A little late, but better than never!

Some of my favorite cookbooks

Okay, I am only into the second week of the new year and my blog is already behind schedule.  I had a great idea of trying to write a little everyday and then publishing it all on Sundays but that didn't work out last week and since I'm still working on last week, I guess that won't work for this week either, but I am still committed to being as regular as I can muster.

Over the years, I have had several requests for my French bread recipe.  It is embarrassingly simply and I am planning to finally share it... but not this week.  Keep returning and someday you will find it waiting for you!

Now let's get to last week's menu!

Monday

Monday is a busy day for us.  We usually have piano and violin lessons.  It is our library day.  Monday is grocery shopping day for the week.  All of this to say that I need something quick and easy on Monday nights.  Now on this Monday, piano and group violin were cancelled so I did have time to make French bread. 

Rolling out French bread dough

I had some vegan Italian sausage (Field Roast brand) in the fridge, so I decided to make everyone's favorite quick and easy supper... Spaghetti!

Now, if you want super quick, you can buy a jar of sauce.  I have found how easy it is to make my own sauce so I usually make my own.  I saute some onions and garlic and usually add some fresh mushrooms and saute them for another couple of minutes, then I add a large can of crushed tomatoes and a small can of diced tomatoes (I'll use fresh in the summer), spices (usually thyme and oregano, sometimes basil) and voila! Spaghetti Sauce!  I have priced it and quite frankly, jarred sauce is actually cheaper, but I like knowing exactly what is in my sauce.  I can also vary it with my mood - sometimes adding green pepper, sometimes leaving out the onion or adding black olives or crushed red peppers or red wine.  It's just quick, easy, and fun! I simmered the sauce for awhile, but it works even if you only simmer for 15 minutes.  I add the vegan sausage near the end.  Spaghetti sauce with your favorite pasta (HR likes long and skinny, hubby likes small shapes.)  Add a salad and I have my quick week night meal.  (The French bread is not quick, but I make it regularly so there is usually some around.)

Tuesday

I told you last time about all of the ethnic foods I have been enjoying since going vegan.  Sometimes, you just want comfort food.  Our favorite comfort food meal is Hippie Loaf (meat loaf without the meat,) Mashed potatoes and gravy, and a vegetable.  This week I went with Roasted Brussels Sprouts.  The Hippie Loaf is from the Happy Herbivore Cookbook by Lindsay Nixon but you can also find it here.  This recipe is gluten free but I use whole wheat flour instead of rice flour so I don't make it gluten free, but it is great if you want that option.  Even my 22 yo son who is a committed omnivore and rarely finds time to eat at my table, always shows up for Hippie Loaf.  Honestly, I never liked regular meatloaf but I enjoy this.  I also used the Happy Herbivore's recipe for brown gravy which was great on both the Hippie Loaf and the mashed potatoes.  The Happy Herbivore is not only vegan, but her recipes are also low fat or fat free.  I have two of her three cookbooks and hope to eventually buy the third.  The Brussels Sprouts were a little disappointing because I couldn't find good fresh ones, so I roasted frozen ones.  I'll use fresh next time.

Maple Wheat Dinner Rolls

Wednesday     

Right now we are attending a Bible study on Wednesday nights, so I am learning to cook earlier in the day so we can eat before we go.  (Actually I'm trying to learn to start cooking after lunch so that it is not such a push at night.  Of course that means I need to be here after lunch!)  I made Hungarian Mushroom Soup, this recipe was adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook, which I own, but have lent out.  Something did not go as planned.  The soup, the kitchen, and I wreaked of onion smell!  The recipe used two onions, but the smell was much stronger than that.  Sitting in church for the Bible study, all I could smell was onions!  My husband thought it was onion soup rather than mushroom! I think my onions were overripe.  Can onions be overripe? For sour cream, the Happy Herbivore once again came to the rescue with her vegan sour cream recipe found in the Happy Herbivore cookbook.  I haven't found it on line to share.  We ate the soup with leftover French bread.  Good for dipping!

Thursday

Thursday night ended up being Smorgasbord.  That is Swedish for Leftovers!  I like having the occasional night off!

