So this isn’t technically a gadget or utensil, but I figure it sort of qualifies as things I use a lot! One of the things I get asked pretty frequently is what I keep in my pantry on a regular basis to make planning easier.

So here’s a list of what I try to have on hand. As long as these items are around, I know I can pull out a healthy meal for any number of people at the drop of a hat.

• oatmeal – The rolled kind – it’s a great filler, makes a good flour when ground, can be used for a crumble crust, or breading on an oven fried food, or even in a pinch just to make a bowl of oatmeal.
• steel cut oats – This is my standby breakfast in the winter. It’s warm, filling, full of protein and fiber, and makes a great breakfast on cold days.
• pasta – The whole grain variety and I’m partial to rotini because it cooks quickly, has enough shape to hold on to sauces, and works well in casseroles of all kinds. But I also keep lasagna noodles and usually some form of spaghetti on hand as well.
• beans – Dried and canned, in all varieties, usually bought in bulk from someplace like Sam’s Club or Costco or the local farmers/Asian market. Right now I have cans of black beans, and jars of dried navy, pinto, and garbanzo on hand.
• olive oil – I rarely cook with any other kind of oil.  I go through a large bottle of this each month. I keep Whole Foods brand around for most of my cooking because the flavor is good and the cost is reasonable, and then I buy specialty brands for drizzling on veggies or making salad dressing – anything where flavor is crucial.
• kosher salt – Not just for cooking, but for scouring out the cast iron skillet. I buy this in the biggest boxes I can find.
• canned tomatoes – I buy canned tomatoes by the case from Costco or Sam’s Club – diced, paste, sauce, and whole. Diced tomatoes are a key ingredient in my homemade tomato sauce as well as being a really healthy addition to just about any casserole.
• Rotel – Anyone who grew up in Texas or the Southwest knows why Rotel is a pantry staple. Think of it as canned tomatoes on steroids. If you can’t get it in your grocery store, you can order it by the case from amazon.com.
• brown rice – I make a batch of baked brown rice at least once a week. It’s good for lunch, as part of the filling for stuffed veg (zucchini, tomatoes, and bell pepper all come to mind), as a base for veggie stir fry, and a dozen other things.
• onions and garlic – I have a basket in the bottom of the pantry that always has yellow onions, red onions, and a handful of garlic bulbs. Anything is better with onions and garlic, IMO.

There you have it. Next time I’ll tackle the fridge and what I keep on hand there.

Just in the last month I’ve started buying eggs from a friend of mine. He and his wife started raising chickens back earlier this year. When they started laying, he contacted me, knowing of my interest in fresh, local foods.

So now once a week we meet for lunch and I pick up a dozen eggs from him.

It’s fun to see what I’m going to get each week in the carton. Some of the eggs are brown, some are blue-ish, some are speckled. The sizes aren’t always consistent, so when I bake, I’ve taken to weighing my eggs (in the US a large egg = about 57 g).

The flavor of these eggs is wonderful. They’re rich and eggy and the yolks are a brilliant yellow. If you have a resource for eggs – eggs from chickens raised locally and allowed to roam and graze (do chickens graze?) – I highly recommend you try them. They’re worth a little extra effort and money.

I hope I never have to go back to store-bought eggs.

Today I had to run an errand on the other side of town and missed out on my usual farmer’s market. However, I did stumble across another one down by the river and picked up a few items … and it’s one I’ll be back to as well.

Lots of Japanese eggplant, a pound of fresh black eyed peas, and a pound of okra. I’m thinking grilled okra is going to happen this week soon!

And – we lucked into about 12 pounds of peaches. The guy at the stand thought H’s shirt was funny, so he threw in an extra couple of pounds of “scratch and dents” so that we could have some cobbler or jam or something.

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I have only one miscellaneous thought today. I’m down cameras – all I’m left with right now is H’s point-n-shoot. It’s really hard to food blog w/out a proper camera. At least for me. So posting may be light and/or with minimal photos until I get my cameras back (or get the new one I want). But I’m still here and will do as much as I can with what I can until then.

