I went on a field trip to San Anselmo with Marsha yesterday to check out rockflowerpaper. They were having their annual warehouse sale and we stocked up on cute totes, gift bags, kitchen towels, espadrilles and hand crafted trays. Highly recommend a visit if you can get up there.

Our freezer is still a mess. Or freezers, rather. We have two fridges, one inside and one in the garage, plus a separate stand alone freezer. All are pretty full. Let’s continue to clean out the freezers and use what we already have.

BTW, I also have frozen bread and frozen deli meat for lunches. The bread is great frozen; totally defrosted by lunchtime. The deli meats I need to defrost before use, but that is not a big deal. Oh, and there are items in there set aside for snacks, mostly from Trader Joe’s and CostCo.

Husband is making dinner tonight, a Green Chili Potato Soup with Lamb, using a stash of Hatch New Mexican green chili from Albuquerque Tortilla Factory that we stored in the freezer, as well as frozen lamb from our last bulk purchase. We will go traditional Super-Bowl for the rest of the dinner, with chips and salsa, guacamole and crudites. And he is making leftovers, so we are going to forgo our usual Meatless Monday menu.

Here is the rest of my plan for the week of February 6:

Cookie of the Week: Brown Butter Toffee Blondies from Martha Stewart’s Cookies

Sunday: Green Chili Potato Stew, tortillas (maybe quesadillas), chips and salsa, guacamole and beer

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Dinner out after marathon soccer practice

Wednesday: Slow Cooker Curried Chicken, Indian Cabbage with Crispy Chickpeas, brown rice, naan

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Trashy TV and Takeout

Note to Juliette, in case you are listening – that Green Chili Potato Soup can totally be made vegetarian. And, it does not need to be made in a slow cooker!

What is on your menu plan this week?

Photo courtesy of rockflowerpaper.

During the winter, when we don’t have our regular weekly CSA boxes, Mariquita Farms has a Mystery Box program to pick up the slack. Sort of like a CSA, but way more casual, interested folks signup for a box, delivered to a local spot, filled with whatever is ripe that week. In the middle of winter. Hence the mystery name.

Our box this week contained: Carrots, Daikon, Savoy Cabbage, White Turnips, Radishes, Peanuts, Baby Spinach, Spigariello, Limes, Lacinto Kale, and Cheddar Cauliflower. We also added on a wedge of Royal Oaks Damselfly Cheese, which was gobbled immediately.

Here is my menu plan for the week of January 29:

Cookie of the Week: Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (repeat from last week, we really liked them)

Sunday: Grilled lamb chops, roasted root vegetables (last week’s farmer’s market purchases), kale chips, sautéed spinach

Monday: Spigariello saute with pasta, roasted cauliflower and turnips

Tuesday: Pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw (cabbage, carrots, oranges), whole wheat buns (maybe a margarita with fresh limes!)

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Roasted salmon, rice, steamed whatever-vegetable-we-have-left

Friday: Take out and Trashy TV

What is on your menu plan this week? 

Let’s focus on what I think is important (to me and my family; your priorities will probably be different):

• Eating dinner together each night
• Balanced plates of food, with vegetables, grains, proteins, fats and sugars
• Whole food cooking, avoiding processed foods

That’s it.

For this week’s menu, I am going to focus on daily plans that are easy to accomplish, building on what I already know how to do pretty well (saute, grill, boil, bake, roast). I am going to limit fancy recipes this week and stick to tried-and-true favorites. At the farmer’s market this morning, I picked up Celery, Leeks, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Turnips, Beets, Purple Orache (like spinach), Baby Bok Choy, Brussel Sprouts and Kabocha Squash.

Here is my menu plan for the week of January 22:

Sunday: Grilled lamb chops, roasted brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes and root vegetables, braised greens

(Meatless) Monday: White beans with roasted Kabocha squash, beet salad with quinoa, kale chips, bread (squash and beets roasted Sunday)

Tuesday: Roast salmon, brown rice, steamed bok choy, sliced oranges and kiwi

Wednesday: Mediterranean night – hummus, veggies and pita for dipping, kibbe or falafel (hummus might be purchased, might be homemade)

Thursday: Posole with pork, sliced radishes, avocado, cheese and whole grain tortillas   actually, we had waffles. They were yummy.

