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.

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

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

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!

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.

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.

CSA week two

Some of the lettuce we got this week.