October Menu

It seems like menu planning/grocery shopping takes up a huge amount of my time each week (or every other week if I am on top of things :) So this month I thought I would experiment with a month of planning and shopping. That way each week I can just run in and get produce and not a week's worth of grocery. Then we have plenty of food on our hands if I can't make it to the store one week, or if the government closes the base grocery store (oh wait that happened).

I thought I would post my menu so next October I could do the same exact thing. We eat seasonally so it is hard to just rotate every month or two but we can at least rotate every month. We have a very simple outline for our meals: Fish Sunday, Mexican Monday and Pizza Friday. Then we usually do pasta once a week, beans once a week and then a salad or quinoa or something like that.

I have linked the recipes that have links-if they don't that means it is my recipe and I will post once I have cooked them just in case they don't turn out :). Enjoy!



Week 1:
Monday-Tacos

Tuesday-roasted tomatoes and eggplant pasta-This sauce is so great! But to be honest it reminds me a lot of my favorite lazy day sauce: a jar of roasted red pepper and a can of fire roasted tomatoes with some garlic, salt and pepper. So if you don't want to roasted the tomatoes and peppers just do that. Oh and I used regular pasta-Texas isn't fancy enough for fancy noodles :)

Wednesday-out-this was unplanned, but John passed a very hard part of training!

Thursday-eggplant curry (I followed the recipe on the red curry paste for the sauce. Then stir-fried some eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and peanuts-yum!)

Friday-roasted red pepper and spinach pizza

Saturday-BBQ

Week 2:
Monday-sweet potato chimigangas

Tuesday-cocount lime pasta I always stir-fry my veggies and rice noodles. I then refrigerate for the afternoon and serve chilled. Very yummy!

Wednesday-Butternut squash salad

Thursday-Veggie chili

Friday-articoke and sun dried tomatoes pizza

Saturday-Out

Sunday-Salmon with sunshine rice


Week 3:
Monday-Veggie chili enchiladas

Tuesday-Pumpkin Mac and Cheese I'm not sure I will use this recipe. If you have a semi-healthy pumpkin mac and cheese recipe will you send it my way please? :)

Wednesday-Quino and squash

Thursday-Sweet potato and orzo

Friday-Butternut squash, grilled onion and balsamic pizza

Saturday-Breakfast for dinner

Sunday-Shrimp

Week 4:

Monday-Fajitas

Tuesday-Stuffed peppers (this one is a must!)

Wednesday-Black bean, quinoa and pumpkin

Thursday-Pepper and cornbread salad

Friday-Greek pizza

Saturday-out

Sunday-Fish cakes


Week 5:
Monday-Tostadas

Tuesday-Steak

Wednesday-Pumpkin Ravioli

Thursday-Halloween-I think it's a law to eat chili that night-right? So I will probably make egg rolls :)

Autumn vegetables and red lentils

I found this recipe and made a couple of modifications. It was so good! John and I both loved it (Caleb's pickiness is at a new level so he eats nothing with any flavor). Very easy to make, and lots of flavor.

• 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
• ½ yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 cup Sweet Potato, chopped into 1cm cubes
• 1½ cups dried Red Lentils
• 4 cups Vegetable Broth/Stock
• 1 cup Carrot pulp 
• 1 cup Broccoli florets, sliced
• 1 cup Baby Spinach leaves
• 1 cup fresh Coriander leaves

Spices

• 1 tsp grated fresh Ginger
• 1 tsp Ground mustard seed 
• 1 tsp ground Cayenne Pepper (less if you don’t like medium-level spiciness)
• 1½ tsp ground Cumin
• 1½ tsp Curry powder
• ½ tsp ground Coriander
• 1 clove fresh Garlic, chopped

Instructions

1. Assemble spices in a small bowl.
2. Heat oil in large saucepan or frypan over medium heat.
3. Add onion and sweet potato and sauté until onion is soft.
4. Add spices and cook, stirring, until mustard seeds start to pop.
5. Add lentils and stock and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add remaining vegetables and carrot pulp and simmer for another 15 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and stir in spinach leaves until wilted.
8. Serve topped with cilantro.

Israeli couscous with grilled squash and greek yogurt tandoori

I was on a quest to make a lot more dairy free recipes for my sister-in-law who is off dairy right now and I was feeling like a Middle Eastern meal-that was simple.

As I was making this I saw our greek yogurt and really wanted a tandoori sauce on this meal. But you could make it dairy free by using olive oil instead of yogurt. This was so simple and delicious!!

I used a Saigon Blend for this recipe. It is a blend of ginger, cumin, cinnamon, clove, salt, garlic, anise and pepper. I am not sure where you would get it, another option would be curry powder.

Israeli couscous with roasted squash and greek yogurt tandoori

1 c. Israeli couscous
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 T coconut oil
Curry powder or saigon blend
1/4 c. greek yogurt or olive oil
1/2 lemon-juiced
1 clove minced garlic

Cook couscous according to package direction. Sprinkle with salt.

Peel squash, cut into four long pieces. Brush with coconut oil and sprinkle with seasoning. Grill for 5 minutes per side, until nice and tender. Cut into chunks.

Combine greek yogurt, lemon and garlic.

Mix couscous, squash and dressing. Enjoy!

Whole wheat spelt flax bagels with chia seed

I have a slightly illogical fear that John is going to die of cancer in his 40s. Not really illogical, that is when his father died, and almost every member of his family has died of cancer at some point. So I went crazy searching how to avoid cancer.

