Autumn Menu

Last week it was 85. Monday, the wind started to blow. It blew and blew and blew until it cooled off all of Bozeman and now it's a chilled 50 degrees by the afternoon. I'm glad I finally finished repainting a long-term project of mine. It only took me nine years to paint a small chest and now I'm wishing I'd changed the color. It took me nine years to decide! Yeesh. An ability for decorating I wish I had and alas, I'm paralyzed by color.

But not the great colors of Fall! These inspire me. After living five years in California where the weather was perfect all year long (I miss it sometimes), it gets me giddy every time the seasons change. It's nice to be apart of change sometimes and Fall is one of the best times of the year in Bozeman. The other best times are Spring and Summer and Winter pulling up the end.

Time to bag the grill and dust off the CrockPot. I feel like we traveled so much this summer, I didn't really enjoy all the Spring salads and cool stuff of summer, but another season, another menu. Warm rolls, hearty soups, fresh bread, and maybe some cinnamon potpourri to welcome in the cold nights.

My boys are off on a trip together for a couple days, and I finally have a moment to plan a menu. It's been fun combing through the Internet to find good food blogs and plot out a menu. My only qualm is that everytime someone provides a menu, they only provide dinner, but what about breakfast and lunch? My little menu below is a reminder for me of some quick breakfast/lunch items to eat also. 

I spent $125 for two-weeks worth of food (not just dinner), so for me that would be great to feed my family on $250/month. Here's my beginner menu with all new recipes. Two weeks of goodness. I'll include all websites where I grabbed these recipes and commentary as our family eats these meals. Like I've mentioned before, I just need an online recipe book, this site isn't to make me rich.

Sunday
b: Swiss chard frittata While our 1.5 year-old inhaled this, Jared choked it down and mildly threw up in his mouth when he realized it wasn't eggs and spinach out of a pie plate that he'd been eating, but rather tofu and chard. Guess he's not ready for vegan...
l: PBJ
d:
main: Beef stroganoff  with Massaged Kale and Craisin Salad
This was great the day of and delicious for lunch. We served it over red potatoes, so it was more like stew than stroganoff. Next time I'll carry out the stew plan and add carrots. Yum! A keeper.

Monday
b: Oatmeal Pancakes The best part about this recipe is that you make up a huge batch of the mix and use it forever. The pancakes were delicious and our family had fresh peaches, bananas, pecans, whipped cream and maple syrup.
l: Kale salad, leftover fruit and oatmeal pancakes (cheap right?)
d: South Indian Style Vegetable Curry (finecooking.com) - SUPER spicy. Leave out cayenne next time. It had rave reviews on Fine Cooking, but I'm not all that convinced. Then again, I only lived 10 minutes from the best Indian restaurant in the whole world when I live in California (Kamal Palace, Seal Beach, CA)

Tuesday
b: Bacon, Eggs, Green Smoothie (that's where you blend up a few handfuls of spinach along with anything to make it good and healthy - i.e., flaxseed, oat bran, carrot, berries, apple juice, coconut, banana).
l: PBJ or Sandwich with hummus and peas (Parker loves this)
d: White and Green Chicken Enchiladas (not healthy, but needed)

Wednesday
b: Smoothies, Refrigerator Muffins
l: leftover enchiladas
d: Garlic Tuna and Asparagus Pasta

Thursday
b: kale/fruit smoothie
l: leftover pasta/tuna fish sandwiches
d: salmon, fresh green beans

Friday
b: oatmeal
l: tomato/basil/mozz salad
d: leftovers (indian curry)

Saturday
b: banana-nut pancakes
l: sandwich
d: Autumn vegetable soup

Sunday
... to be continued...

Massaged Kale and Craisin Salad with Feta Cheese

Finally, kale that I can eat! Of all the timesucks on the Internet, Pinterest is at the forefront for me right now. But it did lead me to a great food blog: Mel's Kitchen Cafe. She has several great recipes using normal spices that you'd have in your pantry, which I like. I've used several of her recipes this week and so far, every one has been a winner.

Especially this salad. Jared didn't scarf it down like he will something with beef in it (I did pair this salad with her Beef Stroganoff - solid recipe), but he did say it was good and ate it all, which he normally doesn't do with salad. Kale is such a sturdy green, that normally to eat it, I throw it in a smoothie or a soup to mask its bitter chewiness. I didn't realize that massaging it with just a little bit of salt could go such a long way. Once I added the rest of the ingredients, this salad was healthy and delicious and good the next day for lunch too.

As a sidenote, I've been working on presentation lately, and this salad looks pretty on the table.

*Serves 6

INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch kale
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt or sea salt
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1/2 cup dried cranberries/craisins (I used maple candied cherries that I had)
3/4 cup small-diced apple
1/3 cup toasted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup crumbled Feta cheese

DIRECTIONS:
Wash the kale and pat it dry. Slice off the stiff stems below the leaves and continue slicing the stem away from the leaf until you have cut a thin v-shape into the kale leaf and removed the tough stem all the way up. Stack the kale leaves two or three at a time, roll them up, and slice the leaves into thin ribbons.
Place the kale ribbons in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and massage it into the kale with your hands for two minutes. You’ll notice the kale start to turn a darker green and the texture of the kale will begin to soften a bit.

Toss in the red onions, craisins, apples, and sunflower seeds. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar and sugar. Pour over the salad and toss. Sprinkle feta cheese over the top and serve. The salad can be refrigerated for up to a day before serving (if doing this, I would suggest refrigerating the salted kale separately from the other ingredients and tossing the salad together an hour or two before serving).