Thanksgiving 2011

We have so much to be thankful for this year!  It's been a great year in South Asia, our kids are growing and are healthy, and God has provided for our family in so many miraculous ways this year.


This year, our Thanksgiving celebration is turning out to be a lot smaller than in years past.  I'm okay with that. : )  We'll have five adults and our kids.  So my menu is pretty scaled down, and I haven't started cooking yet.  That's only because my husband is out of town, but coming back today, and I've not been feeling well.  Hopefully I'll be up to starting tomorrow.

So, this year, my menu looks like this:

-Baked Brie with maple syrup and pecans, crackers for appetizer
-Apple cider

-Roasted Rosemary Chickens
-Grandma's Stuffing
-Baked Winter Squash Gratin (I'm using kaddu)
-Mashed Potatoes
-Bay Scented Lentil and Red Cabbage Salad with Bacon
-Grandma's Yeast Rolls
-Iced Tea

-Pecan Pie
-Pumpkin Pie

This all sounds really good to me, but my only hesitation is that there's nothing really green on the table.  If I have time, I might do some bacon-wrapped green beans.  But I also have to remember that I'm working around a 2-hour morning power cut from 9-11.  That will throw a kink in my planning, I think. : )

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Monthly Meal Rotations

When we were studying language when we first arrived in India, life was intense.  Cooking, and thinking about meals, grocery shopping, was just something that was on the back burner.  So I made a monthly rotation of meals, four weeks of different dinners every night.  I created a grocery list for each week, and just rotated them so that i didn't ever have to think about what to buy, what to make...

A friend today suggested I post these meals, and I thought it was a great idea!  I can't guarantee there are recipes for every meal on here, but hopefully they'll be helpful if you're in that season of life that is just busy and you need more structure for meal planning. 

28 Meals: 

1. Jambalaya and cornbread

2. Moroccan Chicken, couscous, and green beans

3. Bean Tacos, Mexican rice (make extra beans and tortillas for meals later in the week)

4. Cracker Barrel Veg Platter/or Chili and biscuits

5. Caribbean beans and rice

6. Burgers and fries (lamb, chicken, veg, whatever)

7. Spinach and Bacon quiche with fruit salad or muffins or both : )

8. Pav Bhaji

9. Breaded Ranch Chicken, roasted potatoes and corn

10. Pasta and bread (it varied what kind) with veggie sticks and ranch dressing

11. 7-Layer Tortilla pie, chips and salsa

12.  Indonesian meatballs and rice, salad

13. Shepherds Pie

14.  Stuffed potatoes and salad

15. Broccoli Alfredo pasta with Italian bread

16.  Grilled chicken salads

17. Kushiri, crunchy pea salad

18. Enchiladas, mexican cream corn

19. Chicken pot pie

20. Homemade pizza

21. Falafal and pita sandwiches, fruit salad

22. Barbecue Chicken Hash, biscuits

23. Tortilla soup/Potato Soup

24. Butter Chicken, Rice

25. Fried Rice and momos (I didn't make the momos!)

26. Barbecue Cups, Mac and cheese, Baked beans or peas

27.  Cream Tacos

28.  Mojo Chicken with fried bananas and garlicky rice

This list is about two years old, so we have added a lot of things to our recipe index since then that we eat more often than some of these things.  But they're mostly pretty easy meals! If you see anything on here that you want the recipe for, let me know!

Indian Lunch Ideas

I have a house helper who cooks lunch for us. I think this is an indispensable thing for me as I'm homeschooling, since there are no quick and easy lunches here besides PB&J and grilled cheese.  We want a little more variety than that. :)  

It has taken us some time, though, to figure out a good variety of Indian meals we all like that we can have for lunch.  Here's a list of some of our favorite meals to have our helper make for us! I usually do subji (veggies) and chapati (wheat flat bread) on M-W-F and Daal Chawal (lentils/beans and rice) on T-Th.  Just to change it up! :) 

Subji and Chapati:

-Bindi Masala: Sauteed okra with tomatoes and onions

-Aloo Shimla Mirch: Potatoes and green peppers sauteed with spices (We like it dry, no gravy)

-Aloo Gobi: Potatoes and cauliflower with onions and tomatoes

-Aloo Parantha: We like this just by itself.  Our helper made the best paranthas we've ever had. I can post the recipe if anyone wants it.

-Loki Masala: loki is a long pale gourd that looks kind of like a zucchini when it's cut, but cooks totally differently.  We like this with lots of onions, tomatoes, and dania powder.