Friday: Leftovers (we are moving Take Out and Trashy TV to Saturday because of Friday night soccer practice)

What is on your menu plan this week? What kind of tips do you use to stay sane and healthy in your eating?

With a short week, soccer starting (both Spring and Indoor), a science fair project or two, and a volunteer recognition dinner, the week’s menu needs to be easy and designed with planned over (leftovers) in mind. We arrived at the airport tonight after a weekend away, and stopped by Whole Foods on the way home, where we found two roast chickens for $14.99. Tonight’s dinner was roast chicken, roasted brussel sprouts and Israeli couscous. Tomorrow night I am thinking an easy chicken noodle soup. And I am also thinking of a batch of Curry Chicken Salad for lunches.

Here is my menu plan for the week of January 16:

Monday: Roast chicken, roasted brussel sprouts, Israeli couscous (making the chicken stock for tomorrow overnight in the crock pot)

Tuesday: Chicken noodle soup, whole wheat bread (from last week’s pita breads), sliced veggies

Wednesday: Pumpkin chili with ground beef and black beans, cornbread, salad (I plan on using dried black beans and will prep those in the pressure cooker Tuesday night)

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Take Out and Trashy TV (although last week, we had a fried chicken sandwich from Pollo Fritto SF, a food truck that parks Friday nights on the Alameda between 5-7pm. Mighty tasty!)

What is on your menu plan this week? How do you handle short weeks and hectic schedules?

P.S. Inspired by Cindy’s 365 photo project, I started one of my own with iPhone photos. You can view my photo journal here on Kitchen Gadget Girl, or directly at 365.foodinthekitchen.com. Let me know what you think, and keep in mind that practice makes perfect!

P.P.S. The photo above is from one of the science fair projects, where the chief investigator was looking at how acids and alkalis react when mixed with red cabbage water ice cubes. Pretty and fun!

Wake up! Time to get started. We are already 8 days into the New Year and I feel behind. Well, not really behind, but there are definitely opportunities to take advantage of.

Did you make any resolutions this year? The article in the NY Times this morning suggested that we have space for one resolution, not many, since our self control and will power can only go so far. Are you thinking about a resolution around food? Lots of folks do, many diets are started in January, only be abandoned in early February.

I joined Once a Month Mom and a group of bloggers on a year-long journey back to whole foods called Get Real. In September, I will be sharing our experiences with Poultry (chickens), including our backyard chicken experience and sourcing local chicken for our table. We eat mostly whole foods here (although M&Ms are known to appear occasionally), and I look forward to learning more about how others integrate whole foods into their diets and how they made the switch.

For those of you wondering, whole foods are “foods that are unprocessed and unrefined” (Wikipedia) and do not contain added ingredients such as salt, sugars or fats. Many whole grains, beans, legumes, fruits and vegetables fall into this category, and eating a whole foods diet usually means you focus on making your food from scratch. I do cook that way most of the time, but like any working Mom, I need to have balance and sometimes I look for short cuts. Trader Joes usually supplies several of those short cuts.

So, anywho, if you are interested in bringing your diet back to whole foods, or want to know more about reducing the amount of processed food in your diet, check out Get Real and visit 100 Days of Real Food, the host for January, who is going to help us all clean our our pantries and freezers!

To that end, since my freezer is chock-a-block of protein (lamb, pork, beef and chicken) and my pantry has some interesting grains and beans, I will make this weeks menu based on what I have at home. There will be a trip to the store for milk, but I think I have enough of everything else on hand to get us through the week.

