Category Archives: Menus

Dinner Menu for the week of December 29th

Posted in Menus, RealFood by

Hoping that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  For some this is a tough time of year though, so for those of you that struggle during Christmas, I hope you were able to find pockets of peace and joy.

We celebrated with my side of the family.  Lots of love and lots of cousins.  It was loud, and fun, and the food was amazing.  On Christmas eve, my mom made her yummy crab salad, and I attempted desert.  Pinterest kind of hosed me this year because I found a super cute idea for individual pumpkin pies.  I am led to believe that I can make anything that I find on Pinterest, but most of the posts sit on a throne of lies.

It took FOREVER to put together the crusts, and the filling did not set before the crust burned.  Do not get me started on the fact that I did not realize until JUST now, that I was supposed to use a mini-muffin tin.  I.cannot.even….

Here are the links to the sites I used for the crust inspiration, and for the filling.

ImageImage

2014 is just a few days away.  YAY!  I love new beginnings.  A beginning is an opportunity to do better.  It is refreshing.

Starting on Jan 2nd, we are doing another “10 days of real food” pledge.  Dave says he needs the 1st to enjoy a celebratory sweet (or five) on new years day.  Hence starting on the 2nd.  WAY too much sugar over the last few weeks, and I am feeling really yucky.  Brain fog, cranky, not sleeping well, and really insecure.  I will have to do some reflection to get to the bottom of that last one.

Anyone feeling like joining us on this 10 day journey?  We are better together you know!

Here is what we have planned for dinner this week:

Sunday:  It is crab season, so I am giving these crab cakes a go.  It could be a culinary disaster, or the best thing I have ever eaten.  I will photo document.  (Planning to use whole wheat bread crumbs in place of panko.)

Monday:  Potato and bacon hash with a slightly runny egg.

Tuesday: Left over chili from last week out of the freezer

Wednesday: Happy New Year!!!  Dave’s request is Chicken pot pie.  Most of the time, I modify this recipe and make my own crust, but I have some left over pie crusts from my pumpkin pie attempt that I plan to use.

Thursday:  Whole wheat spaghetti with parmigiana meatballs.  I use a marinara from Trader Joe’s that does not have any sugar or processed oils.  Yay!  Tip…freeze the remainder of your sauce of choice in ice cube trays for quick sauce options for the littles.  Mine love “dippers”.

Friday: Spinach mango salad with Prawns

Saturday:  Pizza night!  Making this crust, and will add cheese, mushrooms and tomatoes.

Consider joining us in January for our 10 day pledge.  It will change your palate for the better!  I promise you will thank me later.

Wishing you all health and happiness in 2014!

Advertisement

Dinner Menu for the week of December 22nd

Posted in Menus, RealFood by

Last week’s menu did not contain any new recipes, so no need to do a re-cap.  Tried and true staples are necessary during this season’s craziness.

Here is what we have planned for Christmas week.

Sunday: Seared Scallops and Lemon Orzo

Monday:  Enchilada soup from the freezer

Tuesday:  We are heading to my parent’s house for Christmas eve dinner.  My Mom is making crab salad.  Yum!

Wednesday:  My sister Chantelle will be cooking dinner, and I will be bringing two sides.  Bacon Glazed Carrots (using Maple Syrup instead of brown sugar) and Broccoli with Garlic Butter (using slivered almonds, and maple syrup in place of the brown sugar).  I will also be giving this YUMMY Apple-Cranberry crisp a go.

Thursday: White Bean Chicken Chili

Friday: Left over chili

Saturday: Pumpkin Spice Waffles.  (My recipe escapes me currently, but I will be sure to update the link when it is located.)

This week I also plan to make Peanut Butter Cup granola and also stock the freezer with pre-made smoothie bags full of frozen fruit and greens.

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Image

Dinner Menu for the week of December 15th

Posted in Menus, RealFood by

It has been almost a month since I last posted a menu.

Here is what I have learned over the last month.  Time is in short supply during this “season”.  Cookies are hard to avoid.  Brain-fog returns IN FORCE when I eat more than my share of the aforementioned cookies.  Lastly, we eat lots of granola with yogurt and/or Amy’s burritos for dinner when this mama does not meal plan.

One fall/winter highlight that I want to share is making applesauce with my sweet boy.  He really enjoys peeling the apples, and then also really enjoys eating the resulting sauce.  We have made several batches in the last few weeks.  I am pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but please get yourself an apple peeler if you do not already have one.  Super cheap, and one of the very best gadgets I have in my kitchen.  Here is my tiny using the fun tool…

applepeeler

Back to the discipline of a meal plan.

