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Meal Plans Week of 1-1-12

Happy New Year!! It’s 2012. I’m trying to start out on the right foot and trying to get over the holiday splurging. I started my day today with baking, a jog and some nourishing food. Last night we went to a hockey game, so my dinner was less than ideal…probably the worst food I’ve eaten in a long time. So it’s really time to get back on track today. Last week was a lot of fun with family parties and spending time as a family with Justin home. We celebrated, we ate, we played. It was a nice break, but this week it’s back to normal. Justin goes back to work on Tuesday. It will feel much quieter around here.

This week will be somewhat busy. Today is church. Monday is milk pick up. Tuesday is Meijer. I might go to Harvest Health on Wednesday. Friday is MOPS.

There is plenty to do around the house and in the kitchen. We’re working on getting the house cleaned and organized after so many generous Christmas gifts. Maybe today I’ll finally get my new Vitamix cleaned and ready to go so I can try it out. I’m trying to think of a way to use up some milk. We didn’t use quite as much as usual last week. Our letter this week is P. Rebecca wants to make pita bread. There are several other things we could make – pie, soft pretzels, pasta. In order to do all this baking I need to grind flour.

I had a really good week last week…until I ate way too much baked spinach. Then it went down hill. I’m still struggling through that. So this week it’s time to get back on track. I need to focus on nourishing food, raw food and cutting out sweets. You can read more about my food goals and the direction I’m taking in my yearly goals post (posted soon). And I’ll be doing a separate post on some new ideas and directions I’m taking. Stay tuned.

Here’s what’s on the menu for this week.
—————-
S (bake muffins, prep smoothies, prep lunch, church)
  L – cp roast beef and carrots (make beef broth)
  D – salad (me), leftovers – broccoli noodle soup, spinach dip, cheese ball, milkshake or egg nog (Justin)

M (bake squash, roast beets, grind flour, milk, put away laundry)
  D – squash soup, muffins, crackers w/ cheese

T (Meijer)
  D – hot taco rice

W (bake squash, make pudding pops)
  D – spaghetti bake (w/ spaghetti squash), corn

Th (make pita bread)
  D – egg salad on pita, squash

F (clean, MOPS)
  D – bacon, scrambled eggs, roasted squash, pancakes

S (laundry, parents visiting?, basketball game?)
  D – cobb salad

Baked Spinach (grain free, egg free, nut free, GAPS-legal)

I made quite a spread for our Christmas brunch this week. But I did take one item off the menu because I just didn’t have time to prepare it. So I made it for dinner last night – baked spinach. I found the recipe on Breakfast and Brunch Recipes. It is super easy. I really liked it. I think I ate half the pan last night 😛  Justin thought it would be better as a dip than as a side dish, but still thought it was good. This can be GAPS legal if you use homemade raw sour cream. It’s a great way to get more veggies in your diet. As expected Rebecca didn’t eat much…too stringy. But she did really like the flavor. Preparing this was even easier for me last night. I had a bunch of leftover ranch veggie dip (just a mix of sour cream and homemade ranch mix). So I just mixed that into the spinach instead of sour cream and separate seasoning. For cheese I used a mix of parmesan, sharp cheddar and mont. jack. I only made a half recipe.

This post is linked to Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager.

Baked Spinach

3 packages, frozen, chopped spinach (10-ounce package size)
2 cups sour cream
1 package dried onion soup mix (I used homemade ranch dressing mix)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, or more (I used more than this. Any kind of cheese will work)

Take the spinach out of the freezer the night before. When it has been thawed, place it between layers of paper towels and squeeze the water out of it until dry.

Mix together the spinach, sour cream and soup mix. Add the grated Parmesan cheese and stir until well combined.

Grease a 9″ x 9″ square baking dish. Press the spinach mixture flat with a spoon or spatula.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serves 6.

Homemade Butter

I did it…I finally made butter! It only took four attempts 😛  And I still have one to go. Now that we get raw milk I’ve been trying to make as many dairy products from scratch as possible. Butter was on my list of things to try. And after reading my SIL’s post about how to do it I thought it would be so simple. Well, it is…and it isn’t. For my first attempt I skimmed some cream, put it in my stand mixer, turned on the mixer and waited…and waited…and waited…and waited (like 30+ minutes). All I got was whipped cream. I thought maybe I didn’t skim the cream well. So I tried again the next week. I got the same results. I was starting to wonder if the milk fat content isn’t high enough in our milk. I decided to give it one more try. I gave the milk an extra day for cream separation. And only skimmed the cream from the very top. But I got the same results. I gave up on making butter with our raw milk.

