Yummy Monday

 Monday morning breakfast was some oatmeal with walnuts and some of the apples I cooked up Saturday.  It was nice and filling.

Lunch was simple toast with hummus.

But Dinner more than made up for Sunday's bland food.  We had some vegan street tacos with sauteed veggies, beans and lettuce and tomato.
The beans cooked all day in the crock pot and around the afternoon I added a bit of sea salt, a pinch of cumin and chili powder and some mince garlic and fresh oregano from the garden. 
The veggies came from the co-op.  One package of mushrooms, one squash and an onion sauteed in olive oil.  It was all served on corn tortillas and topped with lettuce and chopped tomato.  The beans were so good, I had a cut of them by themselves for an evening snack.

Sorry the photos are so fuzzy.  I was still half asleep when my husband made the oatmeal breakfast and I was just to happy to have my yummy tacos to actually pay attention to how the photo turned out.

Yummy lunch from the grill and Bland Dinner

 Sunday Breakfast was some apple, cranberry and walnut muffins made with the green apples we got in the co-op and cooked all day in the crock pot. 
Lunch was a vegan kabob on the grill with some brown rice and fruit.  The vegan kabobs were made with Field Roast apple sage sausage, squash, mushrooms and onion and marinated in a sauce made from oil, dijon mustard, lemon juice, white wine, salt pepper and fresh basil.  The wine was one I had in the fridge that wasn't recorked properly, so I figured it needed using in cooking.  It really brightened the marinade.

Dinner was made by my son.  I will only say that I wish I had been more specific about what veggies he should use.  I keep forgetting that he likes really bland food, and dinner was bland as a result.
It was a vegan shepherd's pie adapted from my Grandma's War Time Cookbook, green beans and an orange.
The mashed potato part of the shepherd's pie was half russet potatoes that I purchased and half cauliflower.  C used the Hearty Vegetable Broth from Trader Joe's  and it had onion, clery, garlic and frozen peas and carrots.  If I had made it, it would also have had mushrooms and squash and I would have baked it longer to brown the "potatoes" more.
The green beans were just bland, and that was probably my fault.  I am not fond of the texture of these green beans, and as a result I just don't really take the time to cook them properly.  I used some salt, the Organic No-Salt from Costco, some onion and the beans and cooked them in the crock pot.  What I really think I did wrong was use too much water to cook these.  The broth made from them smelled wonderful, but the beans themselves were eh.  

Co-op and gardening planning

OMG, that is a lot of food.
This week from the co-op we chose 2 shares, a lunch box pack and a bread variety pack (not show, because there wasn't enough room on my table).
This means we got:
18 bananas (5 from the lunch box pack)
3 cauliflower
4 packs of mushroom (one was my selection for volunteering)
2 heads of lettuce
2 bags of green beans (I really hate snapping these, but I will do it, which we got a different variety that wasn't such a pain)
1 bag of grapes (also from the lunch box pack)
1 lb bag of baby carrots (lunch box pack)
4 pears (lunch box)
4 apple pears (lunch box)
4 squash
2 bunches of green onion
4 cucumber
2 celery
15 tomatoes
2 pineapple
3 honey dew (one was my husband's choice for volunteering)

Also I had some baby carrots, a bit of spinach, peppers , 1 banana, some cutie oranges, and celery left over from last week.

I made plans and to be honest all the running around we did today already blew that out of the water as we ate out.  I got to have a veggie buger at Mooyah, which is way too good, but not the healthiest choice and then we had taco bell bean burritos for a very late dinner.  But breakfast was healthy in the form of vegan banana oatmeal pancakes.

Also on my meal plan I have green beans tomorrow for lunch, but that isn't happening because I didn't get them snapped.  Now I don't really have anything against snapping beans per se.  But when I was growing up we had to snap a lot of pinto green beans, which were these nice fat and flatish bean.  They were much easier to deal with than these skinny round things, and you got more food for your effort as well as them just tasting better. 

  But despite the set backs, I think I can get back on track and eat healthier starting tomorrow.  I think I will move the veggie kabobs to tomorrow and maybe throw the green beans into a soup later in the week for lunch.

And to supplement the whole co-op thing, we have been trying to garden.  It has not born fruit yet (sorry for the pun).  The tomatoes are blooming like crazy, but not turning into tomatoes.  I am very sad over this.  What seeds I did have come up either died in the replanting process or  just came up today from being directly sown into the bed.  Only the fava beans and carrots have sprouted.  I am hoping the spinach,  and the spinach-chard will start to sprout soon. 

