Menu Planning

Menu planning was a big issue for our family in This Year of Action.  The format that we came up with was:

Monday - Vegetarian
Tuesday - Chicken
Wednesday - Red Meat
Thursday - Chicken
Friday - Fish
Saturday - Surprise - which often turns into homemade Pizza
Sunday - Vegetarian

So far so good.  We've found that we can only plan two nights in advance but we are working on getting better.

Last night my husband made this:

Pan fried chicken breast with mango salsa and couscous

On Monday I made a quiche.  It was my first time and it was surprisingly easy.  I bought the shortcrust pastry.  After blind baking the pastry for 10 minutes I added chopped mushrooms, 2 spring onions and the egg mixture (which was 5 eggs beaten together with 1/4 cup of milk and a teaspoon of dijon mustard).  I then crumbled fetta into it and baked it for 50 minutes until the egg mixture had set (fan forced oven 160).  I served it with salad leaves, some mint leaves and chopped nuts sprinkled over the salad.  We also added our own splash of french dressing.

Our plan this year was to try and avoid trips to the Supermarket.  We don't enjoy this very much and I always add too many non food related items to the trolley even when I have a list and the best of intentions.  Something takes over when you enter a Supermarket.  You lower your defences because you are after all buying necessities aren't you?  Then before you know it your $30 list turns into $60 or even $110.

We are trying to work out how often we use the things that have to be bought from a Supermarket so we can buy in bulk maybe every 3 weeks.  Both of us enjoy trips to the green grocer and butcher.

This year I would like to add more fragrance to our diet.  This book entered our house at Christmas:

We hope to be enjoying many meals from its beautiful pages.  One thing I am added to my evening routine from the book is her recipe for Kahwa Beida or White Coffee.  She writes;

A hot drink of boiled scented water taken as an alternative to coffee at night is an old tradition in Syria and Lebanon.  Pour boiling water into a small coffee cup and add a few drops of orange-blossom water. Sweeten with sugar if you like.  It is very soothing.  When I was a child in Egypt, we used to take to bed a glass of cold water with a few drops of rose water to make us sleep.

To source some fragrant floral waters is on my to do list.  In my younger years I drank a tisane of rose buds before bed with my mother and sister on the advice of our Chinese Doctor.  This was for our health and complexion.  The fragrance was so relaxing.

Must go, Baby Boy calls.