Shopping List by LexnGer, on Flickr

I don’t plan to do this every week, but I wanted to post my menu plans for this week. Sometimes in the middle of winter it can be hard to come up with ideas. I hope there’s inspiration here for someone!

Breakfasts

• Smoked Salmon Omelette with Shallots and Hollandaise sauce
• Porridge (soaked the night before, with a pantry full of choices for toppings: nuts, seeds, dried fruit, a couple chocolate chips, etc.)
• UFOs (also called egg in a hole, depending on your part of the country)
• Scrambled eggs with bacon and toast
• Fried eggs on torn up bread

Lunches

• Bologna sandwiches (my meat farmer makes the yummiest bologna!)
• Chicken breast chunks (marinated overnight in a combination of citrus juices), brushed with butter and baked, with homemade ranch dip
• Crab dip (from Nourishing Traditions) poured over toast
• Pasta with jarred tomatoes, kale and olives
• Quesadillas
• Salmon spread (from Nourishing Traditions) on sourdough crackers

Dinners

• Stir fried bison steak and cabbage on udon noodles, green salad
• Squash and Sun dried tomato soup (from Nourishing Traditions), hamburgers and broccoli
• Carrot salad (from Nourishing Traditions), Roasted chicken, sauteed parsnips
• Dr. Connelly’s soup (from Nourishing Traditions), Seared Pork Tenderloin medallions with apple cider pan sauce, brussels sprouts with cream and bacon
• Baked Salmon with Egg Mustard sauce (from Nourishing Traditions), frozen peas, a salad of sliced oranges and fennel bulb
• Clean-out-the-fridge meal with Sweet potato dollars served with leftover sauces from the week for dipping

It’s pretty easy to turn all this low-carb by just skipping the bread and crackers when they are offered. The two roasted chickens midweek will find their way into the slow cooker for stock, and the leftover meat will be put aside for a meal next week.

I find it easy in the wintertime to have soups frequently. Summer is a much more salad-friendly time of year. But that general plan leaves me with a longing for tomato soup! I haven’t really found a recipe for tomato soup that uses jarred tomatoes and still tastes really rich and good.

In addition to these meals, I also made some pineapple chutney (yeah, I know pineapple isn’t local, it’s one of my cheat foods), queso blanco, crispy pecans and walnuts for snacking on, and I soaked and roasted the seeds from last week’s acorn squash. The rind from the pineapple is soaking away in whey, turning itself into pineapple vinegar to be used in cortido next week. My apple cider vinegar using the Thanksgiving apple pie’s peels and cores is still working, not quite the acid level I’d like, but getting there.

And John has asked for some homemade marshmallow fluff before he goes back to college. How can I say no?

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Swedish Meatballs

2 tablespoons whole raw milk
4 pieces sourdough bread, dried
1/2 pound grassfed ground beef
1/2 pound pastured ground pork
1/2 pound grassfed ground lamb
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 pastured egg, beaten
sea salt, freshly ground pepper and nutmeg to taste
6 tablespoons butter, lard or tallow
6 tablespoons sprouted wheat flour (or regular wheat flour)
1 cup whole raw milk
whole cream

Whiz dried bread in blender until it becomes crumbs. Pour into large mixing bowl. Pour 2 tablespoons milk over the crumbs and allow the crumbs to soak it up. Add meats, onion, egg and seasonings to meat and mix with your hands until well incorporated. Form into meatballs about an inch in diameter.

Heat butter, lard or tallow over medium heat and cook meatballs, turning frequently, for about 15 minutes until well browned all over. Remove the meatballs to a platter and keep warm.

