I only have about $12 left to spend on Monday at the grocery store, but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. I only need a few things.
The ground buffalo is from Culpeper, and the honey and spinach are from Over The Grass in The Plains. The brown eggs and butter are from Trickling Springs Creamery and the white eggs are from Middletown, near Blue Ridge Meats. The 100% grass-fed beef is from Amelia County, VA, but I’m not sure of the name of the farm.
As I was leaving, I said that I just wished Lois sold fish, and guess what? She can get fish from Alaska. She knows someone with a boat, and just needs a few days notice to get wild caught salmon, halibut and sockeye. She can also get scallops and crab, but I’m really just interested in the stuff with fins. I might try that soon, but it’s not really in my budget this week.
I cooked the Easter meal yesterday, so I will have leftover turkey to work with all week. I might buy a piece of fish at the grocery store tomorrow, but the turkey will likely be my protein source for the week. And I will make soup at some point, I’m sure. Today I made a typical Sunday breakfast of hash browns, scrambled eggs, bacon (and a breakfast patty for Tino) plus toast from yesterday’s bread. I had some of the cornbread (gluten-free) that I made Friday that went into the stuffing. The rest of it will be served with dinner tonight, and that will be black bean cakes with lime-peppered mayo (warning: the Oprah site makes Safari 4 cry) and either rice or roasted vegetables for the starch. I will make the last of the collard greens, and I may or may not make a salad. The black bean cakes are something I have only made once before, and they were definitely tasty, but too much work for a weeknight dinner that I didn’t throw together until 9pm. They remind me of the ones served at Wishbone in Chicago. I doubt this is a coincidence. This is an Oprah recipe, and Wishbone is very near Harpo Studios. I’m not a particular Oprah fan, but her 21-day vegan “cleanse” had some great recipes posted. I’m sure that’s much easier to do when you have a personal chef. I made my own creole seasoning for the black bean cakes, but of course I can use it for whatever.
I’m also roasting a batch of sweet chili nuts (not very sweet – I cut WAY back on the sugar from Deborah Madison’s recipe), and that will last me a couple of weeks in snacks and bentos. I buy those big bags of raw nuts from Costco, and they work really well for this. This batch has a cup each of walnuts, pecans and almonds and 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds. The sunflower seeds are not from Costco. Raw ones are hard to find around here, and tend to be overpriced, so I didn’t want to use them all up. They are really great in salads, especially with sprouts, so I wanted to hold some back for that. The nuts are “in stock” items purchased before I started my $50 a week budget except for the pecans, and I bought those with my Costco dividend check, so they didn’t come out of the budget at all. I also bought a 3 liters of olive oil out of that dividend, and that will last me for a few months.
Here’s how I make the nuts. Use any raw nuts/seeds that you like.
Preheat oven to 300′
1 c. raw almonds
1 c. raw walnuts
1 c. raw pecans
1/4 c. raw sunflower or pumpkin seeds
2 T. EVOO
2 t. ground red chili (choose something with your desired level of heat)
1 t. salt
1 T. sugar
Mix spices and oil in bowl large enough to mix with the nuts. Toss nuts in the mixture. Spread in one layer on a baking sheet. Cook for 25 minutes. Cool on a rack or outside, if it’s chilly. The faster they cool, the crunchier they will be.
The recipe is based on one from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, but I changed quite a bit about it, even the method.
I still have some home-grown sprouts, but I’m coming to the end of those. I really should start some more since they take a few days.
I haven’t gotten too far on the rest of the week’s meals. I think that tomorrow we can finish up the cream of asparagus soup for our lunches, and I can turn some leftover mashed potatoes from yesterday into cheesy potato fritters with sour cream to round out the meal. I’ll take some veggie chili out of the freezer for Tino, and I’ll have leftover turkey tacos or enchiladas at dinner. On Tuesday, I’ll probably make us bentos for lunch, and for dinner we’ll finish up the sweet and sour green beans, gravy and the rest of the mashed potatoes. I’ll have more turkey with that. We’ll probably go out to lunch on Wednesday, and I’ll make turkey soup for dinner which will probably finish up the turkey — it wasn’t that meaty. I might make fried rice for Tino for Wednesday’s dinner, and I’ll eat some of the fried rice the next day at lunch time.
And now I’m out of ideas. I’ll see if I can do better about tracking what we’re actually eating this week.
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