My weekly menu plan: simple comfort foods for winter dinners

avocado-citrus salad with a raspberry vinaigrette
oranges and avocados are good produce buys this month

It's been very cold here this past week, but not a single snowflake! We're in the mood for several of our family's favorite comfort foods. I'm keeping those in mind while I plan for this next week.

We had some unexpected leftovers from my son and his friends last Sunday evening, that changed our menu last week just slightly. The group comes over to our house on Sunday evenings, for dinner and games. They cook together, and often leave a share of the ingredients.

Last Sunday, they made tacos and left guacamole, salsa, sour cream, taco shells, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and flour tortillas. Woohoo! We're having tacos for dinner!

Having been gifted with all this yummy food, I needed to rework a part of last week's menu. Tuesday seemed to be the best day to fit in tacos. Tuesday's plan had been French dips, saving some of the beef for Friday's soup. So we pushed the French dip and vegetable-beef soup to this coming week. And last Friday's soup became lentil-vegetable.

Otherwise, the week went smoothly. In fact, Thursday was one of those days that I dread, really, really dread. And having a plan for dinner actually helped me to relax through all the driving around, appointments, classes and work.

The thumbs up:

• I knew in advance that Thursday would be a jam-packed day of me driving around town, working, daughters to dance, school and orthodontist (at far ends of town), and dinner would have to be practically ready to eat when I walked in the door in the evening. Having it all thought out and planned to use leftover ingredients from less-busy, full-cooking days, made the dinner prep aspect of my day a breeze.

• Having kids help each a separate night, really simplifies my work. While I was running around town, my son peeled and chopped the carrots for oven-roasted veggies for me. It might not seem like a lot, but it meant that when I came home, I could pop the tray into the oven while I stirred up the ham and spinach in mushroom sauce for the toast. Busy-day cooking, simplified.

• For leftovers that I have planned a use for later in the week, I've begun putting those items in the garage fridge, with a sharpie note saying when I plan on using it. Out of sight, out of mind. It's frustrating to think I have everything all ready for a dinner later in the week, only to discover that something's been eaten.

The thumbs down:

• I may be buying foods that I wouldn't have thought to buy, like the 2.5 lbs of mushrooms. They were delicious! But if I was just planning the day before or the day of, I likely would not have bought those. But again, they were delicious! And I think it's okay to have a splurge on an everyday night.

The leftovers I'll have for this next week -- turkey breast (roasted tonight, Sunday), buns (in freezer), cranberry sauce and gravy

I will need shortening for pies, avocados, carrots, and tortillas for planned dinners

Monday

• leftover turkey and gravy on bread, cranberry sauce, cole slaw w/celery, pumpkin pie (make 2 pies plus 3 crusts for freezer -- it's a holiday, so I'll have time for pie pastry -- save one pie for Thursday; pick apart turkey breast, make stock and freeze today)

Tuesday (daughter helper -- peel and chop carrots)

• homemade pepperoni pizza, roasted carrots, avocado-citrus salad, blackberry cobbler (roast extra carrots for marinating for salad tomorrow; make extra pizza for tomorrow's lunches; double batch the blackberry cobbler for Wed)

Wednesday (daughter helper -- wash and cut potatoes for oven fries)

• French dip sandwiches on buns, tossed green salad with carrots and celery, oven-fried potatoes, leftover blackberry cobbler (chop two extra stalks of celery for Th, do double-batch of oven-fried potatoes for tomorrow)

Thursday (son helper -- serve dinner while I'm getting daughter from dance)

• turkey hash, using chopped leftover turkey, chopped leftover roasted potatoes, chopped celery, leftover turkey gravy, a cup of thawed frozen spinach, along with cranberry sauce, leftover pumpkin pie 

Friday (kids cook)

• vegetable-beef soup (carrots, onions, celery, spinach, canned tomatoes, pasta, leftover beef from Wed), cornbread, rhubarb sauce with orange zest

Saturday (easy dinner)

• rice and refried beans, carrot sticks, oranges

Sunday

• make your own vegetarian burritos, w/ leftover rice and beans, cheese, salsa, guacamole, plain yogurt, and oatmeal-prune bars

Thursday is the busy day this week, so I've planned the easiest to throw together dinner for that day. I'll be using all leftovers, or ingredients prepared in advance for the hash. All I'll be doing is tossing it around in a skillet for 10 minutes, to heat through.

