Homemade Doesn’t Mean Complicated: March 27-31

An easy and nutritious start to the week after a weekend away? Hot cereal to the rescue. Carry simplicity into the week with frozen slices of homemade bread and freezer jam:

Homemade Whole Wheat Toast With Almond Butter and Raspberry Freezer Jam

Weekday convenience: whole wheat toast made with homemade bread from the freezer. Spread with almond butter and raspberry freezer jam. Served with black coffee.

Between this cool demonstration (and sampling) of hand-pulled noodles one night:

And nachos for dinner another, I didn’t have many meals to cook this week. We had grabbed the chips on sale while in Squamish. Quick and easy with beans from the freezer to, umm, make it healthy. Seriously though, adding two cups of cooked beans does mean less cheese. So it’s a good trade-off and the nachos are more filling. If you can eat them with your mom’s canned green tomato salsa, even better.

The drawback of all this fun? No leftovers. But hey, no problem. My stash of local apples in the fridge are still crisp. Combined with a not-forgotten summer soup in the freezer, we did not go hungry for lunch. Remember this summer bean soup I was so proud of? Or the leftovers from this roast vegetable and polenta dinner? Combine them together and what do you get? Well, still soup. But soup with more veggies. What’s not to like? Especially when it provides meals some six months later. Learn how I use the pantry notebook feature to keep track of all the things I stash in my freezer.

Every year when spring hits, I worry I didn’t bake enough over the winter. I finally tried these Scottish oatcakes:

Scottish Oatcakes With Raspberry Freezer Jam and Coffee

Scottish oatcakes made with Scottish oatmeal from Bob’s Red Mill. Served with homemade raspberry freezer jam and coffee. Oatcake recipe printed on bag.

This recipe is nutritious as written. But for tips about making other recipes healthier, see my forthcoming post on baking.

So did I actually cook a real meal this week? Of course. It was simple, healthy and delicious. I’m covering it in a whole separate blog post. Read about how I modified red beans and rice to use the ingredients I had on hand.

Finally, in another episode of pasta becomes frittata … Matt made this weeknight pasta when we needed a quick dinner before meeting friends:

Capellini Pasta in an Olive Oil, Butter and Garlic Sauce With Leeks and Tomatoes

Capellini pasta tossed with an olive oil-butter-garlic sauce, sautéed leeks, and frozen summer tomatoes. Garnished with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Matt bemoaned the fact that he made too much pasta. Yet, I was happy. I had cooked up a wild rice blend the previous night. Combining the two leftovers, I threw together a tasty weekend brunch:

Pasta and Rice Frittata With Canned Pears

Frittata made with leftover pasta and cooked whole grain rice. Served with home-canned pears sprinkled with cinnamon, and black coffee.

Never ever regret leftovers. Or frittatas.


COOKING AT HOME DOESN’T HAVE TO BE DIFFICULT. TAKE THE FIRST STEP BY CREATING A FREE ACCOUNT WITH KITCHENLISTER.

If you’d like more information about any of these early spring meals, leave me a comment.

Read more about my “Week in Review” posts.

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