Banana-fana-fo-fana

Banana squash!  These brutes are B.I.G.  I picked up one the size of a fireplace log and cut into it, thinking I’d cook it down while I made quiche Friday.  Well!!  Cutting it required some muscle.  The skin was not thick or terribly tough, but getting through an 8″ diameter squash took some doing.

I sliced it into 2″ rings and scooped out the big seeds.  Then I piled the rings into two 11″ x 4″ pans and baked them at 350 degrees for a while.  Then I let them cool in the oven and pretty much forgot about them until bedtime.

Then I was in trouble.

I decided to go ahead and process the squash even though it was 9:30pm.  I though for sure I’d be done by 10pm.  Nope.  8.5 pints later, I cleaned up the kitchen as the oven clock read 11:45pm.  Yeeeeeeeah.

Lessons learned:

• Banana squash is easier to peel when it is warm and somewhat mushy.
• Squash is more fun to process when you are not sleepwalking to do it.
• Banana squash is on the drier side so adding liquid when pureeing is a must.  Enter: new use for whey!!
• My Kitchen Aid refurb food processor is meant to process about  2 cups at a time.  At this rate, a large banana squash will take exactly 2.6 years to process.
• Stephen Colbert will help the time pass more quickly!  But only if you remember to hulu him before your hands are covered in yellow goo.

The end.

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Menu, week of Oct 31

Monday

• pumpkin custard and yogurt; fried chicken skin; broth
• steak; broccoli; delicata squash?
• slow-cooked chicken, carrots, celery and onions

Tuesday

• leftover banana pancakes; broth
• chicken and carrots leftovers
• stir-fry with leftover steak, broccoli, green peppers, onions

Wednesday

• leftover custard and yogurt; broth
• leftover white meat (diced), zucchini, onions
• brown bag – Applegate Farms sliced turkey roll-ups with raw goat cheddar and cilantro; apples; muffins

Thursday

• quiche; juice?
• frozen winter melon soup; muffins
  
• burgers with fermented mustard; green beans; lacto-fermented pickles; last garden tomato

Friday

• pancakes; broth? juice?
• undecided – either cod/summer squash/onions or fried eggs/chicken skins
• slow-cooked brisket; butternut squash; broccoli

Saturday

• fried eggs and chicken skin; juice? (head to farmers market?)
• undecided – cod, if not served Friday or leftover brisket, if there is enough
• lamb stew? or pumpkin chili

Sunday

• leftover pancakes; broth (if lamb stew on Saturday)
• leftover quiche
• leftover brisket

For snacks, we will have in-season fruit, some almond butter candy, and nuts/dates.  I went to price-match Aldi’s $0.99 pineapples at Walmart today, and they had none!  Not even a place for display.  I am thinking they lost money the last time Aldi’s did that! :)

Azure Standard order comes Tuesday.  No oranges this time :( but lots of apples and onions on the way.  I still have over 100 lbs of winter squash and pumpkin to deal with, too.  I am eager to see how this week pans out veggie-wise; we may be able to limit purchases next week too!  Since I have to replace my windows before it gets cold, I am squeezing every penny!!

I estimate our food costs to be about $70 this week.  That’s under budget and the extra $5 is going toward my windows!  heehee ;)  I’d like to try a few new recipes but I feel so frazzled right now that it is a little overwhelming.  I did write my kids’ exams yesterday so I feel like I’ve accomplished a monumental task!!

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Inventory: week of Oct 31

Fresh vegetables:

• Napa cabbage
• broccoli
• zucchini
• Swiss chard
• green peppers
• one tomato
• celery
• carrots
• onions
• garlic
• cilantro
• butternut squash
• spaghetti squash
• one delicata squash
• assorted pumpkins

Frozen vegetables:

• green beans
• broccoli
• green peas
• butternut squash
• tomatoes

Fresh fruits:

• grapes
• lemons
• one pear
• overripe bananas
• apples (arrive from Azure on Tuesday)
• pineapple – if I pick up tomorrow

Frozen fruits:

• peaches
• apples
• blueberries
• cranberries
• blackberries
• strawberries

Soup bones:

• Beef
• Lamb
• Chicken

Meat:

• beef brisket
• beef steaks
• ground beef
• beef roast?
• beef organs (I KNOW they are in there somewhere!!)
• chicken drums
• chicken wings
• whole chickens
• chicken skins
• chicken organs (I KNOW they are in there…probably hiding with the beef livers!)
• pork steaks?
• cooked turkey
• turkey sausages
• turkey deli meat
• meatloaf?? (may require digging.)
• cod
• tuna (canned)
• sardines (canned)

Other mainstays:

• eggs
• milk
• yogurt
• butter
• pickles
• sauerkraut
• salsa
• almond butter
• almonds
• brazil nuts
• hazelnuts
• walnuts
• honey
• dates

If pineapples are on sale tomorrow, I will pick up a few.  Otherwise, I will not purchase food this week.  Well…maybe eggs if my menu seems egg-heavy.