-Kajar Mattar: carrots and peas sauteed in spices

-Bund Gobi Mattar: cabbage and peas

Daal/Chawal:

-Lobia Masala: black eyed peas in a tomato-y gravy

-Rajma Masala: kidney beans or pinto beans (or a mix) in a tomato gravy

-Channa Masala: chick peas (we like to eat this with Puris, deep fried wheat bread)

-Mixed Daal: pretty self explanatory.  

This is just off the top of my head. I'll come back and add to this if I think of anything else we really like.  I'll try to post the recipes for some of these things in the coming weeks as well.  

Thanksgiving Preparations, Day 2

Got a lot accomplished today! Here's what is finished tonight as I sit down to watch Masterchef Australia: :)

1. Trimmed and boiled green beans to get ready for the Green Bean Casserole

2. Cored, peeled and baked apples in preparation for the Country Apple Tart with Spiced Brown Butter

3. Baked cornbread, getting ready for Grandma's Dressing (recipe to follow)

4. Froze a ring as a starter to Grandma's Pina

Colada (recipe to follow)

Now, just gotta get everything done tomorrow! So far I'm on track! I love Thanksgiving! :)

In case you're wondering, this is the pina colada freezing. :)

Thanksgiving Menu!

Gearing up for Thanksgiving this week! I've got my menu planned and am figuring out when I'll do what! Here's what's on the menu for Thanksgiving in the Iris apartments:

Appetizers:

Pumpkin Soup

Spinach balls

Stuff mushrooms (maybe)

Grandma's Pina Colada

Apple Cider

Dinner:

Rotisserie Chickens

Some kind of potatoes: garlic and herb mashed, au gratin, haven't decided

Butter Pecan Sweet Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole

Grandma's Dressing

Spinach Salad with cranberries, walnuts, vinaigrette

Garlic Rosemary rolls

Iced Tea

Dessert:

Pumpkin Pie

Pecan Pie

Country Apple Tart

Pumpkin Spiced Lattes

I'll try to post recipes for a few of these things in the coming days. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

What We're Eating This Week

So several have said they enjoy the posts with our menu for the week... Thought I'd do it again. This weeks menu is a little shorter because we're taking a little weekend getaway Friday to Sunday to Udaipur! I'm so excited. I've wanted to go there for years! I'm also looking forward to eating in a few recommended restaurants while we're there... but until then, here's what we'll be digging into this week:

1. Chili and Cornbread

2. Chicken with Mojo sauce and steamed veggies

3. Cheese and Pepper Quesadillas, chips and salsa

4. Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with potato wedges (yep, the ones in a bag!)

5. Kushiri and Spinach Salad

Hope you're all having a great week!

Weekly Planning

I'm sitting down this morning while the baby is napping making my meal plans for the week. I like to grocery shop early Saturday mornings, but since hubby had a meeting this morning, I'm going late-Saturday morning. :) Here's what's on tap for the week, in case you need some ideas!

Sat: Chik-Fil-A for dinner!

Sun: Chicken and Barley Soup, homemade bread

Mon: Pasta Primavera

Tues:"Game Winning Drumsticks" and Coleslaw*

Wed: Falafel and Pita, Lentil and couscous salad

Thur: Scrambled Eggs and Hashbrowns

Fri: Pita Pizzas (from the pitas that inevitably will not puff correctly :))

*When we were in the states, on a date, we went to BooksAMillion. My husband found a book he had to have, it's called Wings and Things. It's recipes revolving around chicken wings, drumsticks, bar food, appetizers, etc. He LOVES chicken wings, so we got it. I'm trying my the first recipe out of it this week. He'll be so excited!

More recipes to come!

Meal Planning

After the first few months of living in South Asia, I found that meal planning was totally necessary to my mental sanity. :) It's really a lot of work to cook American meals, and in order not to be running to the store everyday or even three times a week, planning helps me so much. So I thought I'd start sharing our weekly meal plans from time to time.

For awhile I set up a rotation of 28 dinners and had them on four weekly spreadsheets, complete with grocery lists for each week. Then I'd just have to print that week's grocery list and go shopping. But after a few months, we got bored of those same 28 dinners and I needed to branch out. So I don't use them much anymore, but I do still plan week by week.

Here's this week's menu:

Monday- L: Loki Masala and chapatis

D: Jambalaya and Cornbread

Tuesday- L: Daal Chawal

D: Beef Enchiladas, Corn and Bean Salad, Chips

Wednesday- L: Rajma and Rice

D: Chicken Pot Pie

Thursday- L: Aloo Shimla Mirch and Chapatis

D: Spaghetti and Italian Salad

Friday- L: Who knows!

D: Falafel and Pita bread, with Spinach, Couscous and Lentil Salad

I'd love to hear some of your weekly meal plans as well! I always need new ideas! :)