what do you serve for shabbos lunch?

freidasima

Tue, Aug 26 2008, 3:39 pm

my middle dd just complained that we eat the same simple things every week. Dh told me he loves it and not to change it, but I am really sad, I put a lot of work into the food, everything is homemade, we have diet limitations and financial limitations (and time limitations, I really don't have more time to cook than I am putting into it already) and I really don't know what to do. Everything is totally homemade except challah which is bought.

Here's my menu - and our limitations, and any suggestions will be welcome:

Friday nite: challah, salads (chumus, techina, pickles, edamame salad, quinoa salad, sometimes carrot salad, and a green salad and pepper salad), soup (lentils with carrots and potatoes and barley and onions), chicken, rice, fruit and cake.
Shabbos lunch: Challah, salads, chicken, either kugel or roast potatoes and sweet potatoes, fruit and cake.

Here are the limitations. One of the kids is a vegetarian these days so no chicken soup. We don't fry anything nor do we use oil or margarine or fats of any kind (in other words the food has to be fat free). Dh doesn't eat any cooked veg except potatoes and onions and sweet potatoes. The boys won't eat anything starch except rice or potatoes, if it would be just dh and myself I would make barley or kasha for a change from the rice. Dh loves my soup, and I can make a sweet potato soup as well but two of the girls don't like it.

We usually don't eat meat, processed foods, deli, etc. So we have chicken. I hate turkey so no turkey. No vinegar. No MSG, very little salt. Simple fare in other words...the cake is always the same, sponge cake as it is the only kind you can make without oil or margarine or butter...the kids put my homemade jam on it if they want it sweeter. Each season I put up jam during the fruit season and freeze it for the rest of the year...

So I feel really stuck. I like making the same shabbos every week. For me it is like a tradition and I like how it tastes, Dh never complains, he could eat chicken seven days a week, but when middle dd said what she did and he wanted to make her happy, he asked maybe we should have potatoes instead of rice but I reminded him that we have potatoes in the soup and youngest ds only eats rice...

Any suggestions? I make roast chicken or sometimes chicken in a fruit sauce with no oil, or chicken stew or chicken grilled...but if you won't use anything processed you are limited...

shnitzel

Tue, Aug 26 2008, 6:10 pm

What about sorbet or chocolate pudding made w/ soy milk and cocoa for dessert?
Does your son only eat plain rice or can you use some recipes to make the rice more recipes?
There are tons of different pareve soup recipes (ie: split pea, tomato, potato etc.) or do these count as vegetables?
Does ground chicken work so you can make meatballs or chili, I avoid red meat so we eat that a lot (and its cheaper than regular chicken).

Your menu sounds delicious already. Its so hard when everyone is picky with something else to please them all!
Can your daughter make a little bit of food that she likes that others won't eat? That way theres more variety for other people to sample (who are willing to try new foods)

dora

Tue, Aug 26 2008, 9:07 pm

Sometimes I feel as if I should change my lunch menu but my family would not hear of that. For the past 20+ years I have been serving the same thing: homemade challah, fish from friday night cooked a different way each week, bought and homemade dips, and chulent. We dont have dessert, sometimes grapes. Every once in a while liver and eggs and when company comes I add deli and dessert.
For friday night I cook up a storm and the family is always happy and greatful.
Once I felt that it was too hot to make a chulent, a riot broke out and I lost.