Add flour to the drippings in the pan and allow the flour to soak up the juices and brown slightly while stirring constantly. Whisk in the cup of milk gradually, allowing to thicken between additions. Season sauce with additional nutmeg, if desired. Thin sauce with whole cream, if needed. Return meatballs to the pan to warm, basting with the gravy. Serve over cooked noodles.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

So, stretching our lovely, delicious, grassfed meat we buy is a high priority for me. Most cooks and cookbooks recommend a quarter pound of uncooked beef per person. In our house, we aim for half that amount several times a week. One of the ways I’ve found to stretch a piece of meat is the stir fry. Here’s a very basic guideline, a recipe and some options:

Stir Fry for Four

1/2 pound meat, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon each naturally fermented soy sauce and cooking sherry
1 large onion, cut in half from root to stem and sliced
1 pound raw vegetables, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon each minced garlic and ginger
2 teaspoons arrowroot powder
3 tablespoons homemade stock
3 tablespoons coconut oil
Soaked or germinated brown rice, cooked

The basic procedure is very simple. Cut up all your veggies and meats and have them ready before beginning. Heat a large skillet on high heat. Toss the meat in a bowl with soy sauce and sherry. Mix the arrowroot with the stock in a small bowl. By now the pan is really hot, so add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and half the meat. You want to keep it moving in the pan for about 2 to 3 minutes, until it is just barely cooked through. Remove that batch of meat and add the other half. When that batch is done, remove it and add the last tablespoon of coconut oil to the pan with the onions. Stir around a minute, then toss in the ginger and the vegetable. Stir around for about two minutes and add the garlic. Return the meat to the pan. Stir the arrowroot mixture and add to the pan, stirring around until thickened and glossy. Serve immediately over hot cooked rice.

We like to use these meats:

• scallops
• shrimp
• pork tenderloin
• beef
• chicken

The vegetable choices are nearly endless, but some good ones are:

• asparagus – pencil thin to cook quickly and not be tough
• cabbage
• carrots – shredded or sliced very thinly
• celery
• green beans – those tiny skinny ones cook just right in a stir fry
• mushrooms – any kind. White ones go well with chicken, portobello with beef, etc. I add these with the arrowroot so they don’t lose too much consistency.
• bell peppers – these add color to the finished dish
• fresh pineapple – adds a lot of sweetness, so I’ll add a pinch of red pepper to the dish for balance
• sugar snap peas
• summer squash
• broccoli

I like to match the stock for the sauce with the meat I’m using. This is one great reason to store at least some of your frozen homemade stock in ice cube form!

I also like to make flavoring sauces to add to the stir fry. I add these with the cornstarch and stock near the end to add a little more flavor to the dish. For example:

Sweet and Sour Sauce
1/4 cup homemade stock
2 tablespoons naturally fermented soy sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar (cider, balsamic or wine vinegar is nice, my new favorite is coconut vinegar)
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Citrus Sauce
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest (or preserved lemon rind)
1/4 cup homemade stock
1 tablespoon naturally fermented soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey

Putting together different combinations of meat, vegetable and sauce make for an incredible amount of variety.

This post is part of the Real Food Wednesday blog carnival hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

I followed my basic skillet meal skeleton of pasta, tomato, cheese, meat, vegetable. But was really nervous until the final tasting. It doesn’t even have a name, but it deserves one.

1 tablespoon bacon fat
1 pound mild grassfed bulk pork sausage
8 leaves kale
1/2 jar tomato sauce*
1/2 pound shredded Tomme de Nena cheese**
1 pound penne pasta
beet kvass for garnish

Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat skillet with bacon fat, add and brown sausage. Strip kale from stems and chop finely, adding to skillet. Pour in tomato sauce and let simmer. Drain, rinse and re-drain cooked pasta and add to skillet. Return to simmer, add cheese and stir until melted. Remove from heat and let cool a few minutes. Top each serving with a few sprinkles of beet kvass.

*Please be careful with cans of tomato products, as nearly all contain BPA, an endocrine disruptor. A safer choice would be sauce from a glass jar. Of course, the best option is fresh tomatoes in season, and the second best would be your own home-jarred sauce.

**Tomme de Nena cheese is a very special cheese I purchase at my farmer’s market from Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese. It’s made from double cream Brie curds and is very rich with a burst of flavor.

I imagine this would also be very good with ground lamb, but I don’t know that for sure! I liked the little bit of tartness the beet kvass added. There were no leftovers, so that’s always a good sign.

Can anyone recommend a good book on how to combine foods for flavor enhancement? Or maybe I should find out if Edible Aria‘s author is available for home classes, since combining flavors seems to be one of the many manifestations of his particular genius.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted this week by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.