Week 14 - Patty Cake, Patty Cake…

Printable Version of Meal Plan and Grocery List

This week is all about the patties (chickpea and hamburger) and the cakes (quinoa and salmon).  Honestly, it was actually one of those accidentally themed weeks. Apparently I was in a patty mood last Sunday. I will say that I liked most of the meals this week, however I was so excited by the Patty & Cake theme that I failed to notice just how many beans there were on the menu.  Maybe a little overkill in that area.   But as a bonus all these patties and cakes made for a pretty kid-friendly week!

Recipe Quick Links:
Layered Salad, In the Kitchen with Stephano Faita
Quinoa Cakes, Marin Mama Cooks
Chickpea Burgers, Marin Mama Cooks
Refried Beans, 100 Days of Real Food
Corn Tortillas, 100 Days of Real Food
Mandarin Almond Salad, All Recipes

Week in Review

We had two fabulous meals on the weekend. Saturday night with the MacNeil’s and Sunday night with the Robertson’s. Ham one night and turkey the next.  Add a ton of chocolate to that and this was definitely not a low cal weekend, but everything was delicious and worth every Weight Watchers point!! Shout out to my nephew Cameron who made the most amazing macarons. He made two batches – lemon and lavender, which apparently took him 6 hours. They were to die for, I’m sure you could not find any better at a French bakery. I was super impressed! I hear he makes maple as well which I can’t wait to try sometime… hint, hint

Monday – I had Monday off so Marin and I headed downtown to meet Daddy for lunch and then we enjoyed a rainy afternoon watching cooking shows at home.  Marin got particularly focused on watching In the Kitchen with Stephan Faita.  He made a layered quinoa salad and she said “I wish I could have that for supper”.  I took that as a sign that we all needed a boatload of veggies to make up for the rich foods we were eating all weekend.  So we headed to the kitchen and made a layered salad with everything we could find.  I didn’t have all the ingredients we needed for Stephano’s version but I’d definitely like to give it a try sometime!

Tuesday – Lunch was Marin Mama’s Quinoa Cakes.  I love this recipe hot out of the pan but they weren’t quite as good reheated in the microwave.  I also used water instead of broth so they were a tad bland.   Don’t let that deter you from trying this recipe though… they’ll just be a weekend treat from now on.  Supper was Salmon Cakes with Caper Mayo – although I skip the capers when I make this.  I’ve tried quite a few versions of salmon cakes and so far this is our favorite.  We love the dip!

Salmon Cakes with Caper Mayo (source unknown)
Ingredients:
• 2 lb fresh salmon
• ¼ c lime or lemon juice
• 1 c chopped green onion
• 1 c chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 c light mayo (or 1/2c mayo, 1/2c sour cream or plain yogurt)
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 2 Tbsp capers (optional)
• 1 1/3 c dry Italian bread crumbs
• ½ c cornmeal
• 2 tsp butter

Directions:
1. Break fish into pieces and microwave 6-8 minutes. Crumble and drizzle with lime juice. Add green onion and cilantro
2. In separate bowl, mix mayo, Dijon, and chilli powder. Add ½ to salmon and reserve the rest for dip.
3. Mix bread crumbs into salmon. Form into 8 cakes. Roll into cornmeal. Cover and refrigerate for 30 min - 24 hrs or freeze.
4. Fry in butter 3-5 minutes per side, cover and let warm through for 10minutes.

Wednesday – Lunch was one of things that I make when I don’t feel like making lunches – Hummus, melba and veggies.   I made us some apple sandwiches with almond butter, maple and coconut spread (Marin’s creation from last week) for work snacks as well.  They were as good as I had hoped.  Supper was slow-cooker refried beans, homemade corn tortillas and all the fixin’s!  Seriously… so good!
 
This is another snack I made up mid-week.  They’re called Granola Coins, are really quick and easy to throw together and make a great work or school snack at just 2 weight watchers points each.  I find them to be a good alternative to granola bars and you could easily personalize them with different add-ins.



Thursday – Pulled out another Marin Mama recipe… chickpea patties.  I was thinking of these because I had some cilantro to use up.  Instead of doing them up as burgers I packed just the patty on its own with a mandarin almond salad.  This lunch was excellent.  Light and full of flavors!  I’ve been making this salad for years, typically with mixed greens.  I had a salad at Pipa Restaurant last month which reminded me so much of this salad but using kale.  That was my plan but I can never seem to find Kale when I need it.  However, it worked out fine because I stumbled on PC Organic Field Greens with Herbs Salad Mix.  This was the perfect mix for this salad.
 
For supper I made hamburger patties with feta, red onion and oregano.  I grilled them on the Foreman but overdid them a tad so they were a bit dried out.  We did them up on pita with tzatziki and cherry tomatoes.  I have to remember to pull this idea out for bbq season.

Friday – Lunch was an exact replica of Thursday’s lunch… and just as good!  Supper was nachos.  I was planning on using the beans but instead cut up the leftover hamburger patty.  The beans will go in the freezer for an easy meal in a few weeks.

Happy weekend everyone!