Friday

Okay, okay, I had two nights off!  2 or so Friday night  a month is date night!  We hire a babysitter for our seven year old and head out for a nice meal and uninterrupted adult conversation.  Our favorite place to eat is probably less than a quarter mile from our home.  It is the local country club.  We live in a small town and the vegan offerings are few, but the chef at our club always prepares something great for us.  My husband sends a text to the chef to let him know we are coming and he and his staff prepare something for us.  We never know what we will be eating until it arrives at our table.  All my life I have wanted to be a regular somewhere - like in Cheers "where everybody knows your name."  We enjoy that at the club.

Indian Dinner

Saturday

After two nights off, I decided to cook Indian food.  Another cookbook I enjoy is Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.  I made Tamarind Lentils.  They are very good.  You need tamarind paste to make this - not something I can buy in my town.  Thankfully, a dear friend bought some for me when she was visiting the Farmer's Market in Atlanta.  I need more recipes using it.  I like the flavor.  I also made a Chana Masala recipe from Chloe's Kitchen, a cookbook by Chloe Coscarelli.  The Chana Masala was a little bland.  Indian food needs rice so I made Perfect Brown Rice.  Now I know what you are thinking, "A recipe for rice?"  Well, Consumer's Reports, found that arsenic is in most of the rice produced in the US.  In order to limit your exposure, one of the recommendations is to cook your rice like pasta.  However, when I did this my rice ended up being overcooked, so I needed to learn a better way.  This way worked perfectly!  Turnip Greens rounded out the meal, along with Vegan Naan.

Vegan Naan

  Sunday

At least once each week, I want to make a traditional food vegan.  Sometimes I will try to "veganize" an old recipe.  Other times I will try to find a recipe someone else has already made plant strong.  For Sunday dinner, I decided to make Veggie Pot Pie.  This was a great recipe because it allowed for me to be creative with it.  Now pot pie is the ultimate one dish meal, but I still served it with  vegan maple wheat dinner rolls, even though it had a crust on top.  Since Sunday is the day before my shopping day, we were low on fruit so I served applesauce with the pot pie. 

All in all, this was a good week for food.  Thanks for reading.  Tell your friends!

Veggie Pot Pie

One More Thing

I was craving brownies.  Good vegan brownies have been hard for me to find.   I did a web search and found these Incredible Brownies.  The site is veganbaking.net which I have found to be a good place to find recipes that please everyone - vegan or not.  The host, Mattie, approaches recipes scientifically.  How good were the brownies? Let me quote the tweet my husband made, "Oh my. @culpritsmom makes the best fregan vegan brownies ever!!! That woman can vegcook!"  I think he liked them.  Try them, you will too!
Until next time...

It's 2013, y'all!

It's Sunday evening and I'm excited about sharing the first menu of 2013! We had some great meals this week and some "just okay" meals.  Let's dive right in!

New Years Day, 2013

I am a product of many traditions.  I grew up in a family that started each New Year with pork and sauerkraut for good luck.  I now live in the heart of the deep south and black eyed peas and turnip greens are standard New Year's Day fare.  My family loves it all!
Menu for New Year's Day was Black eyed peas, a mixture of turnip and collard greens, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, and rye bread.  We were supposed to also have applesauce, but there was only enough for HR, the 7 year old.
I cooked the black eyed peas with Better Than Bouillon vegetable base (everything tastes great with Better Than Bouillon.) The black eyed peas were bought locally this past summer and frozen. 
I stir fried the greens which were purchased fresh from our local CSA.  I used peanut oil, a little garlic, and a pinch of soy sauce.
The sauerkraut was from a jar.  My plan was to doctor it up with caraway seeds but I realized too late that I was out of caraway seeds.
I mashed the potatoes using almond milk and Earth Balance buttery spread.  Everyone enjoyed their New Year's Day meal so 2013 is off to a great start!