Wow it’s been a long time since I’ve had a Saturday farmer’s market post.  Let’s just jump right back into it.  Here’s what I picked up at today’s market.

I also picked up some goat cheese from a local dairy – Cole’s Lake Diary. (They don’t have a website, unfortunately, but there’s more information about the farm here: http://www.piedmontpark.org/programs/GM_farmers.html.)

I have to tell you that this cheese is amazing.  Last week I bought the 7 pepper version and today I bought both the 7 pepper and the roasted garlic.  In just a couple of weeks this cheese has become a staple of my “free” day snacking.  Crostini with goat cheese is simply amazing. I’m told that they’re working on getting pasteurization equipment set up and approved so they can sell goat’s milk as well which I’m looking forward to experimenting with and possibly making yogurt for a friend of mine who can’t consume cow’s milk.

Oh, and I have to show you the inside of those dragon plums that I got from Yang Farms. Who would have thought that something so bland looking on the outside could have such a gorgeous, vibrant inside.

I also have images of my sprouts – much excitement this morning as I noticed the green in my sprout jar. I’ll have a whole post on sprouting coming soon.

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Not food related, but I have become fascinated with the idea of small houses:  Tumbleweed Houses.  Small House Style.  Small House Movement Roundup at ApartmentTherapy.  I lived in a small cabin in Alaska for almost a year and there is a part of me that would love to go back to a much simpler lifestyle like that.  I don’t know that I’ll ever get that small again, but it does encourage me to unclutter and simplify my life.

My first batch of limoncello is complete and aging in the back of the pantry.  I put some of it in a smaller bottle in the fridge and it’s quite good.  I think a month of aging to mellow out the sugars and it’ll be close to perfect.  Now I’m in search of proper bottles and bar corks to set it up for gifts for the holidays.  I have to make a limoncello post soon, I think, as soon as I have more photos.

I have a 1/2 gallon of vanilla brewing in the back of the pantry as I write.  I used half bourbon beans and half Tahitian beans, in a 1/2 gallon of high quality vodka.  I’m going to give the vanilla a full 60 days before I open the jar, but I’m very optimistic.  This will also be a future post, but I need more final product pictures.

I remember reading the Julie & Julia blog as it was published, back in 2002/2003 and being fascinated by it. I love Julie Powell’s writing style and I was in awe of her commitment and dedication to cooking the whole book. But I gotta say I’m really tired of all the hype about the movie. I’ll probably go see it this weekend, but I refuse to blog about it. Just because I want to be a rebel.

Welcome to gadget Thursday.  Or equipment Thursday.  Or stuff Thursday.  Or maybe I should just give up the attempt at a theme name and explain.  Once a week I want to talk about something I use a lot in my kitchen and why.  It might be a gadget, it might be a pot or a pan I consider essential, it might be a cookbook, it might even be a food item.

When you’re just getting started cooking, the sheer number of items that people say you “must have” can be overwhelming. I’m hoping I can help make sense of the craziness. My disclaimer is this: what you must have in your kitchen, what you need, is going to depend a lot on what you cook. What is a must have for me might be useless for you – but if you’re looking for some ideas and thoughts, hopefully you’ll find some useful information here.

The first item I want to mention is one that I honestly never thought I’d own, much less use on a daily basis.

Magic Bullet Blender Set

I know, I know – that whole “As Seen on TV” thing is scary, but I’m no longer ashamed to admit that I love the Magic Bullet. It was given to me as a gift and it sat in the box for almost a year before I even opened it. Then one day my blender died and I was desperate. I haven’t put it back in the box since and I haven’t bought a replacement blender, either. I use it for smoothies, hummus, pesto, blending soups, making remoulade, and a dozen other things I can’t think of right now.

The cups and containers come with a set of screw on lids, so you can blend things up and store them in the fridge or take them to work with you. The motor is nicely powerful and even works on ice cubes. Seriously … I love it. (I think I said that already, didn’t I?)

