Pumpkin Bread Recipe

3 eggs
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, melted
2 cups cooked pumpkin (or 1 16 oz can)
5 cups flour (I use 3 cups white flour, 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup of mixture of oat flour, wheat germ and flax meal)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (celtic sea salt)
1 1/2 Tblsp Cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
2 tsp cloves
1 cup applesauce
Optional: Nuts and raisins or dates

Cream eggs and sugar. Add butter and pumpkin. Combine dry ingredients then add to the moist ingredients. Mix in the applesauce, and optional ingredients if using them.

Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Divide batter between two pans. Bake at 350 deg for approximately 1 hour.

Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

Approx 1 lb tomatoes (Roma work really well in this recipe)
1 Red Pepper
1 Med Onion
1 head garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper
fresh basil (to taste)
approximately 2 cups (or one can) chicken (or veggie) broth or stock

Cut tomatoes in half and lay face up on a baking sheet (choose a pan with a rim, otherwise the juices drip all over the floor of your oven). Quarter and seed the red pepper and put on baking sheet with tomato. Slice onion thick and put on baking sheet. Peel garlic and put whole cloves on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and toss to coat. Put this in a 400 deg oven, turning everything after about 20 minutes. Continue to roast until you start to get some color on the tomatoes and peppers and your kitchen smells heavenly.

Once the veggies are done, remove to a blender. Pour the pan juices into the blender, too. Add stock and basil and cover with a folded towel (be very sure you do not run the blender with hot items in it and the lid sealed - that will cause the items in your blender to build up a lot of pressure and possibly explode - not kidding! Place a large folded towel over the blender opening instead) and blend until smooth. Taste and add any additional seasoning. Place in bowls and garnish with sour cream and a sprig of basil.

Tuna Burger Recipe

1/2 small onion
1-2 cloves garlic diced
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups white beans (or one can)
6 oz Tuna (or one can)
1 cup bread crumbs divided
1/4 cup mayo
1 egg
Salt and Pepper to taste

Sweat the onion (like saute but the onion doesn't brown - low heat) in the butter for about 10 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic for the last minute or so - watch closely as this burns easily.

In a separate bowl, smash the white beans. Add the sauted veggies to the beans, then stir in the tuna, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, the mayo, egg, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Spoon about 1/4 cup of mixture into your hand and flatten into a patty. Coat both sides in the remaining bread crumbs (I put the bread crumbs in a plate to coat the patties) then pan fry in a little olive oil until brown on both sides and cooked through. This recipe usually makes 6-8 patties depending upon how big I make them.

Menu Plan Monday - July 14, 2008

We found these amazing tomatoes at the farmer's market this weekend. They are heirloom (so of course the boys and I saved the seeds). Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of them before we ate them all (did I mention they were amazing?) so I found a picture that looked like them online and I'm borrowing it until we can get more that I can photograph. Here's what they look like:
I sure hope he has more this week! He also had 3 other varieties of heirloom tomatoes including one that looked like a Roma, but was bright yellow. I'm hoping to try that one this week as well.

Our menu for this week (remember, the bold items are locally grown/ raised):

Breakfast :
Blueberry muffins and yogurt
Ham and cheese biscuit and blackberries
Scrambled Eggs and grits
Baked Oatmeal with peaches
Whole grain pancakes with blueberry syrup

Lunch:
The usual:
PB & honey
BLT (with lettuce sprouts)
Grilled Cheese


Snacks:
Watermelon slices
Peaches
Cucumbers and carrots dipped in ranch dressing
Berry Smoothie (with homemade yogurt)
Pumpkin bread
Blueberry Scones
Yummy Eggs (my 5 year old calls deviled eggs yummy eggs)
Biscuits with honey butter
Blueberry popsicles


Supper:
Tuna Burgers on dressed rolls (tomatoes, red and purple peppers, onion), new potato "salad" (dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar, salt and pepper) and asparagus (from freezer)

Hamburger Steak (its a burger browned then braised in beef stock) over garlic mashed new potatoes with zuke/ squash medley and we're going to have some sort of fruit desert, maybe fig cobbler (if we have any fig preserves left by then)

Baked Chicken, tomato and cucumber salad, black beans and brown rice.

Make-your-own Pizza (dh has a meeting one night this week so the kids and I will have pizza that night) with veggie tray and watermelon

Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup (also features local garlic and onion), Chicken quesadillas with sour cream and guacamole and cantaloupe

Pan Fried Tilapia with pesto, homemade bread, spaghetti squash (the farmer suggested we cut it in half, sprinkle with salt and olive oil then roast in the oven until fork tender - we've never had spaghetti squash before, so this will hopefully be a fun experiment, even if it turns out to be inedible),

Leftover buffet

Check out I'm An Organizing Junkie for more Menu Plan Monday

Indoor Greens Experiment

Well, they are already starting to get spindly as they make a desperate reach for the sunlight. I'm going to try a different window, but I'm starting to understand why people get an Aerogarden. I may invest in a grow light this weekend, while my Dad is here to help.

Garden Math

Based on average harvests per plant for tomato and strawberries, just to keep our family self sufficient in both we would need at least 35 tomato plants (we have 9) and 300 strawberry plants (what can I say, my kids love strawberries and we eat lots of strawberry preserves). Thats 22 4X4 square foot garden boxes just for those two plants. Yikes! Thankfully, we don't need to be totally self sufficient yet, but as we move towards that end we may have to look into a greenhouse, lol.

Beef Stock

At the farmer's market earlier this week, the grass-fed beef farmer had soup bones for sale in addition to the regular cuts of meat and ground beef. We pick up some and they are in the crockpot right now being turned into stock. Tonight we're having local french onion soup (well, the beef stock is local and so are the onions) to go with our local panini. I'm so pleased to have a source for healthy beef stock - yay!