salad with Feta, The Girl's specific request. When I'm doing menu planning for the week, she sits right alongside me making her own list of things I should cook. Very helpful.
Supper - Black Bean Burritos, since it's a busy night.

Thursday
Breakfast - Oh, guess. I might make french toast if anyone balks at cereal.
Lunch - Almond Butter and honey sandwiches, carrot sticks and baked apples.
Supper - Chicken Spinach Manicotti, Tomato, Zucchini and Red Onion Salad

Friday and Celebrating Saint Patrick's Day.
No, it's not actually St. Patrick's Day, but the actual day falls within Holy Week NEXT week and so we're celebrating early.
Breakfast - Lucky Charms, the official cereal of St. Patrick's Day at OUR house. And green smoothies.
Lunch - I haven't thought of anything amusingly theme-y yet. Ideas? (I'm thinking I might just make potato soup.)
Supper - Glazed Corned Beef Dinner (from the slow cooker, my dear friend), something cabbage-y, Irish Soda Bread and I THINK this country rhubarb cake.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Really standard brownies

These aren't decadent, over-the-top brownies, but do we need to have those all the time? These are sweet and tasty and moderate, all nice things.

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 300. Butter an 8" square pan.
In a saucepan over very, very low heat, melt together the butter and chocolate. Remove from the heat and stir in other ingredients. Spread in the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes.