Meal Plan - Week of 07/28/13-08/03/13

Good Morning all -

Here's this week's meal plan! Notice we have Friday night as "Kid's Choice". We have personally struggled with trying to get our 5 year old son to eat dinner (happily) with us. Granted, it is partially my fault. Poor kiddo started eating before our diets were forced to change. Some of his first foods included McDonald's happy meals, hot dogs, chips, etc. I get a lot of kickback from other parents (and my own) about not letting him eat these things anymore. Instead of chips, he gets asparagus. Instead of regular ice cream, he gets homemade almond milk ice cream or frozen yogurt, cookies made with applesauce, etc. I now pay attention to what goes on his plate and in his body and I simply cannot allow him to eat some things anymore. Anyway - he gets one night (sometimes more) where he gets to pick exactly what he wants and I will recreate a "healthy" version. Typically it is "breakfast that looks like dinner", which is basically just breakfast for dinner - and let's face it, who doesn't love that? Let your kids help with the planning - they will love it and hopefully have more incentive to eat better at meal time!  Have a lovely weekend!

 

28	29	30	31	1	2	3
SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
muffin	PB & banana	scrambled egg	fruit	egg	waffles	bagel
egg	toast	toast	granola	toast	w/ PB	w/ cheese
fruit	fruit	fruit	w/milk	fruit	fruit	fruit
tea	tea	tea	tea	tea	tea	tea
Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
veggie	"chips" &	lettuce wrap	chicken	salad	turkey	baked
pizza	salsa	w/rice	w/ veggies	fruit/vegs	sandwich	potato
salad	fruit	crackers	crackers	crackers	veggies	veggies
water	water	water	water	water	water	water
Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner
roasted chicken	black rice	cauliflower	chicken	grilled shrimp	KIDS	swai (fish)
baked potatoes	sweet potatos	pizzas	quesdillas	asparagus	CHOICE	quinoa
veggies	squash	salad	rice	bread	NIGHT	squash
water	water	water	water	water	(burgers)	water
Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack
yogurt	granola bar	trailmix	fruit	yogurt	trailmix	yogurt
fruit	veggies	cheese/veg	veggies	crackers	fruit	veggies
cookies	ice cream	fruit pizza	chia pudding	cookies	popsicles	smores

Breakfast Quesadillas

Here I’m going to give you two versions of this tasty meal : sweet & savory. My son loves quesadillas – I love hearing him trying to pronounce it (ha)! If you haven’t noticed, I like my recipes easy and customizable. This is both. Feel free to substitute whatever you’d like – I’m just giving you a base to use your own ideas. The possibilities are endless!

Sweet Breakfast Quesadillas
8 corn (or flour) tortilla shells (6”)
3 oz of cream cheese (or cream cheese spread), softened
3 Tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup fresh berries, chopped (or fruit mix – we like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc)

• Mix together cheese, honey and cinnamon in a small bowl.
• On a griddle place 4 tortilla shells, spread with cream cheese mixture onto each shell.
• Divide fruit equally among the 4 shells and put on top of the cheese mixture.
• Top this with the remaining tortilla shells. Cook on the griddle on about 400°F until edges of shells are brown (flipping to cook both sides).
• NOTE: We’ve also tried the following mixtures: Peanut Butter & Banana, just plain cinnamon, cream cheese & pinapple.

Savory Breakfast Quesadillas

8 corn (or flour) tortilla shells (6”)
3 eggs
2 Tbsp almond milk (or regular)
¼ cup diced tomatoes
¼ cup diced green onions
Shredded cheese (whatever flavor you prefer)

• Scramble the eggs and almond milk in a hot skillet until cooked through.
• On a griddle, place 4 tortilla shells and add the scrambled egg mixture on to each shell.
• Sprinkle the diced tomatoes, onions and cheese over the egg mixture on each shell.
• Top with the remaining tortilla shells and cook on the griddle on about 400°F until edges of shells are brown (flipping to cook both sides).
• NOTE: We’ve also tried the following mixtures: Egg, Spinach & Mushroom, Egg & Asparagus, Egg & turkey sausage/bacon.

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Apple Crisp

My husband is a sucker for apple crisp and we love anything with rhubarb. I planted some rhubarb this year and had just enough to make this crisp. The fruit can easily be substituted for whatever you like: pears, peaches, any combination, etc. I’ve even added a pit of pineapple chunks to this to give it an extra flavor! This recipe is one of my go-to favorites because it is so easy and is such a good comfort food dessert.

Fruit Filling

2 cups of chopped fruit (we love strawberries, rhubarb and granny smith apples)
¼ to ½ cup of fruit juice or water (depending on how juicy you want it)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp starch (corn or tapioca)
¼ cup maple syrup or honey
Topping
½ cup GF oats
¼ cup quinoa flakes (or omit – it just gives it a little extra texture)
¼ cup coconut flour
¼ cup GF all purpose flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill)
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ cup brown sugar (or Stevia, or regular sugar)
·         Mix together the ingredients for the fruit filling.
·         Mix together the ingredients for the topping. It should resemble a course crumb texture.
·         Place topping mixture into a greased pie plate. Then sprinkle the crumb topping over the top of the fruit. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for 25 minutes or until bubbly and slightly brown on top.

