Whole 30: What I Ate For Dinner, Week Four

Monday: burgers on portabella "buns", sweet potato wedges, cole slaw. I had prosciutto and avocado on my burger, A+J had cheese and regular buns

Tuesday: NNP's mocha rubbed beef in the Instant Pot, sauteed kale and cauliflower rice (regular rice for A+J). Not cute, no photo!



Wednesday: Melissa Clark's shrimp and broccoli, sweet potatoes with ghee



Thursday: scrambled eggs with salsa and avocado before yoga, banana with almond butter after yoga



Friday: big pile of greens with tuna salad



Saturday: salmon veracruz, whole roasted cauliflower



Sunday: sopa de pollo with avocado - so delicious!

Whole 30: What I Ate For Dinner, Week Three

Monday: I turned leftover Zuni chicken into chicken and veg soup. It was not attractive so no picture!



Tuesday: Moroccan spiced shepherd's pie two ways - beans for Josie and Adam, lamb for me



Wednesday: lamb chops, sweet potatoes, sauteed spinach

Thursday: scrambled eggs before yoga, banana and almond butter after yoga



Friday: egg drop soup, zoodles sauteed in ghee with crispy prosciutto, a few slices of deli turkey, a grapefruit



Saturday: salmon broiled with taco seasoning, delicious salad of romaine, quick lime juice pickled
red onion, avocado, mango and cucumber



Sunday: NNP's cracklin' chicken again, cauliflower salad

Breakfasts were mostly eggs, leftover things from dinner (lamb chops!) avocados, costco chicken sausages. One very enjoyable brunch at a friend's where everything was W30 compliant!

Whole 30: What I Ate For Dinner, Week Two

Monday: Thai green curry with fish and zoodles



Tuesday: tomatoey lamb pot roast from the instant pot, sauteed kale, baked potato with ghee



Wednesday: the weird little piece of beef I had that I cooked with the lamb, roasted potatoes/black radish/cauliflower, olives for fat

Thursday: scrounged up leftovers after yoga class



Friday: Nom Nom Paleo spicy tuna cakes, steamed green beans, sunshine sauce



Saturday: broiled salmon with mayo/caper sauce, cucumber and avocado salad, roasted turnip soup



Sunday: Valentine's day! Zuni Cafe roasted chicken, sauteed greens with tomatoes, boiled potatoes for dipping in the chicken fat

Breakfasts were mostly the baked egg thingy I threw together early in the week full of leftover veggies. I also had leftover salmon, and soup with sausage pieces and a poached egg. It was a week of dinner-for-breakfast! Snacks were excellent, including a really good nicoise-ish salad that was actually too much food.

Whole 30: What I Ate For Dinner, Week One

Monday: Nom Nom Paleo's "Cracklin' Chicken Thighs," roasted beet salad with pistachios, sauteed swiss chard



Tuesday: Pot roast from my Instant Pot, roasted cabbage wedges with roasted red pepper/almond/mayo sauce, cauliflower rice with parsley



Wednesday: Tex-mex sweet potatoes with ground beef, salsa, guacamole

Thursday: scrambled eggs for dinner before yoga class, apple with almond butter after yoga



Friday: pork chops! and sauteed spinach with carrot, onion, and coconut milk





Saturday: roasted chicken, steamed broccoli, roasted sweet potato, spinach salad with beets and walnuts. Not enough fat in the meal so I was hungry a couple hours later and had a snack of prosciutto rolls stuffed with arugula, dressed with lemon, evoo and pepper.



Sunday: Super Bowl Sunday! prosciutto wrapped dates, sausage stuffed mushrooms, kombucha

Breakfasts were mostly eggs, chicken sausage from Costco, sweet potato with added fat (coconut cream or ghee), sauteed greens, leftover dinner bits incorporated into the meal. Snacks I did a lot of tuna salad and egg salad with bell pepper strips for dipping/scooping.

Whole 30, week one meal plan

Ahoy, February! Let's set sail on the good ship Whole30, shall we?

This week's meal plan:

Sunday: arrive home from NJ exhausted with cranky toddler. Throw together whatever's in the fridge. Turned out to be butternut squash soup I made for book club last week, plus some of Nonna's macaroni that she made us take home, a few meatballs from the freezer for toddler, and salads for Adam and me.

Monday: pot roast that I made last night in the Instant Pot! Plus roasted sweet potatoes and probably sauteed bok choy? Might make some millet or something for A+J.

