Menu Planning Recap - Week of 4/26

Here is our recap for last week's meals!

Monday

Apple Cottage Cheese Pancakes (from the Moosewood Cookbook)

Sprout and I did have Apple Pancakes, but when JGD ran to the grocery store for us, he accidentally picked up sour cream.  I used some ricotta that we had in the fridge.  They came out okay, but I like them much better with the cottage cheese.  Sprout loved them and ate at least 4.  However, she won't eat them from the freezer.  Oh well.

Tuesday

• Citrus Tilapia ***
• Salad
• Sweet Potato Fries
• Kale (from the buying club)

We didn't make it to the store to get the tilapia for this dinner, so we opted to have the stir fry instead.  I used this recipe.  It came out really well (and I'm not the biggest stir fry fan).  The one thing I will say is be sure to mix the cornstarch mixture with the veggies really well because I got one bit that was covered in corn starch.  The fried rice recipe.

Wednesday

• Stir Fry (made with Veggies from the buying club, snow peas, broccoli, carrots)
• Veggie Fried Rice
• Salad?

Well, since we had the stir fry last night, tonight was up for grabs.  After several failed ideas, we ended up with spaghetti with vegetarian meatballs.

Thursday

• Melissa D'Arabian's North African Meatballs *** (made with ground meat and Smart Ground or Morningstar crumbles)
• Couscous
• Salad
• Carrots?

Thank Melissa D'Arabian!  These meatballs were really good.  We will definitely add this recipe to the list to be used in the future.  I was a little unsure of the olives (as I'm not the biggest fan), but I used and olive spread we had in the cabinet, and it melted away.  The only problem was that I had a tough time with the Smart Ground and JGD said the meat was a little dry (I didn't measure the breadcrumbs).  So for next time, I will try Gimmelean for me, and use less breadcrumbs for the meat mixture.

Friday

• Garlic Chicken
• Garlic "Chicken" using Gardein
• Challah
• Tzimmes (mom's recipe 1 lg sweet potato, 2 small potatoes, 1 small onion, 2 carrots)
• Salad

Friday was a busy day around here, so I didn't get around to making a challah, and I forgot to leave a piece of chicken in the fridge after our shopping expedition earlier this week... so we cheated.  We out to Buca di Beppo.  I don't feel quite as guilty about this as I had a $10 off coupon.

Weekend

• Mushroom Barley Soup?

I had pulled chicken out sometime on Friday, but it wasn't ready for dinner that night, so I used it for dinner on Saturday instead.  I made Braised Balsamic Chicken, served with angel hair.  This was a new addition to my list of chicken recipes.  It came out good,  both with real chicken and with Gardein.  We will add this to the list.  I also made artichokes that we had picked up at the Farmer's Market that morning.

Extra Ideas

• Sloppy Joes
• Ziti Broccoli
• Tuna Casserole
• Spinach Ravioli

Lunch Ideas

• grilled cheese
• quesadillas
• grilled peanut butter and jelly (apples)
• Muffin Tin Monday
• pasta salad
• leftovers
• turkey ("Tofurky) sandwiches

Overall, we did pretty well this week.  We did have a couple lunches out as we were running around doing errands, but we did try to keep it on the cheap.

Menu Planning Recap

So this was my first week participating in Menu Plan Monday.  I wanted to recap how we did.  I am actually really proud of us and am looking forward to doing this again for future weeks.


Here is what I had planned.  Anything I did different is in green.  I didn't take many pictures, and I apologize, but I will work on it for the future.


Monday

• Guy Fieri's Chili Rice (Made with Morningstar Crumbles) ***
• Sweet Corn Cake or Cornbread ***

This was a recipe we hadn't tried before, but was similar to something called Rice Mess that we used to eat all the time.  I loved that it was a one pot dish.  (You throw the rice in with everything else, and let it all cook together.)  This was really easy and packed with protein.  We'll be making this one again.  

The cornbread was not so great.  I used the Arrowhead Mills Mix.  The directions said to mix until just wet.  So I was not anticipating a very loose batter, which was what I got.  So I added a little more mix.  We ended up with a very dry cornbread.  Which was not to our liking.  (Though Sprout loved it!  Go figure!) I will have to try it again without adding the extra mix. 

Sprout thought she would help.

Tuesday

• Baked Ravioli (using spinach ravioli) ***
• Salad
• Garlic Bread?  Using Honey of an Oatmeal Bread 

On Tuesday, I decided I wasn't in the mood for ravioli (I'm not the biggest fan of ravioli unless it is mushroom or butternut squash.)  So I made baked ziti.  I made one with ricotta and one without (I don't like it), and topped them both off with provolone.  It came out great.


I did take a couple slices of the Honey of an Oatmeal bread and add a garlic concoction on top.  (I took a couple tablespoons of butter, a little olive oil, and some grated garlic and mixed it all together.)  It came out well.


Wednesday

• Burgers
• Veggie/Mushroom Burgers ***
• Sweet Potato Fries
• Rolls (maybe made from Honey of an Oatmeal Bread recipe)

I made JGD and Sprout normal burgers, which I cooked on the stove.  (I've never done that before, but I need a "cooling rack" to use for meat in the oven.)  They both enjoyed them and there was nothing leftover.  I made myself some tuna burgers because I never made it back to the store for the mushrooms.  I was not a fan, but found that I had to add a lot of breadcrumbs to the recipe to get them to stick together.  They came out very dry.  


I cheated made Whole Foods Tater Tots because I forgot that I wanted to soak the cut sweet potatoes before cooking them and ran out of time.


I made Honey Wheat Sandwich Rolls (I was out of oatmeal).  (To make these pareve, able to eat with milk or meat, I used soy milk).   I made it into four rolls and a loaf of bread.  These were just as good as the Honey of an Oat Bread.  I will probably make the Honey of an Oat bread more because it has the oatmeal in it, and we could use that in our diet.

Thursday

• Macaroni and Cheese (Broccoli)
• Salad

As it turned out JGD was not home for dinner Thursday night.  (He was flown to Atlanta for an interview :-).)  So it was just Sprout and I.  I didn't want to go through the trouble of making a baked mac and cheese so I made Alton Brown's Stovetop Version (and 86-ed the salad, we were out of lettuce anyway.)


Friday

• Chicken Marsala
• Fake Chicken Marsala (using Gardein)
• Garlic Pasta (throw some garlic in the boiling water)
• Salad
• Challah

Friday night I did make challah, but I tried substituting honey for the sugar (without looking up the proper and ratio) and added whole wheat flour.  Probably would have been fine if I knew the ratio for sugar to honey.  So I will do that this week.

We didn't have boneless chicken breast, so JGD pick out chicken quarters (dark) and I was left to figure something out.  I ended up cooking it in the oven with white wine, lemon juice, onion and garlic.  I was told it was good.

Instead of pasta, I made wild rice, and we had broccoli.

Weekend

• Vegan Cholent? ***
• Mushroom Barley Soup?

This weekend I got a night off and we went out for Thai.

Extra Ideas

• Sloppy Joes

Lunch Ideas

• grilled cheese
• quesadillas
• grilled peanut butter and jelly (apples)
• Muffin Tin Monday
• pasta salad
• leftovers
• turkey ("Tofurky) sandwiches

It's not what we ate for lunch, but that we ate it at home that I cared about.  And we did really well this week.  We only went for lunch one day, Steak and Shake (with a coupon).  So that was a lot better than weeks past.

Hopefully, that trend will continue.