Reckoning Week 1

So...how did the menu plan work out this week?  Let's take a look...

	Breakfast	Lunch (Snacks)	Dinner
Monday	1/2 of a left-over turkey sandwich w/cup of coffee	Almonds/roast soy bean mix, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, 2 string cheese (4 rich tea biscuits w/tea)	Pelmeni w/ sour cream
Tuesday	1 whole kiwi, a low-fat string cheese, and a cup of tea	Leftover pelmeni (4 rich tea biscuits w/tea)	Lamb ragout
Wednesday	1 Avocado w/s&p and a cup of tea	Almonds/roast soy bean mix, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, 2 string cheese (4 rich tea biscuits w/tea)	Roast Chicken and Gravy with Ratatouille
Thursday	2 slices of Friendship Bread and Coffee	Leftover Roast Chicken and Ratatouille	Thai Peanut Chicken and Noodles
Friday	2 slices of Friendship Bread and Coffee	Leftover Thai Peanut Chicken and Noodles (sugar snap peas, baby carrots, cup of tea)	Leftover Thai Peanut Chicken and Noodles

Recipes and notes for this week after the jump...

My style of menu planning:
Breakfast:
Whatever is ripening too quickly in the kitchen gets thrown into my lunch bag for breakfast at work.  Also, breakfast is where I throw in leftovers I don't know what to do with and food that finds its way to my home (note the Friendship Bread -- a gift that needed to be eaten).  Not traditional fair (usually) but I like it.


Lunch:
I am a total nibbler.  I would much rather eat several small snacks throughout the day than a few big meals.  Often, I'll throw together a mostly-raw lunch and nibble from 11am-2pm as the mood strikes.  This usually consists of whatever vegetables were on sale in bulk at the farmers market, a few pieces of string cheese, and McVities Rich Tea biscuits, surprisingly not very rich.  Otherwise I'll pack up a bento of leftovers.

Dinner:
This is where I'll try to cram as much cooking as possible into a little space.  Recipes below.

Pelmeni
Pelmeni are little Russian dumplings (think Slavic soul food).  They are wonderful.  You can eat them either in a broth soup or with butter and sour cream.  They can be a little labor intensive to make but they freeze very well.  Seriously, if you've never made dumplings before, do this on a weekend afternoon when you have some time to play around and make mistakes.  If you make more dough than needed, no problem.  It still works well with traditional pelmeni toppings (aka, sour cream).  I usually make the dumplings small (bite-sized) and a couple hundred at a time (it goes fast).

The link above will take you to a comprehensive page on making both the dough and a meaty filling for the dumplings.  Here are my personal family tweaks on the meat:
Use beef and pork in equal amounts (I typically go for 2 lbs total)...
Add to it: chopped onion, a dash of salt and pepper, a pinch of nutmeg (with 2 lbs. a pinch is around 1/2 tsp), and a liberal dosing of parsley (fresh or dried).  Mix well.  Yum yum.  This filling also makes for AWESOME burgers.

If dumplings are too scary you can make the filling into meatballs -- add 1 egg (beaten) and a cup of bread crumbs so they will hold together.

Lamb Ragout
Roast Chicken (post from this blog earlier)

Ratatouille
My father calls this his "mess" and eats some variation of it multiple times a week often with a bit of meat thrown in as a complete skillet meal.  If you don't know this dish (pronounced ra-ta-too-ee) then you should because it's easy, tasty, and cheap to make. The trickiest part (I think) is putting the ingredients in the right order.  Because (and I know this must be a shock) veggies cook at different speeds...hey it took me awhile to learn that hard lesson.  The kinds of ingredients and amounts are subject to personal taste and the size of your skillet.

How to make a basic ratatouille:

• Put some oil in a skillet
• Add some garlic and onion (I use 4 cloves and a med. yellow onion)
• When the onion has gone a bit translucent and your domicile smells like your grandmother's house, add some diced eggplant (I use 1/2 of a large fancy eggplant).  
• Cook it for a minute or two, add some zucchini and squash (I use one of each)
• Cook for a minute, add some diced bell pepper (I like to use parts red and green)
• Cook for a minute, add some diced tomato (I use 4 roma tomatoes)
• Add salt and pepper and simmer for another minute or so

Friendship Bread
So called because you end up making so much starter you have to give it to your friends.  Don't buy starter, you can make it with a few simple ingredients.  You don't even really need the yeast because with flour, milk, and sugar (and 10 days) the yeast in the environment will populate the starter...like with a sourdough!  Only use wooden or plastic utensils when you make your own...metal messes with the yeast.

Thai Peanut Chicken and Noodles I adapted my recipe from a vegan recipe but this peanut sauce is to die for.  Delicious.