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 🙂