I so love my UPS lady!

I really do.  I know every time she pulls up I'll be finding something fun on the back porch.  Just look at what she left today!

I'm really hoping this book lives us to its reputation.  It came highly recommended and since I am relying on my "super" Walmart market to supply the bulk of our foods I am hoping it is right up my alley.

So tonight I'll be settled in for a good read and then I'll see what recipes to try first.

Other notes --

I didn't stick completely to Wednesday's menu.  I had leftovers of the Speckled butter beans and rice.  So of course, I served them for lunch.  Then I took the final bit of them and used them to make soup that night so instead of barley I used rice.  No big deal...but today I didn't stick to the menu either. I had extra time this morning and we made hashbrowns.  Then I forgot to bring the potatoes with me so we're having left over soup for lunch.  Thank goodness I did start the blackbeans in the crockpot!

Blackberry Pancakes and Weekly Menu

Yesterday at the store I found fresh blackberries. Don't they look yummy!
And they were fabulous with pancakes this morning.

Menu for this week:

Monday: B -- blackberries and pancakes
L -- Mexican Corn Salad
D -- Rutabegas and Cornbread with leftover salad from lunch
Snack -- Chocolate cookies

Tuesday: B -- Crockpot Oatmeal with peaches and blueberries
L -- Spicy Cole Slaw, Hashbrown potatoes
D -- Speckled butter beans, brown rice, and chopped onion
Snack -- Ginger snaps

Wednesday: B -- Grits with cinnamon apples
L -- Baked sweet potatoes and a veggie salad
D -- Vegetable and Barley Soup
Snack -- Oatmeal Cookies

Thursday: B -- Cream of Wheat with bananas
L -- Baked potatoes with salsa, steamed broccoli, leftover slaw
D -- Black beans, cornbread, fruit salad
Snack -- cupcakes

Friday: B -- Oatmeal with fruit
L -- Lima Beans, hash browns, leftover fruit salad
D -- Chili, brown rice, corn chips
Snack -- Chocolate Chip Cookies

Saturday:  B -- Blender Pancakes, Fruit Syrup
L -- Chili Casserole (from leftover chili)
D -- Veggie burgers, whole wheat buns, fries
Snack -- Cake

Sunday:  B -- Biscuits and jam
L -- Stewed Potatoes, Cabbage, Baked sweet potatoes
D -- Clean out leftovers from week and add to if needed
Snack -- Leftover cake

Head over to Organizing Junkie to see more great menus for the week. 
I always find something new I want to try.

A Pleasant Surprise

Do you ever notice that no matter how much you plan things other things come up? Well, my plan for this week was to use my set up of menus to showcase The Vegan Family Cookbook. It won’t be this week though. To get to Walmart I’d have to drive three hours round trip and it just wasn’t happening. I thought it would because we weren’t as planned as busy as we ended up to be on Saturday. Then today I got a call from my mama at a few minutes after ten wanting to know if she could come visit for the afternoon. It has been a long time since she came down so I wasn’t about to say no. So I am saving my menu for next week.


We did go to the local grocery store and I picked up more things than I had imagined I could find. One thing about it – there aren’t many processed vegan foods there.

We’re looking at a good eating week even without my trip to Walmart.

I came home with:

• Rutabegas –2 large

• Cabbage – 1 large

• Slaw mix – 1 bag

• Carrots – 2 bags

• Yellow onions – 2 large

• Red onions – 1 large

• Spinach – 2 tubs

• Apples – 1 bag

• Zucchini – 4 tiny

• Canned giant lima beans – 2 cans

• Green onions – 1 bunch

• Red potatoes – 15 lbs.

• 1 can of olives (new brand to try)

• Dill pickle spearbs – 1 jar

• Celery

• Blackberries

• Frozen speckled butter beans

• 2 bags of frozen hashbrown potatoes

• Green bell pepper

• Chocolate soy milk – I know, but at least they had some kind of soy milk…and I wanted to encourage them to order it.

• Coffee and chicory blend

• Sweet potatoes – 3 whole

• Sweet potatoes – 2 cans

• Brown rice – 1 bag

• Whole wheat flour – 5 lbs.

I may have been wrong about my initial assessment. Obviously you see no tofu, no vegetarian pre-mades (like burgers) or things like that, but I don’t need them to survive.

Rosey -- The Ultimate Kitchen Friend

My family jokingly calls me the Queen of Kitchen Appliances.  I just smile and ignore them, because I know the great things in my kitchen aren't mere appliances because they are my friends.

The Ultimate Kitchen Friend for a new vegan cook has to be a crockpot and the second would be the food processor and the third would be a stand mixer.  (Wow, what run-on sentence...lol)  Shhh!  Don't tell them I rank them because I don't want them to start fighting for my attention.

This is Rosey.

Rosey is my best kitchen friend so far.  She loves me so much that she cooks for me while I do other things -- like read blogs, cookbooks, teach school and yes, even while I sleep.  With such a wonderful friend a new vegan is bound to succeed.

Rosey cooks almost everything.  She can cook whole grains to perfection.  She can make a mean pot of chili or soup.  She cooks beans like nothing.  Homemade broth is breeze to her.  She cooks me oatmeal while I sleep.  She's just awesome.  She can even cook pasta with a little supervision.

With those basics if I add a little fruit or veggies and maybe some bread...I can have a meal ready in no time.

Here's how Rosey has helped me this week:

1. a huge pot of rice to go in the frig for meals
2. a huge pot of beans -- part for soup and the rest in the frig to add to meals
3. chili -- because I'm miserable with a cold and chili is awesome
4. vegetable broth -- because I hate to waste money by tossing veggie bits

Rosey is quite a frugal lady, too.  The pot of chili was enough for two meals and she used part of the beans she had cooked earlier.  Speaking of which, dry beans are way cheaper than canned beans and the salt content can be controlled.  The second meal of chili was great over a big bowl of rice.  By the way, rice is a pretty inexpensive grain and Rosey loves that!  She also loves that it is so versatile.

I'll be back tomorrow with the beginnings of a favorite cookbook list and perhaps a plan that will let me showcase a week or more of recipes from one of the books.  My goal is to work my way through them because I've promised my darling hubby that I could cook a years worth of vegan food and never repeat meals unless he asked.  So now I have to put my kitchen skills where my mouth is.  (No pun intended.)