What's For Dinner? January Week 1

On our menu for Jan 1-7:

1) Saturday - This was the day our sump pump broke. Following its repair, I had to pull together a super fast lunch. I knew Casey had tried Weelicious's Peas & Pasta for her girls with success and I had the few simple ingredients to make it. So that's what we had.

Sophie still gets squash puree with her meals pretty often. In fact, she ate it almost daily this last week while the kids weren't feeling well because they both seemed to prefer soft textured foods and that's it.
For dinner, our friends brought over BW3's take out for fight night. After a long day of sick kids and tons of cleaning, this was a welcome treat to have dinner brought to US!
2) Sunday - fajitas in the crock pot for dinner with sliced avocado and salsa to top. The kids also got avocado smoothie this day and multiple other days while sick - again, because it was an easy, higher calorie, healthy thing that they would tolerate in those days of little eating.

Crock Pot Steak Fajitas:
1 beef flank steak (2#), sliced thin
1 cup tomato juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp grd cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grd coriander
1 medium onion, sliced
1 each medium green and red pepper, julienned
1 medium jalapeno, cut into thin strips
12 flour tortillas
extras: sour cream , salsa, shredded cheese, lettuce, guacamole or avocado, etc.
-Place steak in a slow cooker. Combine next 7 ingredients and pour over beef. Cover and cook on low 6-7 hours. Add vegetables; cover and cook 1 hour longer or until meat and veggies are tender. Serve in tortillas with desired toppings. (Warning: these are really liquidy. We usually try to strain really well and plan for a messy meal.)
3) Monday - I stayed home from work this day because I knew Craig would have his hands full with two feverish, unhappy, sick kiddos and we wanted to get them both to the doctor for check-up. I, too, was feeling a little achey with a mild sore throat and just wanted to rule out strep before returning to work. So for dinner, we had crispy chicken sandwiches with cilantro lime mayo. Sophie actually ate this very well. Will pretty much wasn't eating for days during this week. This picture is old from one of the previous times I've made it... we didn't have grapes with it. $2.99/# for grapes??? Are you kidding me??? No, thank you. I think we had apple slices and steamed broccoli.

4-6) Tuesday through Thursday - leftovers and scrounging. I love to scrounge and put together whatever we have laying around to clean out the fridge and pantry. The kids were eating mostly soft foods like applesauce, yogurt, cottage cheese, smoothies, etc. Will didn't go to school on Tuesday, so no packed lunch that day. But on Thursday, he showed enough improvement to go. No fever and an antibiotic reassured us that he was probably on the mend. I'd been wanting to try out Weelicious Granola for awhile and thought this might go over well on top his applesauce to add some protein into his diet. It'd been very little the whole week. Here are the ingredients except for the rolled oats, which I'd already put away. I substituted coconut for the cashews.

I also accidentally added way too much cinnamon.

I think the suggested cooking time is way too long. It seemed almost burnt tasting in a couple places. But I ate it just with milk for breakfast and it was pretty good. I think I'll shorten the baking time next time though.

Will's lunch was super simple because I had very low expectations for him to eat anything: diced cantaloupe, applesauce with granola, cucumber slices.

7) Friday - I made an old favorite of Craig's and mine from as far back as our college days and also first years of marriage. It's been awhile but it's still a super comfort food: Breakfast Pitas.

Breakfast Pitas:

1# ground sausage

~10 eggs (I think?)

1 chopped green pepper

salt, pepper and oregano to taste

pitas, halved

sliced or shredded cheese

-Brown sausage. Remove and keep warm. Saute pepper for a couple minutes and then add whisked eggs to scramble with pepper. Add sausage back in and seasonings to taste. Fill pita pockets with mixture and cheese. Enjoy!