Monday, January 27, 2014

this week in food

No video today, but I thought I would share some highlights and then discuss meal planning and groceries.

This is the cassava pizza, it was SO GOOD. Next time I will prebake the crust, elevate it on a metal wire rack, then dress and bake again; as things went it was a little on the soggy/greasy side, which is nonetheless a nice change from crumbly and sawdusty, which is sadly how GF pizza tends to go.

Cute person with a snack platter.

tending the sauerkraut - fermentation causes the release of gases, lifting the solids and causing the bubbling you see here.

re-packed (you can see that the left jar required an extra cabbage leaf to settle).
zucchini noodles

for zucchini bolognaise

served with salad

popover

mmm... asparagus

today's groceries

this week's menu
Kindly draw your attention to the grocery spread - if you are just starting meal planning, or gluten-free living, or having one weekly shopping day, it is very useful to get in the habit of being aware of what you go through in a week. At the forefront are the essentials, goodies at the back. Every week, normally on Monday, I buy 4 dozen eggs, 1 lb butter, 4 L milk, 2 long packages of cheese, 3-4 meat selections, 1-2 fruit selections, lots of veggies (cooking greens, such as fennel and broccoli, starches and roasters, such as potatoes, onions and carrots, and snackers/noms, such as peppers and daikon), 1 bottle of wine, 1-2 canned tomato/fish products, and a few dried goods, depending on what we need. That feeds two adults and child and any circulating company. We eat eggs most mornings, usually leftovers at lunch, and animal protein of some kind with lots of veggies for supper. Easy. Once every month or two I get other things from the bulk food store such as nuts, whole and ground, flour, oil, spices, etc. I get cassava flour, coconut bars, GF oats and other bits from the asian market or middle-eastern natural foods store as needed, every 1-3 weeks. In the summer I browse farmer's markets for the sheer pleasure of it, as well as to focus on living seasonally and to support the local economy. I spend about $150 per week on food.

What do you build your meal plan on?

5 comments:

  1. God what a cute person.

    Really interesting perspectives on the groceries: I am in the bad habit of stocking my freezer with things on sale and hoarding. Literally. And my freezer is full (thank you Lord) but I am reluctant to get anything out of there on a regular basis. Either I don't defrost meat from lack of planning, or I am paranoid about things come exam period when I won't have time to go anywhere and must subsist off of my freezer and canned foods.

    I am so excited about cassava flour for you. What is it like??

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    1. My freezer also used to be really really stuffed, and cleaning it out was always painful. The waste! A well-organized freezer with a meal plan can be an asset, but it's a liabilityif you don't know what's in there or can't find things. You have to be flexible, as a student a freezer might be a great tool, but you need the meal plan as well!

      Cassava flour rulesssss.

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  2. So you have inspired me to plan on eating meat exclusively from my freezer this week. No more BS hoarding. Im done with that shit.

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  3. oK and PS: I've opened my fermented lemons at least 3 times in the last two weeks to add more lemon juice and salt. never smelled funky, but am I ruining the process?

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    1. No I'm sure that's fine, as long as you are adding pure lemon juice, with no preservatives. Which would keep it all from fermenting. As a reference, my sauerkraut is already done, two weeks is about as long as I like krauts... Your lemons may be ready?

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