Our weather turned rather hot this week, so my plans for the French onion soup have been moved to this week. Other things were shifted last week, as it was our first week of children's activities and getting our schedules around that as well.

There are Ember days this week, so actually it will be a lighter week for cooking, in terms of quantity, but not number of meals, for me. Because the children do not do full fasting, we obviously still make meals for them. We tend to take our normal fasting and move it up a notch for these fast days. So, Wednesdays and Fridays become full fast days and Saturdays become meat fast days. Alexander and Dominic still express a desire to join in the fasting, so we let them choose one meal in each day to fast from rather than try to do the entire day. Probably by Lent, we will let Alexander try to fast a full day, but let him know that if it is too much for him, we will prepare meals for him as usual.

Today's meals were almost entirely provided by church. There was a pancake breakfast after church and a fiesta in the park after the second mass. So, our dinner was mostly covered there, and we will be eating rather lightly of fruit and cheese and cake for dinner tonight. It looked like the restaurants that provided the food did so as a donation to the church so they could do fundraising, which was really nice. The food was amazing, very low priced and we were able to enjoy the music and food by the lake until we were all tired and went home.

We discovered a nice breakfast this past week when our schedule was taken over by some other issues. I ground up brown rice in my grain mill, combined it with some almond meal and cooked it into a porridge on the stove. The children liked it with lots of milk and cinnamon sugar.

Also, since I don't think I have quite enough to do at home right now, I have decided to start making our tortillas. Flour tortillas are flour, salt, lard and water, with maybe baking powder. They shouldn't cost what they do. We already have fresh masa in the freezer (well, it's not fresh anymore, but you know what I mean). I was planning on making some of each, but also experimenting with mixing the two, since I prefer corn and Rich prefers flour, because of the texture and this would make the corn ones more pliable and the flour ones more flavorful. I will let you know how my experiments turn out. We found out that one of our local grocery stores has freshly made tortillas every day for about what we were spending already on the not so fresh ones, so if this whole experiment turns out to be too much for me, or if I get behind on making them, there is a good option out there for us. Because this is me, and I think "How can I make this take even longer?" I will start by rendering the lard that we have in our freezer.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Pancake Breakfast at Church
  Dinner: Fiesta after Church


• Monday
  Breakfast: Almond Butter on Leftover Pancakes, Yogurt & Mango Smoothies
  Dinner: Corn Chowder with Bacon, Zucchini Whole Wheat Rolls, Cubed Cantaloupe


• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Rice & Almond Porridge with Cinnamon Sugar, Sliced Peaches, Milk
  Dinner: Red Beans & Rice, Fruit Plate


• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Granola with Yogurt & Honey, Milk
  Dinner: Vegetables Jalfrezi (again, using a different mix of vegetables, based on what we have), Rice, Fruit Plate


• Thursday
  Breakfast: Egg Burritos with Salsa, Plums
  Dinner: French Onion Soup with Gruyere Croutons, Salad


• Friday
  Breakfast: Oatmeal with Brown Sugar and Raisins, Milk
  Dinner: Cuban Black Bean Patties (using cooked, dried beans, fresh garlic and cilantro), Salsa Rice with Roasted Corn, Guacamole, Creamy Cabbage Salad


• Saturday
  Breakfast: Toad in the Hole, Sliced Fruit, Milk
  Dinner: Lentil, Brown Rice & Poblano Tacos*, Peppers & Tomatoes Dressed with Lemon Vinaigrette

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. Starred recipes will follow separately.

Here is the list of foods from the freezer, fridge and pantry that I'm using this week. Anything from the freezer, pantry or fridge that was not bought specifically for this meal or this past week will be included in my lists.

Freezer:
Bacon Ends
Veal and Oxtail Bones to make Stock for Onion Soup
Roasted Corn
Guacamole
Mangoes
Rajas (roasted, peeled poblanos)
Almond Meal

Fridge:
Eggs
Butter
Yogurt
Sour Cream
Homemade Mayonnaise
Milk
Gruyere Cheese
Corn
Carrots
Cucumbers
Celery
Red, Yellow & Green Peppers
Jalapenos
Cilantro
Parsley
Crookneck Squash
Zucchini
Pancakes
Corn Tortillas


Pantry:
All Herbs & Spices
Salt
Potatoes (German Butterballs & French Fingerlings)
Tomatoes
Onions
Garlic
Olive Oil
Coconut Oil
Kamut
Hard White Wheat
Spelt
Basmati Rice
Brown Rice
Corn Meal
Black Beans
Small Red Beans
Lentils
Steel Cut Oats
Rolled Oats
Yeast
Vanilla Extract
All Sugars
Dried Cherries
Raisins
Dried, Shredded Coconut
Sliced Almonds
Almond Butter
Peaches
Plums

Labels: Church Year, Family, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Tales from the Kitchen