Trying to get back on the bandwagon.

Staying motivated, when you're busy - when it's hot - when you're tired - when life keeps getting in the way - is hard!

Trying to keep the budget down this week, I've tried to re-use the same ingredients as much as possible. I'm doing my shopping on Wednesday this week so that I can take advantage of my husband being home and do my shopping *gasp* alone! Also known as, "Mommy vacay".

Meal Plan:

Wednesday: Spinach-dip quesadillas with kale chips on the side and a garden salad.
(Spinach dip from Trader Joe's)

Thursday: "Good to Go" Meat Pies from our freezer with lemon, feta asparagus on the side.

Friday: Dinner party! Feta and spinach stuffed mushrooms and Greek pita pockets stuffed with homemade tzatziki, Greek salad and meatballs and a side of Greek lemon potatoes!

*Lemon blueberry coffee cake for dessert :) *

Saturday: Garlic mashed cauliflower with a side of balsamic-thyme roasted mushroom and any leftover meatballs from the night before...if no meatballs are left then substitute grilled tofu.

Sunday: Zucchini roll ups (changing filling to feta and spinach), a side of quinoa and garden salad.

Monday: Spicy buffalo cauliflower bites with blue cheese dip and meatless-hot dogs.
(Blue cheese dip from the bulk section at the coop, meatless Italian sausages from Trader Joes)

Tuesday: Zucchini cakes with wild rice and garden salad.

Wednesday: Avocado mac and cheese and garden salad.
Thursday: Asparagus and pea wild rice (additional side dish TBA)

This week's garden salads with have lettuce and spinach from the garden (yay!), cherry tomatoes, avocado, sunflower seeds, cucumber, shredded carrot and strawberries, with homemade balsamic dressing.

Happy eating everyone!

Hello readers!

After taking a much needed break, I'm back to cooking for my family :)

With all the craziness of throwing a big 1st birthday party, and then cleaning up and finishing all the leftovers - I didn't have to do much cooking for nearly two weeks!
One of the many reasons I love having a good stash of freezer meals.

My family has decided to jump on the extremely healthy bandwagon this summer, so I've been cooking and planning lots of lentils, oats, quinoa and kale! YUM.

This week I've planned:
Friday: Roasted asparagus, tomato and mushroom. With a warm beet and feta quonia salad.
Saturday: Frozen perogies w/giant salad (I'll be away in Canada all day so this is a conveinent meal)
Sunday: Father's day - going out for food
Monday: Potato and red pepepr hash with nested eggs.
Tuesday: Riccota, avocado, tomato and red onion grilled cheese with strawberry spinach salad.
Wednesday: Bacon and pea quiche.
Thursday: Yam burritos
Friday: Eggplant roll ups and giant salad
Saturday: Broccoli mac & cheese

I'll post some recipes and pictures soon!

Mathis Meal Plan

Week of: May 27th - June 2nd

Monday: Braided pizza and salad
Bacon, mushroom and bell pepper on the inside, yummy! I use the Trader Joes whole wheat pizza dough. Make sure you full your calzone ON the pan you plan to cook it in...learned that the hard way.

Tuesday: Corn Chowder with Garlic Toast
Corn isn't yet in season, so I'm making this with frozen organic corn. I'll also be using my own vegetable stock.

Wednesday: Veggie Bake with wild rice
Beets, potatoes, red onion, carrots. Tossed in spices and oil and baked. YUM!
With a side of wild rice.

Thursday: Quinoa broccoli casserole
I'm going to do a very simplified version of this recipe, and take out the mayo... weird and gross.

Friday: Mexican Pizza
I'll be doing this one vegetarian, replacing the ground turkey with a premade seitan that does really well as a ground meat replacement.

Saturday: Southwest Salad
I'm using dry beans and soaking them the night before instead of canned, they are SO much cheaper than buying canned.
 
Sunday: Philly Chicken Sandwiches with Carrot fries and Zucchini chips
A slow cooker meal, very excited for this one!
I'm also trying carrot and zucchini chips for the first time - I hope they turn out!

 Shopping for the week

I was asked by a friend, to write a blog entry with my shopping list, so here is a ramble about my shopping list methods and this week as an example:

In my kitchen I have two frames. One with the days of the week for my meal plan, and one that I keep an ongoing shopping list on, with condiments and other extra items that aren't on the meal plan.

This week that list had dried parsley, Himalayan pink salt, mayo and sesame seeds.

Right after I make my meal plan on Sunday evening, I look down the week and make my shopping list. Starting with Monday I open the recipe and write down any items I don't have. On items that I know I'm going to need to buy more than one of I put an asterisk so I remember when I'm shopping.

