Menu Plan Monday: Chili Cheese Dogs and Organic Tater Tots
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I have decided to get serious about menu planning. It makes life so much easier when you know what you are going to cook every night and you have all the ingredients you need on hand. From now on, I’m going to be posting my weekly menu plans every Sunday night.
I’m really excited about doing homemade chili cheese dogs and tater tots. The chili will be homemade, from organic grass-fed beef, and the chili dogs are nitrate-free turkey dogs. I found the tater tots at Whole Foods — they’re organic and made with organic palm oil — a healthy fat.
We are having organ meats twice this week — chicken liver pate on Thursday and beef heart on Friday. Saturday is traditionally shellfish night. We try to eat shellfish at least once a week and organ meats at least couple of times a month (once a week if possible). Both shellfish and organ meats are extremely nutrient-dense.
I also try to incorporate a lot of bone broth (homemade chicken, beef or fish stock) and naturally fermented condiments like salsa and sauerkraut. Both are very good for digestion and absorption of nutrients.
I buy everything organic, if possible. I buy all of our meat, eggs and dairy from animals on pasture (grass-fed). I buy all of our dairy raw (sometimes I buy KerryGold butter which is pasteurized but it does come from grass-fed cows).
SUNDAY
Dinner out
MONDAY
Cobb Salad with Leftover Turkey, Raw Milk Cheese, Nitrate-Free Salami, Tomatoes, Avocado w/ Homemade Vinaigrette
TUESDAY
Chili Cheese Dogs (chili made with grass-fed beef from Organic Pastures, canned organic tomatoes, and homemade chicken stock, served with nitrate-free turkey dogs and melted raw milk cheddar cheese on sprouted bread)
Tater Tots (organic, made with palm oil)
Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream (with raw cream, maple syrup and organic cocoa powder)
WEDNESDAY
Lentil Soup (made with homemade chicken stock) with Naturally-Fermented Sauerkraut and Homemade Cream Cheese (made from yogurt)
Nitrate-Free Sausage from Rocky Canyon
Grindstone Bakery Bread with Grass-Fed Butter
THURSDAY
Grindstone Bakery Bread
Raw Milk Cheddar Cheese
Homemade Chicken Liver Pate
Cornichons (they were out of cornichons so I got caper berries instead — not organic)
Roasted Garlic
Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream
FRIDAY (taco night)
Ground Beef/Heart Tacos made with ground beef and Whole Foods Organic Taco Shells (I’m not crazy about these because they are made with sunflower/safflower oil — but Seth loves them)
Black Beans (cooked in homemade chicken stock)
Brown Rice (cooked in homemade chicken stock and served with butter)
Lacto-Fermented Salsa
Homemade Sour Cream
Homemade Guacamole
SATURDAY (shellfish night)
Oysters on the Half Shell
Mignonette Sauce
Caprese Salad (with homegrown basil and Italian mozzarella)
Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp (nitrate-free bacon and wild, frozen shrimp)
For more menu plans, visit Menu Plan Monday
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01/12/2008 at 10:58 am Permalink
We are eating Chili today also! My kids love chili lol. Your menu sounds great!
01/12/2008 at 12:09 pm Permalink
Thanks, Erica.
I love chili in the fall and winter. It was one of my mother’s best comfort foods. I also love white bean and chicken chili — my older sister made a bunch of it for me and stored it in the fridge after Katie was born. I need to get her recipe so I can make some.
Hubs is not so fond of chili oddly enough. But he loves chili cheese dogs.
01/12/2008 at 4:25 pm Permalink
Mmmm, I miss chili (can’t have beans or nightshade veg any more; the beans bother my thyroid and the nightshades affect my arthritis and fibro). I’ve tried making it without tomatoes and peppers, but it’s really just not the same…
I’m going to try making sweet italian sausage today, with cracked fennel seeds, garlic, salt, black papper, thyme, and coriander, along with grass fed beef and beef fat. I’m drooling just thinking of it! *g*
01/12/2008 at 4:41 pm Permalink
We love chilli too.I have never had a Chilli Cheese Dog or a Tater Tot. What is a tater to? I think I can guess what a chilli cheese dog is. They sound yummy!
We have found a butcher who does 100% Grass Fed Organic – the only butcher in Adelaide Sth Australia! I think there are a few farmers though and I intend to visit them in the holidays.
02/12/2008 at 9:09 am Permalink
You make the tater tots with palm oil, but you don’t like the taco shells because they are made with sunflower/safflower oil. Why is palm oil okay but not sunflower? I use sunflower oil sometimes to do oil pulling.
