Menu, week of Oct 28

Monday

• apple crisp; milk
• leftovers & sandwiches
• marinated flank steak and green peppers; white rice cooked in broth; butternut squash; garden cucumbers

Tuesday

• blueberry cobbler; milk
• hamburger, green peppers, leftover white rice cooked in broth, & frozen broccoli casserole
• slow-cooked chicken; sweet potatoes; cabbage

Wednesday

• leftover blueberry cobbler; milk
• omelets with leftover flank steak & green peppers
• sandwiches; pickles; pears

Thursday

• eggs; baked chicken skin (cook muffins while oven is on); juice? or milk
• Cara’s Morroccan Stew; Blueberry Almond Crumb Muffins (extra to freeze)
• burgers; pickles; green peas from freezer

Friday

• eggs; bacon; pears; milk?
• Slow Cooker Sweet Tomato Basil Soup; grilled cheese sandwiches or sausages
• chicken wings; sweet potatoes; green beans

 Saturday

• eggs; bacon; pears
• leftovers?
• meatloaf; potatoes; green beans

Sunday

• leftover apple crisp; milk
• leftover meatloaf etc
• ?

I skipped the Farmer’s Market & local co-op last weekend so I could work.  I’ll definitely need to go this weekend!  But our Azure order is coming Wednesday so that will help some with snacks – 3 cases of apples are on the way. :)  I also need to pick up milk this weekend, and since it is the last weekend before my show things will be pretty crazy.  Then next week the kids are off school and I have some meals frozen – so hopefully Mon-Thurs of next week will be less stressful!

We picked virtually all of our tomatoes, peppers, green beans, small pumpkins, and cucumber because we had a freeze warning last week.  It did get cold be we had absolutely NO frost!  I was so mad!  Ha!  We aren’t forecast to have another frost anytime soon, either.  I think we could have let our veggies mature a bit!  Oh well.  We have lots of green tomatoes boxed up in the garage and hopefully they will ripen before they rot.

I’ve had a terrible time coming up with this week’s menu!  It took me several hours!  I can only hope it is because my mind is elsewhere right now.  I’ll be glad when this show is over and I can get back to “real” life.

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Menu, week of Oct 21

Monday

• pumpkin custard; raw milk
• leftovers
• Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon (no flour); cucumber salad

Tuesday

• leftover pumpkin custard; milk
• leftover Boeuf Bourguignon?
• slow-cooked chicken & veggies

Wednesday

• bacon, egg & cheese muffins; freshly pressed juice
• sandwiches & lacto-fermented pickles
• turnip & butternut hash with leftover roast beef

Thursday

• apple crisp; milk
• ?
• okazu & white rice cooked in broth

Friday

• leftover apple crisp; milk
• leftover okazu
• burgers; pickles

Saturday & Sunday

• ? leftover something – just me I think

So Julia Child is on the agenda for this week!  My little sous-chef is anxiously awaiting the first use of her copy of The French Chef Cookbook and I am eager to get her started cooking all of my meals.  heehee :)  AND last week’s recipe for the top round roast was a success!!!!!  We will definitely use the hot oven/slow cook method with those tougher cuts in the future.

I’ve been picking up groceries for an ill friend for the past month or two and that is adding extra trips to the farmer’s market and local co-op to my schedule.  It’s good because we can always grab something fresh but I have to be careful not to buy things just because they look good.  In the past, I’ve been able to shop every other week or less and that helps me stick to my budget.  It has been tough going every week.  I’m going to have to buckle down and make sure we are eating out of the pantry more.

And speaking of budgets, the Tooth Fairy is scheduled to make an appearance tonight.  I’m pretty sure my kids are going to bankrupt her.  If I hadn’t bumped the tooth out myself this afternoon I’d wonder if someone was trying to double-dip!  Why do kids have so many teeth, anyway??!

This week I’ll be doing a little less sewing (maybe!  Ha!) and more time working on booth set-ups for my show in a few weeks.  Hopefully my stress levels will go down a little and I can rest a little more.  The past couple of weeks have been very difficult with the pain from a shingles outbreak on both legs and I haven’t done much to fight this virus until just the past few days.  It’s funny how I’ll drop everything to knock out a virus if my kids are sick but when it is me it just doesn’t get done.  I have elderberry tincture in the house and *totally* could have been taking it from the start of the outbreak but was so stinkin’ busy I didn’t really think about it.  So now I’m taking it 3x/day.  I broke down and ordered a bottle of Virastop, too.  And some l-lysine.  I’ve been trying to focus on lysine-rich foods but it definitely has not been enough to kick this.  Thankfully the pain has decreased a little and we were able to do a 5-minute dance party tonight with no negative effects.  :)  Btw, we found out what the fox says and it is actually pretty ugly.  But all that to say I’ve got to manage stress better because I do not want to see shingles ever again.  Twice in 2 years is too much for me.