Tuesday: Nom Nom Paleo's cracklin' chicken thighs. I cleaned the thighs last night and salted them, so if I get home on the early side I might make them Monday (tonight) instead. If I save them for tomorrow, we'll have them with salad.

Wednesday: tex mex sweet potatoes with seasoned ground beef and guacomole for me, beans and sour cream and cheese for A+J.

Thursday: lamb burgers or meatballs, CSA veggies - whatever get in the box on Wednesday

Friday: Mom and Dad are coming down and bringing chicken and vegetables; I'll add something else tasty TBD.

For lunches I plan to take mostly leftovers, though today I have curried tuna salad, which I made with a grated whole carrot and apple, some raisins, curry powder, and homemade mayonnaise. I stopped for a bell pepper and cucumber to use as dippers/scoops and for crunch factor. Hopefully we'll have enough leftovers, but if not, I can do tuna or egg salad easily. I hard boiled some eggs last night too, thinking Josie might like them for breakfast, but she was being a butt head this morning, so I just sent one in to school with her. Maybe she'll even eat it?

Meal plan, pre-Whole 30 edition

This is my last week of "normal" eating before I start the whole 30 on Monday! Eek/yay? I don't know how I feel. For Adam's sake I'm rotating in a few of our bean-based favorites since I'm not planning to make them super often in the next month (no beans or legumes allowed!). Here's my meal plan, with notes on how I would adapt to fit W30 rules.

Tonight: bean and cheese burritos. I cooked pinto beans in the Instant Pot yesterday, and there's rice in there now on a timer to be ready when we get home. We'll also add roasted veg since I roasted up a bunch over the weekend. Both rice and beans (and flour tortillas and cheese and sour cream) are out for the whole 30, so if Adam and Josie are having a meal like this I would eat the roasted veg, some sort of cooked ground meat with taco-ish seasonings, and I'd have the whole thing on a pile of greens instead of wrapped in a tortilla. 

Tuesday: green veggie pancakes (frozen from last week), black bean chili from the freezer. I can't have either of those things (pancakes are a no even if made with compliant ingredients) so I'd be eating something entirely different. I plan to make and freeze some pulled chicken and beef burger patties and have sausages available for situations like this. We can all share a side salad or other vegetable.

Wednesday: five spice cabbage and tofu. Adam and Josie would eat the tofu, I'd eat meat instead.

Thursday: lamb chops from the freezer, mystery veg from our CSA, which we get on Wednesday. Totally compliant meal!

Friday: Book club pot luck! My book club group is coming over on Friday night. I'm making a big pot of soup (minestrone? butternut squash? I'm not sure yet) and people are bringing salad, bread, cheese, wine, and some sort of dessert. If I had to guess, none of it will be Whole30 compliant (maybe the salad? and maybe my soup?) but if I were on W30 on Friday I'd make sure my soup was compliant and I'd make deviled eggs, too. 

This has been an interesting exercise, honestly. I might go back to some of my previous meal plans and do the same thing.

Meal plan: pot roast, soup, veggie burgers

Monday: pot roast, pressure cooked in the instant pot while we were at the neighbor's cookie decorating party Sunday evening.
Tuesday: kale and cranberry bean soup (recipe from many moons ago!)
Wednesday: leftovers/freezer cleanout
Thursday: Dr. Praeger's veggie burgers on English muffins with balsamic-thyme roasted carrots
Friday: TBD/takeout. I've got a bao bao craving creeping up on me, but we'll see if there's room in the budget for takeout.

Meal plan post: ragu, reubens, roasted tofu

Sunday: penne al ragu

Monday: rice and beans

Tuesday: Roasted tofu and delicata squash, sauteed spinach. That's what Adam and Josie had. I taught a class till 9, then got home and ate half of this, plus a large glass of wine: 

Wednesday: Reuben sandwiches - leftover stuff from the class I taught on Tuesday night, except on the anadama bread I made last week instead of rye, because #makeitwork. Also the end of the spinach, sauteed. Whoops, no picture!

Thursday: Leftover scrounge, rolled up into a burrito.

Friday: MIT Chemical Engineering Holiday Party! Catered by S&S deli, Josie ate a roll and gave Santa some serious side-eye.

Meal Plan, Thanksgiving Week 2015

Meal planning for a holiday week is like woooooo what's in the fridge?

Sunday: chicken and orzo with lemon and olives

Monday: leftover kale/polenta stew, Josie will eat the end of the orzo from Sunday and probably a meatball or two from the freezer, or, like, peanut butter on a cracker? She's unpredictable these days.

