Can I post this on a Friday? You know I have trouble following the rules : ) This is SO cute! Simple and appealing – that’s how we like our food. I ran across this gem of an idea for tiny people meal planning on the Chasing Cheerios blog which has so many nice ideas for littles.

I know at least three small people here who will go nuts with this idea. It would work darn well for meals taken outdoors. I scoured our breakfast built in bench yesterday with Murphy’s Soap and a scrub brush. Yikes what a job! (I am tearing through that Grand Plan deep cleaning) Would be really nice if they all ate outside now….maybe til the baby is born lol!

Anyhoo. I’ve got to see the midwife and get the girls packed for sleepover camp. Then weep when they leave. I hope to post more school stuff once we get all that done. God bless!

My Paleo Kitchen Blog linked to the free Fitday journal. Honestly, I have never in my life tracked my food intake. I started with this pg though when I realized I wasn’t getting the ratio of protein/carbs I was shooting for. Time will tell how useful this is over the long haul but for now it seems easier than writing it all down because it automatically calculates calories, fat and protein grams. I am all for keeping track but no way was I likely to count anything on my own with all there is to do in a day. This took five minutes to tally the whole day and helped me see where to tweak.

I have enjoyed the Paleo blogs a great deal. I really hate complicated food but could never throw myself into a raw foods diet, Atkins diet (we like fruit, we have babies) nor do I like ‘recipes’. Just not into that. Fresh, simple, that works.

Found a yummy week’s worth of breakfast/lunch/dinner here.

One for just dinners here.

We are going to make this week’s from Everyday Food May 2006 in hopes that Martha can inspire me. Or least inspire Alannah, resident culinary expert.

Dee asked me to share some low and no starch menus. There are increasing numbers of sites for families who are gluten or grain free due to celiac disease, autism, IBS, certain types of arthritis etc. Surfing for low carb, grain free, or SCD diet recipes brings up a ton of information. You don’t need to be low carb to be grain free however. The addition of dairy and fruit makes for a very adequate carb count. I thought I would start off with some good links:

Maureen’s List is great. Check the blog archives for excellent grain free recipes. I am going to try her roast chicken technique. Going to track down some of that coconut flour!

Going Against the Grain explains some grain related woes and gives suggestions for avoiding them. There is an online exerpt that includes some menus and recipes.

Grain Free Gourmet uses almond flour to adapt traditional recipes to a grain free diet. Samples here.

Oodles of recipes here.

Typical no-starch menus.

This morning I had:

Almond flour pancakes (very light)
homemade breakfast sausage
orange slices
milk

Check out Dee’s grainfree breakfast here.

April’s Prevention Magazine had a snippet about their new diabetes diet. The program includes a 30 day menu of meals and snacks. You know how I do love to have food all mapped out down to snacks. ; ) This looks healthy and appetizing and it all ready to go.

It has been a long time since I shared these links and wanted to throw it out there again.

Most of us moms are curious to know what is a reasonable food budget. A good place to start is the USDA Food Costs site. For comparison, the average food stamp budget comes to about $3/day/person. The general conclusion from those participating in Food Stamp Challenges that this is too low. It IS possible for a stay at home mom to feed her family for not too terribly much more than that however. If we follow the guidelines below we can feed ten for about $100/mo/person supplementing with farmstead milk and the occasional wild game. (this includes paper and cleaning products) If you have a garden you can do even better.

Hillbilly Housewife has a ton of resources to help pinch grocery pennies. Especially helpful are the $45 and $70 dollar emergency menus. While you wouldn’t want to eat that way forever they come in handy in when you find yourself in a tight spot.

The Thousand Calorie menu recipes are some of the best imo.

This article claims to feed a family on $30. My guess is most of the “meals” would not satiate and you would need to combine a few to make a whole meal.

This link has a lot of good tips which we tend to employ here as well –

*stock up on inexpensive produce like potatoes, carrots, cabbage. Ditto inexpensive cuts of meat. (the crockpot is a huge help here)

*NEVER eat out. While my husband must eat out while traveling we as a family eat out only as a special treat for birthdays or the like. Even when we don’t go to restaurants a big food budget leak is running into Walmart for snacks or drinks while we are out. Plan ahead – pack snacks and drinks before you leave home.

*Don’t buy beverages. Water is free. Tea is cheaply made at home and provides antioxidants.

*If your budget is tight I would still add a multivitamin, even a generic formulation. Cheap protection.

