Pat Dahnke (playlist)

Menu Plan - 5 day with grocery list

This is for my friend who needs a plan for his week. I based it on what we did this previous week. It's not production or cookbook ready. But, if you have questions shoot me a line. I know I didn't elaborate on the Sausage and tomato dish on Thursday. Maybe I will find time to type it out too.

Happy Resurrection Weekend y'all. Remember the reason for the season.

Grocery List:
Whole chicken, 3-5 pounds
cooked sausage
deli meat, 1 lb*

eggs
goat cheese
butter*
block mozzarella cheese*

baby carrots, 2 pounds
1 celery bunch
onions, 3 lbs
cucumbers, 2-3 each
zucchini, 2-3 each
salad mix*

sun-dried tomatoes, Julianne in plastic package (usually near pizza making supplies in store)*
diced tomatoes, canned*
tomato sauce, canned*
canned meat (salmon, ham, or chicken)*
canned fruit, 2 cans*
*check house for these items

Sunday:
Eat leftovers from previous week. Clear out fridge.
Go Shopping.
Make bread.
Defrost chicken stock for the rice on Monday.

Monday:
Prepare crockpot chicken (p 171 "Chicken in a pot" Fix it and forget it book)
Layer carrots, chopped onion, chopped celery and garlic in the bottom of the crockpot. Place chicken on top and add seasonings and 1/2 cup water. Cover, cook on low 8-10 hrs or high 4-6 hrs.
Lunch- Salad (Salad mix, onion, tomatoes, celery, cheese, meat, garlic powder and olive oil)
Dinner - Make 3 cups rice with chicken or beef stock defrosted from freezer. Serve with crockpot chicken. Save chicken to top salads later in week.

Tuesday:
Lunch - leftover CP Chicken, small salad and fruit
Dinner - salad with chicken

Wednesday:
Lunch - Sandwiches or grilled sandwiches
Great how-to on the grilled sandwiches from my friend The She Chef in Arizona:


Dinner - Sausage, tomato, and zucchini with Parmesan or goat cheese over rice from earlier in the week.

Thursday:
Lunch - sausage leftovers, fruit
Dinner - salad with sausage leftovers

Friday:
Lunch - Leftovers
Dinner - Fried Rice
Use leftover rice from week. Saute meat (either leftover meat from week, or canned meat) in 2-3 tablespoons EVOO (Extra virgin olive oil), carrots, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes. Add rice, and heat through. Saute onion, carrot, celery in EVOO add rice. Beat 1 egg and scramble separately. Add to rice and add in with rice. Top with green onions from garden and toasted sesame oil.

Here's another great video on Ham Fried Rice from Elaine, The She Chef


Enjoy your week! Remember, garbage in = garbage out.

Good Friday

Sometimes I tremble..



He has risen, Indeed.

Acorns!

My mom and best friend have asked about eating and preparing acorns over the past month.
I knew my favorite food gatherer/ video blogger Deane Greene, Mr. EatTheWeeds would have a video just for them!



Enjoy EatTheWeeds!

Toodles

Survival Essential Oils

One of the video bloggers that I follow is Patriot Nurse.

She just put together a great video on essential oils and tinctures and their uses around the house and in your medical kit.
Including oral health, pest repellant, and general health.



Links to these can be found at www.ThePatriotNurse.com under PatriotNurse's Supply Stash.

New pups..

First day at home.. 6 weeks old.

TSA truths

A fellow blogger was asked to put this up on her blog. I thought it was excellent food for thought and I am putting it up here too.

Let me know what you think.


Created by: Online Criminal Justice Degree

Remembering..

I haven't forgotten the hurt of nine years ago today, I losing you. Mr. D. says his heart hurts too. You were the first and we know you are in heaven playing with your brothers and sisters that have also remained there.

Two years ago today we made the decision to stop trying, believing eight is enough. Time fades some of the memories but the pain seems fresh today. They say life comes around full circle. I can see that in others around us. We seem stuck, or maybe it's just me. I'm in a fog today not sure where my feet should lead me. For a few moments it all seems ridiculous and pointless. I know that tomorrow will bring new people and new places and new problems. However I am sad now.

Our lives are well intended and busy, but I want to yell for all to hear:
I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN.
-C

Cooking - bagged meal

Meal in a bag. Dump all ingredients into pan including liquids from cans.
Simmer til rice is finished. It is our favorite bagged meal made thus far. I love how easy it is to make and how yummy the product is once cooked.

(sorry picture from cellphone)

Recipe:

Chicken and Rice Stew
Serves 6 (or 2 for lunch and dinner)

Cans/Jars:
1 10-15 oz can of chicken, undrained
1 10oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 6oz can mushrooms, undrained
1 15oz can carrots, undrained
1 14oz can chicken broth

Grain:
1 cup rice

Seasonings:
2 tsp celery flakes
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine all and simmer until rice is done, stirring occasionally.
Recipe from: the book 100 day pantry. by Jan Jackson

Faces everywhere

I see faces everywhere. Even in broken necklaces.

So, do you see them too?

Tuna and greens

Tuna cakes and mustard greens.