Tuesday: Mac and cheese maybe? Something quick and easy and pasta focused for speed; I'll throw in some veggies. We have a bunch of sauteed mizuna in the fridge, plus kale, broccoli raab and peas in the freezer. Josie will not like the vegetables, but will enjoy the clementine for dessert.

Wednesday: sandwiches in the car. Josie gets to eat a real dinner at dinner time, but it's probably going to be a highlight real of favorites (citrus fruit! cheese stick! kwak-uhs!) just to get some calories in her before the drive to Maine during which she will (fingers crossed!) sleeeeeep.

Thursday: Turkey, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry relish, STUFFING, gravy.

Friday: sandwich with almost all of the above plus mayonnaise and lettuce (I don't tend to put green bean casserole on my sandwich, but you do what you feel, dude).

Here's a picture of my big kid, taken by our friend Fredo last weekend:

Chicken and Orzo with Lemon and Olives

Followed this recipe. It was delicious, and I'll definitely make it again. Used a cut up chicken because that's what we have, and it worked beautifully, but I think my chickens are extra fatty and the orzo was maybe a touch greasy. Since I cook stuff like this in a cast iron-ish dutch oven I bet I could skip the oil next time and just brown the chicken in it's own rendered fat. It wasn't quite up to temp (poultry to 165 for safety, kids!) after 35 mins in the oven, so I took the lid off and left it in there another 10 minutes, which helped with the crispy skin situation. Side of roasted broccoli was thoroughly enjoyed by grownups and ignored by willful toddler. Whatever kid, more for me!

Buckwheat Crepes

I made these regular old crepes into buckwheat crepes (which means they're *fancy* and have a nice dark color) by using half buckwheat flour. I am clearly a culinary genius. We wrapped them around some roasted butternut squash, wilted arugula, and fontina cheese. Josie wants you to have some.

From Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

2 eggs
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
2-3 tbsp butter, melted
pinch of salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water

Mix it all up in a blender, rest at least an hour (or overnight). It will look too thin; resist the urge to add additional flour. Gently mix it up with a spoon before cooking if it's been resting overnight. Cook in a crepe pan (duh) in butter, adding a ladleful of batter to a hot buttered pan and swirling it to make an approximate circle. Flip when the surface looks dry. Serve wrapped around other tasty stuff.

Pre-Thanksgiving Week Meal Plan

Here's the plan on this last full week before Turkey Day Travel!

Sunday: salmon curry, oven fries
Monday: steeeeaaaaaak, cauliflower salad
Tuesday: crepes with roasted butternut squash, fontina cheese, and arugula
Wednesday: miso polenta kale soup
Thursday: beans from the crockpot
Friday: TBD, maybe takeout from Tasty Momo because all my neighbors have been ordering it and it looks freaking delicious. Hooray for dumplings!



Last night I made a simple salmon curry following this recipe, more or less. It's... fine. I mean, it's tasty, and I love the salmon pieces from the farmer's market because they're SO CHEAP: $4/8oz. But I wish I knew a little more about Indian cooking so I could improvise. After polling my mama friends, I learned that this is a very basic North Indian curry, but I'll increase the spices and play around a little more next time. I also didn't have any curry  leaves, but I threw in some curry powder, which I know isn't even remotely the same thing.



HOWEVER. I also made these oven "fries" and holy hot damn they are so delicious. It is a very very good thing that they take 45 mins to make, because otherwise I would want them all the time. Next time I will cut them a little thinner.

Here's the whole plate, with a side of yogurt. We enjoyed the Citizen Cider (hopped!) Full Nelson along side.

It's cottage pie week! (Meal Plan Post)

Here's the fridge as of yesterday mid-naptime! I hadn't yet cooked the cabbage for Wednesday night but it's done now. This week we are having:

Sunday: dinner out with family at the Marliave (I had prosciutto wrapped rabbit, Adam had pan seared trout, and Josie had.... french fries. And bread. Sigh.)
Monday: cottage pie (shepherd's pie but made with beef instead of lamb) for A+J, I have a work dinner
Tuesday: Peter Berley's lemon-thyme tofu, farro with peas and parmesan, roasted kuri squash
Wednesday: lamb chops, cabbage sauteed with horseradish and caraway seeds, roasted beets (and let's be honest, I'mma cover the whole mess with sour cream
Thursday: fridge clean out/leftovers/soup from the freezer if need be because
Friday: ALL THE TEX MEX TUCSON HAS TO OFFER

....ahem. We're going to a wedding! It's gonna be fun.



