Hurricane Ike barrelled through our city less than 48 hours ago, so this menu plan will be a little different than usual. Blessed with power, water, and internet service, we survived the storm in far better shape than millions of other Houstonians, even though we have a leak in our roof, part of a tree missing, and an injured fence. At least we can cook and keep our food cold! Actually acquiring said food is a bit challenging. We braved the long lines and mayhem today to buy what we could at our local HEB. As it turns out, being weird eaters served us well. Most of the produce was gone, but large sections of items like kale, leeks, and shallots remained virtually untouched, not to mention the aduki beans in the canned section. We scavenged among the other vegetable and fruit leftovers, ferreted out some frozen ground lamb (not so popular either), and even located frozen chicken breasts (everyone else had gone for fresh or canned). We returned home with a hodgepodge of ingredients, which I have subsequently tried to combine into meals. I have not planned specific meals for specific nights; rather, I have a list of possible dishes. We’ll take some of these over to those in our church without power. A big pot of highly modified White Turkey Chili found a good home tonight, and we look forward to sharing more in the days to come.
Chicken salad with tarragon
Shepherd’s Pie, made with lamb
Baked Oatmeal, made with raisins and apples (for Justice and others only)
Ground beef soup with miscellaneous vegetables (aka, clean-out-the-fridge soup)
We also have lots of cucumbers that will probably end up in some kind of cucumber salad, as well as yogurt and eggs that will help out for breakfast. After that, I don’t know what we’ll do. I’m sure the grocery stores will receive new shipments soon. We’ll just have to be flexible until then.
For menu plans, visit The Organizing Junkie.