Sunday:  Garlic and lemon baked salmon with roasted potatoes and green beans inspired by this recipe

Monday:  Left overs from Sunday.  (I have an evening commitment, so Dave will be rocking the left overs solo.)

Tuesday:  Shrimp tostadas inspired by this recipe

Wednesday:  Dinner with Dave’s family to celebrate Christmas a bit early.

Thursday:   Using my VERY favorite chicken to make Chicken and broccoli pockets  I will be using this recipe for the crust instead of pastry crust.

Friday:  Chicken and pesto sandwiches.  We will use whole wheat rolls, and use the toaster oven to get them all melty.

Saturday:  Using up the last of the chicken to make this yummy chicken veggie soup.

During this week, I am hopeful that I can find some time to rest, and prepare for the festivities.  It always seems so rushed, so I will have to work hard to carve out the rest I crave.  Until next week…

Dinner Menu for the week of November 17th

Posted in Menus, RealFood by

Last week’s recap.

We are STILL eating chili from earlier in the week.  We made a huge batch, so it fed us for several lunches, and also stocked the freezer.

The honey mustard chicken was amazing!  I doubled the recipe and brought it to a mama that welcomed a new tiny at the end of October.  She sent me an email raving about it, so it will be a keeper.

The pulled pork tacos turned into roasted pork tenderloin with blueberry sauce.  I did not have any limes, and I needed to improvise. It was really tasty, and the kids gobbled it up.

Tonight for desert I pulled together a yummy cobbler with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and apple.  I squeezed a meyer lemon over the top of the fruit with a little zest, then drizzled honey on the top.  I used this recipe for the crumble, using 2tbs honey mixed with whole plain yogurt instead of cane sugar.  Yummo!

Image

Here is what is in the plan for this week:

Sunday:  Grilled scallop and avocado salad

Monday: Brinner…  Avocado, Bacon and egg wrap

Tuesday:  Whole chicken in the crock pot and bacon glazed carrots

Wednesday:  Chicken tostadas using the left over chicken

Thursday:  Cobb salad with egg, avocado, cheese, cucumbers and shredded carrots

Friday:  Parmigiana Meatballs with steamed broccoli

Saturday: Minestrone soup in the crock pot

Eat well friends!

Dinner Menu for the week of November 10th

Posted in Menus, RealFood by

Getting back on the menu horse.  Last week was full of defiance, and sorrow, and other things that have nothing to do with menu planning.  It all just resulted in me having very limited energy to meal plan.  Can anyone guess what happens when I do not meal plan?  Suffice it to say…nothing good.

Since I did not update you last week, I thought I would sneak in this gem. On Halloween, I brought some real food snacks for Trevor’s Halloween party.  It clearly was a HIT with the pinterest stalkers, because there was another mom that brought the same thing!  Ha!  (Stems are kiwi, and the ghost eyes are cocao nibs)

Image

Another win during my week of defiance was these ever so delicious and simple pumpkin granola bars.    PS, who says you can only make pumpkin things in the fall?!?!   These pumpkin swirl bars are in my very near future!

pumpkin

Here is what we have on the menu for this week:

Sunday: Turkey chili in the crock pot

Monday: Left over chili

Tuesday:  Honey mustard chicken with  cheesy broccoli orzo

Wednesday:  Sauteed scallops and quinoa with orange/avocado salsa 

Thursday:  Bacon, avocado and tomato omelet

Friday:  Pulled pork tacos. (Home made tortillas!)  Should have more than enough to freeze for leftovers!

Saturday:  Left over tacos

Hope everyone has a great week!

Dinner Menu for the week of October 27th

Posted in Menus, RealFood by

I am running on fumes.  Dave was out of town for most of the week.  My housekeeper came on Wednesday, and my house was a shit-show by Friday morning.  I stand in AWE of single parents.  You just plain rule.

Pity party is over, so moving on to the re-cap.

The soup rocked my world, and is now occupying much of the deep freezer space.

I forgot to go to the store/was too embarrassed to go in public unshowered, and in the same clothes from the day prior/could not bear to muscle two toddlers into the car, so I did not get to eat my yummy salmon on Tuesday.  Pretty sure I ate the remainder of the kids meal for my dinner.  Since I cannot recall what it was, it was clearly amazing.

