This Week's Meals

I've just gotten home from the grocery store.  There is only one thing that sends me to the store at 3:30 on a weekday afternoon.  Coffee!  I'm cutting back and maybe forgoing it for Lent.  Hey, it's my only addiction, so at 31 I think I'm doing pretty well.

The mess in my kitchen does not look like progress or planning, but it is both.  Between food and artwork, the counters are covered.  I have chicken stock in the crock pot.  It's been on low for going on 24 hours.  The next step is to remove the chicken, de-bone (and talk Frank into cracking said bones open before tossing them back in the pot), put the bones back in and let it hang out until tomorrow morning.  Bone broth--even better than plain old broth.  Whole organic chickens were my splurge at the grocery store this week.  I got two.  Somehow it makes me feel better about eating meat if it was humanely raised and slaughtered.  That's another post--Kate the would-be ethical vegan.  I'll make broth, freeze it in ice-cube trays to use for other recipes, and save the picked meat for other things.  Three cheers for me--I found some big girl panties and put that baggie of organ meats into the crock pot, too.  We should all eat more organ meat, but I just cannot bring myself to do it. 

Also on the counter is some flour soaking in buttermilk for breakfast tomorrow morning.  Pancakes are always a hit, and these from Nourishing Traditions are chewier and thicker.  Dense but flavorful and filling.  For breakfast, we often have soaked oats, preferably steel cut, or these pancakes topped with cultured butter and local honey.  My favorite breakfast is Fage Total topped with my soaked oat granola and a superfood breakfast mix--cacao nibs, goji berries, and chia seeds.  I get all three of those bulk for much better prices from that Frontier co-op I love.  Of course, there is always fruit and/or eggs to round out the most important meal of the day.

This week has been a blur between a run to the Commissary on Monday, contractors working on sealing up a couple of doors in the house, and keeping up with the kids.  We've also had another big weather change that had them looking run down yesterday.  I've been giving them my elderberry glycerite (again, bulk elderberries from Frontier), 10 drops of echinacea/goldenseal tincture, and local honey mixed with warm water 3x daily.  Doubled up on our usual 1/2 teaspoon of Nordic Naturals fish oil, too.  Fingers crossed some good herbs and whole foods keep them healthy!

I meant to share our meal plans for the week on Monday or Tuesday.  In fact, the description of my kitchen and grocery run above is from late yesterday afternoon.  Here's my plan that developed Saturday or Sunday in my head and has just now made it out into print:

Stir fry--head of cabbage, veggies that needed to get used up, and organice grass-fed steak chopped into little pieces, and some seasoning.  Easy.  No recipe.  Lots of garlic and ginger.  Some coconut amnios and rice wine vinegar.  Turned out delicious.

Baked black beans with guacamole and fried plantains.  Turned out delicious except the plantains were a little under ripe.  The produce guy told me that they used to stock them brown and ripe, but nobody bought them.  I have to buy them yellow and wait....

Sweet potato veggie cakes (again, from Nourishing Traditions.).  The veggies are shredded not pureed.  Some sort of salad with the romaine I got on sale.

Paleo chicken tenders, steamed broccoli, and baked fries (with large amounts of ketchup for all but Frank) or pot roast with the same veggies.  It depends on what I pull out of the freezer.  I got organic chicken breasts and chuck roasts on special a few weeks ago. 

What's on your menu?