Posts tagged ‘planning meals’
Recipe of the Week – Uncommon Results from Common Ingredients – Grapefruit Sorbet
(From the Appetizer Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Grapefruit Sorbet
I’m big on “pantry cooking.” I believe you should be able to make wonderful meals from what you have around the kitchen, whether in the pantry, frig or freezer. With just a little imagination you should be able to cobble together an easy appetizer, meal or dessert from items you have on hand. At emealsforyou.com we give you a list of what we consider essentials for stocking away.
This weekend we were running a little short on appetizers so I went to the pantry and started looking for a quick, easy appetizer to make. A can of black beans from the shelf, some fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden, some pickled pepper rings from the frig and some frozen pita bread all went together to make a very good relish and chips. Add a few spices and herbs to your taste and you will wish you had written the recipe down for future use.
Along these lines I give you the easiest recipe I can think of. Serve this grapefruit sorbet between courses at a formal dinner or have it following a salad for lunch to make it special. So the next time you are in the store pick up a can of frozen grapefruit juice to save for a “rainy” day.
Grapefruit Sorbet
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Appetizer |
| Meal: | J & B’s Silent Auction Dinner (Distinctive Dinners) |
| 12 | oz | grapefruit juice, frozen concentrate |
| 24 | oz | water |
Combine frozen concentrate and water and process in ice cream maker until frozen. May be made in advance. Use as a palette cleanser between courses.
The Meal Planning Game (Part Three) – Let the Games Begin
Successful meal planning requires some form of all three parts of The Meal Planning Game. Without an understanding of the meals and recipes you have available to you there is no way you can reach your goal of saving money, time and feeding your family better. This is the final installment of this (we hope) helpful toolset that should set you on the right path… it all becomes just so many words on a page if you don’t use it.
There are several ways to go about meal planning depending on your level of competence in the kitchen, general ability to plan and your desire to succeed. For the purpose of this exercise we will assume that you will use the tools we have provided… many of you do some or all of this from memory; just follow along and plug into the toolset wherever you need it.
Let’s start by getting out your calender and deciding the number of meals you need to plan; pick some of the meals you have on your meal spreadsheet and place them on your calender. You may wish to check out what is on sale at your grocery so that you can take advantage of any money savings. If you can’t decide, you may simply place numbers in a hat, these numbers will correspond to the numbers beside your meal plans on your spreadsheet. Pick a number and you have a meal plan. If you have young kids you may want to have them give you a number and this becomes the Meal Planning Game. Another way to get your kids involved is let them pick a favorite meal from the meal planning sheet… when kids get involved with the planning you will find them much more interested in the food.
So we have our meals scheduled; let’s bring out our recipes and write down what we need to shop for. We suggest you make your list based on how your grocery store is set up. Make a section on your paper for meats/seafood, one for veggies, one for frozen foods and another for dairy. Put down all the ingredients that you need; combine any “like” items; i.e. 2 chicken breasts, 2 chicken legs and 2 chicken thighs becomes 1 whole chicken. Also delete any items that you have in your pantry, frig or freezer. Finally put any other needs on your shopping list, print the list and it is off to the store.
Remember your goals: to save money, to save time and to feed your family better. When you go to the grocery only buy the items you need… these are the things you decided you needed to make the meals you have chosen. DON’T buy things you don’t need. DON’T give in to the urges to buy junk food at the grocery. DO give the method some time to work; chances are it may take a time or two to get the hang of it…when you do you will reach the goals you have set out and be happier and healthier, and your kids may look forward to family meals again.
P.S. Send us your comments of how this works for you and any suggestions you think might benefit others.
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