I did give up on the Brussels sprouts and bought some plants (nine of them actually).  Along with the Brussels sprouts we also purchased and planted a yellow squash, a zuchini, a strawberry (the strawberry went into a pot and I don't really expect any fruit from it, I am just hoping for it to make more plants for next year), some bell peppers, some more oregano (my last one died while we were at WorldCon), some more basil (it seems to have partially died while we were gone), onions, and some potatoes in a trash can since they were already making roots in my pantry.  We also noticed that the beets in the fridge were making some new leaves, so we planted those in hopes of getting some chard out of it.

The sweet potato plant on the other hand is thriving.  We had one that was turning into a plant in the pantry at the old house, so we held onto it and planted it when we moved in.  It really likes the heat.

My goal with the garden is to be able to go back down to only one basket from the co-op a few times a year and still be eating mostly fresh produce.

My next focus on the garden is fruit.  Seems I need to plant that in late October or early November.  I am thinking of starting with blackberries, plums and figs for my first year.    I also need some more rosemary.

My first week back with the co-op

The first half of the week I had some trouble waking up so it was cereal and fruit for breakfast.  But it was a healthy organic cereal by Nature's Path with some almond milk.
Dinner on Monday was  pan cooked cabbage with olive oil and salt and pepper with some vegan apple-sage sausage from Field Roast, a salad with goat cheese crumbles and tomatoes from the neighbor and plums.

Tuesday I used the leftover cabbage, some cooked cauliflower and yukon gold potatoes to make a bubble and squeak with some more of the vegan sausage from the night before and another salad.
By Wednesday I was at least up to making toast for breakfast, so it was peanut butter and toast and some fruit.

Then Wednesday night was steamed kale and rice with stewed plums and gleaned peaches with honey and a bit of cinnamon done in the crock pot.  After when I was about halfway through dinner, my husband pointed out that the stewed fruit would be really good on ice cream.  So I saved the rest of my fruit and had it over ice cream for dessert.

Then that gets us to this morning - Thursday.  I actually made breakfast for the family.  We had a frittata with spinach, onion and tomato, topped with salsa, toast and jam (I had fig butter on mine) and some grapes and orange juice.

A New Start - image heavy

Yes a new start.
I realize the blog has been untended for awhile.  But I have a good reason.  We moved!
My focus became not the challenge of making healthy meals that would keep my family from encouraging us to eat out and more a how can we eat up everything in the pantry and fridge so I don't have to move it.  Then we had a 5 days of between homes while we stayed with the in-laws and then there was the moving while the kids were gone our first week here. 
This past Saturday was my first day back to getting food from the co-op again.  But the new house as also brought some food bounty of it's own that was unexpected.

First the local bounty.  We moved near friends who garden.  They know my daughter's love for small tomatoes and have been bringing those by by the gallon.  They don't last long, but they keep her fed.
Our neighbors also have a peach tree that is in season.  The house has also recently been purchased, but no one has moved in yet.  So I have been gleaning peaches.  Not many of them are really edible, since it hasn't been well cared for. I do spend some time trying to work around worms and such.  Usually the birds are good about getting to the peaches with the worms before I do though.

We have also been working towards building up our herb garden again and while picking up compost at the local compost pile a nice lady gave us a lovely healthy rosemary.  I have missed my rosemary the most from the old house.  The photo shows my basil, since I took the photo, I have added oregano to one of the blue pots.  The rosemary is in a plastic pot destined for the front yard.  All the herbs other than the rosemary, will eventually end up in a pretty spiral in the front yard.

Well on to the co-op and some of our meals of late:
Plums (we got some in the basic share as well as ordered an extra variety pack)
kale
kiwi
cabbage

lettuce
grapes
blueberries
cauliflower
tomatoes
bananas
cantaloup
bread (another extra we purchased)

Produce I already had on hand
gleaned peaches
grape tomatoes from friend's garden
cuties oranges
1/2 bell pepper
onions
romain salad mix

My grocery list:
tomato sauce
potatoes
spinach
sandwich meat for the kids
goat cheese crumbles and feta cheese (goat for me and the girl and feta for the husband)
honey mustard dressing
orange juice

Saturday was a bit hectic with the co-op pick up and then needing to head out to my in laws to pick up a couch we purchased from an antique mall in their small East Texas town.  I know that seems like a bit of an expense after just buying a new house, but then my movers broke my couch and I had seen this couch while we were visiting my in-laws during that 5 days without a place to live.  My husband hates the color, but it is a 90 year old couch in great condition and I love it.
But anyway, Saturday involved a breakfast of oatmeal with peaches, almond slices, brown sugar and vanilla.  My husband made that while the girl and I sorted produce.  The boy was still gone on a house sitting gig, this time.

