Menu & Grocery List for 12/7-12/13

I’m focusing on vegetables this week, I think we’ve been a little short on them in our diet lately.

Veselka’s Cabbage Soup: it’s funny Veselka’s should show up again–I mentioned it offhandedly in my post about beets, and then I noticed today this recipe was featured at the Smitten Kitchen, and just when I was really wanting to make something with cabbage too. Veselka’s is a Ukrainian restaurant that was close to my dorm at NYU. I think I ordered pirogies and/or borscht every time we went though, so I never tried this soup.

Multi-grain Pasta with Sicilian Salsa Verde, Cabbage, and Haricots Verts

Stir-fried Cauliflower with Ginger and Oyster Sauce (from How to Cook Everything): we’ll add tofu to this and eat it over rice, of course.

Swiss Chard Gratin: this kind of seems like it will need something else with it, but I’m not sure what.

Corn & potato chowder: no recipe here, just a basic potato soup with some corn we have in the freezer

Grocery list:
milk
1/2 & 1/2 (will use for heavy cream)
gruyere
Parmesan

tofu
pork (will probably substitute ground for the pork butt)

cabbage
savoy cabbage
Swiss chard
spinach
onions
garlic
green beans
parsley, other herbs?
cauliflower

whole wheat pasta
bread (enough to make bread crumbs too)

capers
sauerkraut

Pantry Items: potatoes, carrots, celery, green onions, corn, ginger, stock, anchovies (!), rice, butter, spices

Menu and Grocery List for 11/9-11/15

Pizza with Greens and Goat Cheese: chevre is one of the only things leftover in my refrigerator this week!

Curried Potato and Spinach Soup with Onion Salsa and Minted Yogurt

Meatloaf and Baked Sweet Potato Fries: I saw the sweet potatoes on this post over at the angry chicken and knew I wanted to make some too. I don’t use a recipe for my meatloaf, I just mix ground beef with an egg, some (unsoaked) bulgar, and whatever veggies and spices seem right.

Squash, Chickpea, and Red Lentil Stew with rice

Baked Apples with Barley (chorizo) Pilaf: I’m replacing the chorizo with mushrooms. I love barley and should make it more often–the texture is so wonderful!

I think I’ll also make a big pot of vegetable stock today since several of the above recipes call for it in quantity.

Grocery List:
red onions
yellow onions
green onions
spinach
parsley
mushrooms
apples
sweet potatoes
butternut squash
carrots
cilantro
limes
kale

Greek yogurt
blue cheese dressing

tofu
ground beef

barley
hazelnuts
chickpeas
red lentils
peanuts

spices: nigella seeds, yellow mustard seeds, curry powder, curry leaves (I doubt I can find these in Bend), saffron

Pantry items: chevre, flour, yeast, olive oil, potatoes, cauliflower, chicken broth, lemon, tomato paste, bulgar, egg, spices

Menu & Grocery List for 10/4-10/11

We have a lot of veggies in our refrigerator that are threating liquefication so many of this week’s ingredients are on the pantry list rather than the grocery list. It’s kind of a rough in-between time for menu planning. The fall vegetables aren’t quite ready yet, but summery choices like vine-ripened tomatoes are fading fast. Several of these recipes are new choices though, and I’m pretty excited to try them.

Southeast Asian Squash Curry

Beans & Greens: this is a recipe from my new How to Cook Everything cookbook, but it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. We’ll eat this over buttered toast.

Potato Leek Soup: some local baby leeks inspired this menu choice. Like many of the reviewers, I’ll doctor it up with some dairy and maybe some bacon, since there’s some in the fridge. We’ll have salad as well.

Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Pasta: I’m skipping the tarragon in this since I’m not really a fan.

Zucchini Fritters with rice.

Middle Eastern Meatballs: though the recipe calls for lamb, we make it with our local grass-fed ground beef instead. It’s cheaper and flavorful enough to be an adequate substitute. We’ll eat these with couscous, roasted cauliflower, and yogurt.

Grocery List
zucchini
parsley
winter squash
mint
spinach
sweet potato

eggs
goat cheese
milk

cashews
whole wheat pasta
coconut milk

ground beef

Pantry Items: potatoes, leeks, red pepper, lettuce, cucumber, onions, cauliflower, collard greens, red curry paste, garlic, couscous, rice, olive oil, spices, fish sauce, white beans

Menu & Grocery List for 3/1-3/7

And now back to our somewhat regularly scheduled programming.

Risotto with butternut squash and leeks: I surprised a friend recently with my admission that I’d never made risotto. Time to reconcile that I guess. I actually bought the ingredients for this last week, but then we used the rice for something else. I’ll use 1/2 & 1/2 instead of cream since we have plenty.

Pirozhki: I have cabbage. I have potatoes. Let’s have pirozhki. Maybe with some borscht?

Chicken Piccata: I somehow have two half-used bottles of capers in my fridge. This should be a good way to remedy that. We’ll eat this with pasta, probably angel hair.

Brown Rice and Goat Cheese Cakes: I think these sound pretty tasty, though I’ll probably substitute onions for some of the shallots. Those things are spendy! Updated to add: I realized this morning that I forgot to add vegetables to this meal.  I think I’ll go for broccoli, unless asparagus is starting to come in.  We’ll also eat this on some salad greens, as the recipe suggests.

Pizza: this seems to be our most frequently repeated meal. I have some kalmata olive spread, some leftover anchovies(!), and probably enough capers (even after the piccata recipe) to make a “puttanesca pizza” so that should be an unusual combination at least.

Grocery List
milk
mozzarella cheese
sour cream

chicken breasts
chicken broth
vegetable broth
flour
pasta
arborio rice
brown rice
shallots (3)
onions
parsley
dill
beets
carrots
lemon
sage
broccoli
greens

canned tomatoes (1 lg.)

pecans

coffee
cheap white wine

I’ll also buy milk, bread, fruit, oatmeal and peanut butter so there will be food for breakfast and snacks.

Pantry Items
butternut squash, leeks, olive oil, parmesan cheese, eggs, cabbage, potatoes, butter, capers, feta cheese (subbing for goat)