02/12/2008 at 10:05 am Permalink
Ann Marie will probably answer this too, but sunflower/safflower oil in a store bought taco shell is toxic. It has been refined, bleached, heated to extreme temps., and is rancid. It is also an omega-6 oil, one in which we humans have very little use for, especially when it is treated in that un-natural fashion. Palm oil is a natural, very stable saturated fat like coconut oil is. No refining is necessary, and heating will not hurt it. And, just like coconut, it has many health benefits to its consumption.
I hope that when you are doing the iol pulling, you are using the organic, cold pressed, un-refined sunflower oil?
02/12/2008 at 10:16 am Permalink
Yup! Sunflower and safflower oils are not appropriate for deep frying.
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html
The only thing I use sunflower oil for is for Kate’s baby formula. And I keep it in the fridge because it is easily oxidized. So frying with it is a very bad idea!
How I wish I could find taco shells fried in lard.
02/12/2008 at 10:18 am Permalink
Carys, your sausage sounds so yummy! Are you going to use casings?
On the subject of casings, I really want to learn to make haggis. I had some when I went to Scotland and I *loved* it.
02/12/2008 at 10:30 am Permalink
Ann Marie, I no longer buy the store bought taco shells anymore, but I love the “Food For Life” sprouted corn tortillas. They are soft and small, and I fry them in lard in a fry pan, add my meat filling and cheese, and then close it over (like a regular taco), and then fry the other side. They do get nice and crispy. But, I know where Seth is coming from, I love hard tacos!
BTW, you have inspired me to do menu planning again. I did it about a year ago, and loved it. But, I got busy and stopped. Ironically, it actually saves you time scrambling to decide what to make for dinner. I just put together two weeks worth of breakfasts and suppers.
Glad to hear you are back to regular foods you love and you are feeling well!
02/12/2008 at 10:55 am Permalink
I wish Seth would agree to sprouted or homemade tortillas. Taco night (which we do every week) is his favorite and for some reason he loves those bad taco shells. I tried frying them in lard but he was not fond of them. I will have to try again…
Yes, menu planning makes life SO much easier. Saves so much time, money, and mental energy!
02/12/2008 at 1:07 pm Permalink
See, we love soft taco shells here, haha!
I remember making taco bowls YEARS ago when I worked night shift. We would use soft taco shells and put them on a special bowl type thing and bake them until they were hard……….that’s if I remember right. That was 10 years ago. What about trying something like that?
02/12/2008 at 1:12 pm Permalink
This is what we used, not hard to find. I think they have non-stick coating though
http://www.surlatable.com/product/id/124121.do
02/12/2008 at 3:11 pm Permalink
I think it is cold pressed and organic. I haven’t been keeping it in the refrigerator
Do you think I should, and considering I don’t drink it but only oil pull with it?
But I don’t cook with it. Thanks for the information, I will go back to using sesame oil for oil pulling (just sometimes difficult to find cold-pressed–i don’t want toasted sesame). Sesame oil was more tasty anyway
Also, I want to ask if anyone ever eats pig’s liver? I ate most of a pig’s liver–too much trouble to make liverwurst so I just cooked it up. But I always hear about duck or chicken or calves’ liver, never pig’s except in liverwurst. I also never hear about lamb’s liver, but I have some of that.
03/12/2008 at 1:15 pm Permalink
Erica -
You are so smart!
Just LOOK at this:
http://www.foodnetworkstore.com/p-130892-0%20160-Chicago-Metallic_Chicago-Metallic-Brushed-Stainless-Taco-Shell-Baking-Rack.aspx?brand=160
I’m so excited! Going to order one for Seth for Christmas.
03/12/2008 at 1:19 pm Permalink
Helena –
You should keep it in the fridge. In fact, I’d throw it away as it’s probably rancid now.
I don’t know about oil pulling but I personally believe that anything that goes on your skin should be of the same quality of something that you eat. Your pores absorb the oil.
If I could get a hold of some pig’s liver I would use it in sausages and pates. I have never eaten it just plain. How was it?
03/12/2008 at 1:58 pm Permalink
I really liked it–not as good as turkey liver though. I don’t really like pate because of the texture. Sausage-making seems too involved and I don’t have a meat grinder.
03/12/2008 at 7:59 pm Permalink
Hey you! I came to your blog to read more GAPS stuff, and there you are abandoning it and posting all this yummy stuff I can’t eat! I feel so deprived!!! :-p
Seriously, though, congratulations.
It sounds like your body is ready and I’m very happy for you. We’ll probably have to go the full 2 years.
03/12/2008 at 8:03 pm Permalink
Aw! I’m sorry!
Remember, I stayed on a GAPS-like diet for 1.5 years when I was in my 20s.
Hang in there. You will heal and you will be able to eat everything again.
22/11/2009 at 9:51 pm Permalink
Hi. This is a super post!