What's For Dinner? July Week 1

On the menu this week:
1) Saturday morning - breakfast as usual.
Saturday for dinner, I made Roasted Vegetable Paninis. (I found that recipe in Fit Pregnancy magazine when I was pregnant with Sophie and love it! Scroll down on that link - it's just below the Portugese Winter Soup. And also, if you click on "pg 4", I've made the Asian Cabbage Salad and that's pretty good too.) Anyway, on Friday night, I just cut up all my veggies into a 13x9 pan (since taking this picture, I also added sliced mushrooms) and sprinkled garlic and fresh rosemary over top along with a good drizzle of olive oil. Then on Saturday, I roasted them in the oven before spooning onto some sourdough bread with sliced mozzerella and toasting them on the panini grill.

Mmm! I love fresh rosemary. To remove the leaves, you just pinch your finger at the top and slide down the stem and they just pull right off. Then chop and sprinkle onto the veggies.

And here is my sandwich! Sooooo good! I love using all kinds of summery vegetables right now.

2) Sunday was the 4th and we had a family picnic. I made a variation of cucumber salad with ziti pasta and a vinegarette dressing. Mom got the recipe from someone at our reunion. It was yummy.

3) Monday - Crispy Chicken Sandwiches with Cilantro Lime Mayo. I've made these lots of times and posted about them in a dinner post prior to this. They are from Cooking Light magazine and they are AWESOME! Do NOT skip the dressed up mayo - that is the best part. And after several tries, I've decided I definitely prefer to cook them on the panini grill instead of pan frying. They cook so much faster and don't burn. Here's a shot of mayo that doesn't at all do it justice. It's amazing.

I let Sophie crush the corn chips for me (for the coating) using Will's plastic hammer.

And here is my sandwich. I had to cut some of the chicken cutlets because they were a little big for the bun. There's just lettuce and red onion to dress it up.

4) Tuesday - leftovers.

5) Wednesday - Chipotle Tamale Pie. This is another recipe I've made lots of times and posted about here before. It's easy and healthy and delicious. It features ground turkey (though you could use beef or whatever you want) and pinto beans, plus tomatoes, green pepper, onion, cilantro, shredded cheddar and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. This is what it looks like before I top it with the cornbread crust and bake it whenever I plan to serve it:

The crust is just a box of cornbread mix prepared as directed and smoothed over the top. It never looks as thick as that picture (on the link) shows. But it's really tasty and it's an easy one to prepare ahead and freeze as pictured above and then just add the cornbread after thawing and before baking.

Here are the canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce that I buy from the international foods aisle at Meijer. You could use just one pepper or omit them entirely for a less spicy flavor, but I like them.

6) Thursday - leftovers.

7) Friday - smothered enchiladas. I don't have a link for this one but I think it was from an old issue of Southern Living? The filling is ground beef, diced chili peppers and cumin. The "smother" is cream of chicken soup (I know, weird huh?), sour cream and more chili peppers. Then sprinkle with cheese and bake. I'll serve them with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, fresh salsa and avocado.

So this week, my favorite featured kitchen tool would have to be the panini grill. It's so versatile and useful.

And finally, here are a few snaps of the kids plates - mostly from the weekend.

Grilled cheese:

Veggie paninis:

Dried fruit and nuts (Sophie had graham crackers with almond butter with fruits and veggies):

"Crispy chicken strips" (Will never eats the bread/bun - I don't know why I even bother serving it like that, but it looks prettier :)

Happy eating!