Week 43 - Fast Food

Printable Version of Meal Plan

This week was busy busy so I needed supper to be on the table fast to free up our evenings for other priorities.  The solution for me was food that I could prep, at least partly, the night before and both lunches and suppers that were familiar enough that I didn't have to be constantly referring to recipes - ie. I could prepare them in a zombie-like state in the late evenings (pardon the Halloween pun).

Recipe Index

 

Carrot Smoothie, Real Simple
Caesar Dressing, Recipe on my Salad Dressing and Dip Printout
Asian Salmon Cakes, Chatelaine
Kale Pomegranate Salad, Simple Provisions
Quinoa Patties, Eating Well Living Thin
Simple Turkey Chili, Allrecipes.com
Whole Wheat Tortillas, 100 Days of Real Food
Pumpkin Muffins, 100 Days of Real Food

 

Week in Review

Smoothie of the Week - Carrot, Pineapple, Orange.  So good!!

 

Sunday

Supper - Breaded Chicken w/ Roasted Vegetables. This is one of those meals that I don't have to refer to a recipe.  I mix breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese (roughly 2:1) in one bowl and whisk an egg and milk in another bowl.  I dip the chicken pieces in the egg then coat well with the breadcrumbs and bake at 425 until done.  At the same time I roasted some vegetables - for this I chop the veggies and toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper and spread them out on a cooking stone.  The veggies typically take longer so I get them on first.

Prep Ahead Ideas

• Double the chicken to have leftovers for Monday supper.
• Make the Caesar dressing for Monday salad and store in fridge 
• Make double batch of quinoa for Monday and Wednesday lunches.  (I prepared 1 cup)

Monday

Lunch - Quinoa Vegetable Fried "Rice".  No recipe required again, this was just my regular fried rice with quinoa in place of the rice.  I sauteed a mix of chopped vegetables (use whatever you have on hand), added the quinoa and a little soya sauce.  I push that to that side of the pan once it's well mixed and add a couple of eggs that I roughly scramble.  Once the eggs are cooked I mix it all up.  Done. 

Supper - Speedy Chicken and Kale Caesar - The chicken and dressing were prepared the night before so this supper just had to be assembled.  I chopped the Kale and massaged it with a little olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon juice before adding the Caesar dressing.  We added Parmesan and croutons.  While I was making the salad I popped the chicken in the oven to reheat and crisp up - totally optional.  This was very popular with the kid in the house!

Prep Ahead Ideas

• Prepare the salmon cakes up to the step of forming the patties and store in the fridge overnight.  Note:  I used canned salmon.

Tuesday

Lunch - Kale Pomegranate Salad w/ Ryvita Rye Crackers.  I was totally excited to try this salad because I had "attempted" to make my own dried cranberries on the weekend.  I love the tartness of cranberries so I always find the dried versions too sweet.  I won't share my experiment because it was a flop - right flavor, wrong texture.  I'll keep trying.  The salad was good, I added chickpeas to make it a meal but I think I'd prefer it as a side dish rather then the main course.

Kale Pomegranate Salad

Supper - Asian Salmon Cakes w/ Avocado Mayo and Arugula Salad.  I really liked these but they were not as popular with the kiddo as the previous night's Kale Caesar Salad.  As mentioned I used canned salmon.  I also cut way back on the mayo and supplemented with some plain yogurt.  I thought the flavor was great and actually preferred it before I fried them up.  I think it would make a nice sandwich or wrap.  The arugula salad was our new go-to... Arugula, drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper and shaved Parmesan.  So easy yet so good!

Prep Ahead Ideas

• Premix the Pad Thai sauce (see recipe below) and store in the fridge overnight
• Chop any vegetables you plan to add to the Pad Thai and store in fridge overnight

 

Wednesday

Lunch - Quinoa Patties w/ Veggies and Dip.  The quinoa was made earlier in the week so this was a quick lunch to throw together.  Last time I reported they had a good texture but were a tad bland.  This time I actually found them to be perfectly flavorful... perhaps I missed an ingredient last time??

Quinoa Patties

Supper - Tofu Pad Thai.  This is a quick meal regardless of how much prep you do the night before.  I actually ran out of steam Tuesday night and opted to make this meal from scratch after work.  No biggie.  This is one of my sister's favorites from this blog. 


Tofu Pad Thai (Adapted from Crazy Plates cookbook)

Cook Vermicelli Noodles according to package.  Drain and rinse in cold water.