By Wednesday, I had a bit of a second wind, and I made the kids chicken tenders for dinner.  They were SO awesome!  Really cool because they can be frozen and then just re-heated when needed.  I see this getting added to my next cookapalooza weekend.

I know that I keep telling you about this chicken in the crock pot, so I will not go on and on and on about its deliciousness. Moved it to tonight because the bird was not quite defrosted.  I decided to roast some veggies (sweet potatoes, carrots, and zucchini) to go with the chicken, and found a recipe that suggested tossing the veggies in some bacon grease prior to roasting.  I thought….well, I DO happen to have some saved bacon grease.  I mean, why am I saving it, if I was not planning to use it to cook something.  It was the most humongous hit ever.  Between the chicken and the veggies, I have never seen the boys eat so much.  (Lets hope full bellies means sleeping past 6 am!)

Image

Here is what we are planning to make this week:

Sunday: Tomato basil chicken stew using the left over crock pot chicken

Monday: Left over soup

Tuesday:  Ready to harvest more peppers from the garden!  Making southwestern stuffed peppers.

Wednesday:  Dave’s birthday, so we are going out to dinner!

Thursday: Chicken and avocado salad

Friday:  Pizza night!

Saturday: Sausage, egg, and biscuit casserole.  Adapted from this recipe, but plan to make my own biscuit dough.

This week I am also going to stock up on some muffins for the freezer.  We go through them SO fast.  I am planning to make cinnamony apple pie muffins, whole wheat carrot applesauce muffins and another round of pumpkin muffins.

Hope everyone has a safe and FUN Halloween!

Dinner Menu for the week of October 20th

Posted in Menus, RealFood by

Getting right to it tonight with last week’s highlights.

The shrimp tacos were great, but the big winner was the meatballs!  I thought I would have enough to freeze, but only 3 ended up making it to the fridge.  Made a mental note to double the recipe next time.

meatballsImage

I finally got around to making the pumpkin muffins this afternoon.  On a whim, I used a different recipe.  What a great decision!  Now…I have had some really amazing pumpkin muffins, but these really are the very best I have EVER had.  Ever.  Trevor was sneaking them off the cooling rack.

In addition to what was on the menu, in keeping with my pumpkin obsession, I made pumpkin french toast on Sat morning.  I subbed in maple syrup for the brown sugar in the recipe.  Honestly, you could leave that out altogether, and it would still taste great.  Trevor and I loved it, but Lucas and Dave were not terribly impressed.

This week is going to be a bit wonky due to some commitments that will take one or both of us out of the house for dinner.  Here we go…

Sunday:  We skipped seafood tonight because I needed to re-stock the kitchen with my favorite soup.  This chicken enchilada soup is SO versatile, and freezes great.  I used a huge red pepper from our garden, two large sweet potatoes instead of russet, and tossed in a jalapeno.  I did not have any butternut squash, so I used the acorn squash that did not get used last week.  (Ahem)  Instead of transferring to a blender in batches, I used my immersion blender.  So much easier.  This will do a really good job stocking the freezer.  YAY!

Monday:  Soup made on Sunday.

Tuesday:  Moving seafood to Tuesday, and cooking up some baked lemon salmon with asparagus

Wednesday:  Cobb salad with hard boiled egg, bacon and avocado

Thursday:  Whole chicken in the crock pot, steamed broccoli and wild rice.  I get two whole pastured chickens a month, and this not only feeds us for several days, it also makes delicious stock!  If you have not yet tried to cook a whole chicken in a crock pot…it is time.  You will not believe that it took you this long.

Friday:  Open face chicken melts using the left over chicken

Saturday:  Avocado Bacon Breakfast wrap

Looking forward to more pumpkin recipe hunting on pinterest this week!  Enjoy your cooking adventures.

Dinner Menu for the week of October 13th

Posted in Menus, RealFood by

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch today over by the coast.  The air was crisp, and being surrounded by pumpkins made me feel all happy and content.  Pretty sure I have mentioned before, but I sure do love fall.

The boys had SO much fun running around, and taking a ride on the train.  We brought our new wagon for two that Trevor’s Mimi got him for his birthday.  It has a small caboose that hitches on behind, and it was just what we needed to pull around our pumpkins.

lukie

The big winner from last week was the chipotle chicken sweet potatoes.  Yum.  Knowing Dave is not a sweet potato fanatic, I made his on regular potatoes.  Both of them turned out delicious, and they were really easy to make too!  The boys ate the innards for lunch the following day.

