Vibrant Moms

I hope your Sukkos preparations have been going smoothly!  The kids put up the main part of the sukka before Yom Kippur and then ds16 and ds10 built a couple of sections so we can extend it.  So now it’s four feet wider (for a total of 16′ long by 12′ wide) and it feels so expansive! 

Ds16 put the schach on yesterday and the kids also did most of the decorating yesterday.  That was nice since it means we are focusing today on the cooking and cleaning. 

Here’s our menu plan for the next two days - for simplicity, I’m listing all the foods at once instead of saying what we’ll have for which meal.

• challah
• roast
• turkey
• chicken
• potato kugel
• stuffing
• mashed potatoes
• sweet potato pie
• tabouli (cracked wheat salad)
• beet salad
• corn salad
• coleslaw
• roast vegetables
• fresh salad
• power bars
• snickerdoodles
• cake (don’t know which one the girls decided on)

We’re going out for lunch tomorrow and having guests for lunch the next day.  The night meals will be just the family, unless dh brings someone home from shul.  We’ll be enjoying having our newly expanded sukka on our new patio!  We wouldn’t have been able to make it larger this year if we hadn’t built the patio. 

Have a wonderful yom tov!

Avivah

I posted this the day before the hacking situation and didn’t initially realize this post was lost when the system went down.  Though I said that I wouldn’t repost anything, I’m reposting this because I think it’s a valuable thing to have on hand.

These are notes that I made for myself that I’m sharing.  I’m obviously not a health care practitioner and like all that I post about, this is what I would do if I found myself with a family member dehydrated to help them. 

Here are several versions, basically all the same idea:

Homemade Oral Rehydration Solution

1) 1/2 t. salt, 2 T. honey/ sugar, 1/4 t. potassium chloride; 1/2 t. trisodium citrate (can be replaced by baking soda), 1 quart clean water

2) 3 T. sugar/honey, 1 t. salt, 1 quart water

3) 8 t. sugar/honey, 1 t. salt,  1 quart water

Here are signs of dehydration: weakness, headache, fainting, dryness of mouth, decreased saliva, lack of/decreased urine that is dark and highly concentrated, sunken eyes, loss of skin elasticity, low blood pressure (especially upon sitting up or standing), fast pulse when laying down or sitting up.

If you suspect dehydration is developing, administer the rehydration solution by mouth.  If the patient is too ill to drink, give drop by drop, work up to a teaspoon if possible.  Don’t stop until patient can keep down one quart.

How much solution is needed?  Adults and large children should drink at least three quarts of oral rehydration solution a day until well.  Each feeding: for a child under 2 - between 1/4 - 1/2 large cup; for older children - between 1/2 - 1 large cup.

If the  child vomits, wait ten minutes and then begin again.  Feed slowly, small sips at a time by teaspoon.  The body will retain some fluids and salts needed even though there is vomiting.  Extra liquids should be given until diarrhea stops. 

Hopefully none of you will need this, but as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, this was very helpful to me when my dd8 got dehydrated on Shabbos and started repeatedly throwing up. 

Avivah

Here’s a new dessert we created for Rosh Hashana.  It took advantage of two recent finds: a) coconut milk at Trader Joes for .99 a can (versus $4 something at Whole Foods), and b) 24 ounce jars of mango for .50 each that I bought this past week.  Anyway, here’s the simple recipe.

Mango Ice

• 2 c. coconut milk
• 2 c. mango

Blend everything together until smooth.  Freeze until mostly frozen, then blend again.  Let freeze once more until solid.  Serve.

We had a guest who was a vegan and only eats raw food, and even he had this (I warned him that the mango was from a jar).  If you’re used to a very sugary ice cream, you might think this needs more sweetener.  But for our family, it was just right - mildly sweet and pleasant tasting. 

You could probably substitute other sweet fruits like banana for an alternative flavor, or combine two or more fruits.  The Trader Joe coconut milk is ‘light’, and I think that full fat coconut milk would also work well - it would probably solidify faster and have a creamier, less icy texture.

Avivah

Today ds10 asked me what we were having for lunch, and I suggested to that he start writing some ideas of what he’d like down for the week.  He ended up getting a call from a friend and going out with him, but dd13 decided to put her ideas down instead.  I asked her to make it slanted more towards non-meat meals since our camping trip was so high on the meat proteins (used 12 pounds of hamburgers, 5.5 lb beef hotdogs, and a couple of pounds of canned ground meat for chili - for three dinners).  After writing it all out, she told me now she appreciates the effort it takes for me to do it every week!  Here is what she decided on:

Shabbos - dinner - chicken breasts in coconut curry sauce; roasted root vegetables, rice, gravy, salad, pecan power bars, apples; lunch- meatballs, sweet potato pudding, marinated mushrooms, Japanese radish, sweet and sour carrots, fresh salad, hot cherry peppers, pear chutney, watermelon, pecan power bars

Sunday - b - oats and milk; l - apples and peanut butter; d - chicken coconut curry, rice, pickled veggies