Lunch was at the in laws.  Dinner time was getting even more hectic as we decided to take advantage of having the in-laws' truck and make an ikea run and get the girl child a much needed book shelf, so we hit taco bell for the veggie cantina bowl thing.  Not a very healthy day at all really. 
Sunday got better on the eating, but not on the busy since we still had access to the truck and lots of things to get and do for the house.  But we started out slow with some waffles with a peach and blueberry compote and some orange juice and coffee.
BTW, I did take my in-laws some of our abundance of plums to thank them for the use of their truck for the week.
Then we headed off for the free compost offered by the city to start building a raised veggie garden that my daughter has been wanting.  Had to fill our own containers for that.  Then home to unload that.  Rested from the heat and then off to the hardware store for cinder block for the garden.  We could only push the flat cart with so many in it, so we only got enough for 1 and a half beds when we wanted 2 garden beds.  Which means the husband gets to go back for more when he goes back for the rain barrel tonight.
Get home and get the call from the boy that his GPS system has broken and he isn't quite sure how to get to the new house from his house sitting gig, so we have to look up his location on our gps and give him direction and then unload and shower.  About that time he is home and we all head to Jason's Deli for lunch.

Then we drop the kids off for mowing and other yard work while we head off to Costco for yet more shopping for big items while I can.  Which means a ladder and computer desks.

Then we come home and build a garden with the kids while the dog chases dragon flies.  You would think the old fellow was a puppy if it wasn't for the fact that his back legs kept giving out on him and he would go crashing to the ground or into a fence every now and then.  I haven't seen that dog bound like that in years.

And then finally dinner.  We had personal pizzas on 8 grain pita bread with salad and plums.  My pizza consisted of sauce, vegan sausage, bell pepper and onion that had been sauteed in garlic, and sauteed spinach.  Everyone made their own thing.

And some of the other things that we have enjoyed since we moved into the new house:

Udi Muffins with Cuties on the Patio

Spinach Salad with goat cheese

Eggs Scrambled with veggies and toast

Egg Salad Sandwich with strawberries

Spaghetti w/ Pesto and Strawberries

Spaghetti with Pesto and tomatoes

Beans and Rice with Vegan Sausage

Fresh fruit salad with gleaned peaches, strawberries and oranges

And just some other fun photos from the adventures of the new home:

My unusual fireplace

Camping in the house the night before the furniture arrived

Camping in the house before the furniture arrived

Cut some roses to brighten my kitchen

The girl and the husband planting basil

The girl and her 2 favorite past times - computer and eating

A neighbor brought us a butterfly cocoon, which we got to set free

The girl and husband with the butterfly

Co-op haul, sleeping through one dinner, making the boy cook the other

Friday night before co-op pick up is usually the time to clear out the fridge the best I can.  I honestly hadn't expected to cook on Friday, because Thursday was crockpot lasagna night, and that usually has lots of leftovers.  Sadly everyone really liked the veggie lasagna, and it was mostly consumed on Thursday and I had to do some quick thinking on Friday to come up with what to feed folks.
Any I grabbed those last potatoes that had been hanging around, some onion, the last zuchini, one of the big green peppers and a few of the sweet peppers and several eggs and a vegan apple sage sausage for a Fritatta.  It made a lovely quick dinner.  I was only sad that I didn't find the mushrooms until after dinner when I was doing the fridge clean out.
The co-op haul consisted of a basic share, an asian veggie pack and a bag of granola.
In this I got:
Bok Choy
Asian Cabbage
Celery
Green cauliflower
5 cucumbers (okay I actually traded my lettuce for extra cucumbers, which is why I have so very many)
7 peppers
honey dew
7 red potatoes
broccoli
5 bananas
3 avacados
6 tomatoes
2 mangos
blackberries
basil
green onions
ginger
garlic
9 small onions

