Monday: pizza night (a family tradition picked up from the Coles)
Tuesday: Jamaican Lentil patties (trying out a new recipe found here, but changing the crust because I don't really care about being gluten free).
Wednesday: German pancakes with strawberries and bananas
Thursday: Stuffed zucchini
Friday: Sweet and sour meatballs
Saturday and Sunday we are planning on visiting my mom and brother/sister-in-law/nephew so I didn't plan meals for those days.
The Jamaican Lentil Patties were delicious! I ended up using this recipe for the crust. Although, I don't have a food processor so I just mixed the dry ingredients, shredded in the (frozen) butter, and then mixed it all with the liquid. They turned out really tasty. I should have let the filling cool off more, making them into the patties was hard because the warm filling melted the butter in the crust, but I also made some of the crust into crackers and then dipped it into the lentils. A lot easier and still as tasty (but not as authentic)!
For the German pancakes I use 100% white whole wheat flour and usually just use this recipe. When I am feeling fancy or have buttermilk I like to make buttermilk syrup, but we rarely have it. Sometimes we'll put Nutella on the pancakes with the bananas as dessert. Erik made the pancakes this week, we added a pinch of sugar to the batter. They were very tasty fresh and pretty tasty as leftovers.
Stuffed zucchini kind of evolved. One of my favorite cook books had a recipe for white bean stuffed zucchini that were sort of Mediterranean (think olives, feta) which Erik doesn't like very much. So I made a few substitutions and turned them Italian. The basic premise is halving (lengthwise) the zucchini, scooping out the seeds, and roasting it until fork-tender. Then filling it with a mixture of semi-mashed white beans, Parmesan cheese, sauteed spinach, Italian herbs, and marinara sauce. We top it with some Italian breadcrumbs and mozzarella cheese and heat in the oven until everything is warm and the cheese is melty. They are really tasty.
*Instead of making the stuffed zucchini this week I actually just roasted the cubed squash with some cauliflower, then sprinkled on some parmesan cheese and we ate it with a side of whole wheat noodles. We covered all of it with either alfredo sauce or marinara (both homemade) but my favorite was mixing them.
Sweet and sour meatballs are another new recipe I am trying out. My MIL makes delicious all-meat sweet and sour meatballs so I am going to use her recipe for the sauce and then make my meatballs with potato, zucchini, and some grass-fed ground beef. We'll eat them with rice and steamed broccoli. If the recipe works out I will share it! (If it doesn't, then I will share the original from MIL.)
Something I need to improve on is planning our lunches. I don't like sandwiches very much so for lunches we try to have/pack leftovers. Some days (when recipes don't work out or don't make very much) we won't have those and I am always scrambling those mornings to come up with something (yay for Trader Joe's frozen meals).
We always try to have fruits/veggies available for snacks. We also usually buy dried fruit, nuts, and some of the "healthier" options of granola bars/crackers/etc (Kind bars are one of my favorites currently and also the Nut-Thins crackers!).
Tuesday: Jamaican Lentil patties (trying out a new recipe found here, but changing the crust because I don't really care about being gluten free).
Wednesday: German pancakes with strawberries and bananas
Thursday: Stuffed zucchini
Friday: Sweet and sour meatballs
Saturday and Sunday we are planning on visiting my mom and brother/sister-in-law/nephew so I didn't plan meals for those days.
The Jamaican Lentil Patties were delicious! I ended up using this recipe for the crust. Although, I don't have a food processor so I just mixed the dry ingredients, shredded in the (frozen) butter, and then mixed it all with the liquid. They turned out really tasty. I should have let the filling cool off more, making them into the patties was hard because the warm filling melted the butter in the crust, but I also made some of the crust into crackers and then dipped it into the lentils. A lot easier and still as tasty (but not as authentic)!
For the German pancakes I use 100% white whole wheat flour and usually just use this recipe. When I am feeling fancy or have buttermilk I like to make buttermilk syrup, but we rarely have it. Sometimes we'll put Nutella on the pancakes with the bananas as dessert. Erik made the pancakes this week, we added a pinch of sugar to the batter. They were very tasty fresh and pretty tasty as leftovers.
Stuffed zucchini kind of evolved. One of my favorite cook books had a recipe for white bean stuffed zucchini that were sort of Mediterranean (think olives, feta) which Erik doesn't like very much. So I made a few substitutions and turned them Italian. The basic premise is halving (lengthwise) the zucchini, scooping out the seeds, and roasting it until fork-tender. Then filling it with a mixture of semi-mashed white beans, Parmesan cheese, sauteed spinach, Italian herbs, and marinara sauce. We top it with some Italian breadcrumbs and mozzarella cheese and heat in the oven until everything is warm and the cheese is melty. They are really tasty.
*Instead of making the stuffed zucchini this week I actually just roasted the cubed squash with some cauliflower, then sprinkled on some parmesan cheese and we ate it with a side of whole wheat noodles. We covered all of it with either alfredo sauce or marinara (both homemade) but my favorite was mixing them.
Sweet and sour meatballs are another new recipe I am trying out. My MIL makes delicious all-meat sweet and sour meatballs so I am going to use her recipe for the sauce and then make my meatballs with potato, zucchini, and some grass-fed ground beef. We'll eat them with rice and steamed broccoli. If the recipe works out I will share it! (If it doesn't, then I will share the original from MIL.)
Something I need to improve on is planning our lunches. I don't like sandwiches very much so for lunches we try to have/pack leftovers. Some days (when recipes don't work out or don't make very much) we won't have those and I am always scrambling those mornings to come up with something (yay for Trader Joe's frozen meals).
We always try to have fruits/veggies available for snacks. We also usually buy dried fruit, nuts, and some of the "healthier" options of granola bars/crackers/etc (Kind bars are one of my favorites currently and also the Nut-Thins crackers!).
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