Cookie of the Week: Brownies (made by Big Guy as science experiment)

Sunday: Roast fresh ham, mashed potatoes, salad with watermelon radishes, apple fritter rings

(Meatless) Monday: Lentil and Bulgur Soup, cucumber and mint salad, fresh pita bread, hummous, fresh fruit

Tuesday: Slow cooker garlic chicken with couscous, salad with roasted beets (this chicken recipe would be better with chicken thighs, IMHO)

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Apple-Potato Latkes with cinnamon sour cream, grilled chicken sausages

Friday: Trashy TV and Takeout (although, I did make a really great Chicken Makahni-like dish last week that was pretty easy!)

What is on your menu plan this week?

The photos are random this week, since I did not have any bounty from the farmer’s market or veggie CSA to photograph. The glass pumpkins are from Cohn-Stone Studios in Richmond, California, which has a large sale every year. And the bread is a Pain d’Epices, which I learned to make from Chez Pim at Love Apple Farms.

First off, did you know you can print any of the recipes on Kitchen Gadget Girl? That’s right! At the bottom of each post, click on the Print Friendly button. A new window will come up and you can edit out the bits of the post you don’t want (click on the text or photos you want to remove) and when it is just the way you want it, you can print it out. Useful for such holiday favorites such as Dehydrated Persimmons, Becky’s Mincemeat Cookies and Barbara’s Easy Clam Dip. Try it, tell me what you think!

Second, did you know that there is an archive of every menu I have posted? Click Menus in the top navigation bar and it will show you all the posts about menus. And, you can even search on specific seasons. All this brought to you by my genius friend and web developer Dena of Buttonwillow Six.

Which brings me to point number 3 of today’s post – Thursday, December 22 is the start of winter (even though the weather may indicate differently) and I will now be categorizing my menu plans as winter menus. If you are looking for inspiration this time of year, be sure to check the late fall menus as well as early winter, as there is a good deal of crossover.

On Wednesday we will pickup a box of veggies from Mariquita Farms (click here for the delivery options in Santa Cruz, Los Gatos and Menlo Park) and so I just need to get through the next few days with what is in the fridge and cupboards. I think I can, I think I can, I hope I can.

My menu plan for the week of December 18:

Cookie of the Week: Hot Chocolate Snowballs from Penzeys

Sunday: Lentil Soup with Escarole and Sausage, bread, salad

(Meatless) Monday: Pasta with hearty greens and beans (recipe TBD), bread, sliced fruit

Tuesday: Taco Night (lots of leftover salsa in the fridge) – ground meat, pot o’black beans, cheese, sour cream, tortillas

Wednesday: Oven BBQ’d chicken, mashed potatoes, green vegetable

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Takeout and Trashy TV (Chuck and Psych are two family favorites at the moment)

Saturday: Dungeness crab and potstickers (or pork buns), Zuppa Inglese

Sunday: Cinnamon rolls, eggs, grapefruit, braised lamb shanks, risotto, green vegetable, salad, persimmon pudding

What is on your menu plan this week? Are you cooking for Christmas? 

Ah, the joy of late fall/early winter dinners. Slow cookers and pressure cookers become my BFFs, for their ability to transform everyday food stuffs into delightful soups and stews perfectly suited to cold weather and busy schedules.

Last week’s menu, particularly the Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup, was great. The Farro with Butternut squash made a generous recipe that saw me through a couple days of lunches (along with hummus and pita). And as suggested, I did build a batch of whole grain bread from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, the companion to my favorite Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

A brief aside: Hanukkah and Christmas are coming up and either of these books, or perhaps even the latest, Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in 5 Minutes a Day, would make great gifts.

This week, I plan to employ similar techniques to get through the harrowing holiday gauntlet. No trip to the farmer’s market today, gonna have to go with what we have in the fridge and maybe a trip to the store!

Here is my menu plan for the week of December 11:

Cookie of the Week: World Peace Cookies, from Baking From My Home to Yours (these will double as the cookie of choice for this week’s cookie exchange)

Sunday: Leftover Mushroom Lasagna, salad, carrots and ranch

Monday: Barley and Winter Vegetable Risotto (pressure cooker), sliced watermelon radishes, bread

Tuesday: Black Bean Soup with Avocado Salsa (pressure cooker), chips and salsa

Wednesday: Slow Cooker Weeknight Chili, cornbread muffins, salad

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Takeout and Trashy TV

What is on your menu plan this week?

