Recipes this Week

Just returned from a week vacation visiting our parents over Easter break, but we are hitting the ground running to make our weekly meal plans, and keep my sanity. Sunday morning after we flew in, hubby and M ran to the store for breakfast supplies (eggs, sausage, fruit, bread and milk). Then later he went back during naptime for the veggies for the sausage and rice! My motivation for cooking most weeknights is to have leftovers - so I have something to pack for M's lunch as well as our own. It helps us all make better food choices when we are crunched for time, and let's us spend our $ on meals out over the weekend when we can really enjoy it.

As usual the lineup includes one meatless dinner and one fish dinner.

Sausage and Rice - Our dinner-in-a-pinch, this week with brown rice! I still haven't perfected this, but I try to sub whole grains for processed ones in as many places as I can. I started 1 cup of brown rice with 3 cups of water. Brought to a boil and then simmered for 10 minutes before adding the kielbasa rounds. Cooked with sausage for 10 more minutes, then added the chopped broccoli and red pepper. Cooked for a final 10 minutes. The result was still a little soupy, and a bit creamier than the white rice version, but I let it rest, uncovered for a bit, served with a slotted spoon. By the end of dinner the extra water had been absorbed/evaporated.

Chicken and Bean Nachos - adapted from this recipe, We make the avocado salsa (usually omitting the jicama if we can't find it). Otherwise we layer tortilla chips, then shredded rotisserie chicken (we use about half of one, and save the rest for something else), rinsed canned pinto or black beans, and a thin layer of shredded Mexican or cheddar cheese on a cookie sheet. Broil for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted, and top with the salsa. We usually make one cookie sheet-ful for our family of 2.5, and the rest makes all our lunches for the next day.
To make the next day lunches, I put all the topings together in a tupperware, one in each corner, and pack chips seperately. Hubby and I assemble all but the salsa, microwave to melt cheese, then top with Salsa. M eats all his seperately.

Not your mama's tuna salad - courtesy of Rachel Ray. This is another easy favorite of mine :)

Tacos & re-fried beans - The tacos are your average recipe (store-bought shells; meat seasoned with a store-bought packet of seasoning... we used half a pound of leftover bison, and some of our leftover rotisserie chicken from the nachos above; diced tomatoes, shredded cheese, avocado chunks, plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream) and we used Ellie Kreiger's recipe for the beans (delicious! even my husband was pleasantly surprised!)

Quinoa salad - adapted from this recipe, I swapped quinoa for the wheat berries, but everything else is the same - YUM!

This week we also took a family urban hike to our closest grocery store on a chilly, overcast day and picked up frozen pizzas (hubby and I always get our own since we like different things, which means plenty for M and lunch leftovers) + frozen veggies for a Saturday-night-in dinner. We also picked up ingredients to make our favorite breakfast casserole Sunday morning:

2 cans reduced fat crescent rolls
1 roll reduced fat breakfast sausage, cooked and crumbled
8 eggs (1 yolk reserved)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350
1. Unroll one can of crescent rolls on the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.
2. Top with sausage and cheeses (beware: too much cheese will make the casserole too greasy).
3. Scramble the 7 eggs and 1 egg white (reserving the 8th yolk), and pour over the sausage and cheese.
4. Unroll and top with the second can of crescent rolls.
5. Brush top layer with reserved yolk.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until center of casserole is set.
Cut and serve!!

Food For Big and Small

This week is brought to you by the rotisserie chicken and quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah).

We started the week with some leftover quinoa, and a freshly roasted rotisserie chicken (which is really a great deal since you can buy it piping hot and ready to eat, and it can make eight or more meals at our house!). We first paired the chicken with baked small red potatoes and slightly sauteed (fresh) asparagus. I set some aside for Toddler Lunches this week, and made the rest into Curry Chicken Salad to be served on bread or rolled in tortillas. Admittedly, the asparagus didn't go over well with M, but I will keep trying. I also tried out hummus on him and got a grimmace. But I think there is potential there. Especially because he likes the dipping aspect.

For the quinoa, we are all still getting used to this food and its texture. Its rice- or couscous-like, but can be the featured protien, which I think makes it tricky to pair things with. I admit, I love the idea that its a complete protien, and still isn't meat (not that we are vegetarians - see rotisserie chicken above- i just think its good to skip meat every now and then). I was inspired by several recipes at Weelicious, so this week we tried banana 'rice' pudding and Mexican Quinoa salad. The former didn't quite do it for us, but the Mexican salad was a hit with everyone, much to my surprise. Quinoa is sold as a dry grain, that you cook with 3x's the cooking liquid until it is absorbed and you can see the little swirl of the germ in the grain. For the pudding,  it was cooked in coconut milk, but just water for the Mexican salad.

Lunch ideas this week:

Monday was a holiday, so M and I had lunch out with Daddy. We packed yogurt, hard boiled egg, and steamed veggies and shared our soups and sandwiches, and let him color the kids menus.

Tuesday, I forgot to take a photo. But I packed a hummus, cream cheese, and minced steamed veggies in half a rolled tortilla as the 'main course' with the usual veggies and fruit, yogurt, and cereal bar.

Wednesday, we packed leftover acorn squash risotto, steamed broccoli, and apple slices; snack1: yogurt + pinto beans; snack2: cereal bar and steamed carrots.

Thursday, leftover sausage and rice (with broccoli and red pepper), perfectly ripe strawberries, steamed carrots; snack1: halved grapes + cereal bar; snack 2: yogurt + pretzels.