More on Food

The cookies turned out well. I just experimented on my own with a regular cookie recipe and things turned out. This is what I did:

I combined 1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour and 1.5 cups rolled oats with about 3T buttermilk and enough water to make it into a slightly wet dough. Then I covered it and let it sit for 24 hours.

The next day, I creamed 2 sticks of butter with 1/2 cup brown sugar. (that was all I had- no natural sugar) Then I added about 1/4 cup honey, vanilla extract and 2 eggs. After those were blended up good I added 1t baking soda and 1/2t salt, then the flour/oat mixture.

This turned out to be rather wet, so I added about 1/2 cup unbleached flour, the chocolate chips and some chopped pecans. After it was done I chilled it for about an hour. Preheat oven to 350 F, butter a sheet pan, and drop 1T dough for each cookie. Bake approx. 12+ minutes. I put them on the bottom rack for a few minutes as well to crisp them up a bit. The texture is slightly cakey, but they taste good. I like the slightly sour taste and it is plenty sweet.

This recipe would work well with almost anything you wanted to add- other nuts, dried fruit, other kinds of 'chips' like butterscotch, jam thumbprints, peanut butter although I'd use less butter if I added peanut butter.... Cookies seem to be rather forgiving.

Today is shopping day. I revamped our menus yesterday to be similar to this one for summer. I liked how she did it and this is what I did.

Sunday is always leftovers or something fast like canned tomato soup or eggs.
Monday- soup and sandwiches
Tuesday-fish, generally a casserole or patties, however this recipe looks good
Wednesday- Italian
Thursday-Mexican
Friday- 'fun' or homemade 'junk food' like pizza and brownies
Saturday- grill

I had to finish out our menu for the week according to what I already bought, but the new one will start next week. Just to give you an idea of how you can cooking 'traditionally' yet normally, today we're eating chili cheese dogs and chips. I will make the chili with ground turkey (we just like it) and plan to buy some good quality potato chips like Cape Cod brand that aren't cooked in hydrogenated vegetable oils. The hot dogs and buns will be regular ones from the store as I can't make it to the health food store today.

Thursday- chili-mac and salad (same chili, add beans and macaroni)
Friday- roasted veggie sandwiches and oven fries, apple crisp
Saturday- Southwest grilled chicken salads
Sunday- you know
Monday- garden veggie chowder, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches
Tuesday- fish cakes, baked potatoes, salad
Wednesday- baked ziti, salad, garlic bread
Thursday-fajitas and sides
Friday-sloppy joe and oven fries
Saturday-bbq chicken, potato salad, corn on cob

Anyways, for some reason menu planning has been really hard for me lately. My brain just completely goes blank, yet I know I have to plan it out or I'll be really stuck. I need to try to double some recipes so I can freeze them for the future, so I'm trying to work that in plus just simplifying and utilizing the grill if possible. Then, it has to be healthy and pleasing to all, as well as meet my own nutritional requirements!

So, hopefully this helps anyone out there needing some ideas. Breakfasts and lunches are generally the same and not too interesting.

Oh, and yes I know I keep promising to take pictures of my home management system and still haven't. I was sooo tired yesterday and I needed to watch my sister's kids for awhile so she could go to the doctor, so, it got put off again with 6 children here :) I'll get it someday!