And here’s a bonus Thursday recipe in honor of the Magic Bullet. I make this hummus all the time to snack on with veggies or to spread on a sandwich. The Bullet makes it easy!

Navy Bean Hummus

Traditional hummus is made with garbanzo beans, but I like navy beans for the milder flavor and lighter texture – it’s especially good as a base for variations.

1 can (15 oz) navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 heaping tbsp tahini
1 clove of garlic, peeled (or 2 cloves if you like garlic – which I do)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt to taste
paprika or cayenne if you want some spice

Put all the ingredients into the largest container of the Magic Bullet (or into the bowl of your food processor or your blender) and pulse until you get a thick, creamy dip. If you need to, you can drizzle in a little olive oil and up to 1/4 cup of water in order to thin out the mixture. If you cook your own beans rather than using canned, reserve a little of the liquid from cooking to use for thinning your hummus.

Variations: Toss in a couple of sun dried tomatoes, a few marinaded artichoke hearts, or any other veg or spice you want to spice things up. Hummus is great on it’s own, or it makes a great base for other strong flavors.

Nutritional Info (basic recipe as above makes four 1/4 cup servings) Calories:136. Fat:4.4g. Sodium:377mg. Carbs:17.4g. Fiber:5.6g. Protein:5.4g.

Further disclaimers: Note that the makers of the Magic Bullet have not sponsored this post. They don’t know me. They have (probably) never heard of this blog. I got my Bullet as a gift and I’m sure the person who gave it to me paid full price for it.  He doesn’t work for the makers of Bullet either. (Although if MB wanted to send me more cup containers and lids, I wouldn’t turn them down!)

Getting back into the swing of things I’m going to continue Wednesdays as my healthy eating post day. I’m kicking off August with some thoughts on meal planning.

I have heard a lot of objections to meal planning. I’ve heard everything from “I don’t have time to plan” to “I don’t want to be restricted to my plan”. Neither of those, in my view, are good reasons to not plan ahead – especially if you’re trying to lose weight, get in shape, be healthier, save money – or any combination of the above.

Sure, meal planning can be as complex and structured as planning every single meal and snack down to the detail. But it can also be as flexible as making a list of 4 or 5 entrees for the week and deciding later what you’re in the mood for.

I do, in fact, plan my weeks meals every Sunday. That doesn’t mean my meal plan is carved in stone and I can and often do stray from the plan, but having a plan makes me think about what I’m buying, what I’m cooking, and helps me to manage my budget as well.

Here is what my meal plan spreadsheet looks like. Yes, I use a spreadsheet – we’ve already established my basic geekiness, so I’m not even going to apologize for it!

Because I like to cook, I usually start off by scrolling through food blogs, saved links, magazines, cookbooks, or various other sources. I pick a few things that sound interesting and then see how I can slot them into my plan. I also keep a list of “standby” meals that I can throw into the rotation if I draw a blank or need an uncomplicated day.

Notice that my breakfast and snacks tend to stay the same, which makes it easy to plan. Also notice that much of the time my lunch is leftover from the previous day’s dinner. I also plan in “free” days and meals out with friends. Because I blog food, I also tend to make notes on my plan about meals that will fit in with my blogging schedule.

You can also see my shopping list at the bottom. Once I’ve planned out my week, it makes it easy to go back through and add items to my list so that I’m not shopping on impulse.

Do I always stick to this plan exactly? Not at all. Life sometimes gets in the way and sometimes I look at what I have planned and think “I really don’t want that tonight!” In those instances, having a plan allows me to be flexible and still not blow my entire week’s diet.

Planning isn’t about being rigid or inflexible. It’s about making things easier on yourself so that when life happens, you’re prepared. Give it a try with your own meals – it really does save time and money. (And it stops your spouse and kids from constantly asking you “What’s for dinner today?” – which is a huge benefit in my book!)