Wednesday, January 2

Wednesday was my grocery shopping day.  I had several errands and did not get out as soon as I planned, so I needed something quick and easy for supper.  I try to plan quick meals on shopping days or busy days.  One of our favorite quick meals is homemade personal pizzas.  I buy ready made pizza crusts and jarred marinara sauce although this week I had some leftover sauce I had made so we used that.  Everyone adds their own toppings.  I use whatever I have on hand which was black olives, sliced fresh mushrooms, chopped green and red peppers, some vegan sausage and, for the omnivores, pepperoni.  I used Daiya vegan cheese which is surprisingly good and there was regular mozzarella for the kids.  I planned to have a salad, but since it was later than usual, we simply enjoyed our pizzas.

Thursday, January 3

Thursday we went to Memphis for the day.  I always think I will return earlier than I do.  I again started dinner later than hoped, but Rick was running late as well.  I made one of my favorite Chilies - Chili to Take the Chill Off with Salad and Vegan Sweet Beer Bread.  The day was cold and cloudy so chili really hit the spot!

Friday, January 4

Many of you may know that I generally don't cook on Fridays.  I love to cook, but it does take time, so Friday is my day to do other things.  Some Fridays we go out and find a lovely vegan meal and other weeks we eat leftovers.  This week was a leftover week.  We had enough leftovers for a tasty meal.

Saturday, January 5

Indian food is one of our favorites and very easy to make vegan. I had some sweet potatoes to use so I looked for curry recipes using the ingredients I had on hand.  Two sweet potato curry recipes I found sounded good so I decided to use a little from both.  I mainly used Sweet Potato Curry with Spinach and Chickpeas with a few ideas from Sweet Potato and Spinach Curry.  I wanted a curry with coconut milk so I used the first recipe and added a can of coconut milk. The curry was complemented with Basmati rice.  No Indian meal is complete without Naan so I found this vegan version.  The house smelled fabulous, but the flavor of the curry was a little bland.  If I make the recipes again, I will add some more spices.  The Naan was great!

Sunday, January 6

I decided to be a little experimental today.  I wanted to make enchiladas, but I didn't find any recipe that wowed me so I decided to create my own.  I made some red quinoa (a high protein grain) with vegetable broth and combined the cooked quinoa with onions, black beans, roasted green chilies, a few mushrooms and black olives. All of this goodness was then distributed in corn tortillas, which were rolled up and put in my pan.  Corn tortillas are traditional for enchiladas but sometimes I use flour tortillas because they are easier to work with.  I used the Happy Herbivore cookbook for the enchilada sauce, queso sauce, and vegan sour cream.  You could also use canned enchilada sauce and purchased vegan sour cream.  The enchiladas were very good.  I served them with roasted turnips.  I had turnips from our last CSA share. I combined cut turnips with olive oil, chili powder, cumin and a little garlic powder and roasted them in the oven. A salad completed the meal.

Of course a little treat makes the day special, so I made these vegan chocolate bottomed coconut macaroons from the cookbook, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.  These are incredibly tasty and I promise you would never guess they are vegan.

Well, 2013 is off and running.  I hope these menus and recipes will help make 2013 a happy and healthier year!

New Year, New Resolve!

Happy New Year!  Most of us make resolutions as the new year dawns with hope to change one thing or many things about our lives.  Many of you have been kind and have asked me to begin updating the blog again.  I decided that would be my resolution for 2013 - to update the blog more regularly.  For many of the blogs I follow, I notice the blogs are updated nearly daily - that won't happen here.  I will try again for weekly (although I hear Yoda in my brain saying, "Do or do not. There is no try") but I admit that finding the time can sometimes be difficult.

Let's talk about what will be different about the blog and where I've been for most of the last year.

What's different?
October 1, 2011, I decided to take a 30 day Vegan Challenge.  At the time, I did not realize that I would feel so good that it would become a long lasting change. I did have a few blog posts after first becoming vegan, but I was still finding my way.  What I have found is that vegan food is "normal" food.  It is very tasty.  Most of what I cook would appeal to anyone who loves food - not just vegans!  Cooking vegan does take more forethought and more experimentation but my body feels so good and I can eat so much more! (Without gaining weight.)  I have also found that I have learned so much more about flavors and spices.  Ethnic foods tend to lend themselves well to being vegan.  Vegan recipes abound on the web and in cookbooks - so there are many more recipes to try! (For more about how I came to the decision to eat vegan see the November 26, 2011 post.)

