Shabbat Menu

I haven't blogged a Shabbat Menu in a really, really long time.

I don't even know if I should be blogging Shabbat menus... but one of my children said it was really good back when I blogged menus, because it helped them prepare. (My kids don't exactly like surprises!)

And this week we had enough things that threw us off and disrupted our routine, even though we didn't actually have sirens in Katzrin, just lots of commotion. We had just enough tension in the air that no one felt like anything was normal and everyone was just waiting to find out what surprise awaited ahead...

So I'm having some mercy on my surprise-averse, need-to-know-what's-coming children, and I'll give them the Shabbat Menu. Since it is, after all, one of the very few things I can actually control in life. Despite the fact that kids often ascribe superpowers to their Moms, I have come to realize that there is almost nothing I can control around here...

Like: I cannot control when there will be a siren alerting us to incoming rockets (read: missiles) headed our way, and I cannot control the fact that the skies sometimes get filled with military aircraft... and on a more normal level, I can't control my kids' friends, who can sometimes act in a not-so-friendly way, and I can't control who wins a contest, or who missed the bus, or who caught a cold, or who got a mosquito bite in THE most annoying place.

Heck, I can't even control the a/c - it died a sudden death last week. And it took a bit of time to get it fixed and even then, for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to reset the remote control! (Talk about not being able to control things...)

So, back to the one thing I can control.

The Shabbat Menu

This week's Shabbat Menu is heavily influenced by whatever we happen to have in the house, as it was a "not doing much shopping" sort of week. Because last week I may have bought too much food, and as a result, I minimized the shopping this week.

Spelt Challah (using a variation of this recipe, only I'm going to use White Spelt Flour, because I cannot control my family's preference for White Challah AT ALL, and I am giving in - they can have whole grain breads during the week and I'll indulge and make them White Challah for Shabbat!) - and some challah rolls for seudah shlishit 

Orange Vegetable Soup I scored a piece of pumpkin and butternut squash and carrots for 2 shekels/kg, so why not?

Spicy Roast Chicken with Rice (for Fri. night and for lunch. Who needs variety on a week like this anyway?)

Vegetarian Rice for my favorite vegetarian teenager

Roast Sweet Potatoes - probably the spicy kind (for Fri. night)

Potato Kugel recipe here (for Fri. night and for lunch. Because despite what our friend Shimshon says about kugel, because he has something against kugel, MY kugel does not give people heartburn! And for certain members of my family, kugel is THE flavor of Shabbat - not zchug, Shimshon. Just not! Yeah, I guess that makes us very, very Ashkenazi. But I think you might have known that already!)

Cut Veggies

Cabbage Salad

Black Bean Cholent vegan, but non-vegans like it too! (to be served at lunch)

Cinnamon Cake  made the easy, vegan way (for desserts)

Banana Coconut Cake the best way to use up overripe bananas (this will be served at kiddush - we host a minyan in our house - and yes, it's the Ashkenaz minyan. Don't tell me you're surprised, please!)

I usually also make hard boiled eggs, a pot of pasta or a pot of boiled potatoes, for turning into egg salad and pasta or potato salad for seudah shlishit. If I don't get around to that, we'll have whatever we can find (peanut butter and jelly, anyone?)!

What's on your Shabbat menu? Anything exotic? Or are you also sticking to the familiar to make sure you feel like your feet are on the ground?