Living Maintenance - Meal Suggestions?

I know we have a recipes sticky (which is awesome, I made the mexican chicken casserole this week, yum! And I'm considering the apple crisp, just afraid I'd eat it all in one sitting!) but I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts with some combination of the following ingredients (things I already have or that are on sale this week):

barley
quinoa
buttermilk
oats

Fruits on sale: apples (jonathan and gala), strawberries, bartlett pears
also I have a bunch of strawberries in the freezer

Veggies on sale: celery, eggplant (not always my favorite, depends how it's made), zucchini
and I still have some broccoli

ETA - chicken breasts are on sale too!

I'm perusing recipes and trying to get some plans together for next week on the cheap - thanks for any suggestions! :)

Iris, a little while ago I posted this recipe (http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/2935660-post82.html) in the recipes thread when I needed to use up a buttercup squash. I made a multigrain pilaf that used quinoa, bulgur, and rice, but you could easily swap it to be quinoa and barley. Winter squash is probably cheap right now and you can use any variety. I also used apples in the recipe.

Other than that, I'd say you can probably find a recipe somewhere for either muffins or pancakes that uses oats and buttermilk.

Another option would be a vegetable soup. Here (http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/2088123-post10.html) is my recipe for "minestrone" soup, but it's pretty flexible. You could easily swap out the pasta for barley and add zucchini, broccoli, and celery (or even eggplant, but I hate eggplant :lol: ).

Or you could make a pilaf with barley or quinoa and add zucchini. Saute some onions and zucchini, then add broth and the grain and cook until it's done (or if you're worried about zucchini getting mushy, take it out and add back in). I like to use seasoning blends like italian seasoning or greek seasoning. Myrecipes.com has a feature now where after you do a keyword search, you can narrow it down by price per serving (at least for recipes where that info was made available).

Yeah... I also have a "delicate" relationship with eggplant. I'm slowly learning to like it.

Thanks for the suggestions! I will definitely check out your recipe. Is buttercup squash another name for butternut?

No, buttercup is a different type that is more similar in flavor and texture to acorn squash, but a little sweeter. You can use any type of winter squash in the recipes though. Here is a pic: http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/news/images/squash.%20resizeJPG.JPG Sometimes it has a "turban" on the bottom too.

Ok, cool. There's a bin of winter squash at the grocery store that I'll have to check out. The picture is very helpful! =)

Wow. I would have seen that at the store and had no idea it was a squash. :)

I'm also looking for something cool to do with quinoa as I just bought a bag for the first time. I had some prepared the other day from whole foods it was an apple almond quinoa... maybe curry? salad. Was really good.

I have a butternut squash chili recipe that's good I can try to dig up if your interested.

I'm trying a recipe with quinoa and sweet potato and mushrooms - If it's any good I'll pass along the recipe!