Here are my two cottage pies - I made two because we had friends move in next door (hooraaaaay!) and I was being neighborly. I had thought we'd eat ours Saturday but we went to a different neighbor's early afternoon halloween party and gorged on cheese and crackers and pudding cups. It is more veg than meat, but: sauteed (in batches) 2 onions, 4 big carrots, 3 medium turnips, 2 packages cremini mushrooms, then 2 lbs ground beef, seasoned with worcestershire sauce, s+p. Spread in baking dish, cover with (total 5lbs) mashed potatoes. Topped with a little (not enough) shredded cheddar. Easy enough and food for days!



This is my friend Elana's favorite lemon thyme tofu, a recipe from Peter Berley's "The Flexitarian Table" that I cribbed from here. I snagged a couple peaces for QC before it got packed into the fridge and I like it but think it may warrant a sauce of some sort. We'll see.

Hahvest Taht and the Rest of The Plan

Meal plan for the week of October 26th!

Sunday: Harvest Tart, kale salad, broiled cod
Monday: big salads (leftover beans from Friday for protein power)
Tuesday: Tex Mex Sweet Potatoes
Wednesday: TBD/Adam cooks
Thursday: Shepherd's pie
Friday: TBD/pasta something or other



On Sunday I made this Harvest Tart from NYT cooking with red kuri squash (couldn't find "cheese pumpkin" and I get bored of butternut), two half-green, half-yellow peppers, an onion, sweet paprika, thyme, and olives. Josie loved it, but Adam and I ate too much at the Moms of Camberville Halloween Shindig in the late afternoon so we had a popcorn for dinner action movie* night. I figure I'll just bump all the dinner plans back by a day.  Also I was too tired after a great dinner party Chez Durand Saturday night to do much cooking on Sunday so tonight is my big prep night. I plan to:

roast the sweet potatoes
cook some chicken breasts w/ adobo sauce to shred for the tex mex meal
make mashed potatoes for the shepherd's pie
cut up aromatics for shepherd's pie
maybe? cut up veg for big salads tomorrow

Back to the tart: it looks like it was baked by Georgia O'Keefe and my crust is oddly patchy but the flavor is excellent. You grate and salt the squash and it rests in the fridge a while before you mix up the rest of the filling. I was expecting it to let out a lot of water but it didn't at all, so I pressed on it and got like a tablespoon or two. I don't know that I'd skip the step necessarily because it definitely softened the squash shreds, but maybe red kuri squash is denser than the recommended ones? Anyway it's delicious. And vegan! Though I might add feta or goat cheese next time.

*Brick Mansions, Paul Walker's last movie before he died - not much for a plot but it co-stars David Belle, the inventor of Parkour, so the fight scenes are really beautifully choreographed and watching that guy move was a treat throughout the whole movie.

Pizza! Beef Stew! Takeout! (Last Week's Meal Plan)

Meal plan for the week of October 19th!

Sunday - pizza night, kale salad
Monday - beef stew (made Sunday)
Tuesday - takeout
Wednesday - sausage, greens (washed the greens on Sunday, added potato wedges because I had time to make them Tuesday night)
Thursday - tomato soup (made Sunday), roasted delicata squash (made Sunday), broiled zucchini and cheesy garlic bread
Friday - beans and egg sandwiches (slow cooker beans, Adam made the egg sandos)



Sunday was pizza night: I used the crust from Vegetarian Cooking for everyone that I make with 50% white whole wheat flour, but instead of making two thin crust pizzas I just put the whole blob of dough on a sheet pan and made a focaccia style pie with red sauce, mozz, and parm. Also kale salad. Delicious, but thick crust pizza doesn't reheat very well.



Beef stew: I made it on Sunday afternoon, we ate it over farro on Monday. Tasty. Provided lunches for most of the week. Here is a picture of Sad Josie Pondering Stew. She had a rough day.



Takeout! Adam had to go to North Carolina for work, so while he enjoyed BBQ (and then had to work overnight, poor guy), Josie and I ordered take out from the South American joint around the corner. I say South American because the menu is vaguely Brazilian, but also Salvadorean and Mexican. ANYWAY that horchata was so on point. I want to be drinking more of it right. now. Chipotle Milanesa (essentially a fried chicken) sandwich, YUM, Josie coveted but I foisted the mediocre tostones off on her instead (mean mommy!). Coxinhas (croquettes with chicken and cheese) were delicious but sat heavily in my tummy. Good beef empanada, meh vegetable side ordered out of guilt. I want to try the tamales.



