Weekly Menu - Week 9

Faire Simple! During my week-end in Chicago with my friend A. who is a super-busy-business-woman-mother-of-four trying to feed healthy food to her family, I realized that the key to daily healthy homemade-from-scratch recipes is that they have to be simple! I know some of you don't find French cuisine simple but I will keep saying that most of the recipes I have cooked and therefore published, are easy to make. Oui, oui, c'est vrai! Even the Soufflé! Some might be a little bit more time-consuming than others but they are easy. Vraiment!
You know,  I don't like complicated things, or rather I don't mind complicated things because I like to simplify them. Call me a nerd, but back when I was in school, I loved calculus because after much (or not much) thoughts, there always came a time when we were able to cross numbers on top/bottom of a fraction or to use one formula to solve the whole problem. Everything was getting simplified!  Today, I love to find a better solution (generally one requiring organization) to a problem so as to make everybody's life easier (and hopefully happier.). Simple is good!

Growing up in a family of four made my parents (and therefore us) pretty good at juggling different emplois du temps. Everybody had to participate (yes, there was a Tableau de Service (chores chart) in our family (boy I did not like it)!!). Everybody had to be able to sacrifice a bit for the sake of the others (like waiting an extra 10mns somewhere, like making a detour to drop the other one somewhere else, etc.).... but all in all, we were all able to do most of what we had planned! If not more!
I still do the same today with my family : I am asking my children to participate in setting the table and helping put the grocery out. I am tired of repeating that slowly getting them to understand that "I want would like" does not mean "now", the same way "peut-être" may mean "oui" ou "non"... I also try to show them how to do things in a simpler way: like preparing their clothes the night before, like putting the full jars of milk in the back of the fridge, like turning their clothes inside-out before throwing them in the laundry basket.  It's time-consuming and exhausting... but it is steadily paying off... My life is becoming easier. We are happier! Que demander de plus? Faites Simple!

Weekly Menu - Week 9

	Day	Suggested Menu
	Monday	Ratatouille Over Barley with Green Salad Orange Chocolate Chips Pound Cake
	Tuesday	Tuna Curry with rice Homemade Plain Yogurt with Chestnut Spread Fresh Fruits
	Wednesday	Soupe Chinoise Homemade Plain Yogurt with honey Fresh Fruits
	Thursday	Buckwheat Kasha with Mushrooms and Onions Homemade Plain Yogurt with homemade Apple Sauce
	Friday	Swiss Chard and Bacon Quiche with Green Salad Homemade Plain Yogurt with dark brown sugar Fresh Fruits

Game Plan:

Sunday Evening:

• You want to make the Ratatouille. You have help so ask people around you to help you with pealing/chopping vegetables. If you want to make it faster, purchase a Pressure Cooker. It will save you time on many other occasions!
• You could make the Orange & Chocolate Chips Pound cake on Sunday as well. It would save you time on Monday evening.
• If you make your onw yogurts, make your weekly batch on Sunday evening.

Monday Evening:

• If you have not made the Ratatouille and/or Orange & Chocolate Chips Pound cake on Sunday, you have to make it tonight in addition to cooking the barley.
• If you need to make the Ratatouille and the Orange Cake, start with the cake. While it's in the oven, you can make the ratatouille. Once the ratatouille is cooking, you can cook the Barley.

Tuesday Evening:

• You have to make the Tuna Curry tonight. It takes less than 30 minutes to make. Start by cooking the curry and then cook the rice.

Wednesday Evening:

• You only have to make the Soupe Chinoise tonight. Make it your own!
• If you are feeling zealous, you could make the Apple Sauce for Thursday evening.

Thursday Evening:

• If you have not made the Apple sauce on Wednesday, you have to make the  Apple Sauce and the Kasha on Thursday. Start with the Apple sauce. While it's cooking you can make the Kasha.
• If you make your own dough for Quiche, you can make it on Thursday.

Friday Evening:

• You only have to make the Quiche tonight!
• Start by making the dough. While it rests, cook the Swiss Chard and the Bacon. Only make individual quiches if you feel like it. I have made this quiche a lot but always make only one for the sake of time! Relax, it's Friday!