Menus for November

I have already figured out the menu for the month of November. To menu plan you need to know what you have on hand. I took inventory of my cupboards, canned goods, and freezer. I don't plan for when the kids are gone and on Fridays we don't eat meat. It only took about 5 minutes to plan. After I was done my youngest rated the menu. She sure is a picky eater. Most of it got the thumbs down. Her brother told her she has to eat what she's served. He doesn't like roast beef but eats it. Besides he knows after roast beef is stir fry which he loves.
I love menu planning. Makes it easier to decide what to have for dinner. Makes grocery shopping easier. And I stick to the budget.

1 stir fry brown rice

3 chilli bread or buns

7 rice lentils cucumber salad

8 spagetti garlic bread

10 cabbage casserole macaroni salad

11 fish potatoes veggies macaroni salad

12 sausage sidekicks  veggies

13 ham scalloped potatoes veggies pie

14 quiche

15 meatloaf potatoes veggies

17 shake n bake rice veggies

21 chili bread or buns

22 kd hot dogs

24 turkey dinner ( American thanksgiving)

25 tuna casserole or salmon patties

26 turkey stir fry brown rice

27 roast beef roast potatoes veggies lettuce salad

28 turkey spagetti

29 turkey casserole veggies

Dec 1 stir fry brown rice

If I feel like it I make dessert. Breakfast is usually cereal, toast or bagel for the kids. Often on the weekend it's pancakes.  I usually have oatmeal, granola or an omelette. Lunches are sent to the school. Kids usually take some baked good, sandwich, juice box, water bottle, fruit, cut up veggies. I do have pudding and yogurt for them sometimes. Granola bars or nutrigrain bars sometimes. If I'm hungry at lunch I eat whatever. I bake almost every other day often muffins or breads with my sourdough. Sometimes I even make bread with it.

My chili recipe

Nothing beats chili in the fall and winter.
With melted cheese on top
And fresh french bread buttered to perfection.
Posting this makes me want to go make a pot.
I make enough chili to freeze some for another meal.
It is a large batch but you can skip the pork n beans and corn and cut the meat in half to make it smaller.
I also am guessing at the amount of beef because I buy it in bulk, divide and freeze it when it's on sale.
Life on a budget is like that!
I use ground beef but I have made it with ground turkey and it turns out just as nice. We really only eat red meat a couple times a week and I prefer the hamburger so that's what I use. It's all about moderation really. Make it with whatever you like.

Chili

3-4 lbs of ground hamburger or turkey. Just buy the package in the store that's about 4 or 5 dollars and use 2 pkgs.
1 onion diced
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
2 cans of kidney beans, rinsed well.
1 can of pork and beans
1 can of corn. Sometimes I use frozen corn if I don't have canned.
2 red peppers or green or whatever you like, seeded and diced
1 jalepeno pepper seeded and diced if you like
1-2 tbsp of chili powder depending on how hot you like it

Fry hamburger and onion. Rinse and drain well. Throw it in a crock pot. Add remaining ingredients. Stir well to combine. Cook on low 6 - 8 hours or high 2-4 hours till heated throughly. Remember my crock pot is a demon and cooks super fast. I would guess those times are for normal crockpots that don't have a demon working them.
Serve with grated cheese or sour cream
I often make french bread or buns for it.

Menu planning

At the beginning of October I planned the whole menu for the month of October. This has been a great idea. I took stock of what I had in my kitchen and I am able to plan my grocery shopping in advanced. I have budgeted 100 a week for food and now I have created lists on what to buy each trip to the grocery store. I printed off a calendar and filled it out so the kids know what were having each night. They think it's cool. I find it so much easier, saves me time and I am spending less at the grocery store. With it being fall fruits and vegetables are still really cheap. In a month or two the prices will go up again. My Mom and I had a garden and we canned and froze the stuff. That will also help over the winter. I am saving up bread bags and clips to put homemade bread into them. I got out my containers for muffins and cookies for snacks for the kids.
The rest of the weeks and next weeks menu looks like this.

