Hounds In The Kitchen » mindful menu

Meal Plan April 26, 2010

Rachel Tayse — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:29:55 +0000

Do you ever play restaurant with your kids? It’s a fantastic way to enjoy an evening together and gently guide their experiences about food, service, and community. I wrote about our most recent restaurant at home on Ohio Moms Blog.

This week’s menu:

Monday – macaroni and cheese, spinach salad

Tuesday – roasted chicken, baked kale, baked potatoes

Wednesday – (real) restaurant dinner with family (I’m voting for Lavash or Aladdin’s)

Thursday – overnight stay at the Inn at Cedar Falls, sandwiches on the way there for dinner

Friday – breakfast and lunch from the Inn, frozen ravioli for quick after-drive-home meal

Saturday – buffalo burgers, fruit, quinoa and feta salad

Sunday – family dinner

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Meal Plan April 26, 2010 is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Meal Plan April 12, 2010

Rachel Tayse — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 03:11:12 +0000

Alex is traveling for business this week to Connecticut and New Hampshire. I have three workshops scheduled (Food Matters Columbus event Monday, Kids Cook Thursday, and Container Planting Workshop Saturday) AND I will be helping staff the Sprout Soup store while the owners are on vacation. With all the busy-ness, Lil and I will surely have hungry tummies. I will rely on pantry items and frozen homemade food to get us through the week.

Monday – chicken leftovers for Lil, homemade bean cheese empanada from the freezer for me, applesauce, carrot sticks
Tuesday – penne with home canned tomato sauce and Parmesan
Wednesday – sandwiches, lentil soup from freezer
Thursday – dinner at friends
Friday – homemade pizzas and salad
Saturday – restaurant
Sunday – family dinner

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Meal Plan April 12, 2010 is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Menu Planning on Vacation

Rachel Tayse — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:07:15 +0000

Usually I would post our week’s meal plan today. Because we are leaving for a vacation to the Eastern shore of Virginia tomorrow, I have no mindful menu.

That doesn’t mean I’m not planning, though!

Eating on vacation, especially a driving vacation like ours, can be a string of fast food restaurants. The salt and fat in fast food does nothing to keep us healthy and enjoying a trip.

Besides, America has more to offer than a quick eat on the road. There are family restaurants and local specialty food stands all over the country. With mobile smart phones and time in our itinerary, we do our best to explore good eats on road trips.

I use google maps to estimate where we will want a meal. Then I use the ‘search nearby’ function to look for restaurants. If I find nothing of interest, I check out recommendations on happy cow (a vegan/vegetarian site), urban spoon or yelp. I often narrow the search by the term vegetarian or kid friendly.

We make lots of snacks so as to not be tempted by gas station buys in between meals. For this trip we are bringing homemade chex-like mix, apples, dried cranberries, lara bars, crackers, and carrot muffins to ease highway munchies.

Whenever possible, we select lodging that has a cook top and/or refrigerator. We can cook breakfast in the room, store cheese and fruit for snacks, and make simple dinners with ingredients from the farmer’s or fish market.

When we get to our final destination of Chincoteague Island, we are staying at Eagle’s View Bayfront House vacation rental. The owner saw a link to this blog in my email signature and offered a round up of healthy local restaurants and food markets. When traveling, vacation home owners and blogs are great resources for food lovers.

I hope my meal planning for this vacation pays off and perhaps you can use this advice on your next trip!

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Menu Planning on Vacation is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Meal Plan Week of January 25, 2010

Rachel Tayse — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:11:36 +0000

Before we get to the goodies of this week’s plan, I wanted to feature a few things that help us follow our plan: the whiteboard and refrigerator shopping list.

I write out the meals on the whiteboard so those who aren’t paying attention when we meal plan and don’t keep up with their RSS feed (ahem, Alex) have another reference point during the week.

I keep the post-it pad on the front of the fridge to write down foodstuffs as we run out of them. When I go grocery shopping I add to the bottom of that list and take it to the store. Does anyone else have a system like this?

This week’s Mindful Menus will be:

Monday – salmon, salad, rice (Rachel will have dinner at Whole Foods before book club with Food Matters Columbus.)

Tuesday – root vegetable gratin topped with fried egg, applesauce

Wednesday – parmesan rind soup with chickpeas and kale, spaghetti and home canned sauce

Thursday – leftovers or quesadillas

Friday – vegetable pie with cornbread top crust

Saturday – Rachel’s parents?

Sunday – Alex’s parents

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Meal Plan Week of January 25, 2010 is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!