 Leftover from last week was
cucumber
8 peppers
3 bunches of celery
sweet peppers
3 heads of lettuce
onions
garlic
8 apples
6 mandarin oranges
10 tangelos
2 lemons 3 bananas
mushrooms

The leftover bananas immediately got consumed Saturday after we got home from picking up our produce in banana walnut pancakes.  They were yummy.
Saturday night we had a bithday party to attend and so ate there.
Sunday morning was another Fritatta, using onion, peppers and one of potatoes.    Lunch was eat out, since it was meeting time for the husband and then we had to make our excursion to Costco for mostly non-food items this time.
Sunday night everyone had a lovely stir fry over some asian noodles.  I slept through dinner, since I hadn't been sleeping much of late.  I did get to enjoy the leftovers and they were yummy.  The sauce was honey and crushed red pepper and the veggies were bok choy, onion, peppers,celery, orange slices and I think some ginger.  It was very yummy as leftovers.
Monday was a pesto on spaghetti noodles and salad with each person's choice of dressing.  I made the boy fix it as I had car trouble that left me waiting for AAA at the school.  Then by some miracle the car decided to work when AAA showed up.  Very embarrassing.  I borrowed the car to take the girl to girl scouts, and dinner was ready when I got home.   Tomorrow, the car goes to the shop, since AAA and the husband both inform me that it is likely a loose connection.  But it really messed up my schedule.

Eh Veggies and then some amazing Leftovers.

Sunday night was some veggies over rice and some leftover layered salad.  It was edible.  We finished off the veggies and salad and stored the rice for later use.  I always make lots of rice.
Anyway the veggies consisted of onion, mushrooms, zucchini, a couple of the little sweet peppers and one of the larger green peppers.  cooked up in some hearty veggie broth and a little bit of flour to make it gravy like with salt and pepper.  I think it would have been better with more mushrooms and salt.  I am usually very stingy when cooking with salt.

Monday, the girl child didn't have school so I cooked up some eggs for me and the kids.  I made mine with onion and topped it with some of the grape tomatoes. And had a piece of toast with local honey and a mandarin orange on the side.

Then Monday night was once again Krav night.  So I made some "burgers" out of the leftover rice and some garbanzo beans, sweet peppers, onion, celery, garlic, salt, an egg and oats for the boy to pop in the oven before we got home.  I also put him in charge of making a fruit salad to go with it.
He made a lovely fruit salad with some pineapple, strawberries and apples.  He made a lot of it.  I know what I am having for lunch tomorrow.

Co-op Shares and the Salad Blues

Once again I got a double share from the co-op, and split a case of strawberries.  We also volunteered and I traded a bag of apples for another box of mushrooms just cause we still had apples from last week.  We also got the bread variety pack.
This week's inventory:
4 boxes of strawberries
1 bag of apples +2 extras
2.5 bunches of Spinach (It was 3, but half of one was used for our Saturday morning breakfast with friends before coming home)
2 heads of lettuce
9 tomatoes (was 10, but we used one for breakfast)
2 cucumber
4 zucchini
4 boxes of mushrooms
2.5 boxes of blackberries (was 3, but the girl child munched on them on the way home)
5 avacados
11 bananas
10 oranges
10 peppers
Leftover from previous weeks:
1.5 boxes of strawberries
3 heads of romaine lettuce
1 head of butter lettuce
3 bunches of celery
8 tangelos
6 apples
13 mandarin oranges
1 sweet potato
onions (I actually went to the store last week for a bag of onion since I cook with them so much)
4 potatoes
2 partial boxes of grape tomatoes
several small sweet peppers

Breakfast with friends consisted of scrambled eggs, sauteed spinach and onion, sliced tomato, fresh strawberries and apples.

Lunch was sandwiches and fruit and those veggie straw chips.  Sort of a fend for yourself.  I think the only I did that might have counted as fixing a meal for the family was cutting the hoagie rolls and slicing a tomato and washing some lettuce.  This was our junk food meal, as my husband put it.

Dinner was the usual layered salad that has become my "how many veggies can I put in this thing" salad and a baked potato with sauteed veggies.  The salad had 2 kinds of lettuce, onion, celery, 2 colors of sweet peppers, cucumber, mushroom, grape tomatoes, frozen peas, frozen corn, Whole Food's 365 mayo and fresh ground black pepper.  The potato topping consisted of both the small red and yellow sweet peppers from last week as well as one of the larger green peppers from this week, zucchini, mushroom and onion.

