The Falafel

Dinner tonight was fabulous!  I love it when it just turns out like it should and is yummy!

I did the chicken shawarma recipe I had posted and the quinoa tabbouleh.  And I realized that I was a little lean on the food, even with a batch of homemade pitas and plenty of hummus.  So I made falafels.

OMG! They were so yummy and super easy too.  I fried them in my cast iron skillet with coconut oil.  Thankfully I was in the midst of making pitas, getting in and out of a 500 degree oven so I wasn't tempted to mess with them.  I just flipped them when they were really browned and took them out when the other side was good and browned.

I had never had falafel until a few weeks ago.  It's a mixture of mashed garbanzo beans and bread crumbs with some spices and onion and garlic thrown in.  Then it's shaped in a little ball and deep fried.

We will do this one again!

Even Lazier Cabbage Rolls

In the winter we get lots of cabbages from our CSA.  Our family loves cabbage cooked with onion and bacon or made into a coleslaw, too.  But I remembered those cabbage rolls from my youth and wanted something like that.

But time is an issue for me somedays.  And even when I have time, I don't necessarily want to spend it filling cabbage leaves and trying to arrange them in a casserole dish.  Because remember, I'm cooking for 8 people.  And even though there are 6 kids, they eat A LOT.  So a little dish of 6 or 8 cabbage rolls would just be a good start.  lol

My friend Kathy posted this recipe and variations a long time ago and it was a go to recipe here for a while.   I would do her casserole version.  I would do a big 10x13 pan of it and there were rarely leftovers.  I needed to make more.

This fall I came up with my even lazier version, that feeds us all with a little leftovers.  You may need to downsize this recipe if you don't feed an army  like I do.

Even Lazier Cabbage Rolls

enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan

1 onion, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

4-6 carrots, diced

2-3 pounds ground beef (or venison works great in this one too)

1 large or 2 medium heads of cabbage, rough chopped

46 oz can tomato juice (we have tons of these leftover from our WIC days)

1 c water

1 1/2- 2 cups white rice

salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet or dutch oven (I use my Le Cruset large oval French oven), drizzle the olive oil. Brown the onion for a couple minutes (you know, the amount of time it takes to mince the garlic). Add the ground beef and garlic. Brown until mostly cooked through. (the amount of time it takes to peel the carrots and dice them). Add the carrots and continue to cook. It takes a good stir to get it all incorporated. Then add the chopped cabbage. I let that cook for about 5 minutes, covered to let the cabbage start to wilt down.

Stir in the rice, tomato juice and water. Bring to a simmer and cook covered for about 40 minutes. Check about 20 minutes into the cooking time to check the amount of liquid. You may need to add more water. When the rice it cooked, season with salt and pepper and serve!

I gave ranges for meat and rice because some times I thaw more meat than other times. So the times when I have only 2 lbs of meat, I need to add more rice to stretch it out. My kids all love this. Very nice comfort food and super lazy!

Menu Plan Saturday?

This is when I have time to do my planning so I'm trying to get it done now.  I'm realizing that life is really crazy when I am working 40 hours of nights every week.  I'm thankful for the job right now, but jeez, it wears me out some days!

Saturday
Breakfast
apple oven pancake and bacon OK that didn't happen for a variety of reasons, but my kids did make chocolate pancakes
Dinner Even Lazier Cabbage Rolls (I'll post a recipe for that one later), Spinach Casserole
To do Prep muffin batter, thaw chicken

Sunday
Breakfast Kefir Soaked Muffin, kefir smoothies
Dinner Chicken Taco Soup
To do start soaking quinoa, start waffle batter

Monday

Breakfast whole wheat waffles, yogurt with fruit

Dinner chicken shawarma, quinoa tabbouleh, pita and hummus and falafel if I get ambitious

To do make tabbouleh, make hummus, make pita, thaw pork chops, start oatmeal

Tuesday

Breakfast baked oatmeal

Dinner tangy pork chops with rice and Southern Style Braised Greens, biscuits

To do thaw ground beef

Wednesday

Breakfast hot cereal
Dinner meatloaf, roasted potatoes, corn and coleslaw

To do start pancake batter, thaw sausages

Thursday

Breakfast whole wheat pancakes, kefir smoothies

Dinner White Bean and Kale Soup, French bread

To do thaw chicken, start for stock

Friday

Breakfast Eggs and toast

Dinner Layered Chicken Enchilada Casserole (I'll totally be winging it!)

