Menu and Grocery List

Monday: Autumn Vegetable Soup and Cinnamon Topped Oatmeal Muffins
Tuesday: Poultry Pasta Primavera
Wednesday: Butternut Squash and Arugula Pappardelle
Thursday: I'll see what's in the CSA box for this week
Friday: Beef Stew


Grocery List:
organic whole and skim milk
YoBaby yogurt
organic unsalted butter
organic pappardelle
organic capellini (angel hair pasta)
two onions
cream cheese
2 organic potatoes
3 organic carrots
a bunch of organic celery
stoned wheat crackers

Autumn Vegetable Soup and Oatmeal Muffins

We came back from our trip with colds (at least Curtis and I) so I decided tonight was a good soup night. I needed to use the kale from last week and the autumn vegetable soup (look back in the posts for that recipe) was sounding pretty yummy! To go with it, I made cinnamon topped oatmeal muffins.

M, Curtis and I loved the soup and the muffins. J held out for only the muffins. I am glad they at least had oatmeal in them to make them a little healthier!

To make the muffins, I stirred 1 c sifted flour, 1/4 c sugar, 3 t baking powder, 1/2 t salt, and 1 c rolled oats together (you could also had 1/2 c raisins here, but I am not a raisin girl). In a measuring cup, I combined 3 T oil, 1 beaten egg, and 1 c milk. I mixed everything together until it was just moistened. I filled greased muffin tins 2/3 way fill (it should fill about 12 depending on how small/big you make them) with the batter. Then I topped it with 2 T sugar, 2 t flour, 1 t cinnamon, and 1 t melted butter I had combined in a small bowl. I sprinkled a little of the cinnamon mixture on top of each muffin and baked in a preheated 425 oven for 15 minutes.

Camping Food

In our CSA box on Wednesday we received some vegetables that wouldn't last until we got back on Sunday. Here is a little bit of an idea of how we ate some of our produce:

Arugula: In pimento cheese and hummus sandwiches, plain, and as a salad

Green beans: Raw as a snack food while traveling, in tin foil dinners (two cabbage leaves stuffed with thinly sliced potatoes, carrots, green beans, ground bison, mild hatch chile peppers, and cream of mushroom soup)

Radishes: Raw as a snack food while traveling (we have some of those left over)

Salad mix: As a salad with our hotdog/bratwurst dinner

We also took some of our Texas apples to snack on and a couple of sweet potatoes that we wrapped in foil and cooked over the fire for our hotdog dinner. Adding our CSA veggies to our meals definitely contributed to some of the best camping meals we've ever had!

In the CSA box today

Fall keeps popping up in our CSA box:

Eggs
Kale
Baby Arugula
Mixed Salad greens
Broccoli
Radishes
Green Beans
Eggplant (ok--those don't signal fall)
Bell Peppers
Hot Peppers (left those behind again)
Basil.

We are headed out of town this evening for a nice long weekend away. I'll be without cell phone service or internet (ahhh...I can't wait!) for days. I should be back posting again on Monday.

Cashew Chicken and Bok Choy Salad

I was happy to remember I had chicken breasts in the freezer this evening. I was having a hard time coming up with what's for dinner until I realized chicken stir fry was an option. I thawed 1 lb of chicken and then cut it into small pieces. I stir fried it in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for a few minutes (don't cook the chicken all the way yet). I added 1/2 large onion cut into 1/2 inch wedges, 1 sliced green pepper, 2 cloves minced garlic, and 2 t grated fresh ginger root (1/2 t ground ginger) and stir-fried everything until the chicken was cooked and the onions were crisp-tender. Then I added the seasonings: 4 t soy sauce, 1/2 t ground coriander, 2 t fish sauce, 3 T water, 1 T lemon juice, and 1/2 t ground cumin. I stir fried for just a minute more before stirring in 1/2 c of unsalted, roasted cashews. I served immediately over rice and with the wonderful bok choy salad on the side.

Everyone ate this well. I was quite pleased because M even ate the bell peppers--I think that is the first time that has happened. Unfortunately, the cashews were a little freezer burnt from being in my freezer too long. It was still good, I just didn't eat the cashews.

Menu and Grocery List

Monday-Cashew Chicken and Bok Choy Salad
Tuesday- something with shrimp and Kale Gratin
Wednesday-sandwich supper
Thursday-Hotdogs, Brats and Sweet Potatoes (camping food)
Friday- Foil dinners: with cabbage, ground bison, potatoes, and carrots
Saturday-Taco Soup

As you can tell, the later part of the week is not typical food fare. We are going out of town for a long weekend and eating dinners over a campfire or with a camp stove. Thus, M got to walk through the grocery store clutching her beloved hotdogs that her mother never buys unless we go camping.

That said, the grocery list this week is a little different. I found fresh large gulf shrimp on sale (about half price!!) so I got some extra and froze it for a later time.

Grocery List:
cornstarch
YoBaby yogurt
organic whole and skim milk
bread
cabbage
organic carrots
ground bison (we only have one package of hamburger left from our 1/8 of a cow--what will we do!!)
bratwurst
Hebrew National All Beef Franks
Barbara's Bakery Cheese Bakes
Cream of Mushroom Soup
organic potatoes
3 pounds fresh Gulf shrimp

Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake

..because Butternut Squash Chocolate Cheesecake doesn't sound as good! That's right, butternut squash made another appearance in a dessert.

Cheesecakes still remain a bit of a mystery to me, but I am getting it a little more figured out....reading up on them helps a lot. To make this cheesecake (which was supposed to be lighter than some...), I started by crushing 1 1/2 c of chocolate wafers (a little more than half of a 9 oz package) in my food processor. I transfered the crushed wafers to a bowl and combined 2 T brown sugar and 2 T melted butter and mixed well. I pressed the wafers into the bottom of a greased 9-inch springform pan and up the sides about an inch or so. I set this aside until later.

For the cheesecake, I pureed 3 c low-fat (not non-fat) cottage cheese in the food processor until it was smooth. I then added 12 oz cream cheese at room temperature, 1 1/4 c sugar and 1/4 c cornstarch and pureed until smooth. I poured this into a mixing bowl and added 2 beaten eggs, 2 t vanilla, and 1/4 t salt and then beat (with an electric mixer). I removed 1 1/2 c of the cream cheese batter and put it in a separate bowl for later. To what remained in the mixing bowl, I added 1 1/2 c of cooked, pureed butternut squash (or pumpkin), 1/4 c brown sugar, 3/4 t cinnamon, and 1/8 t ground nutmeg and mixed well.

In the bowl I had set aside, I stirred in 1 c melted chocolate chips and 1/3 c cocoa powder and mixed until it was thoroughly blended.

I poured the pumpkin mixture into the crust-lined pan and then spooned in the chocolate mixture on top (I tried to spread it out, but it ended up really close together). I swirled everything together gently with a knife, being sure not to mix the two together but to just leave streaks of chocolate through the pumpkin. I baked in a preheated 325 degrees oven for 60 - 65 minutes or until just the edge of the filling was set. I turned off the oven and left the cheesecake in the oven for 30 minutes with the oven door closed. Then I removed it from the oven and let it cool on rack at room temperature for 3 hours. Then, I finally covered and refrigerated over night before serving. All of this gentle cooling is supposed to prevent cracks on the top. I have yet to achieve a cheesecake without cracks, but maybe this helps.