To make the sauce, combine the following and set aside:

• 1/4 cup Ketchup
• 2 Tbsp each soya sauce, lime juice, brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Heat 1 tsp of sesame oil in a skillet and add cubed firm tofu (press out as much as possible), 1 package of coleslaw mix, 1/2 small red onion (diced), 2 cloves of minced garlic.  Cook until tofu is browned.  Add sauce and bring to boil.  Stir in noodles.

Serve garnished with fresh cilantro, green onion, chopped peanuts and a wedge of lime.

Prep Ahead Ideas

• Complete step 1 of the Simple Turkey Chili recipe and then add everything to the slow cooker and store the crock in the fridge overnight.
• Make muffins for Thursday breakfast

Thursday (Halloween)

Breakfast - Pumpkin Muffins & Latte.  Since it was Halloween we started our day with Pumpkin muffins.  I made them the night before because there is no way I could get myself out of bed early enough to pull that off!  I also had to save time to make these cute "Boo"-nanas for Marin's daycare class.  Marin was super excited about these!  Thank-you Pinterest!

Boo-nana

Lunch - Leftover Pad Thai.  Gotta love leftovers!

Supper - Simple (Slow-Cooker) Turkey Chili.  I think this is going to be a Halloween tradition.  Nothing like nice bowl of comfort food before hitting the streets.  I topped the chili with cheese and sour cream.  Meant to take a picture since this is being added to Slow Cooker Favorites but I was too preoccupied to think about it.

Prep Ahead Ideas

• Make a batch of tortillas

Friday

Lunch - Ham & Cheese Wraps w/ Veggies & Dip.  Ham, Havarti, Mayo, Mustard and Arugula all wrapped up in a fresh whole wheat tortilla.  Delicious!  Seriously... go make a batch of tortillas.   You won't be sorry.  We used them as a base for tuna melts last weekend - also delicious!

Freshly made batch of tortillas

Supper - Quesadillas.  Marin and I are on our own for supper tonight and although it will be my second time having the tortillas in one day I can think of nothing wrong with that.  This time will be traditional Mexican style with cheese, refried beans (from the freezer) and all the fixin's....

Tortillas all loaded up!

Can you believe it's November?!!

Sandra

Week 41 - What Happens When Life Gets in the Way of Grocery Shopping

Printable Version of Meal Plan

We were away last weekend for Thanksgiving and arrived home Monday with no grocery stores open.  I was prepared for this and was able to put to the test one of the make ahead slow cooker recipes I had in the freezer.  I am now a believer!  But then it turned out I couldn't get out Tuesday night either so I took another look at our supplies and got us through another day.  Wednesday night Marin went to my parents house for a sleepover and Dave and I found ourselves with an unplanned date night... so again, no groceries.  By this point I felt it was a personal challenge to NOT get groceries for a full week.

This was manageable given that last week I had over planned a bit and had some leftovers.  So I actually started the week with enough milk and some fruit and vegetables.  I did make a trip to a pharmacy on Monday evening and picked up a loaf of bread ($2.50) and mid-week at Costco we picked up a couple of other items for about $18.00.  So $22.50 was my total spent on grocery items for the week!!  Hurrah!  This was also possible in large part to my freezer re-org.  This may sound a little dramatic (or maybe a lot) but having clean, organized freezers has changed my life....ok, maybe not my life but at least the way I meal plan. 

Here's what we managed to find to eat....

Breakfast - We mainly alternated between toast and cereal but I did squeeze in an overnight oatmeal - I can't help myself.

Corn Chowder (Mama Loves Food) with Tea Biscuits (100 Days of Real Food) - I prepared these last week to take with us for the weekend so we were cleaning up on this.

Lentils & Rice (Chef Michael Smith) - This recipe takes only a few ingredients that I almost always have on hand.  It also takes only about 5 minutes of prep time to make two days worth of lunches.  A great recipe to have in your back pocket.

Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken (Kojo Design) - This was prepped and frozen a few weeks ago with this very day in mind.  I knew I would need to have something that didn't require a trip to grocery store for the Tuesday after the long weekend.  Oddly none of us were over the moon about this one the night of but I finished up the leftovers a couple of days later and loved it!  I'd almost recommend making it a day in advance because it seems to take that long for the flavors to really blend.  I served it with couscous though which Marin did love.

Greek Nachos from Palladium Family Restaurant - I'm throwing this out there for anyone from the HRM area.  If you love Greek food they serve some of the best in the city in my opinion.  Maybe not the most romantic setting for a date night but we loooove the food.

Stir-Fried Beef w/ Roasted Vegetables - this was totally one of those meals that was thrown together with whatever odds and ends I could find.  We had cauliflower, carrots, parsnips, beets and onion - which are all vegetables I love roasted.  Then I stir fried some strips of beef I had frozen with a bit of an Asian twist - sesame oil, ginger, soya sauce and honey.  It was actually pretty good.

