Monday plan day, 6/1

Is it really June already?  Between the wedding, the run, and all the oddities between we took a couple of weeks off from our strict weekly planning, but we're ready to get back to something resembling a normal routine (even though most of the summer is off routine for us, and we wouldn't have it any other way).

So... our organic delivery this week will bring us bananas, kiwi, apples, strawberries, rhubarb, blueberries, artichokes, kale, fingerling potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, and celery.  We called the dairy and added two pints of heavy cream, 12 eggs, and 1 lb butter to our usual order of milk and cottage cheese.

Monday - it's beautiful, so we'll grill!  Steak on the grill, plus sweet potato hash on the side, using sweet potatoes delivered last week and beans from our backstock.

Tuesday - The weather report is threatening rain, so we'll plan to cook inside and make Zuppa Toscana, using the potatoes and kale from our organic delivery and cream from our dairy, plus we have an open box of organic chicken stock in the fridge from last week that needs to be used up.

Wednesday - More rain possible, so we'll cook inside again and make beef and eggplant pie, using ground beef from the freezer, eggplant that was delivered last week, and celery from this week.  We have tomato sauce in our cupboard for this, but will need to pick up some fresh parsley, since we haven't started our herb garden yet!

Thursday - It is supposed to be beautiful so back to the outdoors we go for grilled shrimp and tabbouleh salad.  We'll count this as our vegetarian meal this week, and will be using cucumbers delivered last week, bulgur and ginger root from our backstock, and parsley left from the B&E pie.  We will have to pick up some shrimp, fresh mint, and green onions to complete this one.

Friday - Leftover zuppa.

Saturday - It's time to celebrate Calvin's birthday with our families, so we'll make homemade pizza and strawberry shortcake!  We'll pick up cheese for this, and fresh organic strawberries that are on sale this week at Meijer, and we have everything else on hand already, including the cream from our dairy to make homemade whipped cream, yum!

Sunday - Leftover pie.

Monday - leftover pizza if there is any, grilled burgers if not.

Our grocery list this week is very small.  We are still eating from the month's worth of shopping I did back at the end of April, so that turned out to be good planning.  I do want to pick up the shrimp, fresh herbs, and those few fresh fruits I mentioned above.  We also need more olive oil, and I will be looking for sales on organic meats to put in our freezer.  Since I will be at Meijer, which has a great selection of affordable USDA organics, I will also look to restock our tomato sauces and soup stocks.  One of these days I will learn to make and preserve those for myself, I just haven't gotten there quite yet.  The good news is, we have gotten to the point where I make all of our bread products.  It's one step at a time, though, and the next thing on the list is homemade noodles.

Happy week!

Monday Plan day 5/11

Organic delivery this week: Bananas, pears, mangoes, kiwi, oranges, garlic, broccoli, carrots, grape tomatoes, eggplant, spinach

Dairy delivery this week: Two 1/2 gallons of 2%, 1 pint cottage cheese, 6 eggs

Tuesday - Quesadillas (using leftover homemade tortillas)

Wednesday - Beef and eggplant pie (using beef from the freezer, sauce from our stock, eggplant from this week's order, and onion from a previous order).

Thursday - Grilled chicken (from our freezer), grilled asparagus (left fresh from Sunday's party), homemade bread

Friday - quiche

Saturday - leftover beef and eggplant

Sunday - Dinner with the Hillers

Monday - leftover quiche

Grocery list - No shopping this week, either!  Have a great one!

Feliz cinco de mayo!

Well, today is the 6th, but yesterday we celebrated Mexican heritage the best way we know how - with margaritas and fajitas! And chips, salsa, and guacamole, too. Here are some of the recipes we used:

Flour tortillas

• 3 cups unbleached flour
  2 tsp. baking powder
  1 tsp. salt
  4-6 tbsp vegetable shortening or lard, For a lower fat version use 4 Tbsp lowfat margarine
  ~1.25 cups warm water

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, then cut in the shortening/lard/margarine (I used a combination of half lard, half shortening). Next add the warm water a little at a time until your dough is soft but not sticky.
Knead the dough for a few minutes, then form 12 small dough balls and let them rest for at least 10 minutes.
Heat a cast iron pan (I used our griddle) over medium high heat - you'll want it evenly hot before you cook the tortillas. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin (a pelote would be more authentic), adding flour when needed to keep it from sticking, and lifting and flipping every so often. Roll them out to very thin - that's the best way I can describe this - then lay them, one at a time, on the hot griddle, waiting only seconds before flipping, and again before removing. They are ready when flecks of brown begin to appear on the tops of bubbles. Wrap in a towel to keep warm and moist and serve warm. Reheat in oven if necessary. Yum!