Where have I been for most of the last year?
 As I mentioned, cooking vegan took some adjusting.  I love to bake and I had to learn how to bake without eggs or dairy.  The pastries pictured are my version of a Hungarian pastry my grandmother used to make.  (Yes, I made the dough - it is not Pillsbury Crescent rolls.)  I find I actually prefer vegan baking and for most things my family does too.  I promise that you will not miss anything in my breads, cakes and cookies.  If I didn't tell you, you would never know what is not in my baked goods.  I have spent the last year re-working some of my favorite bread and pastry recipes to make them vegan but keep them delicious!





So What Now?
I want to return to the format of giving you a weekly menu including many of the recipes used in the menu.  The only difference is that now there will be no animal products included - no meat, no dairy, no eggs.  I hope the blog continues to be helpful.  I hope that you will give the renewed blog a look and tell your friends.

Happy New Year!  May 2013 be your happiest and healthiest and tastiest year yet!

Chopped - Vegan!

Sometimes the stars all align and all of life's joys converge!  My favorite cookbook author, Isa Chandra Moskowitz of the Post Punk Kitchen, used the inspiration of my favorite TV show, Chopped (on the food network) and offered a Chopped Challenge - Vegan Brunch.  The secret basket ingredients were butternut squash, fresh rosemary, popcorn, and apricot preserves.  Now since it is brunch, the challenge offered either savory or sweet dishes.  Okay, so favorite cookbook author, favorite TV show, I have to make my favorite food - the one I have been working to perfect since going vegan - I think I may have done it.  What did I make?  Can't stand the suspense?

Rosemary Infused Ginger Butternut Squash Ice Cream with Apricot Caramel Popcorn!

Now wait, I know what you are thinking, "Vegetable ice cream?" Well, I promise it is better than the sweet potato ice cream I tried earlier.  As a matter of fact - my husband said, "This is the best ice cream you have made!"  Wow!  I have tried many ice creams since going vegan.  I can honestly say it is the only thing I miss since becoming plant strong.  (That is correct, I don't miss cheese.)   So, now do you want to try this velvety rich scrumptious dessert with crunchy sweet and salty caramel corn for yourself?  I will give you the recipe as best I can because, I was cooking by taste.  Here it goes!

Ice Cream Ingredients

1 cup cooked butternut squash (I cut it into 2 inch "cubes" and boiled it until tender.)

1 can full fat coconut milk
About an inch of fresh ginger sliced
2 large sprigs of fresh rosemary
Orange zest of one orange

1 cup almond milk
3/4 cup agave nectar
pinch of salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
A few shakes of ground cardamon

In a small saucepan, heat the coconut milk, ginger, rosemary sprigs, and orange zest until simmering (small bubbles.) Heat for about 20 min then turn off the heat and allow the milk to cool somewhat.  Remove the rosemary sprigs.

Put the squash,  coconut milk mixture, and the rest of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  (I tasted here and decided to put just a little more orange zest in the mixture.) Put the mixture in the refrigerator for a few hours.  (If I was on Food network"s Chopped I'd be using the blast chiller.)

Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker.  Put the soft ice cream in the freezer to harden.

Now make your caramel corn.  My caramel corn was even more free form.  I used coconut oil because I felt there was less chance of burning.

First pop about a third cup of popcorn without oil.  I don't have an air popper so I will share my secret popcorn method.  I put the kernals in a large (8 c. or larger)  heavy class bowl (measuring cup) with  a plate over the top.  No oil.  I pop it for 3 to 3.5 minutes - until there are 2 seconds between pops.

Pour the popped corn into an even larger bowl.  Pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees.

I melted 1/2 c of coconut oil in a large saucepan.  I added 1/4 c brown sugar, 3/4 c. white sugar, 1/4 c. corn syrup, 2 scoops of apricot preserves, and boiled the entire mixture, whisking constantly until the sugars started to string a little.  I turned off the heat and added 1/2 tsp baking soda and a splash or so of vanilla. I poured the hot mixture over the popcorn and stirred rapidly then spread the mixture on a jelly roll pan. 