Then I ordered some cream from our co-op. I know it  has a very high fat content. This morning I tried using that to make butter. I put some in my mixer, turned it on and waited…and waited. After almost 15 minutes I was ready to give up and figured that for some reason I just can’t seem to make butter. But I decided to try one last thing. I took the whipped cream out of my mixer, put it in a bowl and beat it with my hand mixer. And wouldn’t you know it…I made butter!! The buttermilk separated nicely, and now I have a stick of freshly made butter in the fridge. And it was easy…like it’s supposed to be.

After four attempts it seems as though my stand mixer is the problem. I’m not sure what is going on. I’ll have to investigate that a bit. In the mean time, I have homemade butter 🙂  And now I need a fifth attempt using our raw cream again…with my hand mixer. I hope that will work.

Although it’s been quite a trial for me, making butter really is very simple. My SIL has great instructions on her blog. I’ll repost them here.

Homemade Butter

chilled cream (preferably raw)

Pour the cream into your stand mixer bowl with a wire whisk attachment on your mixer. Turn your mixer to a medium to medium-high speed and just let the mixer do the work (or mix it with a hand mixer like I do 🙂

Your butter should be done in about 10 minutes or so. (You can also use a food processor to make butter, but you don’t want to use anything that will warm the cream as it churns (some blenders will do this).)

I want to also note that you should not try to make too much butter at once. The cream will expand and turn into whipped cream through the process of making butter, so you want to make sure you have plenty of room in your mixer bowl for this to occur. Once the butter and buttermilk start separating, it can also get kind of messy if you have too much (and sometimes even if you have too little) in the bowl as the butter splashes around in the buttermilk.

Once your butter has formed and the solids have separated from the buttermilk, pour everything through a strainer. The liquid milky stuff is buttermilk. It won’t look like the buttermilk you buy in the store – it won’t be thick – but you can use it as you would buttermilk… in baking, in smoothies, for soaking grains, etc. I often will freeze mine if I don’t have a use for it that week.

Transfer your butter to a clean bowl. Now it’s time to wash your butter. Sounds kind of funny, doesn’t it? Well, you need to wash it to make sure you extract all of the buttermilk. This will make your butter last much longer.

To wash the butter, you will need to add cold water to the butter. Don’t add too much so your not splashing all over the place, but add enough to wash. Use a wooden spoon to press and fold the butter. This will extract the buttermilk. Pour the water off (don’t save this stuff). And add more cold water to repeat the pressing and folding. You will need to repeat this step until your water remains totally clear. At that point, you’ve removed all of the buttermilk from the butter. Remember – the cleaner the butter, the longer it will last.

Pour off the clear water. Press and fold your butter a few more times to extract any remaining water. Pour that off. Now you can mix in salt, if you want. I don’t, as I find it more convenient to add salt when I use the butter.

If you have a butter mold, transfer your butter to the mold. I don’t have a mold, so I just plop the butter onto a sheet of parchment paper or natural wax paper and shape it into a rectangular cube. Then I fold up the sides to seal it and place it in the refrigerator or freezer. I freeze most of the butter I make fresh for later use, but if I know I’ll be baking or needing a lot of butter during the week, I’ll keep the fresh stuff in the fridge. It will keep for 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator.

** NOTE: If you do not have access to real milk, you can follow this same process using the cream you skim from non-homogenized, pasteurized milk, or from a carton of good, quality heavy cream.

Christmas Menu

Yesterday we had our final Christmas party. It was a brunch at our house. This was our menu. Quite a spread. I made everything except the fudge. Doing a brunch for Christmas is a lot of fun. So much yummy food 🙂

Egg and sausage casserole
Overnight french toast bake
maple pecan scones
carrots and cucumbers with ranch dip
mini dutch apple pies, cherry jubilee cups
ranch cheese ball with crackers
fruit salad
Christmas cookies, chocolate mint cookies
sugared nuts
fudge, chocolate covered pretzels
egg nog, coffee, juice, water

Overnight French Toast Bake

I found this recipe on my SIL’s blog and thought it would be a great addition to our Christmas brunch menu. I tried it last week to test it before making it for guests. It is easy and good!! And will be on the table Tuesday morning 🙂  Justin and Rebecca both really enjoyed it. I love that you don’t need to add syrup. It’s already plenty sweet and syrupy. Thanks for the recipe, Sara. I replaced the corn syrup with honey to make it healthier. I only made a half recipe when I was trying it. I’ll make the full version for our party.