To do Menu planning for next week

I'm still figuring out when I'm making bread each week too.  I like mixing it one day and shaping and baking another day.  It's been a time saver.

Wednesday's dinner

This is a picture of the dinner my husband made last night.  I'm not the best with photography, especially using my phone as a camera.  But the food was awesome.  He grilled lamb chops (from our farm lamb that he picked up last week), and roasted some maple squash with apples, honey, muscavado and a bit of chipolte powder, and we also had roasted root vegetables...carrots, chiaogga beets and leeks.

It was a great meal, food from our farm share and I didn't have to cook! (Even though I do LOVE to cook)

menu plan Monday

Monday-
leftover curry sauce with chicken and vegetables over rice

Tuesday-
beef brisket, mashed potatoes, corn and broccoli rabe

Wednesday-
Duane is going to cook!

Thursday-
soup/stew/chili

Friday-
even lazier cabbage rolls

Saturday-

lamb, bulgur and carrots

the beef tongue-update

Well, it just looked weird in the crock pot all day.  And when it was fully cooked and tender, I had my husband take it out.  He took the tough skin or membrane or whatever it is off and then diced the tongue for our tacos.

The meat was super tender and tasty.  Think about it...very lean and great texture.  It's all muscle!  And everyone sampled it.  Everyone even had a taco.  The girls followed that up with lots of water and a been and cheese burrito!

As for Spinner's question, no taste buds because that outer skin is gone.  It just LOOKS icky at first.  Then it's fine.

the beef tongue

I just put the beef tongue in the crock pot.  I'm using this recipe as a guide.

I just didn't expect the tongue to look so much like, well, a tongue.  It's dark and bumpy.  I tried to not think about it too much.  I was going to take a picture, but...  Maybe after it's cooked.

Thank goodness I'm making a big pot of refried beans too!

venison?

I had to laugh about this.  Aleena's friend came home with her on Tuesday.  (She has a friend home with her a few times a week!)  Aleena asked if the friend could stay through dinner.  I said, "yes but we are having venison".  Aleena turns to her friend and says, "it's just deer!"  Like everyone eats deer but venison is just some weird fancy name!  (The friend wound up staying through dinner but NOT eating.)

I used a recipe from Nourishing Traditions that had me marinate the chops in red wine, orange zest and some thyme.  Then I browned the chops and let them simmer in the marinade for an hour.  It was a hit.  And a great way to use some of the venison that has been given to us.

I'm getting ready to thaw my beef tongue to use for tacos tomorrow night.  Hubby is soooo excited I am making lengua tacos.

menu plan Monday

It's Monday and I have at least thought about my menu this week.  I even went out to the "meat" freezer and looked to see what I have that I need to use up.

This week I will be feeding my children venison chops on Tuesday, making beef stock from our Christmas prime rib bones for French onion soup on Wednesday and figuring out how to make lengua tacos and burritos for Friday.  Lengua?  Yep, that's Spanish for tongue.

I'll also make a huge beef brisket, mashed potatoes with gravy and corn on Saturday to soothe all their dietary souls, as well.

breakfast

This morning I made baked oatmeal with diced apple in it.  Why don't I make this more often?  I'd forgotten how good it is.  And I would rather my kids eat that than boxed cereal.  I need to get back in the habit.

Quick and easy "fruitcake"

I posted about this on my mama blog. I made this fruitcake recipe from King Arthur Flour a week or so ago. I didn't let the loaf cool enough before trying to get it out of the pan so some stuck to the bottom. There's nothing more tempting to a family of pickers than a warm loaf of something with little bits missing from the bottom. I mean, if you pick a little no one will really notice, right? Not until half the loaf is gone anyway!

