More Baby Steps

Two of the first changes I made when I cut back on processed foods were eliminating bagged salads and pasta/potato side-dish mixes. For months, whenever I set a salad, loaded with fresh vegetables and tossed with homemade dressing, on the table, my children would cry in despair, "When can we have Caesar salad?" The bagged salad kit includes romaine, some Parmesan, 6 - 8 dry croutons and a calorie rich dressing. On a busy evening recently, I "pressed the easy button," and picked up a salad kit and a box of Alfredo style noodles to go with grilled pork chops. At the end of the meal, the salad sat, barely touched. My husband asked what I did wrong to the noodles because they were "sticky." I didn't have the heart to tell them, they were just used to eating real food.

Good Mornings

I am not a morning person. I'd really like to be, but I don't expect that will ever happen. To get ready for back to school, I've tried to find ways to make school day mornings a little less stressful. Muffins will do for a quick breakfast in a pinch, but I prefer fruit, yogurt, or an egg. As hard as I try, I can't seem to make the time to fix a hot breakfast, and often finding a minute to sit and eat a container of yogurt is beyond me.

I have had a surplus of fresh fruit from my co-op basket so I used some of it to make advance preparations for back to school.

I cut up a banana, some mango, nectarines, and strawberries and put them in individual baggies and stashed them in the freezer. I can use these portions to make breakfast smoothies in a snap on busy mornings. With a little planning ahead, I can even put everything into the blender in the fridge the night before. With minimal effort on busy school day mornings, I'll have a healthy, portable breakfast.

Menu for Two Weeks and a Very Short Grocery List

My last co-op basket was loaded with all kinds of goodies, and I did my best to put them all to good use.

Apple Pie with Ginger Crumble

I love apple pie and this is one of my favorites. It is not overly sweet and the crumble topping adds interesting texture.

Insalta Rustica

This simple salad combines sweet fruit and salty prosciutto and Romano cheese. The lemon and olive oil dressing is a perfect compliment.

Cauliflower and Radish Salad

This salad was a summer staple. My mother made it with ranch dressing mix. I use my homemade ranch dressing instead. It's just like a vegie tray in a bowl.

I love picking up my basket. It's just like Christmas morning. I can't wait to get home and discover what surprises I'll find.

This time, the contents included: strawberries, nectarines, cantaloupe, bananas, mangoes, plums, baby heirloom tomatoes, fingerling potatoes (I think), onions, celery, romaine and green beans. I also picked up corn and flour tortillas.

I'm trying to keep my grocery budget low and make some room in my freezer. I planned the next two weeks menus relying mainly on the things I had on hand.

Saturday: Pork Roast, Rice Pilaf, Green Beans, Apple Cheddar Beer Bread

Sunday: Bacon, Onion, and Mushroom Pizza with Homemade Whole Wheat Crust, Strawberry Shortcake

Monday: Summer Garden Tortelloni, Fruit Salad. Baguette

Tuesday: Jerk Chicken with Mango Salsa, Red Beans and Rice

Wednesday: Picnic Dinner Chicken Caesar Salad Bagels

Thursday: Noodles with Roast Pork and Almonds (using leftovers from Saturday)

Friday: Grilled Steak Sandwiches, French Fries

Saturday: Chicken Marinated in Garlic Oil, Parmesan Noodles,

Sunday: Pork Spareribs, Corn on the Cob, Baked Beans

Monday: Chicken and Corn Tacos, Mexican Rice

Tuesday: Pork Chops, Apple Sauce, Vegie, Sour Cream and Thyme Rolls

Wednesday: Burgers and Chips

Thursday: Soup (Minestrone from the freezer) and Sandwiches

Friday: Steak, Foil Potatoes, Vegie, Apple Crisp

Saturday: Carne Guisada Burritos

I only needed a handful of groceries, mostly replenishing staple items like butter, brown sugar, and milk. I also needed a few fresh produce items that weren't in my basket. My grocery bill should be less than $100.

I'm done working until the end of August so I hope to put some meals into the freezer. I'd also like to make some muffins and other handy breakfast items for smoother school day mornings.

I haven't visited the Organizing Junkie in some time, but I will try to remember to link up to MPM on Monday.

Fruit and Vegie Basket Menu

In addition to falling off the blogging wagon, I have been less diligent about menu planning. I have noticed the fallout in my grocery budget, time I waste wandering around the store wondering what to fix for dinner and the ridiculous number off times we are eating at 8:30 or 9:00 because I did not take something out of the freezer in time to get it thawed by 5:00.

Meals have not been a total disaster. We went camping over the Fourth and enjoyed many fabulous camp breakfasts and dinners. We rocked the dutch oven and made cowboy breakfast, chicken and vegies, and apple crisp. The new fridge in our camper has a freezer and we were able to top the crisp with vanilla ice cream. That was the ultimate luxury!

Cowboy Breakfast

Sausage browned in the dutch oven, topped with hash browns, eggs and cheese and baked.

We also fixed one of my favorite campfire meals, braised cabbage. This simple, hearty meal is quick and easy to cook over a campfire. In a really big skillet, cook chopped bacon and onion until the onion starts to soften. Add a head of chopped cabbage and cook until the cabbage softens. I added leftover andouille sausage. You can also add diced tomatoes, roasted green chiles, bell pepper or anything else that you have on hand.

