Meal Planning in the Homestead Kitchen
Recipe: Pizza
Recipe: Kale Caesar Salad
Recipe: Summer Squash Pesto Noodles
Meal Planning in the Homestead Kitchen
In this module we’re going to talk about an important skill for a sane and organized kitchen: Meal planning.
Meal planning is a great way to:
- Keep to a budget
- Cook meals from scratch
- Get clear on your expectations for the week
- Communicate mealtime responsibilities to other members of your household
- Incorporate particular ingredients into your meals
Dinner prep can go one of two ways: it can be a stressful or relaxing. A stressful dinner prep involves trying to think up what to eat, searching the kitchen for ingredients, searching cookbooks for recipes, and eventually getting dinner on the table an hour late, all done to the chorus of whining kids. A relaxing dinner prep can be done on autopilot. The meal plan tells you what you are making, the ingredients are all stocked, the recipe is ready, and maybe you have a glass of wine and some good music while you chop and cook.
I like to have a few simple meals and a few more complicated meals each week. I try to plan it around our schedule: new recipes and meals that take more time are reserved for the nights when we have more time; quick and easy meals like grilled cheese with veggie sticks or taco night when there are evening activities scheduled.
Here is a blank meal planning sheet and two examples of how we might fill out a weekly meal plan that focuses on local eating. Also, check out this Pinterest board for more recipes and seasonal eating inspiration.
There is a popular saying that a failure to plan is a plan to fail. This is so true in your homestead kitchen! When dinner time rolls around, you don’t want to be stuck having to think about what to make (in addition to making it!). It helps to have a general meal plan to help guide you through the week. Consider making more complicated and time consuming meals on days when you know you will have a little extra time in the kitchen. Have a few simple meals up your sleeve for the nights when there is less time. Also, make plenty of extra food, so you have leftovers for lunch or dinner on future nights.
Recipes are great, but not carved in stone.
One of the biggest challenges (and joys) of the homestead kitchen is that you can’t always stick to a recipe. Recipes are great guidelines, but it’s likely they will never perfectly capture what is available in the garden or the farmers market at this moment. Recipes are great for inspiration, but the homestead (and budget conscious) cook needs to be willing to experiment. Substituting fats, vegetables, meats, and other ingredients allows you to change recipes to fit what is available seasonally.
It’s helpful and flexible to keep a loose meal plan that can vary week-to-week as different foods become available. Here are a few simple meal ideas for different seasons.
Spring
- This is the time of year when eggs are most abundant, so I like to include a weekly frittata, scramble, or egg bake for dinner.
- Baby greens become available, so at least one dinner will be a salad. Pair with a roast chicken or top with cooked beans and/or grains to round out the meal.
Summer
- Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! If you are canning tomato sauce, bbq sauce, salsa, or anything else, make sure to have it as a main ingredient with dinner that night.
- Grilling is a fun way to get out of the kitchen. Just about anything can be grilled. Butterfly a chicken for a grilled version of whole chicken. Grass-fed burgers are a must. Corn on the cob can go right on the grill. Cast iron cookware is great for cooking up veggies, but you can also wrap veggies in foil packets with some seasoning and oil or butter and place the packet right on the grill.
Autumn
- Cooler nights mean soup is back on the menu. Make one night a week a soup night. Vegetarian chili, butternut squash soup, and potato leek are some of my family’s favorites.
- Baked winter squash are wonderful autumn fare. Turn them into well-rounded meals by stuffing squash with cooked meat, beans, or grains, along with sautéed onions & garlic. Sprinkle a little cheese on top.
- Roasted root veggies can go from side dish to main dish with a fried egg on top. Even better if you scramble eggs with dark leafy greens (kale, chard, or spinach) and top it with some cheese.
Winter
- Instead of heading out to the garden or farmer’s market, you will be headed into the root cellar, pantry, or freezer. Make sure to go through everything weekly and pull out vegetables that are starting to turn and your oldest preserved foods.
- In addition to soups, casseroles are another hearty winter meal. If you roast and freeze eggplant and can tomato sauce, you are half-way to a delicious eggplant parmesan. Another favorite of mine is a tamale casserole, with two layers of corn flour mixed with butter and eggs and a filling of black beans or chicken and veggies.
Year round ideas
- Taco/Burrito night is a great flexible meal idea. Veggies (fresh or cooked), meat, beans, cheese can be mixed and matched and rolled into a flour or corn tortilla.
- I like to roast a whole chicken once a week. I put some root veggies and onions underneath and it is a whole meal in one dish.
- The crockpot can be a great friend, especially to folks who have more time to prep in the morning than at night. Try soups, stews, whole chickens, pulled pork – the list of things you can make in a crockpot are endless!
- Pizza night! Why order out when you can make your own with garden fresh ingredients? Below is a recipe for mozzarella, ricotta, and pizza crust. From there, let your imagination go wild, or make individual crusts to folks can choose their own toppings.