Edited 12/28/11 – I made the full version yesterday. Instead of doing slices of bread I broke it all into chunks. I think that worked a lot better to absorb the eggs/milk evenly. And it was much easier to dish up.

Overnight French Toast Bake

2 Tbsp. honey
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown cane sugar or sucanat
1 16oz. loaf whole wheat bread, gluten free bread or grain free bread
1 1/2 cups milk
5 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

In a pan on the stovetop, combine the honey, butter, and brown sugar. Simmer until syrup-like, about 7 minutes. Pour half of the mixture in the bottom of a 13×9 inch pan. Slice bread into 1-inch slices and place on top of mixture in pan. Pour remaining syrup mixture over top of bread slices.

Combine eggs, milk, salt, and vanilla. Beat until mixed well. Pour over bread.

Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, uncover pan and bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until brown.

The Letter O

We mostly focused on prepping for and celebrating Christmas last week. But we did do a few O projetcs. I think this week we’ll take a break from school work and resume in the new year.

The Letter O

projects – owl, octopus
food – octopus hot dog, chocolate covered pretzels, mint chocolate cookies, gingerbread man cake
character – obedient

Meal Plans Week of 12-25-11

Merry Christmas!!! For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

It’s Christmas…day and week for us. We’ve got 4 days in a row of celebrations/family time, starting today. So I am going to be crazy busy. I hope I can get everything done and still enjoy the parties.

Last week we were able to spend lots of time together as a family. It’s been so nice to have Justin home. The kids have loved having Daddy around to play with. We celebrated Christmas on Friday. Rebecca is having a blast with her new toys and doll. Abram is enjoying his little Noah’s Ark. And he’s really taking off in terms of sitting/crawling/standing. It seems like overnight he is starting to crawl normally (not just army crawl). And he gets grumpy if he’s not standing or propped up on something. If he is on his tummy it’s not long before he’s sitting up. And if something taller is near by he’s trying to pull himself up. He is also developing his verbal skills. He kind of makes horse and lion sounds. His horse sound is like a silly laugh. And he loves to growl at us.

The kitchen was definitely a busy place last week as I was trying to do as much prep work as possible. I think I got everything done that I could.

This week is all about family and Christmas parties. Until everyone is gone…then we get to relax 🙂  Today is church. Then we are headed to my parents’ house for our extended family party. Monday I have to pick up milk in the morning. Then we have a brunch with some of my extended family that lives in town (grandparents, cousins, etc.). After the party it’s back home for naps…then my in-laws will be here. They’ll be staying a couple days. Tuesday  morning is our Christmas brunch/party with Justin’s family. Our house guests leave on Wednesday. I think we might go out for dinner on Wednesday evening…give me a break after 4 days of Christmas baking and cooking. We might go shopping later in the week. Saturday we are going to a hockey game. It’ll be the first time for both kids. Rebecca is very excited.

I won’t list all of the things I need to get done in the kitchen this week. But there is a lot. And I have to squeeze it in between parties, travel and milk pick up. So my plans will be fairly detailed this week. I don’t want to forget anything.

I’m doing pretty well overall. I’ve been making sure that I eat lots of healing, nourishing foods lately. That really helps. I just need to be better about staying away from all of the goodies around the house 😛  I know my anxiety/stress levels over the next few days will take a toll on my gut. But I’m trying to do what I can to keep it under control. Hopefully I can still enjoy all of the parties and be sane by the end of the week.

Here’s what’s on the menu.
———————-
S (prep salad and dressing, prep lunch, church, Christmas party)
  L – light/quick – chicken salad sandwich, chips, strawberry shake (Justin), chicken salad, veggies (me)
  D – party (I’m bringing salad w/ cranberries, walnuts, parm cheese, cucumbers and croutons; poppy seed dressing and homemade honey mustard dressing)

M (prep dinner, prep veggies and dip, milk pick up, make yogurt, make kefir, Christmas party, guests, prep casseroles, make dip, thaw/drain spinach, make cheeseball, make jubilee cups, make fruit salad)
  Brunch – party (I’m bringing veggies w/ dip and grain free breakfast bars)
  D – pea soup w/ carrots and ham, pumpernickel bread, pesto rolls, applesauce