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Menu, week of Oct 14

Monday

• waffles from freezer; bananas; milk
• leftover lamb stew
• high-temperature round roast; potatoes from Dad’s garden; broccoli

Tuesday

• blueberry cobbler; milk
• leftover casserole & honey-mustard wings
• slow-cooked chicken; green beans from garden; white rice

Wednesday

• leftover blueberry cobbler; milk
• butternut squash & turnip hash with leftover beef roast
• sandwiches; pickles; apples

Thursday

• apple crisp; milk
• chicken soup w/zucchini noodles, celery, & carrots (and maybe rice)
• burgers; pickles; green peas from freezer

Friday

• eggs; bacon; pears
• ? something with leftover roast
• chicken livers; sweet potatoes; green beans

 Saturday

• eggs; bacon; pears
• leftovers?
• chili w/garden tomatoes & peppers;  “corn”bread

Sunday

• leftover apple crisp; milk
• leftover chili
• ?

I skipped the Farmer’s Market & local co-op this week so I could work more.  I *think* we have enough veggies to get us through the week.  I’m not sure about eggs, though.  I may make a quick run on Wednesday when I’m in town if it looks like we won’t make it through Friday without them.

I had thought we’d go through all of our milk plus the extra gallon we were given with no problem by next weekend, but with the kids not feeling well last week our fridge is still stuffed full of milk!  I may need to learn how to make mozzarella!  I was hoping to make ice cream for myself today but got too tired before I got it done.  :/  I hate an overstuffed refrigerator and we’ve gone a whole week with no real progress there.  Ice cream must be made and stashed in the freezer, if nothing else.  Yet another reason why we’ll need eggs, I suppose.  :)

Garden…I would say it is winding down but we are getting just as much produce as we have at any time during the summer.  It was SUCH a lousy summer for tomatoes and peppers at my house.  The peppers actually rotted on the plant before they matured!  But we are finally getting some decent ones and tomatoes are finally ripening at a steady rate so that’s nice.  Our bush beans gave out a while ago but the pole beans are still doing ok.  I got our fall garden in a couple of weeks ago and we’ve got radishes, carrots, turnips, pak choy, onions, and rutabagas sprouting now.  I’ve never grown rutabagas before so I am eager to see if we like them.  Our new blackberry plant is giving off some very large and delicious blackberries and it is sending off some shoots that I may relocate soon.  I’ve discovered that I really do the perennial fruits best and maybe I’ll concentrate on those next year and barter for other veggies.  I hate keeping up with the weeds and the kids hate going out in the mosquitos to do it for me so we are at an impasse there.  I’ve thought of putting “spend an hour weeding the garden” in a jar with other needed tasks for the kids to draw out of when they need an attitude adjustment but haven’t gotten that done yet.  Yet another task on my very long list of tasks that probably will not be accomplished any time soon.

I’ve been trying to put away meals in the freezer for the week of my show but I don’t think that will happen this week.  I’ve got at least 6 dresses and 5 purses to finish this week and I’m making that more of a priority than cooking ahead.  I need to make sleeping more of a priority too so I ought to go brush my teeth and hit the sack before I find something else to do!

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Menu, week of Oct 7

Monday

• leftover blueberry cobbler; milk
• butternut & turnip hash with frozen turkey and peas
• stuffed peppers – and extra to freeze

Tuesday

• pumpkin custard; milk; baked chicken skins if I still have some in the freezer
• leftover stuffed peppers
• slow-cooked chicken & veggies

Wednesday

• leftover pumpkin custard; milk
• chicken stir-fry
• leftover lamb stew

Thursday

• eggs; bacon; fresh juice
• grilled cheese sandwiches (made by my son)
• honey mustard wings; sweet potatoes; broccoli

Friday

• apple crisp; milk
• tuna quiche (and extra to freeze)
• zucchini lasagna; cinnamon bun muffins (and extra to freeze)

Saturday & Sunday

• ? leftover something – just me

I got an extra breakfast of waffles and a lunch of lamb stew in the freezer last week but that was about it.  This week I’ve got to get back on track!  And supper seems to be where I am falling short.  The lasagna will help.  Maybe I’ll get two batches to freeze.  We’ll see.  A sweet friend brought a bday gift today with waffles, hot dogs, and Bubbie’s pickles and pretty much melted my heart!  She knew I’ve been stressing out a little about food prep lately.  :D

My dairy guy gave me three extra gallons of milk when I picked up today.  Luckily I had friends to share with but still my refrigerator is STUFFED.  We are gonna make ice cream at some point this week!!!  Now to decide what flavor we should start with…

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