Lunch round-up: a cooling trend starts the week

The weather has turned cool, here. It was almost feeling fall-ish the other day. I had to remind myself not to get too cozy and bundled up, as the hot weather would surely return in a week or two.

But, with cooler weather comes opportunities to bake again. So, for this week's lunch round-up, it's looking like:

• kale, rice and cheese casserole
• bean burger patties
• cranberry-orange muffins (need to use up last year's cranberries!)
• carrot sticks and 1000 Island dressing/dip
• watermelon chunks, as I have half a melon left to use

I got out of rhythm with yogurt and bread making. So this week, I also had to make 5 loaves of bread, and a large batch of yogurt. I picked up 2 more wide-mouth, quart canning jars the other week, so I can now make 5 to 6 quarts of yogurt at a time. I will make more yogurt each time, but make it less often. 

For lunches this week, family members can choose from the above list, or pbj sandwiches, yogurt with jam, and raisins. These are our "staples", and always available.

The kale, rice and cheese casserole is a lot like oven-baked macaroni and cheese, only sub rice for pasta, and add some onions and kale for flavor and nutrition. The kale part isn't a mom-thing, but my daughters actually ask for more veggies. I KNOW! Go figure! But I'm happy they like veggies. It's a lot easier to accommodate a veggie-lover than a veggie-hater.

As I knew this would be a long cooking day, the bean burger patties and some of the rice and kale doubled as dinner. I try hard not to make too much work for myself.

The aroma of the muffins was so tempting, I just had to eat one right away. There are some flavors that seem to go together to me. I like almond extract in many fruit desserts and pastries, such as cranberry, blueberry, rhubarb and cherry. I also like orange zest with these same fruits. I always put apples together with allspice, cloves and cinnamon. Pears seem to go well with ginger. Are there any pairings that you're particularly fond of?

And now, I'm dog-tired. I just knew this would be a long, long day!


Mondays are always my busy day of the week. There is so much that I have to catch up on from the weekend. Tuesdays, on the other hand, are one of my lighter days of the week. I've got a nice cup of coffee poured, the house is silent, before anyone else is up yet, and today I'll sit for a bit, before getting the kitchen cleaned up. Hope you have a lovely day!

~~ Cheers

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