So on Christmas Eve, I made a double batch. We do still have one loaf intact, but there are a lot of other treats around too. Again, I tried to get it out of the pan too soon (the 20 minutes the recipe advises is not enough time), but no one cares around here.

This fruitcake isn't really traditional at all. It is very heavy and dense. But it's missing some of the traditional fruitcake ingredients like candied fruits and peels. It is full of dried fruits and nuts. My family really loves it. It's not too sweet, and I'm sure that could be adjusted to your taste by adding more or less sugar, and it has a really nice flavor. It is quite filling and a yummy snack with some hot tea.

I'm sure it will be added to the regular list of holiday baking.

some new holiday baking

Along with the traditional things I do for the holidays (fudge, truffles, chocolate crinkles, scones), I tried some new recipes this year. They were both HUGE hits.

I didn't have espresso powder, but these coal cookies were yummy anyway! I had to hide them since all the other holiday baking I've done this year has disappeared already! We need to have SOMETHING for Santa tonight. In fact, I had to make the second batch of fudge yesterday.

And I tried to get this fruitcake out of the pan too early so it tore off the bottom a little which prompted the whole family to devour it within a matter of minutes. I'm making a double batch today! I don't do the candied cherries since they have Red dye #40. And I added a mixture of dried apricots, dried cranberries and raisins.

another idea for butternut squash

We tend to eat our winter squash in just a couple of different ways. We like it roasted with some honey and cinnamon. Sometimes we branch out and use maple syrup. Or I puree the cooked squash and use it in baked things like bread, muffins, cookies or cake.

But when I was recovering from my appendicitis I had lots of extra TV time. I saw an episode of Lidia's Italian Kitchen where she was doing an easier version of risotto using regular rice. One of the versions had butternut squash. So I made this last week. It was great with just a pork roast. It was our side with starch and vegetable and a different way to use the abundance of winter squash we have right now.

And Lidia was right. The consistency was more like a risotto than a regular rice side dish. Rich and creamy. And very simple, too!

Holiday treats

I've been in the mood to do more holiday baking than in past years. In the last week I've made truffles with Emma, Molasses Cookies, Chocolate Mint Crinkles and then yesterday....

Carmel Corn and fudge!

For the carmel corn, I don't keep brown sugar on hand anymore so I used only 1 c of SuCaNat. It was still plenty sweet. And I did have corn syrup on hand because I keep thinking I'll try to make homemade marshmallows.

The fudge recipe is super easy and fast. And it is becoming Emma's specialty! We only use the walnuts, not the dried fruit or colored cherries. And we spread it in a 8x12 inch pan. Still very yummy!

how hard was that?

Wednesday night we had chicken and dumplings for dinner. Sounds impressive, huh? After dinner I was thinking that it was the kind of meal that seems so difficult or time consuming but was so very simple. Here's how it happened.

I had to run errands in the morning and had a meeting in the afternoon, so I put a whole chicken in a big pot with water, some garlic cloves, salt and celery leaves first thing in the morning. (I could have added onion or carrots or any vegetable peels I had but I was in a hurry.) I let it go until about 3 that afternoon when I fished the chicken and bones out of the water. I let them cool in a big bowl for about 20 minutes until I could handle it all. Then I pulled all the meat off the bones and set it aside. I strained the remaining stock to make sure I had all the good bits out of it.

I melted 4 T of butter in my oval dutch oven, then sauteed some onions and added diced carrots. I stirred in 4 T of flour to help thicken it all up later then stirred in the stock from before. I added the chopped chicken back into the pot. I wished I'd had some frozen peas to add. That would have added some nice color, but we settled for only carrots. I stirred in about 1 cup of half and half and then the whole pot simmered for about 20 minutes to begin to thicken up and get the carrots nice and soft. Added some seasoning in there too.

Then Trey helped me mix up the dumpling recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. (We actually tripled the batch!) And he plopped those on top. Lid on, simmered for 15 minutes and we were feasting!