Apologies for those of you totally into the NaBloPoMo and eagerly awaiting my last few posts. I sort of fell apart this week (even with the lame-o editorial calendar I put together). The good news is that I have gone back to work (part-time, don’t panic); the bad news is I have less time to write on the blog. Oh well. I am sure you will recover.

That said, the weekly menu plan becomes that much more important. My schedule is flexible, but I still don’t have loads of spare time to prepare dinner, yet I still feel it is important to sit down together and eat as a family. Also, it s a great time of year to visit the farmer’s markets and find late fall/early winter treasures.

This week, I found Carrots, Beets, Lettuces from Coke Farms, Radicchio, Escarole, Cilantro, Wild Mushrooms (Chanterelles were on sale), Cive dates, Kiwi. From our garden, I have Fuyu Persimmon and Chard. And from the menu below, looks like I will need to build a batch of Artisan Bread in 5 to get us through the first couple of days.

Cookie of the Week: Taking a break from baking, in preparation for holiday cookies next weekend. Kids get to munch on Trader Joes’ Chocolate Star Cookies

Sunday: Basketball team dinner (sort of familiar, right?)

(Meatless) Monday: Farro and roasted butternut squash, steamed green beans, salad, bread

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup, salad, bread

Wednesday: Tamale Pie (from Perfect One-Dish Dinners), Red Cabbage, Cranberry and Apple Slaw, fresh pears

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Trashy TV and Take Out (although we have elevated the trashy TV to some of our favs from USA Network)

Saturday: Wild-Mushroom Lasagna, persimmon and date salad, green salad, bread, Carmody cheese, pears

What is on your menu plan this week? How do you save time during busy work weeks?

Here is my dinner plan for the week of November 27:

Cookie of the Week: Traditional Chocolate Chip

Sunday: T-Day redux – Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, green beans, pumpkin and pecan pies

Monday: Pizza with soccer team

Tuesday: Pizza with other soccer team

Wednesday: Quick dinner out between soccer and talent show (yeah, lots of soccer this week)

Thursday: Turkey dinner leftovers, with addition of mashed potatoes

Friday: Who knows! Trashy TV and Takeout, hopefully, but I am guessing I will feel like cooking after all our dinner’s out. Maybe something easy, pasta with meatballs.

I did visit the Farmer’s Market this morning to pick up a few things (beets, carrots, kiwi and green beans) and took a few photos of what is seasonal and local. Looks pretty tasty!

From a menu planning standpoint, last week was a disaster. The menu plan was good, but our schedule was all wonky, and we ended up abandoning the entire plan by Tuesday night. We still ate well and at this point in the season, many of the vegetables in our box from Mariquita have good staying power, so we can just use the leftovers this week.

Thursday was our last box from Mariquita for the season (sign up now for next year!) Our box contained a Winter Luxury Pumpkin (already roasted for pie), Parsley Root, Celery, Gala Apples, Red Potatoes, Gold Chard, Yellow Chantenay Carrots and Pan di Zucchero (Italian vegetable resembling endive or chicory, but huge).

Here is my dinner plan for the week of November 20:

Sunday: (leftover from last Thursday) Pork Chops, Lime-Cilantro Sweet Potatoes, seared kohlrabi (see recipe here), watermelon radishes with ranch dressing

Monday: Israeli couscous salad with Apple, Fennel and Parsley Root, sauteed chard, hummus, carrot and celery sticks, pita bread

Tuesday: Vegetarian chili (from the freezer), corn bread, carrot and celery sticks

Wednesday: Annual crab feed, I hope the crab fisherman reach a decision

Thursday: Thanksgiving (we bring pies, appetizers and cocktails)

Friday: Leftovers

What is on your menu plan this week? Share your favorite Thanksgiving recipe!