As promised here is another week of vegetarian meal plans:

Day 1:
Yogurt and blueberries/zucchini bread
black bean soup, tortilla chips, corn
Tuna casserole, green beans, pickles

Day 2:
Corn muffins, oranges, cocoa
bean burritos, veggies and guacamole
Broccoli/cranberry/mayo salad, scalloped potatoes

Day 3:
granola and milk (with nuts and dried fruit)
PB and J, apples
Pilaf with a Purpose (Jane Brody – contains pintos, brown rice, and thin spaghetti) cauliflower

Day 4:
Apple cinnamon oatmeal, yogurt smoothies
leftover pilaf, cauliflower soup
scallops with red pepper and linguini, peas

Day 5:
waffles, strawberries
tuna sandwiches, celery, popcorn
black bean haystacks (beans on rice with taco toppings) baby carrots

Day 6:
Pumpkin muffins, Oranges, eggs
hummus, crackers, cucmbers, V8
chop suey vegs and brown rice, chow mein noodles

Day 7:
Cornmeal mush, bananas, nuts
tomato soup, grilled cheese, peas
quiche, 7 layer veg salad, french bread

He findeth many companions of His table, but few of His fasting.  -Thomas a Kempis

We have begun Lent which explains in part my sketchy blogging this week. Part was some unexpected job demands for Allen which kept us busy. Things are settling again and we had a very productive Sat.  We went to Boy Scouts Blue and Gold, came home and tended to some animal husbandry tasks (dehorning, trimming hooves etc) and I got to sit and get some notes down for the coming weeks.

This lent the children collectively decided to abstain from meat the whole season. Seemed doable. I worked out three weeks of menus and will repeat them. Here is the first week:

Scrambled eggs,toast, peach cider
cottage cheese, tomato soup, flatbread
Salmon patties or steaks, brown rice, asparagus

Hi protein oatmeal (made with eggs and milk) bananas, wassail
Quesadillas, refried beans, chips, corn
Stuffed potatoes (broc/cheese, etc) spinach salad

Hash browns, oranges, milk
chef salad, lemon poppy muffins
Thai wraps (chinese vegs in tortillas) brown rice

Breakfast burritos, pineapples
15 bean soup, barley, carrots and celery sticks
lasagna, salad, french bread

Eggnog, toast, peaches
bean burritos, corn
chiplotle shrimp, brown rice, broccoli

Apple breakfast cobbler, cheese cubes, tea
potato soup, boston brown bread, vegs
Peanut/ramen/slaw, fried rice

Sunday we have our meat meal.  The drinks are from the Fix it and Forget It Lightly cookbook.

I am not a foodie which explains why there are maybe five posts under Chuck Wagon here. This one is an exception however. I got the recipe from a friend over a dozen years ago and made them a few times then stashed it. This year we have resurrected the recipe and treated ourselves to countless batches of warm soft whole-grain tortillas which rival those at the health food store:

2c flour (I use half whole wheat)
1tsp salt

Cut in:
1/2 c shortening (I use oil)

Add:
1/2 c warm water

Knead until smooth and flecked with air bubbles. Now at this pt the recipe says to place in a greased bowl and refrigerate for 4-24 hrs. We have done this chilled and fresh. Actually they are easier to just roll immediately imo.  If you chill the dough then return it to room temp before rolling as thin as you can. Bake on a super hot ungreased griddle for about 20 seconds each side.
Makes 8-10 tortillas.

Started the morning with Cornmeal flapjacks.  We adapted the recipe from Marilu Henner’s Healthy Life Kitchen cookbook:

I cup flour (we used barley)

1/2 cup cornmeal (I often replace with millet flour)

3 T sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup milk

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup yogurt

2 eggs

1/2 stick soy margarine (wouldn’t touch it if you paid me – we used full fat goat milk yogurt with no extra oil)

You no doubt figured out we tripled the recipe. : )  Serve with maple or blueberry syrup. These were exceptionally light.

While we were in the mood we mixed some coconut milk with goats milk, sweetened it and froze it in popsicle molds for dessert later.  Then, put some vegetable barley soup in the crock pot:

1/2 cup pearled barley

1/2 lb ground meat (we used half beef/half venison)

14oz diced tomatoes

clove garlic

7 cups water

1/2 cup ea: celery, carrot, onion

2 beef bouillon cubes (we skipped since I am allergic)

bay leaf

frozen vegs (had leftovers from last night)

the meat was leftover so already browned. We tossed it all into the roaster oven on low and it’s quite good already. The original recipe called for basil and I would have been much happier without it. I really only like to visit basil in spaghetti sauce and never any other time however.

We are kneading some whole wheat bread dough for dinner to accompany the soup and chilling some yogurt that set through the night.  Pretty typical weekend food prep around here. What’s on your menu?

We have had some great fun this month. We made caramel apples for a potluck with friends. I am not one for fancy recipes nor overly rich dishes. These made for a perfect treat. One little girl declared she was in heaven after her first bite <g>   Simple as washing and drying the apples, lining trays with waxed paper, and dipping the apples in a panful of melted caramel candies.