I picked up my co-op basket this morning and started planning my menu around it. This week I received:

6 bananas

1 pineapple

carton of button mushrooms

head of broccoli

head of cauliflower

7 apricots

4 Fuji apples

3 red pears

6 plums

4 large tomatoes

carton of figs

bunch of spinach

I also ordered an Asian basket that included:

big bunch of basil

garlic

napa cabbage

bok choy

snow peas

ginger

green onions

My upcoming menu looks very interesting. One of the most best things about the vegie basket is how excited my husband gets when I bring it home. He goes through its contents and always makes suggestions for dishes he would like. He did not recognize figs and has never had them before, but he was excited to learn how to fix them and suggested the stuffed pork idea. Coming from a man who could live on cheeseburgers and steak and potatoes, I am pretty impressed.

Saturday: Beer Can Chicken, Cauliflower and Radish Salad, Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

Sunday: Asian Buffet including Beef with Broccoli and Mushrooms, Chicken and Bok Choy Stir-fry, Pickled Napa Cabbage, Potstickers, Rice

Monday: Chicken Succotash (with leftover chicken from Saturday,) Dinner Rolls

Tuesday: Whiskey Marinated London Broil, Foil Packet Potatoes, Spinach Salad, (Rolls if there are still any left)

Wednesday: Wednesday Night at the Nic, Picnic Dinner TBD

Thursday: Fig and Walnut Stuffed Pork Chops with Apricot Glaze

Friday: Pork Burgers, Potato Salad

Saturday: Western Barbeque at the Rodeo

Sunday: Baked Ziti, Tossed Salad

We don't eat dessert very often, so I'm struggling a little bit with using the plums and pears, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. My next goal is to try to remember to take pictures of these meals and share them here!

Season of Preservation

Rhubarb Salsa

When life gives you lemons; make lemonade. But what do you do when life gives you rhubarb?

After making strawberry rhubarb pie and rhubarb snack cake and canned 7 half pint jars of rhubarb salsa. Made with strawberries and dried cranberries, it's a great snack with cinnamon pita chips (or leftover pie crust pieces.)

I also had a big bag of Vidalia onions to use up so I made Vidalia maple conserve. I canned 7 4oz jars and reserved enough for an onion tart appetizer. I topped frozen puff pastry with the onion mixture and some mozzarella cheese and baked it. This would also be good with pork roast or in quesadillas.

Vidalia Onion and Maple Conserve, before it went into jars

Canning is a relatively simple way to preserve extra fruits and vegetables, but it's important to follow the recipe and canning times exactly. Done properly, the jars are shelf stable for 12 to 18 months, not that they ever go unused that long at my house!

Produce Basket Menu May 14 - 22

Hopefully I have found ways to use up all the great fruits and vegetables I received in my basket Saturday morning. Even my husband was excited and made suggestions for meals that would include our basket items.


I used most of the blackberries for canning blackberry jam. Saturday night we had BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, baked beans, and grilled sourdough slices. Sunday morning I got up and made chiliquiles, a Mexican breakfast dish I fell in love with while on vacation. I made salsa verde for my chiliquiles, but could have used a red sauce.




We're really looking forward to this week's menu.




Sunday: Steak Tacos, Mexican Rice, and Blackberry Lemon Pudding Cake

Monday: BLT's and Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday: Beef and and Vegetable Pot Pie

Wednesday: Spicy Shrimp and Pineapple Skewers, Rice Pilaf

Thursday: Slow cooker Red Beans and Rice, Salad

Friday: Dinner out for Friend's Birthday

Saturday: Jerk Chicken with Mango Salsa and leftover Red Beans and Rice

Sunday: Grilled Pork Chops with Homemade Apple Sauce and Parmesan Noodles

New Produce Co-op

My aunt called a couple of weeks ago to tell me that a food co-op that she and her daughter participate in up north has moved into Casper. This co-op sources produce from around the Western U.S. and Mexico. I signed up on line and picked up my first basket this morning.
Wow! I did not expect to receive nearly as much as I did.

The basket contained 6 ears of corn, a 3 pound bag of Washington apples, a container of blackberries, a pineapple, a cantaloupe, 3 mangoes, 3 artichokes, 2 cucumbers, 3 bell peppers, 8 Roma tomatoes, and a head of romaine lettuce.

I added the Mexican basket and recieved 4 avocados, a bunch of green onions, a bunch of cilantro, a head of garlic, 2 red onions, 10 limes, 4 jalapenos, 8 chilies that I can't identify, and 9 tomatillas.

Because I never know when to say "when," I also picked up a case of blackberries. I plan to can jam and syrup and make a couple blackberry desserts.

The final addition was 5 loaves of sourdough bread. I will freeze these and take them out as needed.

The quality of the fruit and vegetables in excellent. Everything looks fresh and unblemished. The ingredient list for the sourdough was very short. I am super excited to plan a menu around the variety in the baskets and try a few new items. I've never cooked or eaten artichokes other than the canned hearts.

My total expenditure was $53.00. I'm guessing that buying the same things at the grocery store would run $90.00 to $100.00. My true challenge now will be to use everything in the next week or two. This morning, we have already had an apple in our oatmeal, and I plan to have corn on the cob for dinner. I'm excited about the Mexican ingredients and hope to find a good recipe for fajita marinade and chilaquiles.

With any luck, I'll post a menu plan when I decide how to use everything.