Week 23 - "Pin"spiration

Printable Version of Meal Plan and Grocery List

We had another busy weekend so I decided to not bog myself down with a theme.  I got up super early on Sunday morning, made a coffee and did a one-stop shop visit to Pinterest to throw together a quick meal plan and grocery list for the week.   I threw in a few stand-by’s too.  Sometimes you just need to not over think things!

Recipe Quick Links

Chinese Chicken Salad, Weelicious
Tex-Mex Rice Cakes, Weelicious
Grilled Portobello Burger, 52 Weeks of Meal Planning
Kale Salad, Marin Mama Cooks
Grilled Romain Hearts, Key Ingredient
Crispy Sweet Potato Fries, Foodvee
Overnight Oats, The Yummy Life

Snack spotlight - Fig Bars

You might have noticed these in my snack list recently.  I found these treats at Costco last month and we're on our second huge box.  They're certified Non-GMO which is great... but mostly they are just really, really tasty!  And convenient.  If you like Fig Newtons, you'll LOVE these!


Nature's Bakery Fig Bars



Week in Review

Monday

Lunch – Chinese Chicken Shrimp Salad.  I didn’t think I was going to rant and rave about this one but I have to say the dressing for this recipe is awesome.  I’m a huge fan of salad dressings, I used to have a fridge full of them.  The problem was I could never go through a whole bottle so I was forever throwing them out.  So stumbling upon this Asian Sesame dressing was a big deal for me… and it uses ingredients I always have on hand.  I was actually all chickened out from the weekend so I substituted shrimp for the chicken which worked well and I used coleslaw mix to save some prep time.

Supper – Goat Cheese Portobello Burger.  This is one of my own recipes, something I came up with trying to use up odds and ends in the fridge one night.  The last time I made it (Week 5) I used the indoor grill, this time I roasted the vegetables in the oven because it was raining out.  Always good but highly recommend grilling the veggies on the barbecue – it just adds a little something extra. 

Tuesday

Lunch – Chinese Chicken Shrimp Salad.   Dave didn’t need lunch so I used up Monday’s leftovers.  I added some cashews this time and enjoyed the extra crunch.

Supper – Salt Cod Fish Cakes & Asparagus.  I prepped these the night before so when I got home I just had to fry them up a bit.  We make a very basic fish cake – I boil the cod with fresh water at least twice, drain and mix that with mashed potatoes, an egg and minced onion.   They were pretty wet so I think refrigerating them overnight ending up being a good thing.  Just before frying I coated them with breadcrumbs to give them a little crunch.  We had simple asparagus on the side.  I just cooked the asparagus in a frying pan with a small amount of oil until they were done but still crisp.  I crumbled some feta on top, pepper and a squeeze of lemon over the whole plate.  Totally enjoyed!

Wednesday

Lunch – Tex-Mex Rice Cakes.  This is a super easy recipe and I really enjoyed them.  This is a good basic recipe that you could easily customise with different veggies, cheese and spices.  Next time I think I would add a little Mexican Spice Blend for some added kick and perhaps even some black beans.  I do think these would be best eaten fresh out of the pan instead of reheated the next day, but still a satisfying lunch.  They'd make an excellent toddler food as well!

Tex-Mex Rice Cakes

Supper – Marin & Mommy night out.  Dave unexpectedly had to go out of town this week so I pushed the Lasagna I had planned to Friday and I took the night off.  Marin and I headed up to Cafe Brea, a new cafe that opened in our neighborhood that I've been wanting to try.  It's not really a supper place so it was nice and quiet and perfect for a date with my little monkey... kind of felt like we were girlfriends, going out for coffee.  We had some healthy stuff but made sure to save lots of room for treats!  Afterwards we headed to a local kids book & toy store - Marin thought it was the best store EVER!



Marin at Cafe Brea



This is what Marin thought of our date... or maybe it was the cupcake.



Thursday

Lunch -- Leftover Fishcakes and Kale Salad.  There was just enough leftovers from the fishcakes for one, so I held off on them until today when Dave was going to be out of town.  I had them with a side of kale salad which was perfect.  This salad is so simple yet so packed with flavor - love it!

Supper -- Grilled Chicken & Romaine with Sweet Potato Fries.  OK, I had to try it but I'm going to admit, I just don't get 'grilled lettuce'.  The Caesar dressing was good but I don't like my lettuce warm.  Maybe I did something wrong, maybe my lettuce wasn't crisp enough to start... I don't know.  But I doubt I'll try it again.  I also had high hopes for the fries but they didn't really turn out either.  I think I didn't add enough oil.  sigh... such a mediocre meal.

Friday

Lunch -- Tex Mex Rice Cakes.  Again.  Because I delayed the lasagna I had a couple of lunches to make up.  I had extra rice and really likes these the first time so I made them again.

Supper – Easiest Lasagna EVER.  I had originally planned the lasagna for Wednesday to get us through the rest of the week but having it on Friday is nice since I prepped it on Thursday.  All I have to do for supper is stick it in the oven and we'll have leftovers for the weekend!  I used pasta “sheets” for the first time and I’m never going back.  They were so easy to work with!  This lasagna came together in about 5 minutes...

Here's my layers:
Sauce (straight from the jar)
Noodles
Sauce
Cottage Cheese (mixed with egg & parmesan)
Shredded Mozzarella
Noodles
Sauce
Spinach (frozen, thawed and water squeezed out)
Cottage CheeseNoodles

Sauce
Shredded Mozzarella

I measured nothing.  We'll see how it turns out.



Cutting the pasta sheets to fit the pan



Pasta Sheets waiting for the next layer