Meal Plan ~ February 2013 week 3

We have snow! I have to celebrate the little things and in this area of the world snow is a rare and beautiful treat. We are lucky to get one snowfall per year and they never stick around for more than a day. But it was a beautiful day, playing outside with the kids and watching the snow fall from my kitchen window, plus our day ended with hot cocoa, which made my boys happy. Last week fell short of my expectations. Partly because I planned on doing more than was reasonable and partly because I just plain ran out of steam.  We still ate great meals and I still put plenty into my freezer, but a few things were just not done (like empanadas or chicken pot pie)

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Meal Plan ~ February 2013 week 2

I love the satisfaction of completing a meal plan. We ate well this past week, enjoyed some favorite standbys and tried some new things. One of our big successes this week was trying this Artisan Bread. It was so unbelievably easy to make. Normally I am a sourdough fan, but during our summer of having our house for sale and then moving, my sourdough starter ... well it wound up in the trash after turning yucky colors and smelling pretty bad. It has taken me six months, but I finally got around to starting a new batch of starter this past week. However it will be a little while before the starter is strong enough to consistently make bread so in the meantime I am very pleased to have found such an easy and tasty loaf of bread, especially since I can freeze the dough and quickly make fresh baked bread after the baby comes. The most surprising food success story around here last week was when I defrosted what was labeled as beef heart only to find beef kidneys. Not something I can easily substitute as kidneys have a very distinct taste and smell. In a last minute frenzy I turned the kidneys into "beef nuggets" (like chicken nuggets) and served them up with some honey mustard dipping sauce.

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