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The last several weeks have been a whirl-wind while we’re settling in to our new home. Settling in might be a bit of a stretch. Since the home isn’t done and there is work to be done on it every day, a good portion of our household items are in a storage unit. We’ve decided to be very picky about what we bring out of storage to keep. That said, there are several things still in storage that I’m finding I miss. The storage unit is in a town about 30 minutes away so we can’t just run and grab it which would be terribly convenient.
Joe’s been doing most of the cooking lately. While we were in Oklahoma he started cooking so I could spend more time taking care of things for my folks and keeping up with work. He continues for those two reasons plus the fact that the stress of the last several months has caught up with me and I’ve not been well. Several years ago I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) but the symptoms subsided when we changed our diet and I lessened my stress with only occasional flare-ups (usually related to dining out). A few weeks ago those symptoms came back full-force.
With the help of a recipe consultant I’m now on the full GAPS diet and avoiding nightshade (tomatoes, egg plant, peppers potatoes — potatoes are not GAPS permissible anyway). I started 2 weeks ago. The first week was rough. I was still feeling pretty bad and was very tired. Last week was better. Yesterday I noticed I actually felt pretty good. I’m hopeful that this week will be even better. I did feel well enough on Sunday that I was able to prep a few food items for the week.
Our off grid kitchen has a few challenges for creating meals. Our only oven is a SunOven. The weather hasn’t been suitable to use it since we got here due to wind. We can use a crockpot on sunshine days (we’re on solar power) and we do but we’ve had several overcast and snow or rain days lately. We cook on either a camp stove or a fire pit with a grill most of the time.
We are doing a lot of batch cooking. One tip Megan, my recipe consultant, gave was when doing bone broth in the crockpot to use big bones that can be fished out and cook the veggies at the same time. I don’t even cut the veggies just put them in whole and then we use them either in soups, as a side or pureed (my favorite!) with the little hand blender adding lots of fat, a little broth and salt. I am amazed at the number of items I can cram in the crockpot along with the broth. I even tuck a cut and seeded acorn squash at the top to steam it while everything else is submerged below. It’s brilliant!
I’m the only one of us doing GAPS. Joe and our little guy do eat pretty much the same as me except they have bread, rice and potatoes sometimes. Breakfasts and lunches are usually eggs and/or leftover soups (or any leftover). An egg poached in leftover soup is a favorite of all of us. A decadent breakfast or lunch is poached egg with hollandaise sauce over a bed of greens (picture at top). Yum!
Yesterday I was feeling pretty good an prepped three salads for the week; Cole slaw, cucumber & onion, turnip salad (based on this one) and fruit along with a batch of mayonnaise. The salads are something we did last week to and remind me of having an in-home salad bar. We put out a green salad, the Cole slaw, turnip salad and cucumber salad along with salad toppings and a quick homemade dressing. I made yogurt last week and have enough left for this week and we made a batch of Navy Beans on Saturday (in the crockpot on a sunshine day) that will make into several meals.
Menu April 3
Sunday: White Navy Beans (soaked 24 hours, water changed once), salad bar (green salad, cole slaw, cucumber salad, and other salad toppings)
Monday: Hungarian Turkey Legs (from a wild turkey –yum!), pureed carrots, parsnips and onions, salad bar
Tuesday: White Bean Chili, salad bar
Wednesday: Blackened Salmon over Caboodles (cabbage noodles)
Thursday: Soup (made out of whatever is leftover and broth) and salad bar
Friday: No-Soy Stir Fry
Saturday: Elk burgers, butternut squash fries
What’s on your menu?
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This post is shared at Menu Plan Monday.