Squash Soup with Grilled Cheese - I thawed some squash soup and served it with grill cheese.  A fun idea would be to cut the grilled cheese into bite size squares for homemade "Croutons". 

Personal Pizzas - I had whole wheat pizza crusts in the freezer, just enough cheese and toppings to manage a pizza!  Another pizza Friday.

Homemade Chicken Fingers (Rachel Ray) w/ Roasted Potato Coins - I stock up on boneless skinless chicken breasts whenever they go on sale so I had some on hand.  On Friday's I like to do "convenience" food and while these chicken fingers aren't out of a box they don't take much effort either.  I like to mix the breadcrumbs with grated Parmesan cheese.  For the potato coins I simply microwave the potatoes and then slice them into rounds about a 1/4" thick.  Brush both sides with oil and bake at 450 until nice and crispy.  We still had carrots and celery to have on the side too!

Smoothie - Marin's smoothie love continues - this week was Strawberry & Banana (both from the freezer), Kiwi & Kale (both leftover from last week and in need of being used up), coconut water and honey.  One of our best yet!

Your kids don't like eating greens?  Maybe they'll drink them!

Parmesan Popcorn -- Remember last week I said I wanted to try a new popcorn recipe?  Well I found a winner.  Baking the popcorn gave it a nice crunch.  I packed the leftovers as a lunch snack and it was still crunchy the next day.

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins - I had four of these gems from last week stashed away in the freezer.

So not too bad for only $20 in groceries!  I didn't even have to break out the KD.  But now I really, truly am out of food!


What are your go-to meals when life gets in the way of grocery shopping?

Sandra

Week 21 - Breakfast To Go

Printable Version of Meal Plan & Grocery List

Marin's gotten into the habit of crawling in bed with us most nights.  She just brings her pillow and blanket and climbs in and we're typically too tired to do anything about it.  But it always results in a restless sleep and inevitably an extra snooze and me inhaling breakfast so I can run out the door to catch the bus.  So I decided to try some breakfast on the go options this week.  It was a nice change.  I typically have half an hour alone in my office before my office mates start to arrive so it was kind of peaceful nibbling my breakfast and sipping my coffee. 

Recipe Quick Links

Chickpeas & PB, Oh She Glows
Slow Cooker Deli Chicken, 100 Days of Real Food
Avocado Corn Salad, Sobey's Inspired
PB & Fruit Breakfast Wraps, Food.com
Almond Milk, Oh She Glows
Green Monster Smoothie, Oh She Glows

It wasn't intentional to have so many Oh She Glows recipes in one week, but it's a great blog - you should check it out!

Week in Review

Tuesday

Love Crunch Granola

Breakfast - Yogurt Parfait.  I layered frozen raspberries and blueberries with plain greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey.  I packed some chocolate granola in a separate container so it wouldn’t get soggy.  It was a pretty big helping and I found it kept me going most of the morning.  I assembled in the morning and the berries were still a little on the chilly side so I would recommend using fresh fruit and/or assembling the night before.  This is granola the I picked up this week... huge hit!

Lunch – Chickpeas with PB and Maple Syrup on Pita.  This was one of the first recipes I added to the favorites list but haven’t actually made yet this year.  This sounds a bit odd but I promise you, it’s actually pretty tasty.  But what I really love about this recipe is that its super easy and uses ingredients I almost always have on hand.  So at 10pm when I’m laying on the couch being tempted to skip making lunches this recipe will come to mind and I think ‘surely I can get my butt into the kitchen for 5 minutes to pull this off’.  I like it with pita or lettuce.

Supper – Haddock and Vegetable Parchment Packets.  I have been seeing recipes for fish baked in Parchment parcels for ages and have always been tempted to try this method of cooking.  Finally, I did!  And we were pretty impressed.  Best part – super easy cleanup!  I didn’t actually follow a recipe but referred to a few to get an idea of how long to cook and at what temperature.  So this is what I did:

Haddock and Vegetable Parchment Parcels

I filled each parchment parcel with

o   1 Tbsp Butter

o   Slices of Zucchini

o   Haddock Fillet

o   Strips of Red and Yellow Peppers

o   Salt & Pepper

o   Drizzle of lemon juice

Fold it up (I just made up my own method of folding, but this might work better - How to Steam Fish in Parchment), place on a baking sheet and bake at 425F until done.  Time will depend on thickness of fish.  Mine were <1" and done in 15 minutes.  I served this with boiled potatoes but rice would be good too.  Marin gobbled this up – fish first!  Kid approved!