And now we put flaxseed in everything.

Probably won't cure cancer, but will possibly help some. Oh and chia seed. Those seeds my keep my hubby kicking it until he is 50!

But for real, I really wanted a healthy bagel recipe. I read that people should eat more spelt flour, so I use that. I added the seeds to add extra fiber to them. They are delicious but do take some time. Rolling out all those bagels takes some time. But it is worth it! A bagel and green smoothie is literally my favorite recipe.

 I adapted this from here. I triple the recipe because I make them to last us two weeks. They freeze wonderfully! Just cut them before you freeze them, then you just pull one out, pop it in the toaster and have a wonderful bagel every day.

6 t of yeast
4 1/2 T of sugar
3 3/4 c of warm water
4 1/2 c spelt flour
5 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. ground flaxseed
2 T chia seed
4 1/2 t. of salt

Pour the yeast and sugar into 1 1/2 c warm water. Do not stir. Let it sit for five minutes, and then stir the yeast and sugar mixture until it all dissolves in the water.

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast and sugar mixture.

Pour 1 1/2 c. warm water in the well. Mix and stir in the rest of the water as needed (I always need it all. Adding the flax and spelt flour will make it thick, sometimes I add a tablespoon more) You want a moist and firm dough.

Knead for 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.

Place dough in oiled bowl. Cover with damp cloth and let rise until double in size (about one hour). Punch down and let rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into equally sized balls (my sizes vary between golf ball to tennis ball. It depends on how hungry I am! I so don't stress about the size, they will all turn out yummy in the end). Gently press a finger into the center of each dough ball to form a ring. Stretch the ring to about 1/3 the diameter of the bagel and placed on greased cookie sheet. Repeat with all balls

Cover with damp cloth and allow to rest 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 425

Bring a large pot of water with 1 T maple syrup to boil. Use a slotted spoon to lower the bagels into the water. Boil as many as fit in the pot (I usually do four at a time). Boil two minutes than flip and boil two more (you will want to boil them that long, this is a heavy dough, you want the bagels to be chewy).

After boiling brush each bagel with egg wash (1 egg white, 1 T water). Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

Almond flour craisin chocolate chip cookies

I got this cookie recipe from my sister-in-law earlier this year. I love it! I consider this through and through a dessert but it is a healthier dessert so you don't feel guilty eating one or two. I only made two slight adjustments, the regular recipe is great but I do love agave and flaxseed. I also cut the chocolate chips and craisins in half because there is still plenty and they are a little healthier that way. I don't press mine flat like she does because I am just that lazy, and they are amazing still-but don't look anything like her picture. Also almond flour is super easy to make. Put some almonds in the blender, blend until flour consistency. 

Almond flour craisin chocolate chip cookies

1 3/4 cup almond flour

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

pinch salt

1/4 t baking soda

1/2 t cinnamon

6 T all natural peanut butter

2 T honey

2 T agave nectar 

2 t vanilla

2 T water

1/4 cup dried no sugar added cranberries

1/4 cup chocolate chips 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease your cookie sheet lightly or use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

In a mixing bowl, stir together together the dry ingredients.

In a separate, smaller bowl, combine the peanut butter, honey, agave vanilla, and water until smooth. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and mix until well-combined (it may take a bit to come together).

Mix in the cranberries and chocolate chips.

Scoop dough in 1 T rounds onto your cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the top is light brown. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. They'll be pretty soft when they first come out, but they'll firm up after a few minutes.

Homemade Whole Wheat Tortilla with Coconut Oil!!

I love the idea of having everything in our life homemade. I also love the idea of having homemade items not full of shortening or butter or lard. So it took some looking and thinking and some trial and error but I found this recipe and it is amazing.

My reasoning behind this one is this: tortillas need lard, so any recipe with an oil is going to have a different texture than one with a solid fat source. So I had to do a lot of searching but I found one where you don't melt the coconut oil. It keeps the texture I would expect from a tortilla much better than the olive oil or canola oil recipes I have tried.

Enjoy

http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2012/06/soft-homemade-tortillas.html

Summertime Italian Pasta Salad

Yesterday while making my menu I had an insane craving for an old family favorite Italian marinated pasta. If you have ever been to a wedding or baby shower for anyone in my family you have probably had it. I pulled out the old ward cookbook and started writing ingredients I needed at the store. They I realized how awful the ingredients are in this salad. The dressing calls for 3/4 c. sugar-more sugar than oil or vinegar plus 2 T of salt. The other thing I didn't like was you added water to the dressing, I'm sorry but that is an insult to my fine olive oil to combine it with water.  So I changed it up a little, made it healthy, but still yummy and sweet.

Salad

7 oz. whole wheat penne pasta

1 cucumber diced

1 tomato diced

1 roasted red pepper, diced

1/4 c. sweet red onion (this might be a Texas thing, I have never seen sweet red onions expect at our farmers market-just the more reason to come and visit :)

1/2 jar artichoke hearts, diced

1/4 c. kalamata olives, diced

feta cheese

Dressing

1/3 c. olive oil

1/4 c. balsamic vinegar 

1 T. sugar (I had to keep a little of the sweet)

1 t. salt

1/4 t pepper

1/4 t thyme

1/2 t basil

Cook pasta al dente. While pasta is cooking combine all dressing ingredients into a screw top jar-shake it. Combine pasta with veggies. Sprinkle with cheese. Slowly add and stir dressing. Allow to marinate in the fridge for at least 6 hours, or overnight.