13 thursday turkey spagetti

14 friday salmon patties vegetables noodles

15 sat cabbage casserole defrost I made it and froze it ahead of time. Will just defrost and reheat in the oven with cheese on top

16 sunday ham scallop potatoes lemon meringue pie

17 monday quiche macaroni salad

18 tuesday  shake n bake vegetables salad

20 thursday lentils rice salad

breakfast varies by what the kids want, lunches are hit and miss but I plan on making hamburger buns with cheese and weiners for happy faces (gotta indulge in favourites once in a while), and quesidilla (yes I probably spelled it wrong) we also eat only fish on fridays. I also only planned for the nights the kids are here. On the nights they're gone I have just whatever or go over to my moms.

my grocery bill will be doable this month!

It's time consuming to plan the menu but worth it in the end.

Giving up sugar

So I've decided my family eats too much sugar. Period. All forms of sugar. You know it's everywhere. I searched for sugar free breads and muffin recipes to send to school with them and most of them just replaced white sugar with honey or sweetener. Same effects. I did find two recipes that had none. One was for banana bread. The other was for zucchinni bread. Although that recipe called for pineapple juice. Hence the sweetness.
I think this is going to be a difficult transition to put into practice as the majority of stuff they eat contains sugar.

Left over turkey

Left over turkey is the best. I love making spagetti, sandwiches, soup you name it I try it. Last night it was soup with biscuits. After the turkey was cooked I took the bones and covered them in water. Soaked it over night in water. In the morning I ran it through a strainer and kept the liquid. I measured it in 4 cup bags and froze them. I poured 4 cups into the crock pot, and decided to make soup for dinner. I cut up carrots and onions and minced some garlic and threw it in. Cut up some turkey and threw it in. Walked away. Did a Katie and had the crock pot on keep warm. Which really turned out in my favour because otherwise the soup would have been ready way too early. My crock pot is possessed and cooks things too fast. So I switched it to low and waited. Got the noodles out and set them to the side. Just before dinner I decided to make sourdough biscuits. I was the only one who ate the biscuits. And after dinner I left the crockpot plugged in because I knew I'd want to save some for dinner on Wednesday. It was then I realized I forgot to add the noodles. Threw them in and let them cook. I poured a bowl out and ate half a bowl just before I went to bed.  It was delicious.

Turkey Soup

2 TBSP olive oil
1/2 small bag of baby carrots sliced thin
1 cooking onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
4 cups chicken or turkey stock
cut up turkey to suit your desire
noodles to suit your desire they expand so go less than what you think

Cook onion in olive oil over medium low heat in frying pan till translucent. Pour stock in crock pot. Add onions and oil, carrots and garlic and turkey. Cook on low for 4-6 hours till carrots are tender. (Honestly I am guessing on the time because my crock pot is possessed remember. But cook till carrots are tender and soup is hot) Add noodles in last 15 min of cooking.

Sourdough Biscuit

1 cup sourdough starter
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 and a half cups of all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Mix starter and oil. Add flour, soda and salt. With floured hands mix together until well mixed and ball forms. Turn onto floured surface and knead 8 - 10 times. With floured rolling pin roll until 1/2 inch thick. Cut out with floured biscuit cutter. Bake at 425 for 8-10 min until golden brown.

My Sourdough Experiment

I love my sourdough starter. It's like taking care of a baby. You have to take care of it. I've had it for probably a month now and it's going well.

I use to set it on the stove so it thrived on the heat. It would make it bubble nicely. Until one day it was hard and scorched on the bottom. So I figure  it got cooked and I only set it on the oven for short periods when cooking in the stove. I really don't want to cook my baby. I had to start over. :(

With sourdough starter you have to feed it every day. Seeing as I bake with it almost everyday I usually just feed it what I used with my baking. If I don't use it then I feed it. I discard half a cup of it. I dump it down the drain because mine is runny. If you have a composter you could compost it. If it's thick you could discard it in the garbage. And I know your wasting it but if you don't discard it you'll end up with enough to stuff a pool with because it grows and expands. If I don't use it that day I feed it 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour.

When I use it or feed it I stir it well everyday.

I had my sourdough in a glass bowl covered with saran wrap. But the fruit flies in here seemed to love it. So I put it in a plastic bowl about a week ago with a lid and it seems to be doing OK. Everywhere I read does suggest a bowl with saran wrap but it wasn't working for me. I hope my baby is ok in that bowl with the lid.

You can also put it in the fridge and not feed it for a week. If you want to use it take it out before hand and feed it twice a day to bring it up to par.

