Menu Plan Monday, 4/14 – 4/20
April 13, 2008
My two new crock pot recipes last week, Greek Lamb, Artichoke & Pearl Onion Stew, and Italian Lentil & Vegetable Stew, turned out nicely. I will try the lamb recipe again, but with chicken instead. The vegetarian recipe was so easy it will stay in rotation too.
Here is this week’s menu. It is different from the norm because Passover begins this week, and I am preparing for the holiday and then will be with family. You can read more about what we’re doing for Passover after my menu:
Monday: Leftover ropa vieja (from the freezer, bumped from Sunday), brown rice, garden salad, vegan chocolate cake
Tuesday: Kung pao chicken, edamame, noodles
Wednesday: Swiss chard & mushroom squares, garden salad, Ian’s Supertots for the boys
Thursday: Bring in pizza and salad; search for chometz after dinner
Friday: Kitchen is closed until Passover begins tomorrow! Out to eat (diner?), or eat outside weather-permitting
Saturday: Seder at my parents’ house; I’m bringing quinoa with roasted vegetables
Sunday: Seder at J.’s parents’ house; I’m bringing vegetarian stuffed peppers (made with matzah farfel instead of bread), and a birthday cake!
Passover begins this Saturday at sundown, so this week preparations begin in earnest. In previous years a big part of my Passover cleaning involved throwing out little-used spices, random condiments, and boxes from my pantry that had been opened outside of my recent memory. There’s very little of that this year — now that I’m cooking regularly the items in my kitchen are fresh and used often. That’s been a nice change!
Because Passover falls on Shabbat this year, the start of the holiday is a little off. Normally the night before Passover, we do a search for chometz — this is a symbolic ceremony signalling the start of the Passover holiday. Instead of searching by candlelight, the boys and I use a flashlight, and we go through the house looking for leavened products (chometz) that we might have forgotten to clean up for the holiday. I usually leave about a dozen Cheerios in easy-to-find places for the boys, and they use a feather to sweep them into a cup. Then the next morning we “burn” the chometz — we say a prayer asking that anything we might have missed be ignored (“considered ownerless as the dust of the earth”), and then toss the cup in the garbage. From then on, I consider my house kosher for Passover.
This year, because of Shabbat, we search for chometz Thursday night after dinner, even though Passover doesn’t start until Saturday. So Friday is a weird in-between period — my kitchen is turned over for the holiday, but we don’t have to avoid leavened bread yet since the holiday hasn’t started. I plan on basically eating out with the boys all that day, and then on Saturday we will just start the morning out Pesadich (kosher for Passover).
I should point out that making my house kosher for Passover, and kosher-style the rest of the year, is something I enjoy because it honors the Jewish tradition and culture that I was raised in and in which I want my boys to be raised; and especially because it honors my mom, who keeps kosher (I want her to always feel welcome in my home). I am not a good guide for how to halakhically prepare for the holiday — the preparations I do are somewhat symbolic, an external way of preparing for a special holiday and being conscious about my culture and the traditions it includes. They are what works for me, and how I want to keep the holiday.
It sounds complex but I absolutely love the special preparation for Passover. I always admired the work my mom and dad did to get ready for Passover when I was growing up. Even as a child I was definitely aware that keeping kosher for Passover (even just keeping kosher day-to-day) was not something the majority of my friends did, and that it was very special. I continue to love the tradition of it, and I hope that by seeing me embrace the holiday in our own home, my boys will come to love and look forward to it too.
Print this post
Filed under: Holidays,Meal Planning,Memes
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
Want to Try Archives
14 Comments
1.
Karen | April 13, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Thanks for sharing your Passover holiday traditions. My hubby, myself and our children have celebrated Passover very similarly before. We probably won’t go all out this year. But we hope to have the seder.
Hope you have a great week and a wonderful Passover!
Karen
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/salt
http://www.homesteadblogger.com/tagblog
2.
Jena | April 13, 2008 at 11:56 pm
thanks for sharing your tradition. I’ve always wanted to meet someone who does things like this, since I’ve only read about them or heard about them.
3.
A Juggling Mum | April 14, 2008 at 5:29 am
Great menu, everything sounds so good and thanks for sharing your tradition with us
Have a great week!
Rachel xxx
A Juggling Mum
PS – I have a competition running at the moment for a free blog design. If you win you can use it yourself or give it to a friend
4.
Jodi | April 14, 2008 at 9:22 am
Wow, I am impressed with how much you have put into this holiday for your boys! It seems like a lot of stuff to keep track of and you are doing it with ease! How nice for the boys to have this holiday to look forward to, especially as you have such nice memories from when you were a child…and your mom must be pleased too:O)
Also, I like the vegan cake recipe!
5.
Jodi | April 14, 2008 at 9:25 am
Oh, and I had never heard of the Ian’s line of stuff…very cool…I see Canadians can order online from them…I am going to hunt around here to see if I can find someone who carries some of it!
We’ve never tried these “fries” before — I have a feeling the boys won’t eat them. But we’ll see. — Dara
6.
merrie | April 14, 2008 at 10:52 am
I want your quinoa recipe!
I will post it on Saturday when I make it! — Dara
7.
Amanda@ Down Home Dieting | April 14, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Sounds like some good eating this week! My husband and I are going to our first Seder this week. I have NO idea what to bring…are you going to post that quinoa recipe???
Have a great week!
Amanda
The quinoa is tricky because it is sort of a new kosher-for-Passover thing. Some Jews consider it OK to eat on Passover, others don’t. I do, obviously! When I am going to someone else’s house on Passover and I don’t know their level of observance I usually bring something like a fruit salad, a bottle of kosher for Passover wine, flowers, or similar. Or you could just ask them what is OK to bring. I’ll post the quinoa recipe on Saturday. — Dara
8.
Beth | April 14, 2008 at 1:07 pm
The chicken looks great.
It was also interesting to learn more about Passover. I love carrying on traditions (and creating new ones) with my kids.
9.
Amy | April 14, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Sounds like a great week! Thank you for letting us in a little bit on your traditions. What great memories you are making for your boys!
10.
Carol | April 14, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Are there any special Passover recipes? If you have any, I’d be interested in learning more about them!
I’ll be posting my mom’s recipe for Passover rolls, which are like baked matzah balls really. And I used to make a frozen strawberry mousse that called for whipped raw egg whites… not something people tend to eat anymore! Other than that, it’s pretty basic stuff like roasted veggies, kugel (like a vegetable souffle or pudding), and roasted or stewed meats. — Dara
11.
Mommychicky | April 14, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I like your leavened lead up to Passover menu.
Thanks for sharing, have a great week, and Chag Pesach Sameach!
12.
Sandra | April 14, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Great menu, thank you for sharing
13.
Cristen | April 14, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Thank you for helping me “re-find” that Kung Pao chicken recipe. I knew I’d seen it somewhere but could never find it again.
I’ve been craving Asian food like mad lately but making homemade is really the only nutritionally sound way to satisfy that craving.
I’ve been kind of out of the habit of cooking the past week so I need to get back into the habit.
14.
Jen@BigBinder | April 14, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Thank you for the tip on my blog about the Texmati rice! And I really enjoyed this blog post. I am really fascinated by Passover and how it is celebrated and remembered in by ‘real’ people in their homes.
TrackBack URL
Trackback this post