Monday - b - banana bread; l - peanut butter popcorn; d - split pea soup, cornbread

Tues - b- polenta; l  - leftover split pea soup; d - pizza

Wed - b - Perfect pancakes (flour soaked overnight - not indicated in recipe); l - sweet potato fries, ricotta cheese; d - chicken noodle soup

Thurs - b- Amish oatmeal; l -to be determined; d - bean burritoes

The breakfasts will be supplemented with fruit.  Dinners and lunches are supplemented with vegetables - we’ve used a lot of our home grown veggies in the last weeks.   Almost all of the squash plants were hit by powdery mildew and are dying now, but we got a lot of nice winter squash before that hit that I’m putting in storage - mostly butternut squash, since that’s what we planted the most of, but we also have acorn squash and a couple of pumpkins.  So far our tomato plants are still doing well, despite the blight that has hit a huge number of gardeners across the country. 

I really would like to put in our fall/winter garden right away, but haven’t yet done it because I don’t have compost to add to the soil.  Last Shabbos we had an organic landscaper and his family for Shabbos lunch, and he told me to speak to him since he sometimes comes across stuff that would be good for boosting soil quality for free that he’d be happy to pass on to me.  If I can get a truckload of stuff this week (not likely, but you never know!), then I’ll try to get the cold weather seeds in.  I specifically ordered a bunch of seeds that can flourish in the winter in my part of the country, mostly green leafy vegetables, to supplement our meals even when the summer is over.  I’ve never done that before and would love to see how it works out.  But it’s not worth trying to grow in clay soil that hasn’t been amended. 

I also need to start saving seeds for the coming season - the autumn is already almost here!  That’s something I’ve never done before, but whatever seeds I can save from my heirlooms will save me the cost of needing to buy those seeds in the spring. 

I’m planning to go fruit picking with the kids this week, pears and maybe figs, if the person I was in touch with a month ago still has them (they were unripe when we went).  Naturally, whatever we pick will end up in large part being eaten fresh this week!

Avivah

Polenta Casserole

• 3 t. salt
• 3 c. coarse cornmeal
• 2 cans (15 - 19 oz) chickpeas, or 2 c. dried chickpeas, soaked and sprouted (should equal about four cups after cooking)
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 t. basil
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 T. oil
• 2 cans (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
• 40 oz frozen spinach, thawed (we grew spinach and Swiss chard this year)
• salt and pepper to taste

Boil 4 1/2 c. water with the salt, and when it’s boiling, add in cornmeal, stirring to keep from getting lumps.  After a couple of minutes, lower heat to gentle flame, add cooked chickpeas and stir for 12 minutes.  Pour this mixture into a pan and refrigerate.

Meanwhile, saute garlic in oil, and when it’s soft add chopped spinach.  Cook several minutes until spinach is tender.  Mix crushed tomatoes with spices.  Take out polenta loaf from fridge, and cover it first with spinach mix, then with tomato mix.  Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Avivah

Sausage Bake

• 8 - 10 hot dogs, sliced
• 1 1/2 c. white beans
• 1 1/2 c. chili beans (I use either small red or kidneys)
• 1/2 c. brown sugar (I use sucanat and cut the amount down)
• 1/2 c. chopped onion
• 1/4 c. chopped green pepper
• 2 T. vinegar
• 1/4 t. oregano
• 1/2  - 1 c. tomato sauce
• 1 t. salt

Ideally you know that you’ll be making this a couple of days in advance and can soak and sprout the beans to maximize the nutritional value as well as to greatly increase the digestibility.  I soak them overnight, drain them the next morning, and then let them sit on the counter for a day.  The next morning, I rinse them again, and in warm weather they have sprouted within two days of when I first soaked them.  Cook the beans until soft.

Combine all ingredients and pour into a baking pan.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Avivah

First of all, I said last week that I wanted to post the cost of each meal last week at the end of the week, and because we were didn’t adhere to our menu plan for dinners, I’m not going to do it.  I’m sorry about that - it would have been fun!  Between the kids noshing veggies from the garden every day and dd accidentally making a huge recipe of lentil rice mushroom loaf (that lasted about four meals instead of two), we didn’t need to cook as much as usual.  Which is just as well, because as it is people sometimes think I’m lying about how much we spend a month and our costs last week were probably 50% less than average and I wouldn’t want to tempt some others to disbelieve me. 

We’ll be leaving on our annual camping trip after lunch today and will be gone the next few days.  In preparation for our trip, last night I made several pickled recipes to use up the vegetables in the fridge so they wouldn’t go bad in our absence.  I made 3 quarts of tomato relish (we’ll take one jar with us), 3 quarts of garlic pickles (also taking one of these), and 5 quarts of zucchini pickles.   

We didn’t decide where we’d be going until 10 pm Sunday night - the fallback option was to go the place we went last year but as much as we enjoyed it there, everyone voted to try something new this year.  The size of our family complicates finding campgrounds that can easily accomodate us, since generally they won’t let so many people into one campsite, regardless of how large the site is.  We’ll have to get two campsites at the new place we’ll be trying out tomorrow. 
It’s on a peninsula off the Chesapeake Bay, an area we haven’t been to before, and we’re all looking forward to exploring there .