So it didn't take a lot of time. Probably less than an hour of real hands on time, but it was so good and so hearty. I'm glad my kids will grow up knowing that dinner doesn't have to come from a microwave. That they will know that real food is quite easy to prepare with just a few skills.

Cranberry Streusel Pie

Talking about Thanksgiving the other night, Trey reminded me that I have to make this one. It was new to us last year and we LOVED it.

Cranberry Streusel Pie

1 lb fresh cranberries, mashed
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c flour, divided
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c walnuts I was out so I used pecans
1 tsp butter

1 9-inch pie crust

Stir sugar and 1/4 c flour into mashed cranberries. Pour into pie crust.

Smash nuts into small pieces. Stir in brown sugar, 1/4 c flour and butter with pastry blender until crumb is formed. Sprinkle over pie.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

menu planning and grocery shopping

Last week as I was thinking about my big monthly grocery shopping trip for the beginning of the month, I made a list of meals I could make just from what was in the freezer and pantry. Wow is all I can say. Remember that we got a side of beef last winter and have been given some venison lately. I also have canned and frozen a lot from summer. And last week I got the first of our winter share from our CSA. My list...

Pot Roast with potatoes and carrots

Sausage and Peppers served with pasta

Beef Brisket with roasted potatoes, carrots and beets

Tangy Pork Chops over rice

Shepherd's Pie made Friday evening with ground venison

Chicken Divan

Potato Leek Soup

Beef Stew

Vegetable Soup

Chicken Pot Pies

Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

Sri Lankan Curry

Walnut Chicken with Bulgur

Turkey dinner

Steak with roasted potates and green beans Saturday night's dinner with friends over

My grocery shopping reflected that. I buy just a little from the produce department (bananas!) and then stock up on some pantry items.

Now I don't necessarily have a concrete meal plan, but I can look at that list in the evening and figure out what we can have for dinner the next night based on what I know I have going on the next day and how tired I am.

And tomorrow I am finally making that turkey that has been in the freezer since last January. The kids will be so excited for a practice Thanksgiving dinner!

some canning pictures

It was a crazy summer here, not very hot at all. For certain crops, that wasn't good. The tomatoes were super late coming on here. Early tomatoes didn't come on until the end of August. I was nervous that we wouldn't have enough to can. We rely a lot on our home canned tomatoes throughout the winter and I was a little nervous.

But in the middle of September we had a hard freeze warning and Duane was able to pick lots of tomatoes. Here's a picture of red and yellow tomato sauce



It has been a GREAT year for peppers here in CO. I have soooo many frozen peppers of all colors: green, red, orange, yellow, ivory and even a few purple.

We made lots of salsa this year



And we pickled jalapenos, banana peppers and some anaheim peppers.



We included some carrots (orange and yellow) and some onion slices in the jalapenos, too. I think they are so pretty. And they taste YUMMY!!!

I love my farmers!

In the past couple of weeks, we have had many meals that I realize have been completely provided by our CSA...veggies and meat, soups, stews. It was a really overwhelming thought that all the food on our table had been raised on the same few acres. Not something we could say about a meal prepared from only grocery store foods.

I love my farmers. They feed me...literally!

the flu-and soup season

We have been so very sick the past week. My hubby and I both had the flu along with the 2 youngest. Two of the other kids have also had some variation of the flu and two have remained healthy. I find myself making lots of soup lately. It's easy, filling, inexpensive and a good way to use the massive amount of veggies that have accumulated this harvest season.

A favorite is Potato Leek

I start by sauteing 3 good sized leeks in about 1/4 cup of butter. They can absorb all that butter and start to burn so I sometimes need to add a little more butter. Then I add about 8-10 cups of diced potatoes. Yukon golds are the best, but the red ones or even fingerlings will work. I cover those with chicken stock or vegetable stock, bring to a boil and then simmer until the potatoes are soft and beginning to fall apart. The time this takes depends on the variety of potato, yukons are fast, fingerlings take longer. Then I use my immersion blender to puree out most of the lumps. Season to taste. Easy!