This week was busy and I had to buy prepared food that I find acceptable to eat. A $5 rotisserie chicken for me goes a long way and by Saturday I found myself making a chicken soup with the carcass. I love soup and wanted another pot of chicken soup before the weather gets too warm to enjoy it. Salads for me are quick and I enjoy the freshness of them. Still have a little of the ham for sandwiches. Also I found a good buy on a package of cooked smoked brats that didn’t have too much sodium in them. They were great for a couple of meals including an old fashioned meal of brats, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. I don’t eat sauerkraut very often because it does have a lot of salt but it does have a couple of good vitamins in it and I like the tang.

SUNDAY
Brunch Quiche, fruit
Dinner Rotisserie Chicken,fresh asparagus, salad

MONDAY
Breakfast Granola, orange or clementine
Lunch ham sandwich, carrot sticks
Dinner bean soup, brats, fruit

TUESDAY
Breakfast Granola, orange
Lunch peanut butter sandwich, fruit
Dinner chicken roasted vegetables, fruit

WEDNESDAY
Breakfast granola, orange
Lunch ham sandwich, fruit
Dinner brats with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes, fresh fruit

THURSDAY
Breakfast Breakfast sandwich, orange
Lunch bean soup, carrots
Dinner leftovers or chicken salad,fruit

FRIDAY
Breakfast granola hot or cold, orange or clementine
Lunch cheese sandwich fruit
Dinner baked cod with roasted potatoes and asparagus (make a big bowl of popcorn and watch a movie)

SATURDAY
Brunch Breakfast hash or poached eggs and toast, orange
Dinner chicken and rice soup, salad, fruit

SHOPPING LIST
Rotisserie chicken, brats,asparagus, romaine,potatoes,Roma tomatoes, bread, cheese, fruit

When I quit sugar ice cream was what I craved. The only thing I could find that would fill that void was to make my own. Good heavy whipping cream is sweet tasting when you don’t eat sugar so adding two tablespoons of local honey to a batch to me tastes better than any gourmet ice cream that costs $5-10 a pint. When I serve it to guests they are licking the bowl. I first started to make with only heavy cream. To me that was too fatty tasting. So I started to use a two to one ratio of heavy cream and half and half.

I bought an ice cream maker in which you freeze the mixing container overnight. After each use I now clean it dry it very well and cover it with a plastic bag and store it in the freezer all the time so it’s always ready to go. I found one for $39 at a big box store. It is an electric model. The only way to go. A single batch costs a little over $2 and takes less time to make than it does to drive to the grocery store and buy a pint of it.

Ice Cream
Prep Time 2-5 min
Time to Freeze a Batch 15-20 min
Ingredients
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup half and half
2 tbsp honey (add more if you want it sweeter)
2 tsp vanilla (add more if you want a strong vanilla flavor)

Mix ingredients in a 4-5 cup measuring cup and blend well. Pour into the ice cream maker and mix for 15-20 minutes. It will be a soft serve consistency at this point. I put it in a glass bowl with a tight-fitting lid and freeze for a couple of hours for a firmer ice cream if you can wait that long. Try adding many different flavors like cinnamon. Enjoy.

Having given up sugar fruit has become the new candy in my life. You cannot believe how sweet fruit becomes when you give up sweets and refined food with added sugar. So I like to buy fruit at its best in the season at hand. In the fall that means I stock up on apples. In the spring I’m looking at the remaining apples and how to use them. Some of them don’t look appealing enough to eat as a snack, some had to be composted, but those on the edge are great for cooking with. Also I found a pie crust in the fridge that needed to be used up. So I made this pie that is kind of cross between a crisp and a pie. A single crust apple pie. I’m making homemade ice cream to go with it.

Leftover Apple Pie
Prep Time 10-15 min
Cooking Time 55-60 min
Ingredients
5-6 medium apples peeled, cored, cut into bite size pieces
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp butter cut into 3-4 pieces

Peel, core and slice apples place in a glass pie plate. (you can do this in a bowl and then pour into pie plate) Add spices, honey, lemon juice and flour. Toss until coated. Add pieces of butter on top. Cover with pie crust. Roll edge over the rim of the pie plate and crimp with a fork. Put pie plate on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Serve with ice cream.