I baked the mixture in the oven for about 40 minutes, stirring every 10 and then let it cool.  My 6 year old daughter came out from her room where she was supposed to be sleeping because it smelled so good.

And that is how I created my Chopped Vegan masterpiece.  I hope my recipe is a winner, but even if it isn't I had a great time creating it.  I hope you will give it a try as well.  Eat your vegetables!  Eat Ice cream!

New Challenges

Wow! Time sure flies when you are having fun! I had no idea that it had been so long since I had updated this blog. Mom's Weekly Menus seems more like Mom's Quarterly Menus. My only excuse is that time is a limited commodity. Thank you for reading!

Well my life and my menus have changed in the past few months, specifically the past 57 days. In September I found a book called The China Study - Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health by T. Colin Campbell, PhD. Later in the month, I heard about a new documentary titled Forks Over Knives which I watched. I don't think it is too much of a stretch to say watching that movie changed my life. The book and the movie are primarily concerned with how our diets contribute to our long term health. I was fascinated. The healthiest diets they found were whole foods, plant based diets. What does that mean? More foods from plants, less food from animal products. After watching the movie, I searched for books to further my understanding and found Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's book, The 30-Day Vegan Challenge. I enlisted my BFF and we decided to take the challenge together. So on October 1, 2011 I embarked on a vegan lifestyle. I originally thought I would just try it for 30 days, but I feel so good that I have continued. My wonderful husband has joined me on this journey. The food has been so tasty that I can honestly say that I have not missed meat, dairy or eggs. I have also enjoyed the new challenge of finding good vegan recipes. Through it all, I have kept my weekly menus. The only downside to being vegan is that going out to eat is not nearly as fun as it used to be. It is harder than I expected to find restaurants serving vegan meals - at least where I live. So, I have nearly two months of menus. I will choose a week's worth of my favorites!

Monday

With the weather becoming cooler, chili is a good place to start. Chili without meat is not even that much of a stretch. I have really enjoyed Chili to Take the Chill Off. It has great flavor and you won't even miss the meat. This is one recipe I have made several times in the last two months. I serve it with a green salad and corn bread. I know what you are thinking, "How do you make corn bread without eggs?" I love this recipe. It tastes as good as any cornbread I have made.

Tuesday

With our school and after-school schedule, Tuesday has evolved into my weekly grocery shopping day. The problem is that I usually make it home about dinner time so I need something quick and easy on Tuesday nights. For that reason, Tuesday has become pizza night. I buy (or if I have time, make) individual pizza crusts and use a jarred marinara sauce, then everyone makes a pizza to suit his or her taste. For the omnivores, I provide pepperoni and mozzarella cheese along with fresh cut peppers, mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts, and even fresh spinach. Everyone simply makes their own pizza. My daughter wants only pepperoni and mozzarella. My son, when home, wants a mixture of all. My husband has vegetables and sometimes a little cheese. I use sauce and the vegetables with no cheese. Yes - pizza is still great with no cheese! I usually make a side salad to go with our pizzas.

Wednesday

Ethnic foods lend themselves to being vegan more than traditional American foods. I have enjoyed adding more ethnic flavors to our menus. I have started having some type of curry every week. I am still trying to find a curry I make that I like as much as some I have had in Thai restaurants. Thai Red Curry Vegetables is pretty good. I have several more I look forward to trying. Curry is always good with some type of rice - I like Basmati rice. Since this curry had so many vegetables, I added some fruit to balance the meal. Right now, citrus is plentiful so grapefruit or Clementines (Cuties) are good additions.

Thursday

Once I began to be more mindful about what I was eating, I realized that vegan food is not that strange or weird. Black Beans and Rice with a salad and bread is a pretty normal meal. I made a Caribbean Mango Black Beans from a new cookbook, but I like my usual black beans seasoned with oregano, cumin, onion and garlic just as well. I usually use brown rice, but have started to experiment with other grains such as quinoa. The local farms I visit have had beautiful Bok Choy this fall so I served a Crunchy Bok Choy Slaw rather than the usual green salad.