T (prep brunch – bake casseroles, slice veggies, bake scones, bake pies, Christmas party, guests)
  Brunch – party: egg and sausage casserole, french toast casserole, carrots and cucumbers w/ ranch dip, maple pecan scones, fruit salad, baked spinach, crackers w/ cheese ball, Christmas cookies, sugared nuts, chocolate covered pretzels, mini apple pies, egg nog, chocolate mint cookies, fudge, cherry jubilee cups, candy
  D – meatloaf, baked potatoes w/ butter and sour cream, beans


W (guests, skim cream, make yogurt, make sour cream, make ice cream, make butter)
  B – leftovers
  L – leftovers
  D – out to eat

Th (shopping?)
  D – TBD w/ spaghetti squash (lasagna?, casserole?, spaghetti?)

F ()
  D – fish sticks or salmon

S (NYE, hockey game)
  D – at the game

Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal

We celebrated Christmas as a family yesterday. So I decided to make something new for breakfast. I tried baked peanut butter oatmeal. I got the recipe from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures. I’ve never made baked oatmeal before. To be honest it’s very rare that I make oatmeal of any kind at all. But this sounded good. And very simple! Justin and Rebecca both liked it. Although Rebecca had her usual chewing issues with oats. A small piece took her an hour and some tantrums to get through. She just won’t chew oats. So she won’t be eating the leftovers today 😛  I served it with homemade vanilla yogurt (poured on top). That worked well. You could pour milk on too. Or just eat it plain. It can be served warm or cold. It’s actually firm enough that you could eat it as a bar for an on the go breakfast or snack. For the first attempt I made the recipe as is. Next time maybe I’ll try soaking the oats and using rolled oats instead of instant. This is a filling quick prep breakfast. I think I’ll be making baked oatmeal more often. There are so many flavors you could make. Today Justin gets it with homemade banana yogurt. Peanut butter and bananas…yum 🙂  I’m guessing you can prep this the night before to make it even easier. I made a half recipe in a 9″ pan.

Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal

3 cups quick cooking oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter

Mix all ingredients together and stir well. Spread in a greased 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. If you like it a little crunchy on top cook for a few minutes longer. Serve with warm milk or yogurt poured over top.

Crockpot Pork and Beans (grain free, dairy free, nut free, egg free, GAPS-legal)

For lunch yesterday we had another new recipe for pork and beans from Cheeseslave. This is a very easy crockpot meal. And it is so good!! All three of us loved it. Although Abram wasn’t too happy about me eating so many beans. He’s not a happy camper right now. I guess I won’t be eating this again for a while. Aside from that it’s a great recipe. I didn’t follow the directions completely. I simplified it a bit and made less. For meat I used cut up bacon and cut pieces of leftover pork chops. I’ll post it the way I made it. This is a great, healthy recipe for baked beans. You could use just the bacon or probably even leave the meat out. I love that you use broth to add extra nutrition. I also stirred some coconut oil into my dish for more healthy fat. This would be great served with corn bread or over rice. You could even add in other vegetables for a more complete meal.

Crockpot Pork and Beans

2 cups dried navy beans
1/2 small onion, diced
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
2 cups chicken broth or stock
meat – ham hock, diced bacon, cut up pork, grass-fed hot dogs (whatever you have on hand)
1/4 cup ketchup (I used homemade fermented ketchup…GAPS legal)
2 Tbsp. mustard
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup total sweetener (honey, maple syrup, molasses…any combo…I used honey…GAPS-legal)
sea salt to taste

Soak beans in water and whey for 7-24 hours. Drain. Rinse. Cook beans in water for about 30 minutes, until just starting to soften (skim foam from water when it comes to a boil). Drain.

Add butter, coconut oil and onion to crockpot. Turn to high. Let fat melt. Add beans and remaining ingredients (except hot dogs). Cook on high 6-10 hours. Add more stock if it gets too dry. Add sliced hot dogs (if using) about an hour before serving. Remove ham hock if using.

The Letter N

Last week was pretty busy. We managed to do a few things with our letter.

The Letter N

character – nice
baking – nativity scene (made with graham crackers, frosting and candy…she made the stable, shepherds, sheep, an angel and the Bethlehem star), Christmas cookies
outings – Christmas program, Nite Lights
New foods – Rebecca tried dates for the first time.