It makes such delicious stuff I just had to share. I'll post recipes as I make them with pictures even. I found the camera but the battery is dead...

Sourdough Starter Recipe

2 cups of flour
2 cups of water
1 tsp yeast

Stir together well. Feed 1/2 c twice a day and wait 4-8 days for it to start to bubble. When it starts to bubble after 4 days it is ready to use. After awhile you will notice a liquid on top. This is called hooch. I just stir it back in. You can discard it if you want but I think it would be next to impossible to just discard the hooch.

Trust me it makes good things...so go make some starter now. And let me know if  you have any questions.

A few things to ponder

I'll be honest. I do alot of baking. Like almost everyday. I did check out coconut oil. It was too expensive to fit into my $100 a week food budget. I went with vegetable oil. I do my frying in butter or sometimes olive oil. And I do use butter not margarine. I was confused about which oils to use. I wanted someone to tell me which to use without going into levels of cholesterol and all that omega stuff. It just confuses me. So here's the list...



The Good Uses What to look for
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Best for non-heated use- salad dressings, dipping
bread, etc. but can also be used for frying at low
temperatures.
Try to buy it in tins or dark glass bottles, as this
prevents it from going rancid, and store it out of the
light. If at all possible, buy Extra Virgin over Virgin
(though that is a better choice than regular).

Butter Wonderful for baking, frying, sautéing, etc. as well
as spreading on toast, or adding to steamed veggies.
Butter is such a great, all-around fat choice.
Again, if possible, buy organic as most toxins are
stored in the fat of animal products, butter being no
exception. Grass-fed or pastured butters are best.
Any butter is better than margarine!

Coconut Oil Also ideal for baking and higher temperature
cooking.
Virgin coconut oil is best, as it has been the least
processed (it may also say cold-pressed, or extra
virgin). It can be stored at room temperature, even on
your counter.

Palm Oil (red or clarified) Red is much more strongly flavored, and many do
not enjoy it, though I actually quite liked it for frying
eggs and putting on popcorn.
This usually has to be special ordered online, though
the occasional health food store will carry it.

Grapeseed Oil Good for light frying, or salad dressings, etc. but
should be limited in use due to high omega-6 fatty
acids (which North Americans get too many of, and
are harmful when unbalanced with other fatty acids
like omega-3's).
Look for cold-pressed oil, organic if possible. Must
be stored similarly to olive oil.

Sesame Appropriate for some frying, but use sparingly, high
in omega-6.

Cold-pressed

Sunflower Not suitable for cooking. Best if you can find it coldpressed. Too high in omega-6, so use it sparingly.
Cold-pressed

Peanut Appropriate for stir-frying on occasion, used
sparingly, high in omega-6.
Cold-pressed, organic is best

Flax Must not be heated- used more as a supplement,
added in to smoothies, cottage cheese, cold salad
dressings, etc.
Buy in small, dark colored bottles and store in the
fridge. Flax oil goes rancid very easily.


The Bad Uses What to look for
Canola Dangerous and toxic! It's considered by many to be a
healthy, all-around oil, but it is actually a harmful
GMO product not fit for humans.
This genetically modified oil is found in many storebought items, so be aware!

Other vegetable oils (like
safflower, soy, corn,
cottonseed, etc.)
These highly processed oils are usually used for
baking and other high temperature cooking. Instead,
use butter or coconut oil.
Note that these are in most processed, packaged
foods. Be sure to check the labels!

Non-virgin oils Look for oils labeled Virgin, or best of all Extra
Virgin. As well, you may see the words Cold-Pressed
on the label, and this means the same thing.

The ugly
Uses What to look for
Rancid oils Found when oils are stored improperly, and in many
processed foods on grocery store shelves!
Oils kept out in the light, in clear glass or plastic
bottles, that are exposed to air or that are old, can
easily become rancid. Buy oils in smaller amounts,
and store either in the fridge, or in a dark, cool
cupboard.

Margarine None! Choose butter! Avoid! Do be aware of butter/margarine spreads,
made of 50/50% of each.

Hydrogenated Oils Absolutely avoid! Found in some margarines, many
junk food snacks (chips, twinkie-type items), some
crackers, breakfast cereals and granolas, etc.
Any trans fats Ditto! Also look on the back of a package at the label, to
see if any trans fats are listed, and if so, put it bac