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Thursday, June 9, 2022

Cheap & Cheerful Meals for Early June


Friday
homemade pepperoni pizza, rhubarb-vanilla sauce, cream of sorrel soup

Saturday
pancakes, sausage, carrots sticks


Sunday

refried beans, homemade tortillas, garden green-lentil sprout salad


Monday

meatloaf and gravy, crockpot polenta, roasted turnips, sautéed turnip greens/onions/garlic, rhubarb-koolaid jello, freezer brownies


Tuesday

rice & lentils with leftover turnip greens and 4 oz sausage (I used chives and garlic greens from the garden in place of store-bought bulb onions and garlic), leftover jello, leafy green garden salad with oil/vinegar dressing, brownies


Wednesday

ham, lentil, vegetable soup, cinnamon-raisin scones


Thursday

tuna salad on nasturtium leaves. carrot sticks, toasted homemade bread, rhubarb custard pie, chocolate chip cookies

This the rhubarb and Koolaid jello salad from earlier in the week. About a month ago, my daughter made a pitcher of an orange colored Koolaid that she said tasted like citric acid, so she didn't want to drink it. (She's the only one who drinks the Koolaid.) She paid for the Koolaid packet, but she used my sugar. I didn't want this to be wasted, so I told her I'd make something with the Koolaid. What I did was I stewed chopped rhubarb in some of the Koolaid, added a bit more sugar until it tasted right. I pureed the stewed rhubarb with an immersion blender, then set it with plain gelatin. Everyone loved it.


curried lentils with peanuts and homemade plum chutney -- made a great lunch for us on Thursday

Lunches

garden green/lentil sprout salads with oil/vinegar dressing, grape leaf-rice-lentil-dill weed soup, homemade hummus and crackers, curried lentils with homemade plum chutney, leftovers

Breakfast
toast, homemade yogurt, homemade instant oatmeal (I made a new batch this week)
I have this theory that we use less milk on cooked cereals like oatmeal than we do on dry cereals like Cheerios. My idea is there are so many places the milk can "go" in a bowl of Cheerios. Whereas in a bowl of cooked cereal, the milk can only sit on top. Anyway, just trying to stretch our use of milk a tad. In addition, cooked oatmeal is a whole lot cheaper than boxed dry cereal.

this is a rhubarb custard pie with a crumb topping   recipe in this link

Desserts and Baked Goods
homemade cinnamon rolls, rhubarb-Koolaid jello, scratch brownies, scratch chocolate chip cookies, homemade rhubarb pie, a 3 loaf batch of French bread dough baked in loaf pans

My family agreed, the best meal of the week was Monday's dinner. These were the first turnips of the season. I oven-roasted the roots and sautéed the greens. Turnip greens are a bit bitter, yet we enjoy them, especially with a salty meal like meatloaf and gravy. I did the polenta in the crockpot, as Kris had mentioned she does. And I used regular cornmeal. In the past, I've always used polenta cornmeal. I'm glad to now know that regular cornmeal will work in polenta, too.

We're shifting our eating to more and more garden produce while at the same time trying to use up the last of the produce from summer 2021. So many yummy foods to make, so little tummy space.

That's what was on our menu. What was on yours?

9 comments:

  1. BBQ'd pork ribs, rhubarb custard sauce, baked chicken leg quarters, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, strawberries over ice cream, whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce, huge pot of spaghetti shared with dad and one for the freezer, chicken vegetable soup and leftovers, tater tot casserole, big salads. Breakfasts were eggs and homemade bread, breakfast tortillas, oatmeal, banana pancakes. Not big on lunch so it's crackers and cheese or an apple with cheese or something small like that.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Continuing to pray for you and yours, Alice.

      Delete
    2. Hi Alice,
      Your meals sound delicious. I'm glad you could share some of your spaghetti with your dad. I'm sure he appreciated the meal.
      I still need to try your tater tot casserole. You've told me about it a couple of times, and it sounds like it would be a hit with my family.

      Delete
  2. What we had in no particular order: pulled pork x2, pasta with home canned sauce and venison sausage bits in it x 2, big salad..we had been to a grad party which had food at lunch, ribs we got on a big sale and husband grilled x 2. yes, we do tend to eat the same thing but rotate the days so not back to back. Neither of us seems to mind. Sides were: green beans, fresh lettuce from garden salad, tater tots, cauliflower with cheese sauce from sons garden, mixed veggies. For dessert we had strawberries or strawberry pie. As usual, if it's yielding at that time, that's what we eat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Linda,
      Oh yum, all of those strawberries sound wonderful! I'm eagerly awaiting ours. It's been very chilly, so I expect we have another couple of weeks for the first ones. Enjoy yours!
      I have no problem repeating meals in a week. It all sounds delicious!

      Delete
  3. The weekly memory game. :) Let's see if I pass or fail this one.

    Today was my daughter's last (half) day of school. She has 2 parties to go to tonight and my son is working till who-know-when, so I think I'll do something easy like turkey quesadillas. We have lots of lettuce from our garden, asparagus from a roadside stand, and I was able to pick a little more rhubarb out of our patch, so one of those will be our side--I'm leaning toward rhubarb-blueberry sauce but we'll see.

    Last night I made sloppy joes with roasted asparagus and roasted potatoes. Wednesday evening I made homemade mac and cheese with a side of salad. Tuesday. Why oh why are Tuesday meals so hard to remember?? Oh, I remember now. Crockpot lasagna and salad. Monday I made oven BBQ chicken with salad.

    I made no-bake cookies for our dessert this week. My husband and I had an evening church event to attend so I took peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. They all got eaten and there were sad faces at home so I made another batch for our weekend snacking. I also tried a new recipe on Wednesday when we had a very chilly, very rainy day (read: great baking day), and it makes delicious toast: https://www.budgetbytes.com/raisin-spice-bread/ I added an additional 1/2 cup of raisins to it--I thought it looked skimpy and since this is a breakfast food, I wanted to bump up the fruit serving in it. It's *almost* no-knead, with a similar technique to Lili's pane veloce veloce bread (which we LOVE).

    I did it! Happy weekend, everyone!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      just think of this weekly memory activity as something to keep your mind fit.
      Good thinking on putting your chilly, rainy day to use baking! The raisin bread sounds delicious. I'll check out that link in just a minute. We've had practically nothing but chilly, rainy days for the last 6 weeks. I've been baking and cooking a lot.
      All of your meals sound tasty -- I know would enjoy each one!

      Delete
  4. Your meals are really an art and a gift to your family. Sure it is about making our meal dollars stretch, but It is also what money cannot buy. Your meals communicate love and nourishment,, and is so appealing, It is as good as gourmet!!

    Have a wonderful week!
    Laura

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your kind words, Laura.
      Have a wonderful week, yourself!

      Delete

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