Our poinsettia outside is turning red, the rain is coming, the tree is up, and our noses are running. It’s officially holiday season in our family. I will soon be sharing some holiday appetizer ideas, as well as our Christmas dinner menu. In the meantime, I am in the mood for SOUP! As you will surely surmise from this week’s menu…
If you haven’t had a chance to check out my guest post on Karen Le Billon’s blog, for ways to rethink the approach to family meals French-style, it’s righthere.
Also sharing some images from our CSA delivery this week. Love to see beauty in the things this earth has to offer.
Radicchio lettuce, mushroom, baby bok choy, and Washington grown chestnuts |
Cheeses of the week: Following French tradition, I always offer a little bit of cheese at the end of every meal, between the main course and dessert. Rotation this week: Italian truffle cheese, Gorgonzola, Petit Basque sheep’s milk cheese.
Desserts: At lunch, I offer a fruit yogurt (or plain yogurt with fresh fruit), but at night, I prefer sticking to plain yogurt (regular homemade* whole milk, sheep’s milk, goat’s milk and Greek yogurt for extra protein) to avoid too much sugar before bedtime.
If you would like a particular recipe on the menu, feel free to contact me! (I marked with a * the recipes that will be the topic of upcoming posts).
MONDAY
Lunch
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Avocado, tomato & potato salad
Main course: Sardines, baby bok choy puree
Goûter (4pm snack) – Grapes
Dinner
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Lamb’s lettuce salad
Main course: Raclette (melted cheese over ham & potato)
TUESDAY
Lunch
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Tomato, hearts of palm and quinoa salad
Main course: Ground beef patty with pan-fried eggplant
Goûter – Apple compote
Dinner
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Cream of fava beans with fresh cheese and feta, inspired by My Little Fabric
Main course: Shrimp and soybean threads with a soy ginger lemon sauce, baked in a parcel, over rice.
WEDNESDAY
Lunch
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Cucumber in tarragon yogurt sauce
Main course: Smoked salmon & green beans
Goûter – Apple blueberry compote
Dinner
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Green asparagus soup
Main course: Buttermilk chicken and roasted rosemary carrots
THURSDAY
Lunch
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Grated carrots French-style
Main course: Pan-fried veal liver with broccoli puree
Goûter – Apple pear compote
Dinner
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Grilled artichokes with shallot vinaigrette
Main course: Rainbow chards cod brandade
FRIDAY
Lunch
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Cauliflower & green beans salad
Main course: Ham and vegetable noodles
Goûter – Kiwi
Dinner
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Sunchoke velouté
Main course: Rosemary lamb chops with cannelloni beans
SATURDAY
Lunch – OUT
Goûter – Tangerine
Dinner
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Chestnut butternut squash soup*
Main course: Hot Tofu from Nami at Just One Cookbook
SUNDAY
Lunch – OUT
Goûter – Apple blueberry compote
Dinner
Appetizer / Finger Foods: Fennel, shallot potato soup inspired by Cannelle & Vanille
Main course: Pan-fried duck breast with vegetable jardinière
Our family avoids wheat if possible so I love all the gluten free menu ideas on your blog. There is also so much variety, thanks for sharing!
Sure thing, thanks for coming by! I even experimented recently with a bechamel sauce – a classic French sauce for gratins made with butter, flour and milk – with quinoa flour recently, and it worked out very well!
wow cool, I never thought of replacing the flour with another one! I'll like to try that for my next white sauce too!
How do you serve the sardine dish? I would love to incorporate sardines into my sons (and my!) diet but just don't know how to approach them! Is there a brand you buy canned or do you get the fresh ones from the fish market? Thx!
Hi Sarika, I usually buy the canned boneless skinless sardines (wild caught or sustainably farmed whenever possible) in olive oil. And then I just open the can and serve! With maybe a drizzle of lemon to taste. Otherwise, check out my recipe for sardine eggplant brandade for a hot cooked dish – http://frenchfoodiebaby.blogspot.com/2012/07/sardine-eggplant-brandade-why-heck-not.html. Once, we did an open face sandwich with creamed fava beans and sardines on top, it was very good (but fresh fava beans take a a bit to prepare though). I'll be posting more sardine recipe ideas after the holidays, I got a recipe book in France with nothing but recipes using canned sardines, you can get quite creative with them.
my daughter's favorite is canned sardines on toast with a dollop of yogurt and a squeeze of lemon. More Scandinavian than French, but a fantastic snack with plenty of good fats to keep you going.
That sounds delicious, Holly, I'm sure Pablo will love that! Thanks so much 🙂
What I'm wondering, and have been wondering for a while, is with the cheese…do you just buy small cuts of the cheese? And does it cost a fortune from your budget? The reason I would love to implement the cheese part into our meals is that I love cheese. I obviously don't want to buy multiple blocks of different kinds of cheese lest they just end up going bad.
Hi Jodi. I don't know where you are located and if you have reasonable options to buy cheese, we have Trader Joe's here which has a lot of choice and is reasonably priced. What I do is I buy 2 or 3 different kinds (i try to mix goat milk, sheep's milk and cow when possible) per week approx for variety (each piece abt the size of a pack of cheddar or smaller), and keep them in large ziploc or tupperware in the fridge, they keep for a good 10-12 days if not more (they just get stronger tasting and stinkier! which could be considered a good thing ;-)) Our whole family has a little bit at the end of each meal… Hope that answers your question 🙂 Happy cheese eating!
as usual, loving all the ideas and slightly jealous of pablo's amazing menu! itneresting to see boy choy featured in the menu too (: one of my favourite greens!
Yes, we do love baby bok choy, so we haven't done anything too original with it, either steamed with oyster sauce or with potato in a puree. Let me know if you have any other recipes for them, would love to try.
You are an amazing mom! Even when I had just my son, I am not sure if I was as organized as you are and tried my best to feed my son with all these great food, Helene. I am inspired by you and at the same time I admire of you! I'm sure lots of new moms appreciate your effort too. It helps us plan meals a lot easier by studying your list! 🙂
Thank you so much, what kind compliments, Nami. So glad if the menus can be helpful 🙂