Wednesday

Breakfast – Egg “Mac” Muffin (can I call it that??)  Tuesday night I made a couple of egg sandwiches.  Fried egg on an english muffin (toasted and buttered) with cheddar cheese.  I wrapped those puppies in parchment paper and they were ready to go in the morning.  I warmed mine up in the microwave when I got to work and it was perfect.  I think the parchment made it feel like take-out.  I would totally do this again.  Would be great for an early morning road trip.



A Stack of Egg "Mac's"



Egg "Mac" & Cafe at my desk



Lunch – Rice Salad with Soy Dressing.  I don’t know the original source of this recipe – I requested it after eating it at a gathering and love it for lunch.  I always make enough for two days.  We love the soy dressing.

Rice Salad with Soy Dressing

Dressing - 1/4 cup Soya Sauce, 1/4 cup Oil, 2 cloves of garlic minced.  Mix well. 

Make ahead - 1 p

epper (any color, diced), 3 stalks celery (diced), 2 green onion (chopped), 1 cup mushrooms (sliced), 1/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins, 2 cups brown rice (cooked).  Mix all ingredients with dressing.

Add Spinach and Cashews before eating.  I add the spinach the night before when I'm packing lunches and the cashews just before eating.

Supper – Whole Chicken in the Slow Cooker with Avocado Corn Salad.  Yum and yum.   I love this chicken recipe – definitely a slow cooker gem!  You don’t add any liquid so it doesn’t come out like the typical slow-cooker ‘stew’.  I use foil balls instead of onion, as the recipe suggests.  The meat is moist and falls right off the bone – so good!  The corn salad is one I found in the Sobey’s Inspired Magazine a couple of years ago and has become a summer go-to recipe.  I’ve served it at a couple of gatherings and it’s always been a hit.  It’s better with grilled corn and fresh cilantro but this week I made it with frozen corn and frozen cilantro cubes and it was still darn tasty.

Thursday

Breakfast – PB & Fruit Breakfast Wraps.  I’ve had this on the menu before but typically make it on flat wraps with oatmeal.  This time I used Pita and chocolate granola.  OMG… so good!  I also use real strawberries in place of the jam in this recipe.  I assembled it before heading out the door and the pita was a tad soggy in a couple of places but nothing major.  I find wraps easier to handle so if you’re going to be eating this in the car or literally on the run I would suggest a wrap, but I typically prefer pita to tortillas.  Mmm, mmm, mmmm….



PB & Fruit Breakfast Pita with Almond Milk

 

Lunch – Leftover Rice Salad.  This is great on day two but I would definately suggest not adding the spinach and nuts right away, otherwise you may have soggy greens and stale nuts - yuck.

Supper – Tofu Stir-fry with Asian Sesame Dressing.  This is a super simple and quick supper.  Nothing too special but some nights you just want something easy and that’s enough…  know what I mean?  I just dice and fry the tofu in a little sesame oil until it starts to brown.  Then I add in a bag of frozen Asian style veggies and continue to stir-fry until the veggies are heated through.  Pour the dressing over and serve.  We had it on its own but you could serve it with rice or rice noodles.  I used the dipping sauce from the panko tofu recipe and a spoonful of peanut butter as the sauce.

Friday

Breakfast - Oatmeal Smoothie & Muffin.  The great thing about smoothies is that pretty much anything goes.  I debated if I wanted a refreshing fruity smoothie or more of a hearty nutty smoothie.  I ended up making the Classic Green Monster from Oh She Glows but I skipped the protein powder (I always do) and added oatmeal and some milk at the end to thin it out a bit.  I also grabbed a Very Berry Muffin from the freezer.

Lunch - Mango Curry Chicken Salad on Pita.  I made a chicken salad with the leftover slow-cooker chicken.  I mixed mayo and plain yogurt with Epicure Mango Curry seasoning and added in some celery and apple.  We had it on pita (packed separately) with some raw veggies on the side.

Supper - Poutine.  Few things in life make me happier than Poutine.  For those of you who aren't familiar with this delicacy it's french fries, cheese and gravy.  Not the healthiest thing on the menu but I feel the joy it brings me is probably good for my heart.  And I'll wash it down with a glass of red wine - that's good for me too right??  My version is a bag of frozen fries (baked), topped with shredded mozza and baked a few more minutes (I like the cheese to melt and crisp up a bit) and then topped with hot poutine sauce.  You can actually buy poutine sauce in the gravy section at some grocery stores.  If you can't find it, your favorite gravy will do.  This is Convenience Food Friday at its best!

And if you're in Halifax a must have is the Lobster Poutine at Cut Grill.  You're welcome!