Recipe: Pizza (crust and cheese)
Pizza Crust (makes 2 crusts)
Ingredients:
- 3 ½ cups flour
- 1Tbs sugar
- 1Tbs yeast
- 1tsp salt
- 1 cup water
- 1 ½ Tbs olive oil (or other oil)
To make:
- Combine 2 cups of flour with yeast, sugar, salt, then add oil
- Heat water to 100°F
- Slowly stir in water
- Add remaining flour
- Knead until smooth & elastic (8-10 minutes)
- Rest dough 10 min, shape into crust, and rest another 10 min
- Add toppings and bake at 450°F until bottom of crust is hard (about 10 minutes)
Mozzarella (recipe courtesy of Lindsay Harris, Mountain Home Farm, VT)
1 gallon of milk makes about 1 ¼ lb of cheese
Ingredients & Equipment:
- Milk (raw or pasteurized, but NOT ultra-pasteurized)
- Citric acid crystals (1 ¼ tsp per gallon milk)
- Rennet (1/4 tsp liquid or ¼ tablet or 1/8 tsp vegetarian rennet per gallon milk)
- Salt (2-3 Tbs per gallon milk)
- Thermometer
- Rubber gloves
- Bowl with ice water
To make:
- Pour cold milk into pot
- Dissolve citric acid crystals in ½ cup cool water, then stir this solution gently and thoroughly into cold milk
- Slowly heat the milk to 90°F while stirring frequently, but not too vigorously
- Dissolve rennet in ½ cup cool water
- Take the milk off the heat and very gently but thoroughly stir in rennet
- Let milk sit undisturbed for 10 minutes or until you get a mass of curds that breaks cleanly. You may have to put a little heat to it if the curds aren’t setting up well.
- Mix salt into bowl of ice water to make an icy brink (we will use this to cool the finished cheese)
- Use a long knife to cut the curds into 1 inch by 1 inch columns
- Very gently stir the curds as you heat up the pot. The curds will become gooey and stretchy and stick together when the whey reaches 120° or 130°
- Use rubber gloves to pull the mass of curds out of the whey. Stretch and work them for 5-10 seconds- not too much, or they will get rubbery. Whey will pour off as you work them. Work the curds more if you are planning to melt (like for pizza) and less for fresh cheese.*
- Submerse cheese in icy brine to cool for 15 minutes or so. Add a tablespoon of whey to the brine.
- Enjoy cheese immediately or store moist (but not submerged) in the fridge in an airtight container. Also freezes well.
- You can easily turn hot whey into ricotta! See following recipe.
Ricotta (recipe courtesy of Lindsay Harris, Mountain Home Farm, VT)
Ingredients & Equipment:
- Whey
- Butter muslin (fine mesh cheese cloth)
- Colander
- Salt
To Make:
- Stir the whey continuously as you heat it up to 195° (don’t let it boil). You may see very small curds floating in the whey.
- Take it off the heat and let cool for a few minutes to a few hours (you can strain the cheese soon after you take it off the heat, but it is much easier to work with after it cools off).
- Line colander with butter muslin
- Slowly and carefully pour whey and curds through muslin (be extra careful if it is hot!)
- Form a bag with the butter muslin by tying the ends together and hang it over a sink or bowl to drain
- Drain until it is the consistency you like (more time=thicker) 3-5 hours
- Salt to taste
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge
- Mix with garlic, herbs, salt and olive oil or try using it for something sweet like cannoli filling
Recipe: Kale Caesar Salad
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of fresh kale
- ½ lemon, juiced
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ avocado
- ¼ cup grated parmesan
- 4-6 anchovies (optional)
- Polenta Croutons (recipe below)
- Polenta Croutons
- 1 cup coarse ground cornmeal (polenta)
- 2 cups water
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 Tbs butter (optional)
- pepper
Polenta Croutons
To Make:
- Boil water and salt. Add polenta and stir. Bring down to a simmer and continue stirring about 20 minutes until polenta is thick. Add butter and pepper and stir.
- Butter a 9×12 casserole dish, pour polenta in and smooth surface. Refrigerate 1 hour.
- Cut polenta into 1inch cubes, space out on well–oiled cookie sheet. Bake 350 for 40 minutes, until hard and crispy.
Salad
To make:
- Remove stems from kale and rip into bit sized pieces.
- Add lemon juice and salt.
- Massage kale (as though you were kneading bread) for about 5 minutes. Squeeze kale in your hands and push into the sides of the bowl with the heal of your hand. Kale will wilt and reduce to about ¼ of size. Taste as you go and stop when kale soft.
- Mash avocado into kale, add parmesan, anchovies, and croutons.
Recipe: Summer Squash Pesto Noodles
Ingredients:
- 4 medium zucchini or summer squash
- 2 Tbs Butter
- 1 pint sun gold or cherry tomatoes
- ¼ cup grated parmesan
Pesto
Ingredients:
- 4 cups packed basil leaves
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup parmesan, grated
- ¼ cup pecans, walnuts, or pine nuts
- salt and pepper
To Make:
- Use a spiralizer to cut summer squash or zucchini into noodles.
- Melt butter in a large pan and sauté noodles for 2-4 minutes, until cooked, but not too soft.
- Toss with pesto and top with tomatoes and parmesan. Serve immediately.