To make tortilla chips I made a second batch of tortillas, then cut them into wedges and lay them out on a cookie sheet, sprinkled with salt and cumin, then baked at 350 for about 5 minutes per side (total 10 minutes per batch). Yum again!

Guacamole in our house is merely mashed avocados mixed with a dash of garlic, a pinch of salt, and the juice of about half a lime.

Grilled Chicken Fajitas

• 1.5 lbs. chicken breasts, rinsed and trimmed of fat
  3 Limes - juiced
  2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
  1 tbsp. vinegar (white wine or apple cider)
  2 tbsp. olive oil
  1 tsp. oregano
  1/2 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
  1/2 tsp. salt

Combine lime juice, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, oil, oregano, pepper and salt in a glass bowl. Add chicken and marinate, covered, for 2 hours, turning twice.
Remove from marinade and grill over hot coals, 4 inches from the heat for about 12-15 minutes, turning once and basting with marinade until chicken is cooked through. Do not over cook.
Remove chicken to a cutting board and allow to stand for ~5 minutes before slicing into strips.

In our house we top fajita with guacamole, sour cream, tomatoes, fresh cilantro and/or salsa, and a mixture of cheeses. Yum yum yum!

And last, but very definitely not least, Traditional Margaritas!

• 3 tbsp. tequila
• 1 1/2 tbsp. triple sec
• 1 1/2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
• dash of sugar
• Ice, lime wedge, and salt

This is pretty straight forward, but here are some tips:  to more efficiently extract juice from a lime, heat it for about 10 seconds in the microwave before cutting and squeezing.  To dissolve the sugar add it to the lime juice while it is still a tad warm - if it isn't a tad warm and the sugar won't dissolve, microwave it for a few second then stir.  Use a lime wedge to moisten the edge of the glass then tip it upside down in a plate of Kosher salt to coat the rim.  Coat the rim before filling the glass, of course - if you've mixed up those two steps you've probably had too many already!

Monday plan day, 5/4

Organic delivery this week: Bananas, pears, mangoes, apples, potatoes, English cucumber, green leaf lettuce, green onions, roma tomatoes, broccoli, grapes, avocadoes

Dairy delivery this week:  Two 1/2 gallons of 2%, 1 pint cottage cheese, 1 pint sour cream, 6 eggs

Tuesday - Feliz Cinco de Mayo!!!  We will be celebrating Mexican heritage with salsa, guacamole, and tortilla chips, all homemade, followed by grilled chicken fajitas on homemade flour tortillas and margaritas!  This will use lettuce, avocadoes, and tomatoes from our order, onions left from last week, and sour cream ordered from the dairy.

Wednesday - Eggs and pancakes.  Since we weren't home to make our weekend pancakes (which is important because the leftovers provide us with breakfasts for a week) we are makng them today!

Thursday - Dinner with the Hillers

Friday - Dinner with the Ophoffs

Saturday - Leftover chicken

Sunday - We are hosting a Mother's Day meal, which Jon has not planned yet.

Monday - I'm counting on leftovers from Mother's Day... hopefully this is not misguided!

Grocery list - As you probably already know, I won't be shopping this week!  We will get all the fresh veggies and fruits we need in our organic delivery, and we ordered the dairy products we needed from, well, our dairy.  I am making the tortillas and chips before dinner tomorrow, and will make bread and english muffins on Wednesday, and the chicken for our fajitas will come from the freezer.  Yeah!  This could become a habit...

Monday plan day 4/27

Organic delivery this week: Bananas, oranges, avocadoes, pears, tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, zucchini, sugar snap peas, broccoli

Dairy delivery this week is our standard 2 half gallons of 2% and a pint of cottage cheese

Tuesday - Leftover pork, homemade bread, green bean salad

Wednesday - Grilled chicken sandwiches with tomato and avocado from the organic order

Thursday - leftover chicken

Friday - Grilled hamburgers (using the remaining tomatoes), salad

Saturday - Grilled pork tenderloin, noodles, broccoli

Sunday - Grilled chicken sausages, zucchini

Monday - Cheese quesadillas and homemade tomato soup

Grocery list - our list this week is a little different than usual for two reasons.  First, I've been using lots of the meats in our freezer and we need to restock.  Second, although I'm not really an alarmist, I think it makes sense to stock up on things just to be on the safe side these days.  So.  Our list this week includes at least a month's supply or more of the following:  organic or natural ground beef, chicken, and pork; whole wheat and white flour and powdered milk; OJ concentrate (if we don't use it for drinking we'll use it later for cooking); Frozen vegetables, dried beans and legumes, quinoa, rice, and noodles; our daily vitamins and additional vitamin D; refills for our water filtration jugs, vinegar, other cleaners; wine (although maybe not a month's worth!).

Stay healthy!