Menu to come.

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Fall is here!  The nippy weather is putting me in the mood for chili.  I had a single serving frozen from our last batch, so I ate that for lunch today.  I’d like to try this pumpkin chili recipe, though!  Since I’ve still got about 100lbs of different pumpkins & squashes sitting around waiting to be used, I may as well get creative.  :)

I think that other than ensuring the beans are GAPS-friendly, I will make this recipe fairly close to the original.  I may add extra ground beef and I’ll probably use frozen or fresh veggies rather than canned, as well.  Now if I can just find a good GAPS cornbread substitute!

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Cupcakes

I’ve got a birthday boy who is already jonesing for something sweet.  We’ve discussed cupcakes, and I’m still not sure what we’ll end up doing.  But here is a recipe that we’ve used before, sans frosting.  I may play around with the frosting a bit and see if we can get something chocolatey to emerge.  Right now I am leaning more toward this cupcake recipe, though.

I’d like to come up with something good enough to serve to non-GAPSters at my son’s birthday party.  Yes, people, I dream big.  I’m sure it can be done – the question is, will I have the time and sanity necessary to pull off  a GAPS party??

 

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Cutting the mustard

I made a new batch of lacto-fermented mustard on Saturday, and it’s been fermenting for the past several days.  Tonight I made our usual Thursday night fare – burgers with lacto-fermented mustard and pickles, and green beans with butter.  I’ve found that we go through mustard pretty quickly now that the kids are old enough to appreciate it!

I used the Nourishing Traditions recipe, altering it slightly:

• 8 oz ground mustard (about 3 cups)
• scant cup water (about 7/8 cup)
• 1/4 cup whey
• 4 tsp Real Salt
• juice of 2 lemons (these lemons were not very juicy; I got about 1/4-1/3 cup all told)
• 1 Tblsp honey

This makes exactly one pint and one half-pint jar of mustard.

It’s been sitting out for 6 days now and smells deeeelicious.  I put a nice dollop on our burgers and had the kids start eating while I cleaned up a bit.  Then I noticed they were eating sloooowly.  Usually they devour their burgers, so I asked what was up.  They were both drinking lots of water so it took them a minute to answer…

SPICE!!  It was really spicy.  I had forgotten that I usually let the mustard mellow in the fridge for a month or so before we eat it!  I apologized and scraped some of it off so their burgers would be edible.

Heehee.

We’ll try again in a few weeks.  :)

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Warts and all

My daughter pointed out a “blister” on the sole of her foot before we left for Boston.  We were scrambling to get ready for the trip, and I forgot to check it out.  While we were there she complained again, and I had my sister look at it since she had been plagued with plantar’s warts for years.  She said it didn’t look like a plantar’s wart to her, and I had to agree; it really just looked like a tiny blister.  I thought maybe she had a tiny splinter embedded and that her body would work it out.

A few weeks later, my daughter is still complaining.  It evidently hurts her, and since it hasn’t changed in shape or color over the past few weeks, I assume it is a wart.  I don’t want to go the razor blade route.  One of my research projects as a Master’s candidate was to evaluate the effects of an aged garlic supplement on viral warts.  My case study showed a marked improvement with garlic supplementation, so I decided we would try that approach with my daughter.

I ordered some garlic tablets at iherb.com, and then on a whim I typed “warts” in the search box.  Wellinhand Wart Wonder came up, and I decided to give it a shot in addition to the garlic.  The garlic tablets and the Wart Wonder arrived this evening so I treated the wart before my daughter went to bed.  We’ll see if any positive results appear!

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Destressing

It was a difficult day!  I reeeeeeeeally wanted chocolate this evening.  Really really really.  But remembering how awful I felt the last time I indulged (and remembering that I would have to come back here to confess any cheats), I made myself some fake almond joy candy and resorted to shopping therapy.  I’m not sure if my budget feels like that was a fair trade, but at least I made it through the day without any GAPS no-nos.

So, since that was probably not the best way to deal with my stress…I am going to put down a few ideas for better stress management.

