The last week in April. This has been a long month...opposite of how things usually feel for me. This week won't be too busy in terms of events, but I have a lot planned for at home projects/stuff in the kitchen. Today is church. Monday is grocery day. I might try to go to both Meijer and Harvest Health. I haven't decided yet. Wednesday is Kindermusik and Justin has worship team, so we'll need an early dinner. Thursday Rebecca and I will be visiting my grandparents, and Justin has his last class for the semester!! Although his break will be short lived since he starts his summer class in May. Saturday we're planning to go to Tulip Time in the morning with my brother and SIL.
Last week was pretty productive. I made scrambled eggs for breakfast one morning...and it wasn't too bad. I'll be trying to add that to our menu more often. I tried a new corn muffin recipe and made my second attempt at soaking grains. I made bread pudding, but updated it by adding chunks of apple and using all whole wheat bread (some homemade), organic cane sugar and organic milk. Yum!! I also made another batch of chewy granola bars yesterday (didn't take a new picture, oops). They turned out great!! The coconut oil really makes a difference. And using rolled oats really works well too. I can't wait to try them (just had a few little nibbles as I was cutting them:). I used a combo of creamy peanut butter, crunchy peanut butter and homemade cashew butter (used what was in the fridge). Really gave them good flavor. I also tried 2 new stores last week. First I went to Horrocks. I was bummed that it's not the same Horrock's farm market I've heard my SIL mention. But I still wanted to give it a try. It's an interesting store. They have a lot of cute houseware stuff. They have a lot of gardening stuff, including seeds, plants, etc. We may end up getting some of our veggies and herbs there. But I mainly went for their produce. And was kind of disappointed. I was hoping for a good selection of organic and local produce. But it was mostly the same stuff I see at Meijer. Horrocks does have better prices than Meijer ($0.88/lb. vs. $1.69/lb. for pears!). But I don't think it's worth a special trip there just for that since it's really not close to us at all. I'm glad I went, but I probably won't be going there very often. After Horrocks I made a quick stop at Apple Valley Natural Foods. It was a pretty small store, as I expected. They do have a lot of good quality stuff, but it's very expensive. I think I can get better deals at Harvest Health. Plus it's not very close to us. So again, I'm glad I tried it, but I won't be going there very often. At least I did find vital wheat gluten and coconut oil. I did accomplish something. So my quest for good food/ingredients continues :) I did sign up for the West MI co-op. I'm excited to try that. I can place my first order next week. And I also found out about Artisan Food Online. Something to look into for sure. Looks like good stuff, but not sure about the cost. An extra $20/week for our food to have it delivered is a lot. We'll see.
I have a lot of things I want to get done in the kitchen this week. Hopefully Rebecca is in the mood to bake:) My BIL and SIL are having a graduation open house on May 8 and I'm thinking I might bring a variety of cupcakes. So I might get started on those. Not sure yet. I would also like to try more grain soaking. I already have some soaking this morning for coffee cake. And I might make some breakfast cookies. And possibly waffles. I would also like to try making whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagels. I'm hoping to finally get around to trying my grain mill attachment and grinding some flour! Then use that in some baked goods.
I have been working on my homemade cost calculations. I'll hopefully post some of that later this week.
My meals for the week are pretty simple. And I'm still working on using what we have on hand and mostly just buying fresh produce and dairy products when I grocery shop. Here's what we're having.
---------------------------------------------------
S (church, make coffee cake)
B - leftover bread pudding, fresh fruit
L - crockpot short ribs, mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives, beans
D - salad w/ strawberries, pears and walnuts (me), leftover corn dog muffins (Justin)
M (clean, put away laundry, Meijer, Harvest Health)
B - coffee cake, watermelon, strawberries and grapes
D - pb banana french toast, home canned pearsauce, bacon
T (make bagels, make granola bars, bake cupcakes, meatless)
B - bagels, grapes
D - pesto pasta (using zucchini and homemade pesto from freezer and fresh asparagus from our garden), home canned pearsauce
W (KM, WT)
B - granola bars, fresh pineapple
D - salmon cakes with chive mustard sauce, peas, fruit
Th (visit gma, make muffins, class, soak beans, soak grains)
B - cereal
D - leftovers
F (cook beans, make breakfast cookies, bake cupcakes, meatless)
B - breakfast cookies, fresh pineapple
D - zucchini and bean burritos with avocado, salsa, sour cream and shredded cheese
S (grind flour, make pizza dough, make graham crackers?)
B - breakfast cookies, apples
D - homemade pizza
Using REAL food to heal the mind and body. Trust in God and eat the food. Eet Smakelijk!
I think they sound like the same Horrocks. Like I've mentioned, I haven't been going to the Horrocks in Lansing much lately b/c of their lack of organic produce lately. And this time of year, very few things are local there, either. In the summer time, the majority is local - much of it grown on the Horrocks farm. They still have a lot of organic stuff in their non-perishables. But since I've been going to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's regularly for a good 6-8 months now, I don't really need to go there for that, either. So now I just go there for the Mooville milk as long as its $3.19/gallon. Once they up their price to the normal $4, I'll just get the milk at the city market like I have been up until the last month when Horrocks started carrying it.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with all the baking this week! I've been wanting to try the breakfast cookies, too. Someday. :)