Weekly plan, 11/23

Dairy delivery this week: Two 1/2 gallons of 2% milk, one dozen eggs, one tub of salted butter

Monday - Leftovers

Tuesday - Veggie tostadas and herb salad

Wednesday - I have no idea what I'm doing for dinner, but I'll be spending the day making pumpkin pie, cranberry relish, pumpkin muffins, and bagels, so I'm thinking that ordering pizza might be a good idea (in fact, I think it should be a Thanksgiving Eve tradition, don't you?)

Thursday - dinner with families

Friday - dinner with family again

Saturday - leftovers

Sunday - leftovers

Grocery List - I need nothing for Monday or Tuesday night's dinners (I bought all the items for these last week), and the rest of the week I'm not actually cooking (can you believe it?), so this week's list is more about having enoguh fruit and veggies around to make pick up meals from, and also about getting supplies for Wednesday's baking. So I'll be picking up oranges, strawberries, apples, grapes, and pears for this week's fruit; sweet potatoes, chard, kale, carrots, salad greens, and brussels sprouts for veggies; and pie pumpkins, evaporated milk, ground allspice, vegetable shortening, cranberries, tart apples, pecans, and oranges for Wednesday's baking.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Kale chips

It's winter vegetable time! Kale is a great winter vegetable, and it's really great for you. Most of my kale recipes end either in soup or in wilted greenery, but a quick internet search yielded the following recipe for baked kale chips. We made this on Friday night (for once I followed the directions exactly, except that I eyeballed the measurements) and it was an immediate hit. Crunchy and delicious, we gobbled them all up as a snack before dinner. This is definitely something we will be doing again.

Baked kale chips

Origin: All Recipes
Yield: 6 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
  ● 1 bunch kale
  ● 1 tbsp. olive oil
  ● 1 tsp. seasoned salt

Directions:
 1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
 2. Cut kale leaves away from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale (this is why I actually love my salad spinner). Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
 3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature.

 Nutritional Information:  Calories: 58, Total Fat: 2.8g

Bagels!

I finally did it. After weeks of saying I'd give it a try, and weeks of my chickening out because there were too many other things to do in a week, we finally made bagels today. Now that I've done it I have to wonder why on earth we waited this long. They were incredibly easier to make, and so, so yummy—soft on the inside with just the right combination of crunchy and chewy on the outside. These are even easier than english muffins, since you don't have to stand over a hot griddle cooking each one for several minutes, taste much better than your store variety bagel, and are probably a lot healthier than your bakery or Panera bagel (I haven't done any research here, but when making them at home you have control over what goes in, so...).

I looked at several different recipes online and combined them to come up with the one I give here. These are definitely going in my bread roatation.

Homemade bagels

Yield: 8-12
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 35 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 60 minutes rising time

Ingredients:
  ● 1 1/2 cups warm water (112-115 degrees F)
  ● 2 tbsp. dry yeast
  ● 3 tbsp. sugar
  ● 1 tbsp. salt
  ● 4 1/4 cups flour, (I used 2 1/4 whole wheat)
  ● 2 qt. water, for boiling
  ● 1 egg white, lightly beaten
  ● 1 tbsp. water
  ● Toppings/flavors, optional (think raisins, garlic, poppy seeds, etc.)

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, mix yeast, sugar and warm water together and let stand until foamy (several minutes).

2. Mix 2 cups of flour with the salt in mixing bowl; add yeast mixture slowly with machine on 2. Mix until combined, then slowly mix in two more cups of flour.

3. Remove dough from mixing bowl and knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes, adding additional 1/4 cup flour (or more) if necessary (I recommend hand kneading as opposed to mixer kneading with these). Place dough in oiled bowl, turning to coat, cover and let rise until double (about 1 hour).

4. Remove dough from bowl. If you are adding mixed in ingredients (like cinnamon and raisins) this is the time to do it—make a well in the dough and add ingredients, then knead just enough to mix throughout, being careful not to over-knead.  Divide and shape into 8-12 balls, depending on the size of bagel you want. Place balls on baking sheets, cover, and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

5. After 5 minutes rest, make a hole in each ball of dough and pull open about 2 inches, making a bagel shape. Place bagels back on baking sheets, cover, and allow to rest for an additional 10 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil and preheat the oven to 350, and make your coating by mixing the egg white and water. After bagels have rested, use a pair of soft tongs drop them, 2 or 3 at a time, into the boiling water for about 45 seconds, turning each once. Remove to wire racks to drain.