Last week we had lots of pasta and home made pizza.  I felt sluggish from it.  Of course the layered salads are rather fatty, but there is still no cheese or meat in our diet.  While I think we might still be eating less fat than the average American, I feel like I need to do something to improve the health of our diets.  I think we eat healthier when we are getting more Kale, which I can steam, than lettuce, which I consume with fatty stuff like mayo or on sandwiches. But my weight loss has stalled, which I suspect is from the annoying salad theme going on with the co-op this month.  I just don't do healthy salads.  I need cheese or a creamy dressing to make them edible, and I can't eat cheese anymore. 

I think that next week I might have to order just one basket of produce and figure out what to do with all this lettuce and celery that is filling up my fridge.

Catching up

I feel sort of bad for not keeping up with my menu plans, but things had gotten sort of boring.  But I think I have figured out how to at least make some minor changes to keep the food interesting.
So going back to Saturday's co-op haul  We just got a double share this time.  This week included:
3 boxes of strawberries
2 boxes of mushrooms
2 boxes of grape tomatoes
2 bunches of celery
2 bunches of Asparagus
3 heads of romaine lettuce
4 zucchini
16 apples
25 tangelos
16 bananas
3 pints of sweet peppers

I still had left over from previous weeks:
broccoli
asparagus
2 bunches of celery
2 zucchini
1 leafy green lettuce
1.5 live butter lettuce
pineapple already cut
a few potatoes
And that single sweet potato (thank goodness those things keep so long)
Lots of oranges

Saturday was eating leftovers of chili beans and potatoes.
Sunday it was our turn to contribute to the church potluck.  I decided this was a good change to use up some of the lettuce and make layered salads, and also took lots of fruit.
I actually made 2 slightly different layered salads, although they look alike here.
They both have
3 kids of lettuce, onion (went to the store for that), celery,  broccoli, mayo, quartered grape tomatoes and fresh ground pepper.  The difference is that one has frozen peas and the other has frozen corn and some chopped sweet peppers.

Monday night consisted of some Asparagus roasted with onion and mushrooms tossed in olive oil and salt before cooking and served over a pasta that had been tossed in olive oil and nutritional yeast with strawberries on the side.  I think I like this even better than the garlic roasted asparagus that we have been having often.

Lunches have been fairly simple things.  Hummus in chips, peanut butter on celery (I do have 4 bunches of celery that needs eating), and today is a beautiful smoothie made with bananas, pineapple, strawberries and just a handful of frozen berries to chill it.

We are going through the veggies very quickly this week, and I doubt we will have any to eat on Friday, other than lettuce and celery.  But the fruit we have in abundance.  I think I might freeze any bananas we still have left tomorrow evening.  It is getting warm enough for regular smoothies again and frozen bananas are great for that.  And the husband is happy to have frozen bananas for making banana bread.

An abundance of co-op share

This week's co-op consisted of a basic share, a hostess pack and I shared a case of strawberries with a friend and bought more bread.  I really need to do something about how much bread the kids are eating around here.

So I ended up with
6 clam shells of strawberries (4 from the shared case 2 from the hostess pack)
7 russet potatoes
8 apples
7 bananas
1 onion
1 bag of red potatoes
2 bags of mandarin oranges
1 clam shell of grape tomatoes
2 lemons
3 avacados
1 pineapple
8 roma tomatoes
2 bags of raddishes
1 leafy green lettuce
1 bunch of asparagus
6 cucumbers
2 bunches of celery
dill
rosemary
3 loaves of 9 grain bread
1 baguette
1 hot cross bun bread (sweet bread with dried fruit)

Let over from before"
4 russet potatoes
1 sweet potato
1 onion
celery
2 heads of butter lettuce
beet
Several lemons
grapefruit
oranges
apples
key limes

I took the radishes and 3 of the cucumbers to our Sunday game night to share with some hummus as well as a package of field roast sausage. Yummy sausage.

My husband was sweet and made us a cake for Easter.  It was a basic yellow cake, but he made a glaze that used a lemon, a lime and half a clam shell of strawberries and lots of sugar.  It was very good.

The sweet bread once again made up a quick breakfast before church.  Lunch was eaten out because we had a lot to do for Easter Sunday since we wanted to go visit my grandfather for a bit.