Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

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

Monday, June 22, 2009

Road Menu Part 1




Menu Plan Monday:

Last week I wrote my first menu plan, working Wednesday to the following Friday (10 days). I thought that would fit my routine, because I plan on Wednesdays for the next 10 days, allowing myself to change Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the second week. I decided that's too complicated, and possibly redundant, to write about, so I will just post Saturday through Friday and see how that goes for a while.

This week's menu was based on my haul at the Daley Plaza Farmer's market:

strawberries: variety = "Lucy". I swear it was like sucking on a sugar cube, wow! I've never had a sweeter strawberry! I remarked to the farmer, "So this is what strawberries are supposed to taste like!" He grinned. $5 for a pint (so worth it!).

Arugula: For veggie wraps at lunch this weekend. I decimated my garden last Thursday for that night's dinner and Friday's lunch. A lot of arugula goes a little wayL 2 bunches @ $2 each

Rhubarb: for the freezer. 3 bunches for $5.

asparagus: I think it's getting a bit late for asparagus, but I wanted to make Heidi's salad to bring to my friend's lake house this weekend. And I love asparagus. 3 bunches for $5.

cherries: for my tummy. $4/pint.

2 zucchini: for ratatouille. $1.75/pound

1 English cuke: mmm, cucumber and onion sandwiches! $1.50

The zucchini, cuke, rhubarb, asparagus, and cherries come from "sustainable agriculture". They only spray as needed. Not organic, but not sprayed as much as grocery store produce. The strawberries and arugula were not sprayed.

This weekend we are going to a friend's lake house. They are making salmon with vegetables and rice. I'm bringing cookies and bulgur wheat salad from one of my favorite websites, 101 Cookbooks.

At the end of this week, I'm traveling for work. Traveling always presents a challenge for menu planning. My options are to A) eat out; B) pack food; C) visit grocery stores in the destination town; or D) some combination of the above. I usually end up doing some combination of A & B, and give myself bonus points if I make it to the grocery store.

I love visiting grocery stores in different towns when I travel, especially if the town has unique family-owned stores or interesting health food stores. However, when I'm traveling--especially if it's for work and I'm taking Amtrak—it's hard to find time to visit grocery stores. This week my job is sending me to Springfield, Illinois. It has each of my favorite chain restaurants: Chipotle, Noodles & Company, (both fairly new to Springfield) and Panera. It also has Café Brio, which is a lovely Mexican-ish restaurant and a destination in and of itself! I'll pack oatmeal for breakfasts, end up eating at the work-meeting for lunches, and have some choices for dinner. If I can get someone (or a cab) to take me, I might check out Italian Food Mart, Humphrey's Market and/or Food Fantasies Naturally. Look for these locations on my Google Map and for my reviews on Yelp in a few weeks when I return!

In order to have an easy lunch on Wednesday night while I'm packing, I'm making a sandwich board. I bought buffalo bacon for the freezer a few weeks ago at the Palatine Farmer's Market. The farmer said it's more like lunch meat than bacon, I should just thaw it and eat it on a sandwich. I'll put that out with some cheese and a simple arugula salad.

Saturday: Salmon with vegetables and rice.

Sunday: Ratatouille over brown rice

Monday: Cucumber and onion sandwiches

Tuesday: grilled shrimp and cilantro pesto on rice

Wednesday: Sandwich board, salad

Thursday: I'm heading out of town for work at the end of the week. Hubby will probably have a banana pizza: pizza crust, use catsup instead of pizza sauce, mash up ripe bananas on top, cover in shredded mozzarella. Sounds gross, but it's actually pretty good.

Friday: Hubby will head down to meet me and begin our vacation. Vacation/road food is a special challenge. I'll post the menu next week, but Friday night he'll probably get a fast food dinner. I'll get Panera, because I know there's one near the hotel where I'm staying.


Next week should be interesting, because we're leaving from Springfield to go camping for a week in Lake of the Ozarks State Park. Usually planning for camping is fun, but it's harder since 1) I will be on the road for four days before camping, and 2) if I pack anything to bring camping I have to do it now since I'm leaving Thursday and the cooler is coming with Hubby on Friday and 3) I'm not sure what the CSA box will look like. It also arrives Wednesday, just before I leave!