Friday

Okay, on Friday we still want quick comfort foods. There are quite a few good recipes in the 30-Day Vegan Challenge and I have found other good recipes in the Happy Herbivore. A very good meaty meatless dish is the Sloppy Joes found in the 30 Day Vegan Challenge. Instead of beef or turkey it uses tempeh. We have really come to love tempeh and I have used it to "veganize" a few old faithful recipes. Tempeh is made by fermenting whole soybeans with a grain, usually rice. It is very different from tofu in texture - much meatier. I served the Sloppy Joes with Rustic Yam Fries from the Happy Herbivore. It definitely reminded us of Friday night burger and fries!

Saturday

Mexican food lends itself to a vegan diet. Actually, I should say homecooked Mexican food. Restaurant Mexican food uses a lot of lard and cheese. We enjoyed simple bean burritos (the 30 Day Vegan Challenge) along with a Mexican style Jicama Cole Slaw. Of course, chips and salsa always add to a Mexican meal!

Sunday

Sunday is the day of the week that I often offer a meat for the omnivores that end up at our table. This menu is actually our Thanksgiving meal from yesterday. I had many omnivores at the table, so I made a turkey, but all of the side dishes were vegan. Because I wanted to keep as vegan as possible, I made everything from scratch and that included the rolls and the pie crusts. I found some awesome pie crusts! Here is the menu:

Herbed Turkey in a Bag (from the 1991 Southern Living Annual Cookbook.)
Mushroom Gravy (the 30 Day Vegan Challenge) This was a hit with everyone! It is good on everything!
Grandmother's Dressing - I took the recipe from the 1991 Southern Living Annual Cookbook and made it vegan by substituting vegetable broth for chicken, using the Vegan Cornbread mentioned above, using flax seeds and water to substitute for the eggs. It ended up a little dry.
Mashed Potatoes - used non-dairy milk and vegan butter and sour cream
Green Beans with Lemon Herb Sauce (1991 Southern Living Annual Cookbook.) I used vegan substitutes for the chicken broth and butter.
Roasted Beets and Garlic
Cranberry Salad I replaced the apples with crushed pineapple to mimic a congealed salad I usually make. With the added coconut in this recipe, no one missed the jello.
Sourdough biscuits
Apple Pie with a Flaky Pie Crust - the pie was okay. The crust was awesome!
Pumpkin Pie with a Buttery Crust - this recipe was given to me by a friend from her November Yoga Journal. It was fantastic!

I do not know how long I will remain vegan. I have loved it so far. It has not been nearly as difficult as I had expected. I just ordered and received two new cookbooks - Veganomicon and Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar so I know I will continue cooking vegan for awhile. I have found a few things I do not like such as Seitan, but mostly I have loved the food and I have loved the way I feel even more. Mom's Weekly Menus will continue to exist but the food will be decidedly vegan. Even if you have no interest in a vegan diet, I hope the menus and the recipes will still help you plan your meals. I will keep you updated on my progress. I need to have my cholesterol checked to see if eating this way has already made a difference in my health.

Until next time,
Enjoy playing with your food!

New Normal

"New normal" is the code word around our house these days. Our older children have left for college. I've started homeschooling again with our five year old. The summer garden and all of its lovely fresh produce are dwindling. (The fresh eggplant in the picture is now only a memory.) The temperatures have finally started dropping to a comfortable temperature. I have purchased my fall vegetable plants and need to plant them. As I mentioned last time, our menu choices are changing as well. Less red meat, more seafood, chicken and meatless meals. I am also having to relearn how to cook for a small family. Change is good, but change requires adjustment - a new normal.

With the new school year also comes the return of after school activities. It makes it very difficult to find time to cook. Planning is important, but flexibility is also critical. Some nights you may have to eat the leftovers that you had planned for another evening. Try to keep a few quick meals in the freezer for times when starting from scratch is not an option. I know it isn't glamorous, but frozen pizza is something quick that everyone likes. I try to keep salad fixings on hand so I can always add a salad. Making something "semi-homemade" is usually healthier and less expensive than making a quick trip to the drive through. When I don't have homemade spaghetti sauce in the freezer, I buy a jar at the grocery store. Just watch the sugar and sodium! Another trick I learned from a friend is to do as much prep work as possible early. I admit that I am still working on this one. If everything is chopped and ready to go, sometimes it doesn't take that long to throw it all together.

