Meal Choices: Things that Work ... and Don't Work ... and Amish Friendship Bread recipe

Meal-planning on Wednesday nights don't always work out well for me. For something I spend a good hour or two cooking on Sunday and 14 meals a week eating, I don't really spend all that much time trying to figure out what I want. But, recently, I found that I don't really need complicated meals or really need as much as I previously thought I do.

Sometimes my best meals come from not planning at all but working with what I have in the freezer. Last week, I used a package of ground turkey. So, after perusing the fruits and vegetables in the store, I found a green bell pepper, a red onion, a tomato, and a fennel bulb to go with it. I diced each item and fried them, and I added the already-cooked ground turkey to that. Served on a bed of rice, the dish tasted wonderful. A smaller meal like this worked very well for me for dinners, but I do need something more substantial if I were to drink wine with it.

The other kick I've been on is the meat/vegetable-fruit mode for lunches. I'll portion some chunk of meat for five days and have either a vegetable or fruit with it. This week, I'm having tri-tip with butternut squash. Last week was pork tenderloin with an orange (of some sort; not a navel orange). Simple. Relatively quick to prepare and get ready for work.

My Amish Friendship Bread run as come to an end. I tossed the rest of the starter in the freezer for later use, whenever that may be. I did develop my own recipe for a plain bread that one can make from said starter. The recipe and variations are below.


Amish Friendship Bread plain "sourdough" bread

2c Bread Flour (regular flour is ok)
3/4t salt
1t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1.5c Amish Friendship Bread starter
1T water (at most)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Either oil a baking sheet or cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add starter and mix well. If consistency of the dough is too dry, add the water gradually until the dough sticks together without being tacky. If dough is too tacky, coat hands with flour, sprinkle some flour on dough, and knead dough until dough is no longer tacky but smooth. Roll dough into a ball and place ball on prepared baking sheet. Flatten the ball into a thin disc and cut an "X" into the top with a sharp knife. Bake in oven for 40 minutes or until outside is a dark brown and bread sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom.

Modifications: There are several possibilities with this recipe, but I have tried only the following combinations so far. When adding these ingredients, add them to the dry ingredients and mix well before adding the starter.

- candied orange peel and currants/raisins: add 1/2c to 1c each of candied orange peel and either currants or raisins.

- rosemary and kalamata olives: add about 1c kalamata olives and 1/3c rosemary leaves. Cut kalamata olives in quarters before adding to dry ingredients.