Image

 

The second winner from this week’s adventures in cooking was an impromptu batch of peanut butter chocolate granola.  MAKE THIS PEOPLE!!!

Sunday:  Honey Lime shrimp tacos on home made corn tortillas

Monday: Left over shrimp tacos

Tuesday:  Quinoa stuffed acorn squash inspired by a recipe in this post.   Side story here.  I accidentally neglected my CSA customization last week, and an acorn squash was in my box.  Hmmm.  Never in my life…  This could be the hot mess of the week/month/ever.

Wednesday:  Grilled cheese and tomato bisque

Thursday: Chopped salad with quinoa, sweet potatoes and apples

Friday: Parmigiana meatballs over whole wheat spaghetti

Saturday:  Poached eggs over asparagus.  We usually serve this with bacon.

My pumpkin adventures this week will include pumpkin granola bars, and pumpkin muffins.  YAY!!!

Enjoy cooking this week everyone!

Dinner Menu for the week of October 6th

Posted in Menus, RealFood by

Oy…October snuck up on me.  But, since it is here, I must confess…I love Fall.  I love everything about Fall.  I love pumpkins, and mulling spices, and the color orange.  It is time for warm sweaters, and cute knee high boots, and scarfs.  And, check out this AMAZING pumpkin latte recipe!!!.

I spent a long weekend with a friend down in San Diego.  We stayed up late chatting, drank some wine, and squeezed in a few hours of amazing training on some chemical free products.  It was a nice little break from the norm.  Breaks from the norm make dinner menus LATE.  This creature of habit is out of whack.

Last week’s menu winner was the quinoa bake.  It was SO easy, and was really tasty.  I blessed another family that welcomed a new little one with this meal as well, and they were impressed.  If you you are even slightly open to cooking with quinoa, this one is a fabulous place to start.

Image

This week’s menu:

Sunday:  We actually got take out from Chipotle.  Food Babe recently did a piece on what to eat at Chipotle, and I feel semi-ok with their menu.

Monday:  Potato Soup (out of the freezer)

Tuesday: Mexi-Chicken with black beans and brown rice

Wednesday: Chipotle Chicken sweet potato skins.  Sweet potatoes are a very close second to anything that is pumpkin flavored.  Could be that they are both orange.  Regardless….I am anticipating this meal most.

Thursday:  Parmesan Asparagus Orzo and a side salad

Friday:  Fish taco bowls.  We have been talking about this dish since the last time it made it on a menu.  It was time.

Saturday:   Pumpkin pancakes. (You knew it was coming.)  Subbing in maple syrup for the brown sugar, and will make enough to freeze.

Given my love/obsession with pumpkin, I am planning to give these pumpkin muffins a go this week as well.  Can.not.wait.  For real.

Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Dinner Menu for the week of September 29th

Posted in Menus, RealFood by

Highlights from last week’s menu:

Quinoa stuffed peppers we really yummy and SO easy to make.  I had some extra filling, so I delivered this meal on Tuesday to a new mama in our mother’s club.  She also raved about its deliciousness.  (Picture does not do it justice.)

bell pepper

Thursday morning, Trevor helped make yummy banana pancakes for a birthday treat.  He is always so very eager to help.

birthdayboy

I thought the penne pasta we had for dinner Thursday night was amazing,  I kept refilling my bowl.  but Dave was not as much of a fan.  He still ate it though.  🙂

Sat evening, we had family over to celebrate our sweet three year old.  He was the center of attention, and loved every minute.  We decided to make a self serve burrito bar, and made this super easy crock pot salsa chicken.  We have a ton of left overs, so I will be putting some of the meat in the freezer for dinners in the future.

This week is another wonky one because I have trainings or commitments that will mean I am gone for dinner.  Boooo.  I plan to cook a bunch of things ahead to prepare.

Sunday:  Due to the excess chicken, we are going to rock some chicken burritos tonight.  Or some chicken nachos.  Will depend on the mood.

Monday:  Might be ambitious, but I am giving it a go.  Minestrone in the crock pot

Tuesday:  Spinach quinoa bake.  I am doing another new mama meal delivery this evening, and it looks like this recipe will make plenty for both families.  Hope it is yummy!

Wednesday:  I am heading out for the evening to a training dinner, so Dave will be heating up some soup from the freezer.  Either potato or chicken enchilada.

Thursday:  Spinach Strawberry and Avocado salad

Friday: Grilled steak, mashed potatoes and asparagus

Saturday:  Left over steak and potatoes

Have a great week everyone!