What's For Dinner? Week 3

You know those weekly menu lists that you'll see in magazines or online to give people fresh ideas for meal planning? Okay... I always love new ideas and inspiration, but I hate those lists that are shown in calendar form with different meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner EVERY day of the week. Who does that? And even if someone could find the time, how wasteful is that? They never accomodate for leftovers or the occasional "scrounging". I mean, in defense of the list makers, it wouldn't be all that helpful to readers if they said: "And on Thursday evening, you should scrounge something together to use up leftovers and help clear out your fridge". :) But that is the reality. And what would I do with the rest of the "vegetable lasagna" if I made something different at every other meal time? So I still refer to lists like that, but I tailor them to my own three or four meals per week plan.

On that note, one of my pet peeves is a messy refrigerator. If I can't see some bare shelf space on at least 1-2 of the shelves (preferably 2-3), it's time to start "scrounging" to clear some things out. We don't eat out a lot so there aren't forgotten, "leftover", take-out boxes hiding anywhere. And we go through fruits and veggies fast enough that the turnover rate doesn't really permit much waste in the produce bins. Plus, I pack lunches for myself every weekday and can easily clean up dinner leftovers that way. So part of my menu planning is simply stocking the fridge with some staple food items for quick, throw-together meals that my family will eat. That's super important because you just never know when you'll need something unexpectedly.

Last week, Craig went to the grocery store for us! He offers frequently but I just feel it's almost harder to send him if he's going to have a million questions and I know I can do it faster. But it's good to balance out our workload on occasion (this is pretty much always "my job") so I just let go of the food reigns for a bit and he did a very good job. I had written a very detailed list in the order of how he would find things in the store if he started in the produce section so he only called once with a question. :) One new item on our list, which we haven't purchased since Will turned two, was a half gallon of whole milk. Sophie's going to get her first taste of cow's milk this week (probably Wednesday) and so we're going to be back to buying two kinds of milk for the next year again.

Speaking of Sophie, she's recently tried a few "higher risk" food allergens this past weekend. Typically, it's recommended to do these one at a time to watch for reactions. I really probably should have done that, but she's had no problems with any other foods so far and we don't have family history of food allergies either. So over the weekend, I tried a few new Weelicious recipes (more on that in a future post) and she's had whole eggs and whole milk (cooked into recipes, not by themselves), as well as walnuts (again finely chopped into a recipe). She's eating "our food" pretty much all the time now and, bless her little heart, she eats such a broad range of things that it makes my life so much easier. I wouldn't say she "eats everything I put in front of her", but overall, I'm very pleased with her eating habits. Some of my favorite foods that I'm grateful she likes include: blueberries, avocado, all forms of squash, cottage cheese, cheese, yogurt, canned legumes/beans by themselves, rice and oatmeal cereals, etc. Those are super healthy staples that require almost no work at all that I can throw together for quick lunches or sides at dinner. (I'm also still packing her lunches for the babysitter, which I enjoy.) Here she's eating rinsed, canned black beans with brown rice and a steamed pea/carrot combo. She's funny about her mixed veggies though. Either she doesn't care for carrots and corn or she simply LOVES her peas, because every time I mix another veggie with peas, she picks out all the peas and leaves the rest. I've also noticed she isn't a fan of cantaloupe, which is such a shocker after watching Will inhale it until I make him stop.
Speaking of good eating habits, I caught most of this past week's Food Revolution with Jamie Oliver. That show is so amazing to me! It's scary and depressing and frustrating... and yet inspiring and hopeful and touching. Jamie is awesome and it's really going to take someone like him to turn around the horrible eating habits in our school systems these days. I literally teared up when all the little elementary kids chose the white milk over the chocolate and strawberry milk after their teacher encouraged them to do so. You could just see what a hurdle that was for Jamie and how all it takes is the right amount of guidance and encouragement for children to learn to make smart choices for their bodies. Good eating habits start right from birth and require "proper food" (I love that he calls it that - because, truly, that should just be standard) being available and kids learning that as the norm. Just watching those kids carrying their trays full of processed, garbage food is so sad, because that's all they know. They weren't even willing to try Jamie's meals at first because it didn't contain a french fry or pizza. Our babysitter showed me the 5-week menu rotation for our elementary school and it's horrific. They do try to include some healthy sides, but pretty much every main dish was: corn dogs (possibly the worst food invention ever), hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets, etc. etc. And you know all that crap was pulled out of a freezer box and popped in the oven - no actual cooking, chopping or mixing required. That job title shouldn't exactly be "cook" then, huh? More like "oven-turner-onner". And another piece of irony: the menu had clip art of strawberries and stuff on it... You know those kids aren't ever seeing an actual strawberry on their tray. I will be packing our kids' lunches for school. I'm not so rigid that I think all processed/fast/junk food should be forbidden. But it should not be the norm. And our kids' lives and health should be important enough to us to see that they get "proper food" as a routine.

Okay, rant over. Moving on...

Thanks to that TV program and the Weelicious blog I mentioned, I'm over my rut and newly inspired to cook again. As I mentioned last week, Craig and I are trying a new system of compromise for menu planning to include: 1) something that he wants (that's maybe not my first choice), 2) something that I want (that's maybe not his favorite), and 3) something sort of middle of the road that we can both agree on. So on the menu this week are:
1) Taco salad (his pick... again). I also made another giant bowl of fresh, tomato salsa to go with. I prepped most everything on Friday again except for the taco salad, which I made entirely on Sunday evening.2) Grilled chicken with black bean and corn salsa (our middle of the road pick). For this I'm just going to add some canned black beans and sweet corn to the salsa I made and spoon it on top of the chicken. We'll probably have steamed broccoli along side and I plan to serve this on Sophie's birthday because I think she'll like this meal. The main dish was adapted from a Cooking Light recipe, which I normally make exactly as written. But this time I'm just using my tomato salsa and adding a couple things.
3) Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables (my pick, of course). I always try to make at least one casserole for the week because they are usually the easiest dinners to get on the table and I appreciate having them about mid-week. This is one I've made tons of times and it freezes very well. The recipe makes a 13x9 pan, but I always just divide it between two 8 or 9" square pans and freeze one for the future. The 8 or 9" pan is enough to feed us for at least two meals so that just works for me. I love all the veggies in this - especially when they're abundant in the summer - and roasting them first just brings out so much flavor. And, yes, there is zucchini in it. But Craig is in agreement with our compromise so he has to be in agreement with zucchini on occasion. This is a Giada recipe from Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/baked-penne-with-roasted-vegetables-recipe/index.html

One for the week, one for the freezer.

4) Also in my meal prep were some veggies for the kids. I buy fresh green beans and chop and steam them for Sophie so they're ready in a container to accompany her meals in the week. And I had some bulk carrots in my fridge that needed to be used soon. Will loves steamed carrots (even cold, which is often how I serve them to him) so I peeled, chopped and steamed all that I had so they wouldn't go bad. I did these veggies on Sunday night so they were freshest for the week.

5) As I mentioned above, I made a few new recipes from the Weelicious blog and I am just in LOVE with her suggestions. Look for a whole post about that coming up and check out weelicious.com in the meantime. Seriously, it's an awesome resource.