Sausages, greens, and potato wedges: exactly what it sounds like. I made the potato wedges the night before and Adam just reheated them, plus TJ's chicken sausages and some sauteed broccoli raab. A solid and reliable meal.



Tomato soup, roasted delicata squash (surprising toddler hit!), broiled zucchini (sorry, mommy, still not interested in green foods). Last minute addition of cheesy garlic bread was appreciated by all. Tomato soup was approximately: 1 onion, sweated in butter, a couple garlic cloves, diced red pepper, and a can of tomatoes. Simmered for ten mins and blitzed with the immersion blender. Seasoned it with some Bragg's aminos, salt and pepper. It was fine, but if I had any cream it could have used a lick to round out the acidity some. I always forget how much red pepper comes forward in a soup.



Friday beans and egg sandos! True confessions: this was my second egg sandwich that day. I regret nothing.




On Sunday I also made this pasta "pie" in a greased springform pan: leftovers, layered into the pan with shredded mozz and topped with parm, baked at 375 till brown on top (like 20-30 mins). Fun to eat!

Balsamic Braised Chicken with Swiss Chard from Slow Cooker Revolution

Not bad. I only had a whole chicken, so I cut that up and used all the pieces, but it definitely would have been better with just thighs - the breasts got a little dried out in their 5 hr braise. Wish I had served it over polenta, but I needed a cup of cooked quinoa for Thursday's dinner, so just did it all last night.

Also, NB: quinoa expands more than rice and therefore WILL over flow the rice cooker. Oops.

Finished at the table with more salt and a little Condimento drizzle (balsamic-ish, but less expensive!). Someday I'll learn how much salt to put in the slow cooker, but when I'm only going to reheat half a dish (cooked this Monday, reheated half on Tuesday for dinner, the rest was packed up for Wednesday lunches), I'm never sure how heavily to season.

Meal Planning for Sanity

Hey y'all. Cool if I post here again, occasionally? Sweet, thanks.

I got a new job last month. We moved into our new house five days before I started. It was a little crazy. It's STILL a little crazy and probably will be for a while. I leave earlier and get home later, now, which means if I don't have a meal plan for the week, we end up scrounging for meal-of-snacks or ordering out, which is not so nice for our grocery budget.

I keep track of our plan in a google doc, but I thought it might be nice to keep track of it here, too. A few of the latest hits:



Olga's broiled tofu. I changed up the vegetables (romanesco, green beans, brussels sprouts) and forgot to use the gorgeous farmer's market shiitakes I had purchased specifically for this meal, but this is a perennial favorite at our house. I've learned to double the sauce and double the tofu if we want leftovers.



Black bean chili from ATK's Slow Cooker Revolution. Any excuse for sour cream, am I right? I was out of chipotles in adobo and this was still good, though hard to photograph.



Mac and cheese with more veg than cheese. Sauteed 5 gorgeous leeks in butter, added three small shredded zucchini, another knob of butter, 3 tbsp flour, 3 cups whole milk, and 6 oz gruyere cheese. Added a peeled, seeded, diced (huge) tomato once the veggieful bechamel was cooked, just to heat through. Plus a pound of cooked cavatappi. Fully toddler approved.



Fail with a silver lining: I had every intention of making miso glazed salmon from the NYT. It took longer than I anticipated, Josie was hangry, She ate a meal of snacks and then Adam and I made onigiri after baby bed time. We really make an effort to eat together as a family despite the absurdity of trying to get dinner on the table 15 mins after getting home, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. Making something more complicated and taking our time with it was a nice way to spin a scheduling fail.

This week's plan is as follows:
Monday 10/12: leftovers/clean out the fridge. Was kind of a weird day because of the holiday and we all ate at different times.
Tuesday 10/13: balsamic braised chicken with swiss chard from Slow Cooker Revolution. Served over quinoa or millet, whichever one I grab first from the cabinet when I get home. Experimenting with making other grains in my rice cooker. Reserve a cup for Thursday!
Wednesday 10/14: Adam cooks! taco night. Need to pull the beef from the freezer and maybe figure out a spice blend tonight?
Thursday 10/15: quinoa and white bean burgers using quinoa (or millet) cooked Tuesday and a can of white beans. Recipe from Food52.
Friday 10/16: pasta... orrechiette with peas and chicken sausage and maybe cream? Or maybe takeout. TBD.