This week’s menu plan is looser than usual because of the camping trip.  The kids do most of the packing; we loosely plan breakfasts and dinners and bring along a bunch of other food to fill in the gaps.  But I’ll share what it is so far with you:

Shabbos - dinner - challah, baked ziti, chicken cutlets, yellow squash curry, broccoli/zucchini quiche, apples and watermelon; lunch- baked ziti, roasted chicken salad, potato salad, sweet potato pie, broccoli/zucchini quiche, fresh salad, sweet and sour carrots, pickled Japanese radish, zucchini relish, pesto, beet salad, watermelon, kokosh cake ring

Sunday - brunch - vegetable omelets, yogurt; dinner - Shabbos leftovers (this is good since we’re leaving the fridge pretty empty while we’re gone)

Monday - b - not yet sure; l - chili

Camping trip:

• breakfasts - instant grits, quick oats, eggs
•  lunches - sandwiches - tuna salad, peanut butter, cheese
• dinners - eggplant parmesan; beef hot dogs, baked potatoes; hamburgers, yams, tomato relish, pickles
• snacks - watermelon, smores

The kids have packed also canned vegetables like corn and peas, dried fruits, and some other miscellaneous things.  In addition to the watermelon we’ll take apples and maybe some pears.  We can also take jars of cooked ground beef and beans that I’ve canned to make a quick dinner with, but the kids aren’t sure they want to take glass jars since my ds who will be 2 next week is very…..active. :) We usually take a lot of potatoes and yams so there’s enough to supplement several meals, serving them in different ways.  If there’s time before we leave, we may bake some biscuits or a couple of loaves of Cuban bread to take with us. 

I’ll try to post a recipe or two from those requested last week before we leave.  Have a wonderful week!

Avivah

This is served as a breakfast in our house. 

Dutch Puffs

• 8 eggs
• 2 c. flour
• 2 c. buttermilk or thinned plain yogurt

Blend all ingredients the night before, keep in fridge overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  In a 9 x 13 pan, melt a stick of butter (1/2 cup). Pour the mixture into the pan, and bake for 20 minutes.  Serve with fruit spread or honey.

* optional - you can add thinly sliced apples or a handful of blueberries to the batter.

Avivah 

Cranberry Muffins

• 1 1/3 c. whole wheat flour
• 2/3 c. oats
• 1/3 c. brown sugar (we used sucanat)
• 1 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1 T. baking soda
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. nutmeg
• 1/2 t. salt
• 3/4 c. buttermilk (ideally you would mix this with the flour the night before, and add the remaining ingredients the next morning)
• 1/4 c. butter or applesauce (used coconut oil)
•  1/2 c. fresh chopped cranberries (we used frozen)
• 1 egg
• optional - nuts, chocolate chips

Mix the wet ingredients, mix the dry ingredients, then combine, being careful not to overmix.  Put into muffin cups or spread into a loaf pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes for muffins.  If you make it as a loaf, bake a little longer and insert knife in center - if it comes out cleanly, it’s finished.

Avivah

This week we are tentatively beginning a modified chore chart.  Instead of the kids doing dishes, they said they’d rather cook the meals and I’ll wash the dishes.  The reason this is tentative is ds16 isn’t home at the necessary times to prepare meals but we’re trying it out.  I suggested that the person making dinner double the recipe so that there would planned leftovers for lunch the next day so that it wouldn’t feel like non stop food preparation, which it could very easily feel like when three meals from scratch are being prepared.  Alternatively lunch can be something easily self prepared by the kids, like a sandwich or eggs.  But it’s not going to be listed on my weekly menu for now.

Shabbos - dinner - challah, meatballs, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, fresh garden salad, rhubarb/apple crisp; lunch - kids requested dairy, for the second or third time this summer - lasagna, onion quiche, sweet potato pudding, Israeli salad, beet borscht with sour cream, cream cheese, brownies, grapes and orange slices; shalosh seudos - laffa wraps, gefilte fish, sardines, leftovers from lunch

Sunday - this is why it’s very helpful for me to write my meal plan down in black and white - I don’t remember what everyone ate for the first two meals of the day since it wasn’t yet written down.  They did eat, though! :)  Dinner - vegetable soup, shwarma, rice, lacto fermented pickles and fresh tomatoes from garden.

Mon - b - Dutch puffs with blueberries; d- lentil rice mushroom loaf

Tues - b - Southern biscuits, eggs, gravy; d - polenta casserole

Wed - b - rice with milk, fruit; d - oat walnut burgers

Thurs - b - cranberry muffins; spinach cheese casserole

This week I’m hoping to write a breakdown of how much meals for the week cost, meal by meal, like I did a couple of weeks ago with meals for a day.  Since there are often changes to the plan that I write here in the beginning of the week, I’ll have to make a note of them to give you an accurate accounting. 

Avivah