The Monday Menu

This Monday’s Menu comes from several different sources. For one thing, I’ve become aware that I need to get into both the (extra) freezer and the cupboard and use some of what is hanging out there. Maybe some of the things on the menu aren’t sustainable but they’re already in the freezer and I’m not throwing it away. On the brighter side, I have been out visiting other blogs this week and found some really inspiring foodie posts and want to try some of the recipes and I’ll provided links to those blogs.

One of the things I love about my house is the 7’x5’ pantry which is lined with shelves (24 inch shelves, mind you) and 9 foot walls. There is floor space for buckets and bushel baskets and is vented. I have to step down into the pantry as it is below floor level and the floor stays nice and cool. All that said, if not well-organized, I can and do lose stuff in there. So, I’m going in….send the dogs if you don’t hear from me….

Nee-chan is making Quiche tonight: She’s making the pie crust with a filling of a doz. free range eggs (we’re beginning to save the cartons for our future hens rather than composting them), spinach, and peppers. She makes a wall with the pie dough and we’re allowed some bacon in our side. Really quite vegetarian generous, I think. We’ll have a side of steamed artichokes that were on sale this week.
From the freezer we’ll have Lasagna during a busy night of the week. This was made for a party this winter (vegetarian and meat) and froze the leftovers in individual servings.

Also found in the freezer were chicken wings. Oh I do love them marinated in soy sauce, sprinkled with sesame seeds and grilled.

In the freezer, we still have strawberries from last year’s harvest and so we’ll be focusing on smoothies for breakfast.

Apparently the folks at the the spotted apron liked last month’s Cooking Light magazine too. They have a beautiful blog with great pictures so I’m trying their adaptation of the pasta, Makaruni Pasta with Baby Bella Mushroom Sauce. It looks wonderful.

With the left over fresh spinach I’m making Farmgirl’s Spinach soup

The pantry cleaning went well. I found very few things with more than one ingredient. One of those was a bag of powdered Hurricane drink mix from pre-Katrina New Orleans. Price tag read $3.99, and out to the landfill it went. There are the requisite canned veggies and tinned meats in case of disaster now neatly lined up with their labels showing nicely. But I also found several varieties of lovely organic rice. I liberated them from their plastic bags, cut the bags so to save the labels, and put them in glass jars with their labels showing. This will help keep them from getting lost.