Its a balancing act, handouts and menu plan

Its a Balancing Act! Feeding the body while
maintaining the mind!

Pantry Staples
● olive oil
● quinoa
● pasta
● chickpeas
● lentils (I like Lentils de Puy best)
● lemons
● garlic
● onions
● canned tuna
● canned tomatoes or tomato sauce
● cashews
● coconut milk
● Dijon mustard
● Sherry vinegar
● dried porcini
● dried apricots
● salt and pepper
● spices
● curry paste

Fridge Staples
● eggs
● butter
● cheese
● bacon

Freezer staples
● raw frozen shrimp or prawns
● frozen salmon fillets
● frozen peas

If you bake, add to the list:
● sugar
● all-purpose flour
● vanilla

Janice Mansfield / Real Food Made Easy janice@realfoodmadeeasy.ca


Basic kitchen equipment (you don’t need a lot of things, but a few well-chosen items will
help make the job in the kitchen easier)
● Knives: forget the big block! you really only need 3! 1 Chef’s knife or Santoku
knife, 1 paring knife, 1 serrated bread knife
● heavy gauge baking sheets
● mixing bowls in a variety of sizes (if you can find them, right up to 8 quarts)
● cutting board
● 4 quart saucepan
● 12” saute pan
● 5 quart Dutch oven
● colander
● whisk
● heatproof spatula
● wooden spoons
● vegetable peeler
● digital thermometer
● parchment paper!!!

Bonus kitchen items:
● 8 or 12 quart stock pot
● 10” cast iron frying pan
● pressure cooker!
● Food processor or stand mixer

Note, these are lists I have found work for me -- yours might look a bit different
depending on the foods you and your family eat and like.

Some tips for making it through the week:
1. Think of everything as an ingredient in multiple dishes, and cook a bunch at the
beginning of the week! Cooked chickpeas might be a side-salad with kale one
night, and incorporated into a curry 2 nights later!
2. The oven is your friend! It is much easier to extract great flavour out of simple
ingredients without a lot of fuss or tending by roasting in the oven! Caramelized
onions can be made in 45 minutes, and last a week! A Dutch oven of polenta
can be easily made in the oven in 60-75 minutes, ½ eaten the first night as a
side, the other half poured into a loaf pan for slicing and frying, and 2 chicken
can be roast in 45 minutes if you “spatchcock” them, one for dinner that night, the
other for dinners through the week!
3. Let time work in your favour! Some things like breads, require NO kneading if



you give them a long time period to develop the structure! the bonus, is you have
added flavour!



4. Create a “stockpile” of cooked ingredients for the week, that you can use
to assemble dinners on the fly - roasted beets can be tossed with a quick
vinaigrette and have chopped kale, diced feta cheese and lentils added to the
mix for a great satisfying dinner dish!
5. Chop your veggies at the beginning of the week -- and keep them in containers
with a damp paper towel to keep them fresh. Most of your prep will be done
ahead of time, and you have the added bonus of dipping into the stash for salad
fixings.
6. Dont overthink things! We’re not doing molecular gastronomy, so there really
are only 5 ways to cook things - everything else is a variation: Boiling; Baking;
Frying; Braising, and Poaching. (some of the fanciest restaurant dishes are
nothing more than a stew!)
7. Don’t stress out! Breakfast for dinner is a perfectly acceptable option! Follow it
up with some fruit after, and get your veg in at breakfast and lunch the next day!
8. Enlist help! nobody likes a kitchen martyr, and many hands really do make for
light work!
9. My personal mantra -- everything is better with an egg on it!

Day 1: Roast chicken dinner with polenta, kale and red pepper salad
Leftovers: put roast chicken in the fridge, polenta in a lightly greased loaf tin

Day 2: Roasted butternut squash soup with caramelized onion foccacia

Day 3: Chicken “melts” with roasted red pepper, caramliezed onions on focaccia with
side salad

Day 4: Roasted beet, kale feta and lentil salad

Day 5: Chickpea and cauliflower curry over quinoa (or rice)

Day 6: Fried polenta smothered with sauteed garlic kale, roasted red pepper, topped
with an egg.

Day 7: Chicken and lentil “stew” with bacon! salad on the side

shopping list:
● 2 large frying chickens
● polenta (or grits)
● 6-8 large onions



● 3-4 large bunches of lacinato kale
● 2-3 large red peppers
● 1 large butternut squash or 2 small-medium
● salad greens
● 6-8 medium sized beets
● 1 head cauliflower
● 2 cups lentils de puy
● 2 cups dried chickpeas (OR 2 tins)
● feta cheese
● 8 oz. Gruyere - something mild and nutty with good melting qualities
● quinoa
● eggs
● bacon

optional shopping items
● carrots
● tomatoes
● citrus (this time of year, its prime! so indulge!)
● celery

Have lunch, and go shopping just after lunch on Day 1. When you get home from
shopping:
● Take off your shoes, get your slippers on, and put the kettle/coffee maker on!
● Put the meats in the fridge, frozen stuff in the freezer,
● Turn the oven on to 375 degrees, and
● sit down and have a cuppa!
When you are done your hot beverage:
● Wash your hands
● Cut the tops and bottoms off 5 onions, cut in half and remove the peels. Cut
them pole to pole and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Drizzle with a
small amount of oil, sprinkle with salt and mix well (with your hands is fine!).
● Roast the onions for 45-60 minutes, giving a bit of a stir every 15 minutes. Keep
roasting them until they are golden brown.
● Let cool to room temperature and store in a container in the fridge.

