Meal Plan: September 15 - 21

Sunday:

Final appearance of meatloaf, purple potatoes and apple crisp with corn on the cob roasted broccoli

Monday:

Chicken noodle soup with carrots and cabbage

Tuesday:

Falafel, pitas, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets and tahini sauce

Wednesday:

Spaghetti and white bean pesto sauce

Thursday:

Chili from freezer with rice and beet greens

Friday:

Taco night

Saturday:

Leftovers/pizza

Meal Plan: The New Auto-pilot plan

Today is the school year's equivalent of January 1. We've had the one last hurrah after the elongated holidays of summer, we've enjoyed the lazy days, the pajama mornings, the late bedtimes, but tomorrow.....

In appreciation of the "other new year" and the frenetic pace we know we'll be keeping once I am back on the road and we enter into the public schools system (read: the world of soccer) for the first time, we have created a secret weapon. Our new "Auto-pilot Meal Plan" can be pulled out and slapped into place at a moment's notice. Whether we are hit with an epic stomach flu or find ourselves driving back late from a weekend trip that "seemed like a good idea at the time," or just a case of too much work-travel and not enough time to plan, we will be able to activate six (count them, six!) dinners in a row.

The methodology at work for each meal in this plan is one of ease, frugality and attractiveness (to our kids). We chose this recipes based on what we typically stock in our pantry and freezer, the ability to use similar ingredients in multiple recipes, therefore having to stock or purchase fewer items and those that would let us use the slow cooker as often as possible.

I encourage you to keep track of how many times we hit this "emergency button" between now and June 30...

Here's the plan:

Monday:

Vegetable chili, brown rice, side vegetable (this week: broccoli)

I will use beans that I've soaked, cooked and frozen, a bag of frozen shredded zucchini and half a can or jar of stewed tomatoes. The remaining half can will be used in the pasta on Wednesday.

Tuesday:

Crock Pot Layered Dinner with chicken from the freezer, stored fingerling potatoes and a side vegetable (this week: new Brussels sprouts!)

Wednesday:

Pasta with tomato sauce (fortified with bean stock), Romano cheese

The second half can of Monday's tomatoes will be used here to make the sauce. I usually save and freeze the stock from cooking dried beans and add it to sauces and soups later on.

Thursday:

Broiled fish, leftover potatoes from Tuesday and side vegetable (this week: kale)

This fish is the first new thing I will have had to buy for this week's worth of dinners. Everything else is part of our normal stocked pantry or freezer.

Friday:

Homemade pizza

Using a second can or jar of tomatoes

Saturday:

Slow Cooker Ravioli Lasagna

I will use a leftover pizza sauce and turn it into the meat sauce for the "lasagna." We will probably have a salad, since we will have a chance to go to the Farmer's market or will hopefully have recovered from whatever it was that made us activate the Auto-pilot plan in the first place.

Grocery List for this meal plan:

2 28 oz cans (or 2 qt jars) crushed, stewed or pureed tomatoes (on hand)

1 can or 3/4 C frozen pinto, kidney, rosada or navy beans (on hand)

1 T chili seasoning (on hand)

2 cup shredded zucchini (on hand)

1 cup brown rice (on hand)

1 chicken breast/4 thighs, drumsticks or whatever (on hand)

2 lbs potatoes (on hand)

3 meal's worth of vegetable sides (on hand)

Romano cheese (on hand)

garlic (on hand)

EVOO (on hand)

1 box pasta (on hand)

4 cups Mozzarella cheese (on hand)

1 lb ground beef, turkey, lamb, pork (on hand)

2 lbs of fish fillets (purchased, though I am likely to buy two meal's worth at a time and freeze one)

1 lb frozen ravioli (purchased)

We hope not to pull this trigger too often because even though we like these meals, we would get tired of them. What we are trying to accomplish is a baseline for maintenance. As long as we keep these items in the house and, in the event of "disaster" one of us can make it to the store and pick up a few items (in addition to milk, eggs flour and COFFEE) we'll be okay. Well, at least we'll eat.

Food Storage Inventory as of June 26, 2011

Frozen

Vegetables:

6 Gallon Bags Broccoli

30 Pint Bags Frozen Spinach

Blueberries:

1 Gallon bag

Cranberries:

1/2 Gallon Bags

Zucchini:

54 Pints Shredded

Meats:

1 Quart Pork Fat Back

1 Quart Suet

10 Chicken Breasts

10 Chicken Thighs

10 Chicken Drum Sticks

10 Chicken Wings

3 Half Chickens

4 Chicken Stock bags

Pesto:

7 muffin cups

Pantry

Jams/Fruit:

4 Half-pints Blueberry Jam

2 Pints Apple Jelly

2 Quarts Apple Pie Filling

3 Pints Peach Jam

1 Pint Peach Applesauce

3 Half Pints Apple Butter

5 Half Pints Orange Marmalade

3 Half Pints Strawberry Jam

4 Half Pints Strawberry Preserves

Pickles:

4 Pints Radishes

3 Pints Red Cabbage

12 Pints Cauliflower and Carrots

45 Pints Bread and Butter Pickles

48 Pints Dilly Beans

Sauces:

2 Pints Barbecue Sauce

2 Pints Sweet and Sour Sauce

3 Half-pints Chutney

Meal Plan: March 20-26, 2011

Sunday:

Black bean and zucchini quesadillas and coleslaw

Monday:

Corn Pudding

Leftover corned beef hash and broccoli

Tuesday:

