SereneCooking

This week will be awfully busy, so it's easy food for us:

Monday: Spaghetti and veggies
Tuesday: Baked chicken thighs, roasted potatoes, green salad
Wednesday: Tuna casserole and raw veggies with dip
Thursday: Grilled cheese and soup
Friday: Caprese sandwiches and chopped salad
Saturday: Lamb chops, mint sauce, mashed potatoes, asparagus
Sunday: Veggie "shepherd's pie"

Near me, there's a store that specializes in foods from the South Pacific. I mainly go there to buy New Zealand lamb, which we prefer, and to look in the aisles for foods I've never tried. During my mom's visit, I made sure to take her to check it out -- she and I share the love of interesting foods, and the thrill of a bargain. (The New Zealand store has lamb for $2.10 a pound. Around here, you really can't beat that.)

We bought:

* Goat chops
* Lamb chops
* Frozen mussels (no shells -- they also had mussels in the shell, but my mom calculated that she got more for her money this way. ;-)
* Cheesy poofs from Fiji whose name I've forgotten (they had a big "O" on the packaging and were shaped like little hoops)
* A Cadbury Crunchie bar from Australia
* Some mixes from India (Idli, Jilebi, and Dosai (which came with a free packet of sambhar mix)
* Coconut milk

I want to make goat curry with some of the goat meat, and I'll certainly cook at least some of the lamb chops simply, with garlic and maybe a little mint salt, but I'm also looking for suggestions for all the meats.


Tonight, we'll heat and eat a bunch of the leftovers from mom's visit, and we need to eat lightly for a while. My mom is a big foodie, and loves to buy (and cook) tons of food, so our pantries are full to bursting. Tomorrow night, we'll have a huge salad, for sure, and then use a light hand with the meat for a while, with the exception of the corned beef I had to put in the fridge to thaw so there would be room for all the lamb and goat. The kid would love it if we ate meat at every meal the way my mom's household does, but someotherguy and I really don't do that well on an all-meat-all-the-time routine.


Sunday (tonight): Leftovers: Ribs, rib roast, mashed potatoes, chicken soup, and whatever else I see in the fridge that needs eating

Monday: HUGE salad

Tuesday: Corned beef and cabbage and potatoes

Wednesday: Indian foods (probably something like curried garbanzos, dosai, coriander-roasted green beans and/or sauteed mustard greens, chutney, and rice, but we'll see. Might make palak paneer if I feel up for it.)

Thursday: Veggie chili and cornbread

Friday: Mussels in garlic butter; rice pilaf; salad

Saturday: TVP-and-chorizo tacos

Sunday: Pasta with veggies; salad

Right now, my house smells like heaven.

I was never one of those vegetarians who hated the smell of meat, though I've never actually been all that fond of its taste, at least not in large doses. But the smell of meat cooking is, I have to admit, a smell I associate with home and good things.

I'm cooking a chuck roast in the pressure cooker, with plenty of garlic, ancho chilis, onions, and some seasoned salt. When it's done cooking, I'll shred it and serve it in corn tortillas with fajita-type veggies (onions, peppers,whatever else presents itself).

The rest of the week looks like this:

Tuesday: Folks get to make themselves sandwiches or heat up leftovers; I'll be at work
Wednesday: TVP sloppy joes on homemade rolls; cole slaw
Thursday: Potatoes and chickpea gravy
Friday: Beans and rice
Saturday: Going to a friend's party; will probably make some kind of tote-able salad for that, but haven't decided yet. Maybe bread? Maybe pie?
Sunday: Will be at stonebender's. Will scrounge in his fridge for food. :-)

Today's meal plan:

B: Hot cereal w/soymilk; piece of fruit
L: Vegan sushi (shiitake, oshinko, cucumber, avocado, tofu), miso soup
D: BBQ seitan with coleslaw & roasted veggies
S: Fruit, cut-up veggies, homemade popsicles, toast

Below the cut are menu plans for the next few weeks. They'll of course be shifted or ignored at my whim, but it helps me to have them.

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