My kids will be making a soup, mostly from scratch, plus cornbread and rhubarb sauce on Friday, giving me additional time to finish up projects for the day.

Sunday dinner is a rushed meal this week, so it will be a make-your-own affair.

I'm still using up our freezer stash of ingredients, including frozen blackberries, rhubarb, plums, prunes and apples from the summer, frozen turkey and beef, and buying very little for the planned meals. In season produce here continues to be carrots, celery, onions, cabbage, potatoes (all long-storage items), and avocados and citrus (are harvested late fall and early winter)


Avocado-citrus salad

(for 4-5 servings)

1 medium avocado, sliced
2 navel oranges, peeled and segmented (canned mandarins would also work)
leaf lettuce
raspberry vinaigrette or orange dressing

Arrange lettuce, avocados and orange segments on individual plates. Drizzle with a sweet and tangy dressing. Here are two options.

Raspberry vinaigrette

2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
pinch salt
1 tsp sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 to 1 teaspoon orange zest

Dijon-orange dressing

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
1  1/2 tablespoons orange juice
1  1/2 tablespoons vinegar (white, cider or wine)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
pinch salt
pinch black pepper
1/2 teaspoon orange zest (optional)


How have you incorporated the foods you're trying to use up, in dinners lately?

A few of the crafty things the gals at creative savv were up to over the holidays

Over the holiday break, the girls in our house got a bit crafty. Here are three of the things we made.

This is a bracelet that I made for myself. My son had given me a gift card to Jo-Ann's Fabric and Crafts for my birthday last year. I finally used part of it to make something for myself.

The beads come on a string and are a selection that mix and match, but in no particular order. I strung them on stretchy cord, as I've done for other bracelets. (Easy how-to's for beading bracelets, here) I spent about 30 minutes deciding on the pattern I liked best, laying the beads out in a line to get a feel for how they would look. The actual stringing took about 10 minutes.

I receive coupons in the mail from Jo-Ann's several times per year. Well worth signing up to receive them. I used a 50% off coupon for my beads, dropping the price of my bracelet from the retail price of $5.99, to $3 and tax. Similar bracelets sell in the mall for about $12-15.

the bracelet that Julia beaded for me for Christmas

My daughter, Julia, also had the idea to bead me a bracelet. She was with me the day I selected the beads for the one that I made. While in the store, she and I oohed and ahhed over some Swavorski crystal embedded beads.

Unbeknownst to me, Julia got her brother, Chris, to drive her back down to Jo-Ann's, and she bought a couple of packets of these crystal-embedded beads, and some stretchy cord of her own. She beaded this bracelet for me as a Christmas gift. How sweet is that?!

the hat Grace knit for me for Christmas

My other daughter, Grace, (also a crafty one), was with me in Friday Harbor (up in the San Juan Islands) this fall. There was a yarn shop that looked very intriguing. So we popped in for a minute, while the rest of the gang was checking out a toy shop, filled with unusual toys.

my fleece hat

Grace knits very well (the knitting-well gene skipped a generation, my knitting is not so fine). So this is the sort of shop she enjoys. We looked at several examples of hats that the shop owner had knit. I mentioned that I could really use a knit hat. I have a fleece hat that I'd sewn for myself, but it doesn't fit snugly, as a knit hat would.

All this conversation about knit hats gave Grace the idea to do one up for me. She made it as a slouch hat, but I told her that I think it's perfect with the lower edge rolled up two layers, to cover my ears in such cold weather. She did a beautiful job. I can't do designs and patterns like she can.

My daughters also sewed items for each other as Christmas gifts. They are quite the crafty little young ladies. Gee, I wonder where they get their interest in crafting?  ; )