7. Brush tops of bagels with egg white mixture and sprinkle with any additional toppings if using. Place bagels on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, turning once half-way through baking (if making topped bagels, rotate). Bagels will be lightly browned and shiny when done. Remove to cooling racks.

here they are pre-boiling

The boiling process—you don't want them layered in the pot, and they only stay in for 45 seconds, so stick to boiling just a few at a time.

The final product! I made some plain, some "everything" (poppy seed, sesame seed, garlic, and course salt), and some cinnamon raisin (After the rise, I divided my dough into three parts, mixing cinnamon and raisins into just one part). These were incredibly good right out of the oven, of course!

Weekly plan, 11/16

Organic delivery: we cancelled it for good. This was not an easy decision, really—we have been really happy with their service, and over the several years we subscribed were introduced to many veggies and fruits that were new to us, so it really expanded our horizon (and added a lot of recipes to our repitoir!)—but when we first signed up for the program it was because we were just discovering organic foods, and we lived relatively far from any store with a large selection from which to choose. Now that the rest of the world seems to have discovered organic along with us we can find a pretty good selection of organics at our local Meijer, not to mention that we are within a reasonable driving distance of our own farmers' market, the market in Ann Arbor, and a number of specialty stores, both local and not, and the allure of having the flexibility to decide what to cook with and when is too enticing to avoid any longer. I would not hestitate the recommend the Door to Door Organics service to anyone else, we just feel that we have outgrown it at this time.

Dairy delivery this week: Two 1/2 gallons of 2% milk

Monday - Leftovers! We made too much food last week, so we are still eating yummy hash and lentil soup.

Tuesday - Three cheese mostaccioli, brussels sprouts, mixed herb salad greens.

Wednesday - We're actually making bagels this morning! So for dinner we are having (turkey) bacon, egg, and cheese bagels with salad greens and carrots.

Thursday - Leftover mostaccioli, cauliflower, and kale chips.

Friday - Grilled edamame, cheese, and tomato sandwiches, and wilted red chard.

Saturday - It's a tailgate Saturday, so it will be a light pick-me-up dinner using (healthy) snacks of all sorts.

Sunday - Red lentil tostadas topped with broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes

Other things we'll be cooking this week: bread, bagels

Grocery list - Blocks of cheddar, montery jack, and parmesan cheese, turkey bacon, mixed herb salad greens, brussles sprouts, turkey bacon, carrots, cauliflower, kale, frozen edamame, tomatoes, red chard, dried red lentils, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash. We'll also be getting starwberries, blueberries, kiwi, mangos, and oranges to spread throughout the week. Mangos are 12 for $4 at Whole Foods this week!

Mediterranean Salmon

This week I received a link via email to an article suggesting that the Mediterranean diet can help with seasonal depression. I like Mediterranean foods, so I can get on board with that. We tried this one last night and it got a thumbs up all around. Strictly speaking it's not all Mediterranean, but it's a step in a pretty yummy direction.

Mediterranean Salmon and Noodles

Ingredients:
• 1/2 package of fettuccini (about 4 servings)
• 2  Tbsp. olive oil
• 1  lb. skinless, boneless 1-inch thick salmon, cut in 8 pieces
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6  cups fresh baby spinach
• 2  red and/or yellow sweet peppers, roasted
• 1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and cut into halves
• 1 cup mushroooms, sliced
• 1-1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut into halves
• 1/2  cup balsamic vinaigrette dressing
• Feta cheese for garnish

Directions:
1. Roast peppers. I do this in my gas oven by setting temperature to 400 and placing them on the lowest rack (no need to wait for the oven to preheat) directly over the flame vent. Turn every five minutes until skin is blackened and blistering. Remove from oven and immediately place in a covered dish. After at least fifteen minutes, remove from dish, peel away blackened skin, remove stem and seeds, and rinse. You can skip this step by buying a jar of roasted peppers, although I've never bought them so I can't recommend one way or another.

2. Prepare pasta according to package directions.

3. Meanwhile, brush 1 tablespoon olive oil on salmon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat an extra-large skillet over medium heat; add salmon. Cook 8 to 12 minutes or until salmon flakes, turning once.
Remove salmon; cover and keep warm.

4. Add spinach, sweet peppers, mushrooms, and remaining oil (if necessary) to skillet. Cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes, or until spinach is wilted. Drain pasta; add to skillet along with tomatoes and olives. Add dressing; toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Divide spinach-pasta mixture among four bowls. Top with salmon. Serves 4.