I need to be more consistent with my pain management exercises.  I don’t think I’ve done any in about a month!  I’ve noticed it, too.  I must schedule some time daily.  Starting…well, probably next week.

I have been getting to bed too late, as well.  I’m sure that is contributing to my lack of coping skills.  Goal for this week: go to bed by 10:30pm.  Then I’ll scoot it up to 10pm.  And maybe I’ll get sassy and move it to 9pm eventually!

I’ve spent very little time reading for pleasure lately.  Other hobbies have fallen by the wayside as well.  We spent some time yesterday and today working with some new plants and I felt sooooo refreshed by it!  I wish I had still had some left to work with after the dog attack his afternoon!  I probably would not have felt the need for a sugary comfort food if I could have had my hands in some good black dirt.  Hobbies (or normal activities that bring pleasure) are now moving up higher on my to-do list.

I’ve let my pre-planning of the kids school schedule slide lately and have been playing catch-up as the week goes along.  Starting this weekend, I am going to get back on track with planning.  I also need to write exams so I’m not cramming at the last minute when exam week comes!  In fact, I think that is two weeks away.  Sheesh.  Where does the time go?

There’s not much I can do about job-related stress at the moment.  I have an extra side job this week which is good – it is covering some lost income from other sources this week – but it also adds an extra load as I try to fit it in during what would normally be down time.  I’ll be accompanying a youth choir again in a couple of weeks and I’ll be more stretched for time as well after that.  Perhaps I can find some other time-sucker to delete from my schedule.  Maybe just paying more attention to what I do during the day will help.  :)

Stress from relationships is another thing that I can’t really do much about at this point.  With birthdays and holidays coming up, it would probably be best to focus on other areas of stress relief and just hold my breath in this department.  Or hold my tongue might be more accurate.

Well, I have 3 minutes to post this and get to bed if I’m going to meet my bedtime deadline!  Good night!

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Skin-ny dipping

We are loving the fried chicken skin.  Loving it.  At 1/10 the cost of conventional bacon (and 1/20 the cost of pastured bacon), my budget is loving it too.  :)  I try not to serve it every day so we won’t get tired of it, but we could easily eat it for more than one meal a day and be happy.

I was trying to think of some different ways to serve it (not that it isn’t scrumptious just fried with salt) and I think it would be good with some kind of dip – something ranch-like, or barbequey.  It also might be good instead of crackers or tortilla chips.  I’m still mulling the possibilities.

The only downsides I’ve found with the skins are that there is a lot of grease splatter during cooking, and the skins curl up like crazy, making it tough to cook them evenly.  I’d like to get a cast iron bacon press or panini press to solve the curling issue.  I used to have a screen to put on top of the pan that prevented splatters but I don’t know where it is.  Maybe I gave it away because I never used it.  This is a nightmare of mine, and truthfully why I hate to get rid of things.

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Menu, week of Oct 24

I spent most of the day working and did not finish up my menu plan until right…now!

Monday

• leftover pumpkin custard and cultured cream
• frozen winter melon stew and muffins
• hamburger/pureed squash/frozen peas casserole

Tuesday

• eggs and fried chicken skins
• cod; broccoli and/or chard
• lamb stew

Wednesday

• waffles and cantaloupe; broth
• lamb stew leftovers
• brown bag – hard-boiled eggs; raw goat cheddar; grapes

Thursday

• fried eggs and chicken skin; broth
• drumsticks; turnip and squash gratin
• burgers; green beans and/or chard; pickles

Friday

• banana pancakes; broth
• quiche?
• ?? I have some round steak at the top of the freezer that I may cook somehow.

Saturday

• leftover pancakes; broth
• leftovers
• leftovers

Sunday

• leftover pancakes; broth
• leftovers
• leftovers

I am kicking myself for forgetting to purchase some parmesan cheese this weekend.  I had several recipes that I wanted to use it for!  Thankfully, I can sub cheddar in the turnip/squash gratin.  I’ll just try to remember to buy some parmesan soon so I can use it for other recipes.

The kids should be gone this weekend so I’ll scrounge around instead of cooking much.  I know there are some leftovers in the freezer so I think I’ll be set.  Azure Standard comes the first Tuesday in November, and we should have plenty of fruit after that.  Until then, our fruit is limited to grapes and whatever frozen fruits I can reach.  :)

I estimated meals to cost around $40 this week, but it’s hard to know for sure since the meal plan will likely change.  At any rate, I expect to fall well under budget this week and am setting aside the extra for bulk purchases.

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