Meal Plan Oct 13-19

This week:

Breakfasts: Kate’s Apple Snack cake  from the Baked Alaska cookbook

Lunches/Dinners:
Chef John’s Black Lentil soup - I added some kale we needed to use up.
Roast chicken with root veg (carrots, potato, sweet potato, onion)
Pulled pork sandwiches or tacos with salad
Possibly Pizza this weekend, haven’t gotten that far.

Also: Homemade bread with the soup, and apple crisp for dessert. We have a lot of apples from the orchard!

What I'm Reading - Summer/Fall 2019

This summer I re-read the Harry Potter series, which I haven't read since the final movie was released years ago.  I'd forgotten how much I loved it, especially the later books. 

I'm also trying to finish the Divergent series, but Allegiant isn't holding my interest as much as the other two.  Eh.  This is one of those books where the protagonist is so very not like me in any way and I think I have a hard time relating to them. 

My friend back home started an online book club.  They picked the first book the other day, it's entitled Let's Pretend This Never Happened. Supposed to be very funny. 

Meal Plan Oct 6-12

Pretty busy weekend, so didn’t cook as much as we normally do. Plus with my birthday we ate out a couple times and therefore have leftovers that need to get eaten. Meals this week:

Breakfasts: Him-Banana Granola Muffins, Me-Yogurt with granola

Lunch: Leftovers, cold lunches. (Sandwiches, apples with PB or chocolate hummus, cheese and crackers, whatever.)

Dinners: Zuppa Toscana

I have Wednesday off so if I feel the need I will cook something then. My emergency meal is still the southwest quinoa, but I’ve been lucky and haven’t had to use it yet.

Meal Plan for Sept 29-Oct 5

Meals this week, in no particular order:

Breakfasts: Sausage & potato o’brien egg bake, maybe banana granola muffins for the hubs if I can find the time/energy

Lunches/dinners:
-Beef and barley soup (made with homemade stock!)
-Caprese pasta with salad
-Pork chops with green veg (green beans and/or broccoli) and probably garlic bread or rolls. 

Wednesday is my birthday, so I am assuming we will go out to dinner at some point, but hubs has to work late Wed, Fri and Sat, so not sure when.

Meal Plan Sept 22-28

-Rotisserie chicken or BBQ chicken w/ potato salad & veg 
-Chana masala (aka chickpea curry) w/ rice 
-Pork with apple salsa over rice

Meal Plan - Sept 16-21

Weekend: Homemade Pizza (BBQ chicken)
Lunches: Chicken Noodle Soup
Dinner: Beef & Lentil Sloppy Joes w/ salad

Meal Plan - Sept 9-15

It was starting to feel like fall!  I wasn't sure what to cook so George, as he usually does, took his cue from sports. The Giants were playing the Cowboys, and therefore I made a big pot of chili. 

Sunday George spent the day at home while I went off with my girlfriends to the Sheep and Wool festival.  I told him to season the chicken however he wanted, and he even made a side dish!  Hopefully now that he's home more often he will cook a little more. 

Breakfasts:  Nature valley biscuits, banana

Lunches:  3 Bean Chili 

Dinners:  Greek lemon chicken, lemon potatoes Sunday, then cauli-tater mash, roasted brussels for me, carrots for G

Saturday the 15th we had homemade pizza night!  I made some chicken in the instant pot to put on the pizza, and used the rest for soup. 

Meal Plan for Sept 1-7

It’s September! Back to school this week. Meal prepped all afternoon.

Breakfasts: Crustless Broccoli Quiche, and toast. Cereal for the husband, as he avoids broccoli when possible.

Lunches/Dinners:

Roasted Tomato Soup, will probably add some tortellini in it and/or have with grilled cheese sandwiches 
Greek meatball pitas 
Sweet potato black bean enchiladas and green salad.

Wednesday is our wedding anniversary. We already went out to dinner for that last night, so I don’t think we’ll go again but I might do something special…just not sure what yet!

Ideas for next week: 

Meatloaf? Or Chicken?  Cauli-tator mash, roasted brussels sprouts. 

Greek pasta salad (use up feta cheese) 

Pizza

Pressure Cooker Greek Harvest Grain Bowls

This is a super easy and fairly healthy meal, ready in less than 30 minutes! If you use steam in the bag spinach, it's even one pot.

1 lb ground lamb
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic (adjust to your tastes)
16 oz chopped frozen spinach
16 oz bag of Harvest Grain blend from Trader Joe's
Lamb stock if you can find it, beef stock or water.
Salt, Greek seasoning

1. Turn on pot, hit saute and start.
2. Add chopped onion, garlic and ground lamb to pot once hot.  Break up lamb and stir well.  Cook until lamb is brown and onion is translucent. Turn off pot.
3. Add grain blend to pot. Add stock or water.  Add 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp Greek seasoning.  Add additional tsp salt if you are using water or unsalted stock.  Stir well.
4. Put on lid, lock and seal.
5. Cook on high pressure for 7 minutes.*
6. While pot is going, cook the spinach.  Drain and squeeze water out.
7. Let pot sit 5 minutes before releasing the pressure.  Then open pot, add cooked spinach and stir well.

*When I made this I cooked it for 5 minutes and waited 5 minutes more before release. It was cooked well except the garbanzo beans which were a bit hard for my tastes but edible.  So I increased the time a bit.  There are a few recipes online using the product in a pressure cooker.  Time varies from 3 minutes with a 10 minute NPR time, to 10 minutes.  You may want to adjust accordingly. 

Meal Plan for August 1-15

It’s August! Summer break is flying by. I’ll be going to visit my family for a week from the 15th-21st (sadly the hubs just started a new job so he can’t take time off to go) so not really making a monthly meal plan. Still eating mostly out of the freezer and pantry- trying to save money by only buying produce, dairy, bread and any other perishables.

Here’s my plan for the first half of August:

-Instant Pot Cheesy Taco Pasta with green salad 
-Greek marinated chicken with baked potatoes and whatever veggies we have around 
-Chicken Burrito bowls w/ Mexican squash casserole 
-Greek Harvest Grain bowls (Trader Joe’s Harvest Grain blend cooked with lamb and spinach) 
-Beef Fajitas probably with salad
-Leftover veggie and black bean burgers from the freezer with carrot “fries”

I’m sure while I’m gone my husband will likely eat frozen stuff from Trader Joes and/or anything he can make in the toaster oven (mini pizzas) and air fryer (chicken or fish, and of course, tater tots). Hopefully he’ll remember to eat a vegetable or two.