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We are having a snow day. It started snowing last night and continues. We might get up to 8 inches. And the wind is blowing a little bit. Earlier the weather said that with the wind blowing and the low temp that it feels like it is 19 below. Joe took care of the chickens for me today and said he agreed with that assessment. BRRRRR
I’m on week 8 of my 13 Week Rotating Menu Plan. This week is Pinto Beans. We did have Pinto Beans week 2 (and will again week 11) but two of the meals are different this time than last time. I think I mentioned that I’m really still in the recipe testing stage of my menu plan and want to make sure that the results are good before I actually finalize the plan. And of course, even once I’m feeling good about the Rotating Plan there will be times that I make changes or add to the basic plan. Like tonight’s dinner. My menu plan calls for Southern Batter Bread, Butter Beans and Scalloped Tomatoes (all pantry foods). But we have quite a bit of liver in the freezer so we’ll have that instead of the Butter Beans tonight.
I have started buying ‘bulk’ items for the pantry. My Azure Standard orders usually contain at least one 25 pound bag of beans of some sort. This month’s order (which will be here tomorrow) has 25 pounds of lentils and 5 pounds of white beans. Also things like rice, nutritional yeast, coconut milk, carrots, 21 pounds of apples and my standard 25 pounds of flour. I have to admit that trying to stock up the pantry and stay within our food budget has been a challenge. Last month I did go over when I ordered 5 gallons of coconut oil. I was happy that I had worked a temp job at the end of December so we could do that. The 5 gallon size was a huge cost savings over buying it in 1 gallon sizes but quite a bit to come up with up front. I’m hoping to order another 5 gallon in a few months since we go through it so fast.
Put together a quart of Spicy Carrots and a pint of Ginger Carrots the other day. The Spicy Carrots are smelling very good and will be a great accompaniment to our Pinto Beans this week. I know that the family is looking forward to them too since I keep finding people opening them up and smelling them 🙂
Here is what we are eating this week;
Sunday
B- Leftover cooked wheat cereal, peanut butter toast
L – Buckwheat pancakes, nectarine compote, fried eggs
D- Southern Batter Bread, Scalloped Tomatoes, Beef Liver
Monday
D- Pinto Beans, Sauteed Onions, Rice, Green Salad, Spicy Carrots
Tuesday
D- Navajo Tacos
Wednesday
D- Taco Salad
Thursday
D- Peese Porridge (made without bacon, scroll down for the recipe), sauerkraut, apple slices
Friday
D- Beef Roast, Potatoes, Carrots, Parsnips. Challah
Dessert- Sourdough Spice Cake
Saturday
D- Skillet Dinner made with leftover roast beef and whatever else sounds good.
>Mille, I am curious about your rotating menu plan…menu's are a challenge for me, so I would be interested. ;0)
>I hear you Andi! I've been doing menu plans for a few years now but each week I'd be stuck coming up with what to make. So far this is working out good but did take me a bit to put together. I have a tab at the top of the page that says 13 Week Rotating Menu Plan. I'm adding links each week as I put the plans up. Nothing really fancy on the plans. Mostly 'from scratch' items that are as whole food focused as possible. And still a work in progress… Oh and lots of beans. Each week we have Stretchy Beans which is a pot of beans turned into 3 (or sometimes 4) meals.
We would love to have more meat and less beans but beans are so much more affordable. We do plan for beef,our homegrown chicken, wild game or the occasional fish once or twice a week and I often add meat to the bean dishes (like the chili this week, it'll have stew meat added to it) but beans really are used alot here.