Fall Cooking

This is the time of year that I remember how much I love my kitchen and all the fall fruits and veggies that I have to cook with.  It's when my cravings are for heavier foods - stews, beef, pork with cabbage, anything with apples, carrots, sweet potatoes or squash.  Mmmm...just thinking about it makes me hungry!  So I thought I would share with you my menu for the week because...well...it's what I'm thinking about!

Today, I'm making a pot roast with onions, carrots, and sweet potatoes.  It's in the oven, slowly cooking in our dutch oven on 275 degrees.  My house smells divine!  This will be for lunch today.  Dinner, if we are still hungry after such a rich lunch, will be chef's salads made with boiled eggs (done this morning) and diced chicken with a light seasoning.  I'll cook this in a little bit.  I like avocados on mine.  And grapes.  A homemade balsamic vinegrette finishes this meal-style salad nicely.  Combine it with some fresh pineapple or cantaloupe and you've got a great evening meal!

I've been running low on homemade chicken stock (I use it almost exclusively to the pre-made crap...I hate salt), so Monday, I'll bake a chicken.  In our dutch oven, baking a chicken is a quick and easy way to get some great meat and to end up with plenty of bones, skin and leftover meat to make a great chicken stock.  Dinner tomorrow will be baked chicken with roast cauliflower and green beans.  I'll also make some steamed acorn squash that I'll mash up with a touch of clarified butter and nutmeg.  The leftovers will spend the entire day on Wednesday simmering slowly in my crock pot.  The resulting stock will be strained and then put into freezer bags (once it's cool) in 1 cup portions.  I always have fresh chicken stock to use this way!

Tuesday and Wednesday are crazy nights in our house.  We all have to be out of the house by 6 PM for events on Tuesday night and Bailey has another thing on Wednesday night at 6 PM.  I am making a thick, rich beef stew on Monday to cover Tuesday night's dinner.  I use carrots, onions, green beans and quartered new, white potatoes.  The white potatoes are not pure Whole30, but they are such a lovely addition to the stew.  We keep them to a minimum.  My beef stew is made with a vegetable juice based beef broth.  I use a lower sodium beef stock generally, but I need to make a homemade beef stock soon.  I triple the meat in the recipe and it works for a dinner and lunch the next day.  Making it a day in advance means I don't have to cook on Tuesday, but also the stew is better when it's marinated overnight.  The flavors are so much better.

Wednesday is my "easy food" night.  I'm making homemade turkey burgers and coupling it with homemade sweet potato fries and fruit.  This will be an eat-when-you're-ready kind of night.  I pile my turkey burgers high with avocado and fresh salsa and skip the bun.  Fresh sliced tomatoes and a tiny bit of mustard make this an extremely filling, but satisfying meal.

Thursday, I'm branching out.  I'll make homemade carnitas in my crock pot using a pork tenderloin.  This will be included on top of cauliflower tortillas (cauliflower that is drained and mixed with eggs and then fried...a Whole30 approved way of eating a tortilla).  I'll also make a pepper and onion mixture.  Fresh mango salsa, avocado and fresh tomatoes complete this meal.  I will serve it with a side of homemade applesauce (which I'm making today).

Friday is leftover day!  Take something from the fridge that is left over.  Whatever is left is fair game.  This is an easy cooking night for me - I like to use only my microwave.  Of course, there will be chef's salad fixins' or I could make a simple veggie and sausage omelet with sweet potato hash browns.  It kind of depends on what is leftover.

So that's my week in cooking.  How do you plan your meals?  Do you plan them?