Little House by the Railway Line

Menu Plan 22nd-28th October... or Attack of the Cabbages

The box arrived yesterday, containing:
Potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms
Cabbage, kale, brussels tops, yellow pepper, fennel
2 oranges, 3 apples, 4 bananas, 1 avocado

We still have 1 1/2 courgettes, 1 cabbage, a few potatoes.  There may be another courgette to come in from the garden unless the frost comes before it's ready.

Now, I don't mind cabbage, but the problem is that one cabbage does at least 3 meals for the two of us, and that compounded with the slightly erratic eating habits of the last weeks (just as going to the hospital / visiting my parents rather frequently) means that it takes us two weeks to eat one.  Since we've had them three weeks on the trot, and since brussels tops and kale are basically just different sorts of cabbage, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by them.

I was wondering about making sauerkraut to avoid the possibility of it going off in the fridge.  Only neither G nor I have ever eaten it, and we don't know if we like it.

Anyway, I think the menu for the coming week will looked something like this:

Wednesday (at Mum's): Mum said to bring "some leaves" and we'll have them with a sausage casserole she's planning on making.  We'll probably eat the brussels tops.
Thursday (at Mum's): Something using kale, possibly Kale Pesto Pasta
Friday: I'm out at Youth Group.  G may eat potatoes, cabbage and egg, or something out of a tin, because there aren't any leftover meals around
Saturday lunch: Spicy Cabbage Soup - we can take this in a thermos if we go out
Saturday supper: Pasta with cabbage and cheese sauce
Sunday lunch (Sharing Lunch at Church): Vegetable and bean crumble (courgette, pepper, carrot)
Sunday supper: bread, cheese, ham, salad
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Corned beef hash with cabbage (we had this the other week and it was scrummy)

That does leave the fennel, which I have to admit I'm rather scared of.  Apparently it has an aniseed flavour, and liquorice / aniseed is a smell which makes me feel sick.  Not sure what to do with the thing, but hopefully it'll keep while I work it out.

There's three meals there involving cabbage, so if I can keep to that menu, I'm hoping we can use up one of the cabbages.  If I turn the other one into sauerkraut to keep for the winter, then maybe we can get back to a level playing field.  At the moment I can't fit anything else in the cupboards, and last night I kept dreaming that I was opening cupboards and they were full of cabbages.

However, I'm going to say to myself at the outset that I'm not going to beat myself up if I can't keep to the menu.  Last night I was a little late home, very tired and over-emotional, and when I brought the vegetables in and realised that I didn't have a clue what to do with it all, ended up in tears.  I got no further through the cooking that washing three potatoes, and then all the recipe books fell off the shelf, knocked all the cutlery (that was on the draining board) onto the floor, and we eventually ended up eating baked beans and bacon on toast.  So the menu plan from now on is a guide, not something I'm going to get worked up about if I can't manage it.