P.S. Don’t forget about the King Arthur Giveaway! All you need to do is comment to be eligible to win. Big prizes!

Seared Kohlrabi (or Turnips) with Lemon Thyme

Try this with tokyo turnips, purple turnips (need to be peeled), or kohlrabi. All equally good this way.

3 kohlrabi or 1 bunch turnips

olive oil

10 branches lemon thyme

2 T butter

Peel (if necessary) the kohlrabi or turnips. Cut into wedges. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet and sprinkle some salt over the oil. Add the kohlrabi or turnips, cut side down and sear until deeply colored, maybe 4 minutes. Turn the kohlrabi or turnips to the second cut side and brown that side – it will take less time. Flip to the curved side and add a little water (maybe 1/3-1/2 c). The water should immediately start to boil and steam. Cover the pan to steam the veggies, maybe another 2 minutes. Remove cover and allow the water to boil off, then add the butter, lower the heat and stir to coat the kohlrabi (or turnips). Remove from heat and finish with the thyme. Check for seasoning before serving. Serve warm.

We are also up to our eyeballs in apples these days – I bought about 40 pounds from Mariquita for pies, sauce and eating. Plus, we receive a pound or two (or three) every week from Mariquita and Happy Child, and frankly, I cannot always keep up. Fortunately, I remembered this easy recipe for Pressure Cooker Apple Sauce and quickly reduced my stash (especially the slightly soft and wrinkly apples, see above photo).

Our box from Mariquita also contained Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Watermelon Radish, Romanesco Cauliflower, Gala Apples, Green Bell Peppers, Purple Kohlrabi, and a box of Tomatoes.

Here is my menu plan for the week of November 13:

Cookie of the week: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Sunday: Grilled marinated steak, sliced watermelon radishes and kohlrabi, butternut squash risotto, roasted cauliflower, sauteed chard, sliced tomatoes, applesauce

(Meatless) Monday: Pressure-cooker Bean and Pasta Soup, bread, kohlrabi sticks

Tuesday: Slow-cooker Curried Chicken with Ginger and Yogurt, rice, sliced tomatoes

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Pork Chops, Lime-Cilantro Sweet Potatoes, seared kohlrabi (see recipe above), green salad

Friday: Trashy TV and Takeout!

What is on your menu plan this week?

Last year, when Mariquita Farms included fresh peanuts in our box, Louise and I made peanut brittle. Not really a disaster, per se, but not super successful. The candy was rock hard and I might have chipped a tooth. This year, I am looking for a different way to prepare the peanuts and fortunately Chef Jonathan has provided a recipe for boiled peanuts that looks pretty easy. Or maybe this recipe for chocolate-peanut spread from Smitten Kitchen!

Last week’s menu was successful – the vegetarian chili on Monday was a great beginning to a successful Halloween evening, and there was enough left over for hot lunch the next day. Butternut squash risotto in the pressure cooker is insanely easy; everything goes in at the same time, up to pressure for 4 minutes of cooking, and when you open the lid, the squash is soft enough to mix right into the rice. Went very well with pork chops from Linda’s Tasty Pork, and I even found a container of left over caramelized onions and apples to serve along side the chops.

The only fail was cooking the spigariello. I guess I just don’t have that technique down, might need to ask Julia for assistance.

In addition to peanuts, we also found Heirloom Tomatoes, Delicata Squash, Purple Cauliflower, Tarragon, Celery, Lettuce, and Gala Apples.

Menu plan for the week of November 6:

Cookie of the Week: Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies from 101 Cookbooks

Sunday: Fred’s marinated steak, sliced tomatoes, roasted cauliflower, salad with celery, thin apples and tarragon, bread, chocolate mousse

(Meatless) Monday: Chunky Celery Soup, open-faced toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches, apple galette

Tuesday: Roast chicken (from Early Bird Ranch), roasted Delicata squash rings, mashed potatoes, salad

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Trashy TV and Takeout

Friday: Happy Veterans Day!

What is on your menu plan this week?