I got the mustard greens on sale after the holidays. They were 3 times washed and in a bag. I blanched them the day we got them home and then put them in the freezer. All I had to do was throw them in a hot pan and warm. :) I served it with quinoa, tuna cakes, and homemade yogurt sauce.

Another great Give-O-Way!

Join me over at Bacon and Eggs, she's giving away some awesome stuff.

"Well folks, I know I've been hinting at it for awhile now but here we go!! I'm having MY VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY I am SO excited to get to do this and have some awesome prizes up for grabs. 3 Winners and 3 amazing prizes!"

It is available until August 18th! Go and enter now!

Making Vanilla Extract!

Vanilla Beans from Amazon, Vodka made from grapes (not grain or potatoes), sharp knife, instructions from Surviving the Stores.

Slice vanilla bean lengthwise.

Make sure to open up the pod a bit.

Pour out some of the vodka, and begin placing cut beans into bottle.

New vanilla compared with 4 month old vanilla.


Place in a dark corner of your pantry. Shake every few days.

When ready (from 3 to 6 months) pour into old vanilla bottles. :)
Top off the bottle with more vodka. Some cooks have been topping their vanilla extract off with vodka for 10 years or more. We shall see.

Canning madness

Making Apple Butter


Strawberry Jam


Canning


Dehyrdating


Blueberries


Mangos


Ice chest and totes full of frozen fruit!

Happy Independance Day Folks!

Enjoy the weekend, take time to learn more about it's meaning! Wake up and Remember!

As John Adams said in a letter to his dear wife Abigail dated July 3rd, 1776:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).

Wisdom

I had to share this wisdom from DH. I about fell out.

and I quote:

"I don't whine or complain. I inform with flair."

Pantry cooking - Yet another Salmon Recipe

Here's another we tired from the "100 day Pantry" from Jan Jackson. Of course we changed them up a bit. I used a 14.5oz can of salmon, used 1/2 cup fresh sour cream instead of the sour cream powder, 3/4 cup regular celery instead of dried and added 1 tsp of garlic powder. I used the crockpot, because who has time to watch the stove for 4 hours?

Creamy Salmon Chowder
Serves 4

2 (14oz) cans chicken broth
2 (5oz) cans salmon, undrained
1 (15oz) can corn, undrained
3/4 cup whole wheat berries
1/2 cup sour cream powder
1/2 cup dried celery
1/2 cup dried onion
1 Tbsp dill weed

Directions:
In a medium pot, whisk sour cream powder into chicken broth. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer on low until wheat is tender (4 hours on stovetop or 8 hours in crock pot).

Pantry cooking - Salmon Recipe

Hello, hello. I modified this recipe from the book "The 100-day Pantry" from Jan Jackson. Of course I made a few changes. Instead of simmering the noodles in broth, I cooked them with water. I also used a 14.5oz can of salmon and 8oz of pasta shells. (Get it? Fish and shells?) It was an easy recipe to cook out of the pantry.

Salmon Noodle Casserole
6oz noodles
1 (14oz) can vegetable broth
1-2 (6oz) cans salmon with juice
1 (6oz) can mushrooms, drained
1 (15oz) can green beans, drained
1 (10oz) can cream of mushroom soup
1 tsp onion flakes
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp dill weed
1/8 tsp pepper

Directions
Simmer noodles in broth until softened. Drain, reserving liquid. Add all other ingredients and stir together. If mixture is too think, add in liquid from noodles. Spread mixture in a sprayed 8x8 pan.Bake @ 350F for 25 minutes.

Headaches, Migraines.. My self-help list.

Purpose: To help myself and others with migraines. I find that I forget to try each of these things that have proven in the past to stamp out a migraine.

History: My migraines started with a head injury when I was 18. In the past they have taken me out for 3 to 4 days, required intense and expensive medicines, and few times an Emergency Room visit. For years I have been on preventive medicines such as ones for blood pressure, depression, seizures. Each one has other side effects and over time my headaches return.

Migraine Triggers:
MSG - Monosodium Glutamate - It's in everything.
Stress
Lack of caffeine (I need to fix this habit!)
Not enough sleep
Neck muscle over-exertion
Bright lights
Flashing lights
Strong smells

My fixes:
Icepack placed on the back of neck
Heat on temple
Lavender and Peppermint essential oils compress
Submerging hands in hot water
Caffeine with Tylenol
Lying down after Tylenol
Controlled breathing
Dark room with little noise

Outcome:
Sometimes my headache/migraine gets too intense and I am unable to speak, let alone think. So, I have put this list on a sticky note on my bedside table. This enables Mr. D. to walk through the methods and help me to banish the headache. They don't always work and we have to resort to heavy migraine medications. I can say that I haven't had to go to the Emergency Room in over 6 years though!

Hope this helps someone out there.

CSA week 3

Here's a picture of my produce this week.

I picked these up on Thursday. That night I cleaned and chopped all the turnip greens and Bok Choy. I put them in produce bags in the fridge. I sliced the radishes and baked them. Today I am working on the rest.

So, I am processing and cooking up the Radish greens, Mustard greens, Turnip greens. My good friend Charlene told me I could blanch the greens and then freeze them. This way I can process them all and add ham or a turkey leg when I am ready to eat them. How smart is that?

Christa.