Menu Plan Thursday

Last week I had leftovers to tide us over to Wednesday, so I didn't bother planning our menu on Monday this week. Here's the remainder of the week:

Thursday: more leftover Polenta Pie (I doubled the recipe and I think we've got 6 dinners' worth out of it. Good thing we all really like it!)

Friday: Egg brunch dish (from my friend Katie), possibly salad

Saturday: even more leftover Polenta Pie

Sunday: out and about - not sure

Monday: leftover egg brunch dish

I got 3 dozen eggs at Fred Meyer this week on buy-one-get-one-free sale (18 each), so I figured we'd better put them to good use!

Notes on last week's menu:

• The chicken broth from the leftover chicken backs and other random items in my freezer (neck, etc.) was really wonderfully tasty. I tossed everything into the crock pot on low overnight and pulled the meat off the bones the next day (I got the idea from my friend Laura).
• I made the pancakes with whole wheat pastry flour and they turned out great. Gavin and his cousin Elle loved them, too.
• I rarely come across a recipe I actively and wholeheartedly dislike. The black bean soup is one such rarity. I ate something that tasted similar a couple times during my first trimester of pregnancy with Gavin, and the onion overload along with my heightened sense of taste and smell has rendered everything I ever eat again that tastes like that to be gag-inducing. It didn't help that, since the soup was in the crock pot, the whole house smelled like it for quite a while. Thankfully Chad thought it was okay once he doctored it with hot sauce and sour cream, and Gavin seemed to like the beans just fine. At least I didn't waste the whole thing.

Even more snow??

How much snow can the Portland metro area get in one winter??? Usually a light dusting that sticks around for an hour is the highlight of our winter. This winter, however, we've already had a foot that stuck around for over a week (the most snow in this area in 40 years, apparently). And then Sunday we had an inch that melted off by late afternoon. And now today we've got another inch (that will most likely melt off pretty soon). Not that I'm complaining, because I love the beauty that it brings, but I am certainly surprised!

Peanut Product Recall

Just an FYI...

It doesn't seem like most people are aware of this yet, but quite a few products containing peanut butter or peanut paste are being recalled because of possible contamination with salmonella. This includes things like Clif and Luna bars (certain types with certain expiration dates), some cookies sold by the Walmart bakery, etc. etc. etc. Jars of peanut butter sold to consumers have not been affected. To see if a particular product has been recalled, you can check the FDA's website here. They are updating it as more products are added to the recall list.
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm

Menu Plan Monday

I've planned our meals to about Wednesday of next week since it seems that's when we'll be finished with the leftovers. Here's what we're having:

Monday - Chicken and dumplings using broth/chicken from the leftover chicken backs from last week.

Tuesday - leftover chicken and dumplings, roasted Brussel sprouts

Wednesday - Brazilian Black Bean Soup (from the Moosewood cookbook, but adapted for the Crock Pot), salad?, homemade buttermilk cornbread

Thursday - pancakes, omelets with broccoli and cheese

Friday - leftover black bean soup, salad (with homemade balsamic vinaigrette), leftover cornbread(?)

Saturday - leftover chicken and dumplings, sauteed zucchini

Sunday - pork spring rolls with lettuce and bean sprouts (The spring roll filling has been in our deep freezer for at least a year and a half! I hope it's still good!)

Monday - Polenta pie (from the Moosewood cookbook)

Tuesday - leftover pork spring rolls

Wednesday - leftover polenta pie

Organizing Meals - Menu Planning Monday

Inspired by Chad's high school classmate Emily and by my growing dislike of realizing it's 4:30pm and I have no idea what we are going to have for dinner (or what ingredients we have on hand to make anything), I have started planning the week's meals on Mondays. Also, after finishing up our 2008 budget and realizing for more than one month we spent almost $500 for groceries, I am trying to get our grocery spending back to $350/month. This mainly means spending much more time and effort planning meals, paying attention to sales, and using coupons. I'm definitely starting out small in the sales/coupon part and may not get much further than a dollar off here and there because of the time and effort required. But I am doing my best to be much better about planning. So, in that vein, here is what we're having for dinner this week (hopefully I will post this every week):

Monday - Oven-fried chicken, baked potatoes, raw carrots with homemade ranch dressing
Tuesday - Leftovers from last week - wild rice and mushroom soup, green salad with homemade ranch dressing
Wednesday - leftovers from Monday
Thursday - Chicken Cacciatore with whole wheat spaghetti or spaghetti squash
Friday - Borscht (from freezer), maybe green salad
Saturday - leftovers from Thursday
Sunday - something using the chicken backs left over from the chickens used on Monday and Thursday (suggestions are accepted!!)

If it's not obvious from the list above, I (almost) always make at least 2 or 3 times as much as what our family eats in one dinner so we have leftovers for the rest of the week, lunch and/or freezer.

Our eating habits are almost always all-natural, no preservatives or artificial flavors/colors/etc., meat/dairy without hormones, antibiotics or animal-byproducts used in feed, and some organic (especially fruits, vegetables and dairy when possible). That tends to increase our food bill significantly, so I am trying to find other ways to cut down on costs - like learning how to cut up a whole chicken into usable pieces (thus the leftover chicken backs).

Low Fat Whole Wheat Banana Bread

I had some brown bananas that needed to be made into something or frozen a few days ago, and Chad and I both love banana bread. Since we have been thinking more about what we eat recently, I decided to try some substitutions in my favorite recipe. It came out really well - very tasty with noticeable creaminess from so much yogurt, which I happen to like. Be warned that it is less fluffy and a little more grainy because of the whole wheat flour substitution, but I don't really notice anymore since I try to use whole wheat whenever remotely possible. I did some quick calculations and found that my substitutions cut out 72% of the fat and 35% of the calories from the original recipe. If I hadn't been a wimp and had substituted yogurt for all of the oil, I would have cut 91% of the fat and 44% of the calories. I am definitely trying that next time!

Banana Bread (lower fat and 100% whole wheat)
2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. nonfat plain yogurt (or, 2 c.)
1/4 c. oil (or, omit oil if using 2 c. yogurt)
4 eggs, beaten
4 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking soda
3 c. whole wheat pastry flour

Combine wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients and mix. Bake at 350 in 2 loaf pans for about 1 hour or a 9x13 pan for about 45 minutes (my preferred method), or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Assuming you get 16 generous servings out of this, there are 212 calories and 5 grams of fat per serving. If you happen to use 2 cups of yogurt and no oil, there are 183 calories and 1.5 grams of fat per serving. As a comparison, my original recipe had 325 calories and 18 grams of fat per serving (1 c. sour cream and 1 c. oil instead of yogurt, white flour instead of whole wheat). Wow.