menu plan february iv

We survived Nashville ice-pacolypse last week!  My Northern and Midwestern neighbors will be chuckling as they read this, but middle Tennessee is completely paralyzed by an ice storm.  School was cancelled all week, roads went unplowed and untreated, the mail was not delivered, and my office was closed for at least two days.  We went sledding and trekking in the ice and snow, and I nearly killed my children a number of times.  We have a very small house and we depend on being able to go outdoors a lot, in order to have plenty of space to roam and play.  Being without all that space for a week, and trapped at home, was pretty hard on everyone.

But we were able to do some amazing home cooking!  I have never been so thankful that I both love and know how to do things like make butter and bake bread.  When we couldn't get out to the grocery store, I was still able to make sure we had plenty of delicious food to eat.

Preamble
We literally always have one of three things for breakfast if we are at home.

1)  -- scrambled eggs from our Mennonite hens
     -- homemade sourdough toast/English muffins/biscuits
     -- raw butter we have been making from our Mennonite cow cream
     -- local raw honey or homemade preserves
     -- seasonal fruit from our CSA or mandarins (in the winter)

2) -- pancakes
    -- raw butter
    -- real maple syrup
    -- seasonal fruit

3)  --soaked oatmeal with raisins, shredded coconut, coconut cream, honey
     --seasonal fruit or preserves

Vicki usually requests #2.  If we have time, I'm happy to oblige.  If I do any sourdough baking, though, we will use the excess starter to have sourdough pancakes.

Since it is so monotonous, I'm not going to put breakfast on the menu plan.

For drinks, we always have raw milk on hand.  We also drink Berkey filtered water, kombucha, or homemade soda from our ginger bug.  I would love to start messing with water kefir soon.

Finally, I try to make one dessert-ish item that we nibble on all week for snacks and desserts.  I made some standard old-fashioned chocolate chippers with coconut oil in place of the butter and shortening, and man are they good!  The coconut oil keeps them very chewy.

Sunday
-- lunch:  I had made a lasagna ahead of time, so we ate lasagna, broccoli, and berries with angel food cake.
-- supper:  it was Stephanie's birthday choices for Family Dinner!  She chose an amazing chicken and sundried tomato pasta, cheesy jalapeno garlic bread, this broccoli (which we made and is SO good). and some kind of unbelievable dessert with cake, caramel, chocolate, bread pudding.  I don't know what was even in it.  But it tasted unreal.

Monday
-- lunch:  leftover creamy tomato soup, bread, cheese, pickled beets
-- supper:  lentil curry with basmati rice

Tuesday
-- lunch:  leftover lentils and rice, home-canned pearsauce, kombucha
-- supper:  cheeseburgers on sourdough buns with lacto-fermented dill pickles and sweet potato fries

Wednesday
-- lunch:  our District Clergy meeting from last week was postponed to Wednesday, so I imagine I will grab lunch with some friends/colleagues afterwards!
--supper: fish tacos with corn tortillas, avocado, home-canned salsa, and a cabbage slaw, and lime

Thursday
-- lunch:  more leftover lentils and rice and a mandarin
-- supper:  pork chops, fried cabbage, roast pumpkin, pearsauce

Friday
-- lunch:  tuna salad on yogurt dough crackers, leftover roast pumpkin
-- supper:  I'm making supper for a group of homeless guys that will be staying at a church in the neighborhood.  The kids and I will be bringing a big pot of chili and corn muffins, and some of those chocolate chip cookies I talked about earlier.

Saturday
-- lunch:  leftover chili and corn muffins
-- supper:  we are postponing pizza night to Saturday since we are taking the meal to the guys on Friday!  I'm excited about trying a breakfast pizza:  sourdough crust, breakfast sausage, cheddar cheese, and eggs cracked over the top.  Yum!

What are you going to be eating?  Any recipes to share?

[This post submitted to Menu Plan Monday 2/23/15.]