As you may know, I always love finding new recipes. As we are exploring this "new normal" of eating less meat, I needed some new vegetarian cookbooks to peruse. However, cookbooks are very expensive. I picked up one in the book store and its listed price was $55.00! There are lots of places online to find recipes, but sometimes I just want to thumb through the pages. The local library has shelves and shelves of cookbooks! Of course you can check them out for free and find some new ideas. You can try a few recipes and then return them. If you love the cookbook, you could then buy it after you have already tried it out.

I spent a lot of time on tips, so I am going to simply hit some highlight meals.

My favorite new vegetarian recipe

Pasta with Sunday Ragu' (This was on page 354 of the Moosewood Restaurant New Classics Cookbook I checked out from the library. I couldn't find the recipe online.)
Tossed green salad
French bread
This "meat" sauce used a meat alternative. I used something I found in the natural foods freezer section. It was a fungi. It was good though. Everyone liked it. (No one was fooled that it was meat though.)

Short on time idea

I had to grocery shop late. Steamed shrimp at our grocery store is no more expensive than fresh at the fish/meat section. So I bought shrimp and had them season and steam it. At home I made a quick cocktail sauce out of chili sauce (ketchup works fine,) horseradish and lemon juice. That evening I had some leftover slaw in the refrigerator so dinner was on the table in a flash!

Comfort foods

Baked chicken
Barley Risotto (this wasn't as good as I had hoped, but it did have the comfort feature.)
Frozen green beans steamed and seasoned with butter and lemon.

Well, now is the time for me to plan my menus for next week. Keep up the good work in the kitchen!

Preparation

The whole idea behind compiling menus each week is to have the planning complete and be prepared for each week. To make your week easier and less stressful, I recommend any advance planning that works for you. I have been out of town for a large portion of the month of August, so my reserves were very low. Last weekend I had a weekend of preparation.

Let's face it - cooking takes time. I love to cook and yet I still have other ways I like to spend my time. I am also very frugal and hate paying for foods I know I can make cheaper myself. (Although I do avail myself of the occasional pre-made item. You have to do what works - eating at home with convenience foods is still better than running through the ubiquitous drive thru!) I also like knowing what is in my food. I read a post from a mom whose advice to her kids was, "If God made it - eat it. If man made it - probably don't." I have always said I want foods as close to natural as possible - but let's not go crazy! Well, Saturday night we were going out to a church function so I did not have to cook dinner so I used the Saturday for preparation for the week.

Last Saturday I made yogurt for the week. I think I have given you the yogurt recipe before, but it is so easy and so much better than store bought. It does have to sit awhile so you need to make it in advance of when you want to eat it. I also made cranberry orange bagels. I packed these in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer for future breakfasts. Sourdough biscuits are really more like rolls so I baked a batch of them to also keep in the freezer for adding to meals later in the week.

On Sunday our oldest left for his final semester of college. We decided to have breakfast for lunch so he could leave on time. It worked out well because we could put it all together after church and it is about the time he usually eats breakfast anyway. My husband is the breakfast cook so he made scrambled cheese eggs and pan fried apple chicken sausage. I cut up cantaloupe and sliced tomato. We heated up some of the sourdough biscuits and served them with honey and jam. We made hot tea. Yum!

After he left, I continued my preparation for the week and made another batch of granola.

Our middle son leaves for his first year of college later this week. I am beginning to prepare for another school year of home schooling our first grader. (Two in college - one in first grade - quite a gap, huh?) My menus will be changing because I have decided to significantly reduce the meat in our diets. I will include more meatless, seafood, and chicken meals. Cholesterol runs high in my family and I have seen mine creep upward the past few years so I am trying to make dietary changes while I can. I read this week that former President Bill Clinton has become vegan for his health. I'm not quite ready to go that far, I love ice cream and cheese too much.

Hopefully with our return to a regular schedule, I will return to regular blogging. Thank you for reading. Don't forget you can follow me on twitter: @momsweeklymenus

Until next time...