This week my list looked like this:
Mushrooms
Frozen corn
Potatoes *
Celery
Beets
Broccoli *
Carrots *
Red Onion
Cream of Broccoli soup
Cheddar Cheese
Chives
Cherry Tomatoes
Black Beans
Avocados *
Cilantro
Limes
Chicken
Bell Peppers
Zucchini
Dried Parsley
Himalayan Pink Salt
Mayo
Sesame Seeds.

I also added eggs, orange juice, oranges, apples, and cherries for breakfasts and snacks.

The rest of the ingredients we already had. I try to pick recipes that contain a lot of ingredients we already have. When I'm shopping I buy extra portions here and there so that we always have a back supply of items that I can base my next week's meals off of.

I try to plan my week's meals with an underlying theme to help stretch our grocery budget.
I try to use similar ingredients throughout the week, and using the same items in different ways.

I'm already planning next week's Greek theme! *drool*

Friday: Crispy Chili Chicken on noodles with Hummus Broccoli

The main part of this dish was a mash-up of two online recipes, and my memory of a favorite menu item from Boston Pizza.
Recipe 1: Called for tempura batter, but I wanted the crispy texture of panko.
Recipe 2: Called for the chicken to be baked but I wanted to fry those babies up in some tasty coconut oil.

Here is my finished recipe, Tessa's Crispy Chili Chicken:

Panko (seasoned with salt, pepper, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika) breaded chicken thigh chunks, fried in coconut oil and topped with lots of yummy sauce.

The sauce was Thai Sweet Chili sauce with diced up red onion, celery, cucumber, shredded carrots and chives. Don't forget to garnish with some sesame seeds!

We ate the chicken on a bed of stir fry noodles and a side of Hummus Broccoli. Recipe here.

Unfortunately Elly didn't like the Hummuh Broccoli at all, and after getting her hand into the spicy sauce she wasn't interested in eating anything else at all.

Dessert was made by Bryan - healthy chocolate banana pudding! It was ah-maz-ing.
Will post that recipe later :)

Toddler food: Hummus!

Success! I threw a can of drained garbonzo beans in the food processor, with one tablespoon of the liquid from the beans, juice from one whole lemon, a big spoonful of minced garlic, and 1/4 cup of tahini. Scraped the sides down and added a tablespoon of olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika and parsley.
Blend again and bam! Healthy, delicious and cheap!

 

I try not to buy canned food to avoic BPA, but I found out that Trader Joe's doesn't use BPA in any of it's canned food! I loved how fast and easy it made this recipe, though next time I'll be buying dry garbonzo beans and truly making my hummus from scratch.

 

 

Elly LOVED it. She dipped cherry tomatoes and rosemary bread crusts into it...smeared it all over arms, body and face, my legs, the screen door etc.
Bath time it is!

Happy snacking!

Jalapeno popper grilled cheese!

I've made these sandwiches at least three times before.
I love them. Everyone loves them. If I could eat spicy cheesy fried bacon-y food every night I would. But since I'd like to live to see my children grow up, I limit how often I make these.

To try to balance out the meal, I always serve these with a big green salad.

 

The recipe I usually make has goat cheese, crispy bacon, apricot preserves and roasted jalapenos.

 

Here is the original recipe: Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese 

This time I tried something new. We had recently bought a jar of Strawberry Habanero jelly at Pike Place market so I decided to use that in place of the apricot preserves and the roasted jalapenos (which are always a pretty big pain to prepare) I was very happy with the outcome! The habanero jelly is SPICY so the creamy goat cheese balanced it perfectly. I also added a handful of shredded aged cheddar for more gooey cheesy factor.

 

Our salad was huge and had: spinach, iceberg lettuce (leftover from Tuesday's Lettuce wraps), cucumber, cherry tomatoes, avocado, pumpkin seeds, red onion, goat cheese and carrots. With our favorite Paul Newman Creamy Balsamic dressing.

 

Tonight I'm defrosting some lentil soup I made a big batch of a few months ago and some potatoes (baked, hassle back or mashed - I haven't yet decided.)

 

Happy Cooking!

May 20th - May 26th

Mathis Meal Plan

 

Week of: May 20th - 26th

Monday: Homemade Onion rings and Veggie burgers
Tursday: Lettuce wraps
Wednesday: Jalapeno popper BLT sandwiches w/green salad
Thursday: Soup with baked potatoes
Friday: Chili chicken with noodles and hummus broccoli
Saturday: Big Salad NightThai
Sunday: Potato burritos

Dessert: Cookie ice cream sandwiches (Peanut caramel cookie dough was on sale, so that was my inspiration.)

Toddler foods: This week sometime I'm going to make a big batch of Hummus for Elly to try. I'll also be using this Friday for the broccoli side dish.