July Menu Plan

This month is all about using what is fresh from the garden and the CSA share.  We may also do some gleaning from the food pantry, if things come available.  We'll make use of our food storage in the freezer and pantry, mostly for our proteins.  We have chicken to use in the freezer, and we've got loads of dried beans and legumes. 

Here's the plan for the month:

Breakfasts:

• Smoothies with greens, frozen fruit, and almond milk
• Scrambled eggs with greens and onions (maybe occasionally ham or breakfast meat, but we're low on that) and fruit or toast
• Overnight oats from Not Your Mother's Slowcooker
• Baked pumpkin oatmeal 
• Gluten free waffles from America's Test Kitchen How Can It Be Gluten Free?
• Yogurt parfaits with plain yogurt, berries, and nuts/seeds
• Leftover roasted veggies with eggs or breakfast meat

Lunches: 

• Leftovers
• Tuna salad and tortilla chips/gluten free crackers
• Snack plate (nuts, fruit, veggies and homemade ranch, etc.)
• Occasional school lunches (free for pick up M-Th)

Dinners:

• Chili with ground meat and black/pinto beans with GF cornbread
• Loaded beans and rice (think taco bowl with lettuce, green onions, maybe cheese, salsa, avocado, etc.)
• Lentil sloppy joes over quinoa with salad
• Sausage and cabbage sautee (I do a variation on this with cabbage and slice the sausages to stretch the meat some.  If  I have red onion, that makes it really pretty) with GF cornbread
• Sweet and sour chicken stir fry with Asian slaw (I leave the ramen out to make it gluten free, but if you like it, it does add a lovely crunch)
• Potato and greens soup from Simply in Season with side salad or veggies and dip
• Tacos, nachos, or taco bowls with chicken, greens, sauteed zucchini and squash and other fixin's
• Grilled balsamic chicken, grilled squash and onions, and side salad
• Gluten free lasagna with side salad

Snacks:

• Homemade popsicles (using frozen fruit, milk/yogurt, etc.  The favorite this summer has been vanilla peach popsicles--using the frozen peach cups from school lunches, vanilla yogurt, flax, chia, and some gelatin powder for the gut health benefit.)  We also like blueberry cheesecake ones, mixed berry, banana-chocolate-peanut butter and a request has been made for cherry vanilla ones.  
• Homemade gelatin wigglers (made with gelatin and fruit juice)
• Air popped popcorn with melted butter and salt
• Homemade trail mixes with popcorn, dried fruit, chocolate chips, and nuts
• Berries from the garden (currants are in right now, blueberries will be coming in next week I hope)

Batch cooking:

• Popsicles
• Black beans in crock pot
• Pumpkin baked oatmeal
• Citrus marmalade (I've been saving peels to make marmalade)
• Blackberry jam
• Rice or quinoa
• Spiced nuts

Purchases to make this month:

• Veggies to roast (cauliflower, turnips, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots--some may come from food pantry)
• Tomato sauce
• Potatoes
• Potato flakes
• Gelatin
• Gluten free flour blend
• Nuts

What are your plans this month?  What's up in your garden?  I'd love to hear from you!

June Menu Plan

This post is overdue, but things were crazy at the beginning of the month.  We finished out school (aka remote learning) and grades, packed up the classroom, and helped my mom through a very unexpected surgery.  I was grateful for the flexible schedule remote learning allowed so that I could be of more help to Mom, who is our primary child care right now when I'm not available.  I've been making great use of gleaning from the food pantry, and really trying to inventory our freezer and pantry.  We've made some compromises with our diet, trying to save our budget, but both me and little one are feeling the effects of the compromise, so we're switching back.  The savings is not worth our gut health.

We're grateful for our credit card which is offering for us to use the usual travel credit towards groceries or gas.  Since we're not driving much, we opted for groceries.  I made a detailed list and Benny went this morning.  We spent a little over half the credit to restock some staple items, including frozen veggies and berries, olive oil, popcorn, organic peanut butter, and some pantry items.

Here's how our menu has shaped up this month:

Breakfasts:

• leftover roasted veggies with eggs or breakfast meat
• breakfast burritos with eggs, veggies, and tortillas
• breakfast hash with leftover potatoes and sauteed veggies
• fruit and greens smoothies
• overnight steel cut oatmeal
• occasional gluten free muffins

Lunches:

• leftovers with salads or roasted veggies
• snack plates with cheese, meat, veggies and homemade ranch dip
• school lunches on occasion for the boys (they will run this through July 4)

Dinners:

• Potato and greens soup from Simply in Season with roasted veggies or salad
• Lentil sweet potato stew with salad
• Pork roast and potatoes (from America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution) with salad
• Grilled pork chops with Chinese five spice
• Pork stir fry with veggies (using leftover chops) over turmeric rice
• Yellow pea curry from Joy of Cooking served over rice/quinoa blend
• Thursday night dinners from church (many have been gluten heavy--pasta, etc., so we may have to cut back, even though it's incredibly nice to have them for the budget)
• Breakfast for dinner (for Father's Day) with scrambled eggs, breakfast hash, and homemade pumpkin muffins
• Loaded black beans and rice
• Gluten free pasta with homemade meat marinara sauce (I load in the veggies like mushrooms, bell peppers, and onions too.  Sometimes finely chopped greens go in as well.)  Topped with fresh basil from the garden.

Snacks:

• popcorn in the air popper
• trail mix the boys put together (nuts, dried fruit, leftover popcorn or pretzels and a few chocolate chips sprinkled in)
• homemade popsicles (we tried banana/chocolate/peanut butter and some blueberry cheesecake ones using leftover cottage cheese, whole milk, and vanilla)
• rice pudding
• hard boiled eggs

Batch cooking:

• Overnight steel cut oats (from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker)
• Veggie stock (I save all veggie scraps in a gallon zipper bag and freeze them.  When full, I toss it all in the crock pot and cover with water.  Cook all day and it makes great stock from things that would have gone to the compost.  It's rich in vitamins and minerals, and adds lots of depth to soups and stews.  I sometimes add bones if the meat I use has them.)
• Gluten free muffins
• Two sheet pans of roasted veggies each week (or sometimes more).  I try to mix up what we roast, and it often rotates with the seasons.  I almost always include some onions and potatoes, as those are favorites, but we also love mushrooms, carrots, okra, and winter squash/sweet potatoes.  Brussel sprouts and asparagus are also lovely.

I continue to be grateful for a stocked freezer and pantry.  I have many dried beans to use up, including pinto, black, chick peas, yellow and green split peas, and lentils.  It's summer, so I'll make three bean salad some, using cilantro and green onions from the garden.  I have several cans of beans I can use, so if I make a batch of one type in the crock pot, I can use a can of the others to round it out.  I have loads of canned corn right now too, and that will be good there too.

I've also been experimenting with sprouting mung beans and alfalfa, which has been fun and they've been a great addition to salads and toppings for stir fry.  I used up a large pork roast this month and plan to focus on using some chicken that I have in the freezer next.  

I'm also grateful to the local farm we get our CSA share from each week.  They provide all organic produce, even though they're not certified.  We love supporting them, and their stuff is always top quality.

I've been trading homemade bread with a friend for eggs.  I don't eat the bread anymore, but I found that I missed making it, so they get to enjoy it and we get high quality eggs from it.

What are your menu plans for this month?  I'd love to hear from you!