Keeping it Simple

For the last couple weeks, I have written *KISS* (Keep it Simple Silly) at the top of each of my menu plans. This is meant to be a reminder to myself to use the shortcuts that I have created. My problem is that I love to cook. This is a problem because I've had a lot of unstructured time these past few weeks and I find myself wandering into the kitchen and whipping up a buckle or a loaf of bread, just because I feel like it. Well, that's fun, but takes away from time spent on other things I need to do. And, even though I have a bit of flexibility in my schedule now, this isn't usually the case. My life is likely to go back to normal soon, and in normal life I can't cook 3-course dinners every night of the week. So, this week, I will focus on keeping it simple.

We cooked burgers Sunday night, and there was something amazing about the combination of the honey wheat rolls and the toppings—we used garlic cheese (made on the Buffalo farm), tomatoes (from the farmer's market), Mayonnaise (TJ's organic) and salt and pepper. Hubby reckons it was the salt. As I was wrapping them up for lunch, I wondered how we would recreate the combination. If you wrap all that stuff together it gets really mushy, and if you wrap it separately it's a pain in the neck and a lot of stuff goes unused. Hubby said, "Why don't you switch lunch and dinner?" Eureka! So simple, and yet saves so much work of putting each condiment and topping in a separate container and packing it all up! So, I put the burgers in a baggie and put them in the fridge. We'll have the freezer meal for lunch and the burgers for dinner! Mmmm…maybe a strawberry shake to go with that! That's certainly something that wouldn't work for lunches!

This weekend we are going camping at the Waterloo Pickney Recreation Area and to a Steam Train festival I made the camping menu quite simple, with room for the unknown CSA bounty. I suspect there will be many zucchini and cucumbers!

Saturday lunch: Eggs with basil and goat cheese (got my eggs from the Mount Prospect Farmer's Market last weekend), Niman Ranch bacon (I've been curious about trying this since reading Righteous Porkchop.

Saturday dinner: Mustard Roasted Fish (adaptation: I use 7Tbsp of yogurt and 1 Tbsp of mayo to sub for the crème fraiche), green beans (from the garden, yum!), quinoa, red onion, rosemary and goat cheese foccacia (dimple a large pizza crust), strawberry ice cream

Sunday lunch: cucumber salad wraps

Sunday dinner: Buffalo burgers, grilled mushroom, caprese, raspberry and blueberry crumble

Monday lunch: Beans and greens (from the freezer)

Monday dinner: leftover buffalo burgers and cucumber salad, strawberry shake

Tuesday lunch: Pasta with radish greens sauce (from the freezer)

Tuesday dinner: out (we signed up for a wine-tasting/dinner)

Wednesday lunch: spaghetti (from the freezer)

Wednesday dinner: sandwiches--Buffalo BLT's (bacon from the freezer), cucumber salad, chopping extra for Thursday and Friday sandwiches and salads, but not mixing it together (to keep it from getting soggy)

Thursday lunch: cuke sandwiches (just need to assemble, created Wednesday night)

Thursday dinner: Pizza from the freezer, with italian chicken sausages from Trader Joe's, home made pizza sauce from the freezer, onions, mushrooms and home made mozzarella

Friday lunch: BLT sandwiches (make extra Wednesday night)

Friday dinner: cucumber salad wraps, on the road

Saturday & Sunday Breakfast: oatmeal, yogurt, bananas

Saturday & Sunday Lunch: pbj, power bars, gorp, fruit leather/dried fruit, carrots

Saturday dinner: Chicken sausage, something green from the CSA, bannock, grilled pineapple, dark chocolate squares

Sunday dinner: Tuscan zucchini pasta if we make it home, Road food (Chipotle, Noodles & Company, or Panera) if we don't

Feeding the Freezer

Something I do whenever I get a chance is to feed my freezer. I "process" food so that I have it on hand for weeknights. This makes menu planning much easier! I'll keep adding to this post as I include things on my menu.

Rhubarb: slice up (1/4") in 1 cup portions. I usually use rhubarb to make a compote for ice cream: Put 1 cup rhubarb in a small saucepan with 1/6 cup of sugar for 10 minutes, mix or shake to coat. Cook it on medium high for 5-10 minutes until it becomes a chunky sauce. It's great hot, cold or room temperature over ice cream or yogurt. Doubling works well.

Strawberries: slice up in 1 cup portions. Use in smoothies, add sugar to macerate and use as a fruit sauce on yogurt or ice cream, over angel food cake, on pound cake. My favorite smoothie: ½ cup of strawberries, ½ a frozen banana, 2 Tbsp ground flax seed. Put it in the Magic Bullet or your favorite blender and add vanilla soy milk to the top (about a cup). Blend until smooth.

Fajitas: Real Simple magazine developed this amazing steak fajita recipe. It's great in the summer over arugula or other greens. I add guacamole from Trader Joe's if I can't find ripe avocados to slice up….also tomatoes and frozen corn.

Pizza crust: I make pizza crust, adapted for my bread maker (and my refusal to use all-purpose flour). Sometimes I freeze the dough as described in the linked article and thaw it to make calzones, but I find it so convenient to freeze the crusts like this.

1 1/2 cups warm (115 degrees) water

4 ½ tsp active dry yeast (2 packets)

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 cups white wheat flour

2 cups whole-wheat flour

4 tsp gluten

Place all ingredients in the bread-maker in the order listed. Put it on the "pizza dough" setting. Turn dough out onto a floured surface (use some extra white wheat flour). Depending on the pizza size you want, you can use part or all of the dough. I usually do one large pizza that night, and then form the rest into individual-size pizzas for the freezer. If you use a rolling pin, your crust will be thin and crispy. If you stretch it the style will be more "hand-tossed". Here's what I do: Score the dough in half. With one half, stretch to fit on a 9 x 13" cookie sheet. Place it in a warm place to rise. With the remaining dough, score into 6 equal pieces. Place a piece of parchment (don't use wax paper, it will not come apart as easily once frozen) onto a cookie sheet small enough to fit flat in your freezer with about 2 inches of clearance on the top. Stretch dough to fit, no larger in diameter than what will fit into a 1 gallon freezer zip lock bag. Lay down another piece of parchment. Continue with each circle, laying it on top of parchment. Cover the last piece with parchment. Leave it in a warm place to rise, then place in the freezer. When frozen (wait 4 hours or overnight), transfer to a large, 1 gallon ziplock.

To use, thaw the number of pizza crusts needed (1 per person), cover as desired, and bake at 450-degrees for 18-20 minutes. It doesn't need to thaw first. These work well for grilling pizza, too!