● Once you have the onions in the oven, scrub the beets and place in a 9x13
baking pan or glass dish. Don’t peel them yet! Cover the baking dish with foil
and crimp around the edges. Put in the oven while the onions are cooking --
cook for 60-75 minutes until the beets are tender. Remove from the oven and let



cool 30 minutes or so before you peel. The peels will slip off easily. Cut into ¾
inch dice, and place all the beets in a glass container with a lid.

Once the beets and onions are out of the oven, get the chicken ready
● cut the backbone out of the 2 chickens and flatten the chicken by pressing down
on the breastbone 2 3 lb chickens should fit on 1 parchment-lined baking sheet.
● salt and pepper both sides of the chickens, and arrange on the baking dish, skin-
side up. brush the skin with a light coating of olive oil. Bake at 375 degrees for
45-55 minutes, until the
While the chicken is cooking, get the polenta going:
● in a 4-5 quart baking dish or dutch oven, combine: 1 ½ cups polenta, 6 cups
water, 2 tsp sea salt. Cover with a well-fitting lid or cover with foil, and place in
the oven for 60 minutes.
● Remove from the oven, and check the polenta for moisture -- give it a stir -- add
1-2 T butter and put back in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
● Portion out ½ the polenta for dinner -- stir in ½ cup Parmesan if you like. Pour
the remaining polenta into a greased loaf pan and let it set up.
● Turn the oven up to 400 degrees.

Roast the peppers
● Place the peppers on a parchment lined baking sheet.
● Roast for 60 minutes total, turning the peppers ¼ turn every 15 minutes. The
skin should be nice and blackened.
● Remove from the oven, and place the still-hot peppers in a medium bowl. Cover
with plastic wrap (or a lid) and let stand for 20-30 minutes.
● Peel, and slice, and store in an airtight container in the fridge

Turn off the oven!
Par-cook the lentils
● Fill a 4 quart saucepan with water. Bring to the boil (don’t salt yet or the skins will
be tough)
● Add the lentils to the boiling water, and cook, like pasta, for 15-20 minutes.
● Drain the lentils, and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Mix up the no-knead bread dough:
● 4 ⅓ cups all purpose flour
● 1 T instant yeast
● 1 T sea salt
● 1 T granulated sugar
● 3 T good quality olive oil



● scant 2 c warm water
Mix the ingredients with a spatula or wooden spoon in a large bowl until the flour
is incorporated. Cover the bowl, and let stand at room termpature 90 minutes
or so until the dough rises and starts to flatten. Put it into a container that fits
in your fridge … and leave it there until you are ready to use it! This makes 2
smaller loaves, or 1 large pan of focaccia.

GO CHILL OUT! You’ve earned it!

The next evening:

Remove the foccacia dough from the fridge and let it warm up for about 45 minutes

Butternut squash soup:
● 1 large butternut squash
● 2 onions, peeled and chopped
● 4-5 cloves garlic, sliced
● 1 T freshly grated ginger
● 1 ½ tsp sea salt
● 2 tsp rosemary
● 1-2 T olive oil
● 6 cups chicken stock
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Peel the butternut squash and cut into large dice (1”). Place the squash, onions,
garlic and rosemary on a parchment lined baking sheet. Toss with oil until
everything is coated. Roast for 45-60 minutes until the squash is very soft and the
onions are caramelized.
Place everything in a 5 quart Dutch oven, add chicken stock, bring to a simmer.
Blend everything smooth with a hand blender.
Adjust seasoning, spike with 1 T sherry vinegar if desired.

Increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Dump out the focaccia dough onto the baking sheet, and with oiled hands, push
the dough out graduallly to the corners. It should be an even thickness, but doesn’t
need to be pretty -- dimples are good!
Place ½ of the caramelized onions you made yesterday on the focaccia and spread



out evenly.
Sprinkle the top with Maldon sea salt if desired, drizzle with olive oil and let rise at
room temperature for 20-25 minutes.
Place in the hot oven, Bake for 25-30 minutes until the crust is browned on the
bottom.

While you are having dinner, cook the chickpeas for the week -- in the oven.
● Turn the oven down to 325 degrees
● Place 2 cups chickpeas in 6 cups of water (or to cover by at least 1 inch) in a 3
quart Dutch oven or oven-proof saucepan with a well-fitting lid.
● Do not salt the chickpeas or the water, but do add 1 bay leaf, and 1 whole garlic
clove.
● Bake, covered in the oven for 90-120 minutes, checking to add water if needed.
● Let the chickpeas cool and store in the fridge in an airtight container. Extra
chickpeas can be frozen in ziploc bags.

2 days in, you have officially finished all the advance prep you need for the rest of the
week! for mostly recipe-less cooking

Chickpea-cauliflower curry - your chickpeas are already cooked, so brown an
onion, 3 cloves or garlic or so in some oil, add 2T or so of a good curry paste,
salt, pepper (add other spice if you like -- coriander, cumin, tumeric, fenugreek,
cardamom …), add cauliflower florets, 1 tin coconut milk, chickpeas and simmer
10 mins covered until cauliflower is tender!

Chicken and lentil stew -- sautee 1 onion, ½ cup chopped celery, lots of garlic
and some diced bacon together (about 4 strips, chopped). When the onions are
soft, scoop out however much bacon grease you want to remove, add the lentils,
4 cups chicken stock, and 1 T Herbs de Provence. Simmer 20 minutes until the
lentils are fully tender (If you use Lentils de Puy, they retain their shape more
than the brown lentils), add ½ of the chicken you saved from earlier in the week,
stir into the final stew and simmer another 5 minutes until the chicken pieces are
hot.

My final piece of advice as you make your way through the week, is taste as you go!
Your palate is a muscle just like your triceps, or your brain, and gets better with practice!
Ultimately you are cooking for you and your family’s palates, so get to know them well :)
Notes:


Its a balancing act, handouts and menu plan

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