Ricotta and swiss chard gnudi

Wednesday:

Chicken, barley soup with cabbage, celery and adzuki beans

Thursday:

Corn Chowder with bread

Friday:

Zucchini parmesan

Saturday:

Pasta with creamy pesto sauce

Next week:

Sunday:

Meat loaf and tomato gravy with roasted potatoes and beets

Shrimp and Tomato Bisque

1 lb Shrimp, cleaned, de-veined, chopped

1 Quart Tomato Juice (we used our own)

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 slices best quality bread

2 cups seafood stock

2 T EVOO

salt and pepper

Optional: sour cream, scallions, hot pepper sauce

Heat olive oil in large sauce pot. Add onions. When translucent add garlic and carrots. Add small amounts of stock as needed. Season with salt and pepper. When carrots are fork tender, add tomato juice and bring to boil. Add bread. When mixture returns to boil and bread is breaking apart, remove from heat. Liquify with an immersion blender or transfer to blender in two batches. Return mixture to pot. Add stock. When combine and returned to slow boil, add shrimp. Serve hot garnished with a small dollop of sour cream, chopped scallions and hot pepper sauce if desired.

Fresh Chicken and Roasting Recipe

Tonight I had my first ever fresh chicken. What I mean by that is that it was not only free-range, organic and local, but that it had been slaughtered the day or the day before I had purchased it. It had never been frozen. I bought it from a woman at the Norwich Farmers Market yesterday. She owns Thymeless Herbs in Woodstock, VT and she and her daughter were selling chickens, eggs, herbs as you might guess and a wide variety of eye-appealing (and delicious) baked goods. They reminded me of my favorite children's book, Oxcart Man by Donald Hall about a family in the Upper Valley (I think) who send "everything they made or grew all year long that was left over" with the father to sell at the market in Portsmouth.

I was taken aback by how lovely this bird was. In someways I wish I had taken a picture, but I am mostly glad I didn't. In the end, I realize that it's a chicken. But I took a moment to be thankful for the partnership between the family at Thymeless Herbes and my own. They worked and invested to produce an animal which fed my family and I was able to pay them directly for their labors.

I use something loosely based on Nigella Lawson's Roasted Chicken recipe, or method, really, from her book How to Eat:

After removing the innards, I lay the chicken, breast-up, in a cast-iron skillet and then fill the extra space with chopped vegetables: onions, carrots, whole peeled garlic and sometimes fennel bulb if I have it. I cut a lemon in half and put one half inside the chicken. I sprinkle fresh ground pepper and kosher salt over the top and then pour a dime-sized drop of olive oil on the breast of the chicken and rub the oil, pepper and salt all over the skin. As I am doing this I push as many of the vegetables under the bird as I can. Then I squeeze the other half of the lemon all over the top and drop it into the skillet.

I then roast at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes per pound, plus 10 minutes. Get out your calculator and use the exact weight to determine the roasting time. If you are really on top of things, throw a couple of zucchini breads into the oven with your chicken to leverage the energy used by the oven. Today I was. It was a pretty rock-star day.

The advantage of using the cast-iron skillet is that when your chicken is done (180 degrees in the thigh joint) you can transfer it to a cutting surface, put your skillet on the burner and make your gravy, taking advantage of all the brown bits on the bottom. To make the gravy, transfer all vegetables to a serving dish, discard lemon and then heat skillet on burner and stir all contents, scraping the bottom. When you have a little bit of a simmer going, throw in the gizzard (not the liver!) The gizzard looks like a heart. Then add a little bit of cornstarch and a then a little bit of chicken stock until you get the consistency that you want. Some people strain their gravy. I never do. I also like orange juice labeled "high pulp."

To make "in the moment stock" add your chicken's neck to 6 cups of water in a pot and simmer. You can also add the out layer (not the paper layer) of the onion you used and the ends of the carrot along with some salt and pepper.

Carve your bird and serve with its vegetable roasting companions and your gravy. Tonight I threw together a Summer Harvest Stuffing. Tomorrow we are planning to make Pesto Chicken Pizza. Had I not been so taken by the beauty of this foul and my own self-satisfaction in how I acquired it, I probably would not have used the livers for the stuffing linked above. I typically save them throughout the year to make pate for Christmas.

Summer Harvest Stuffing Recipe

Ingredients:

1 T EVOO

1 small onion, diced

1 clove garlic, diced

1 small zucchini, diced

1 ear of corn, boiled or steamed, kernels removed

1 chicken liver (optional and presumably from the chicken to be served with stuffing)

2 C bread, cubed or torn into small pieces

1 C stock of choice (I made mine by simmering the neck of my chicken in a pot of water alongside my stuffing)

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

If you are using the chicken liver from your chicken, dice and set aside. If you are going to make your own "in the moment" stock, add neck to about 6 cups of water and heat on back burner, covered.

Heat EVOO in medium sauce pan. When ready, add onions. When onions are translucent, add garlic, zucchini and corn. If at any point from here forward the mixture begins to stick to the pan or burn, add some chicken stock (think: risotto!). When zucchini is BRIGHT green add chopped liver, if using. When the liver is completely browned add the bread along with a ladle-full of chicken stock. Continue cooking and stirring until mixture is thoroughly combined. You may not need to use all 2 cups of your stock, but it will be good to have on hand depending on the density or age of the bread you are using. At the point when it is just a little too moist for your liking put the cover on, remove from heat and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Just before serving, open the lid and "fluff with a fork" as our trusty StoveTop box always says and enjoy!