Grilled Jalapeno Poppers

These were my husband’s creation, so I can’t take full credit for them (I did buy the groceries though so that has to count for something right?). He loves spicy food but I do not, so we don’t have things like this often. I even tried them though and they were good!

6 jalapeno peppers, whole – seeds removed.
3 slices of turkey bacon, cut in half
mozzarella cheese slices (the equivalent of 3 cheese sticks cut in half)
toothpicks

•  While wearing gloves (so you do not burn your hands, skin, eyes, face, whatever else!), cut the stem end off of the peppers. Then cut a slice down the pepper, lengthwise. You want to be able to pull apart the pepper slowly to add the cheese but you want it to keep its shape for cooking.
• Add the cheese slices into the peppers. We used a fresh mozzarella role and just cut strips long enough to fit in the peppers. *NOTE: it helps to freeze the cheese strips for about 15 minutes so the cheese doesn’t melt out while cooking.
• Wrap the bacon pieces around the cheese stuffed peppers and secure with a toothpick.
• Grill or bake at 350°F for about 10 minutes or until the bacon is cooked.
• NOTE: I’m not kidding about wearing gloves while dealing with hot peppers. Some people have skin of steel, others of us aren’t so lucky. My one and only experience with cutting jalapenos without gloves ended poorly. I was about 12 helping my mom make salsa and started cutting them bare-handed. I had jalapeno oils under my nails and on my face. For a couple of days I was miserable… so be forewarned – glove it! J

Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole

Amazing. That’s the only thing I have to say about this one. Well – and the fact that I got a remarkable response out of my 5 year old. He told me, “Mom, this tastes even better than asparagus AND corn on the cob!” He hates asparagus but corn on the cob is his absolute favorite food. Therefore- we know this recipe is a keeper!

1 large chicken breast

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 small head of broccoli, cut, steamed or cooked

1 small onion, diced

½ cup mushrooms, diced

1 cup brown rice

1 cup water

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp sage

1 ½ cups milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

2 Tbsp starch (corn or potato)

1 cup fresh mozzarella, cut into small chunks

½ cup GF bread crumbs

•  In an electric pressure cooker (or other method of cooking rice-just adjust water amount), cook rice and water.
• While rice is cooking, sauté chicken in oil in a large skillet until cooked through. Add in onion, mushrooms and cooked broccoli and cook until onions are tender.
• Add in cooked rice and mix together. Then pour into a large baking dish, probably 2 quarts.
• Combine milk, spices and potato starch until starch is well blended.
• Spread mozzarella chunks evenly over the top of the casserole mixture. Pour the milk mixture evenly over the dish.
• Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top and bake at 375°F for about 30 minutes or until the mixture is bubbly and the bread crumbs have started to brown

Cheater Jalapeno Cheese Biscuits

I love bread – like so much so that most would consider it a problem. I was the one that HAD to have some type of bread for every meal. My idea of an evening snack was toast with peanut butter – not Oreo’s. When I found out I had a gluten sensitivity my first initial thought was “OMG – I’m going to die without bread.” Well, obviously, I didn’t but for a good few weeks I thought I was going to. Slowly I started finding some gluten free bread mixes and even made a few loaves of my own. My mother-in-law (one of my biggest support persons) went to a Whole Foods store and bought me TONS of gluten-free items. One of them was a box of Chēbē Cheese Bread Mix. That’s where this easy recipe came about. It saves TONS of time using a pre-made flour mix. One of these days I’ll try to recreate my own version but for now – enjoy this time saver!

1 7.5 oz box of Chēbē Cheese Bread Mix
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 large eggs
1/3 cup water
¾ cup soy mozzarella cheese (use whatever shredded cheese you’d like)
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced (*use gloves to cut this!)

Follow baking instructions on bread mix package. You could follow the package baking instructions and just add the pepper, but I did slightly tweak the amount of water and varied my cheese types.

Gluten Free Graham Crackers

Smores are quite possibly our favorite treat. During the summer, we eat them practically every night. It’s not uncommon to see us “roasting” some in the oven during the winter also.  Going gluten free was a struggle because packaged GF graham crackers are just not the same as good ol’ Honey Maid grahams. Actually, they resemble pretty cardboard. These however are very flavorful and crunchy. I  LOVE the fact that I know what is in them. Anyway – this recipe was my first major GF accomplishment so I very happy to share it with you – enjoy!

 

¾ cup sweet white sorghum flour

½ cup amaranth flour
¼ cup brown rice flour
½ cup tapioca starch
½ cup potato starch
½ cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp cinnamon
½ tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup cold butter or shortening (in pieces) (I like to use ½ c cold soy butter, ½ c coconut oil)
¼ to ½ cup cold water
½ cup honey
2 tsp extract (vanilla, maple & almond are my favorite!)

·         Mix together dry ingredients first. Then cut in cold butter/shortening until you get a crumbly mixture. Unfortunately I have found the easiest way to do this is to use your hands – it’s quicker and much messier.
·         Add in honey and vanilla (or other) extract. Start with adding just ¼ cup of water and mix together. You want to have a nice ball of dough when you get done mixing so gradually add in enough water to get there. I typically use ½ cup and it works fine.
·         Once your dough is the right consistency, divide into three sections.
·         The next step is up to you really. You are going to need to place the finished squares onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The dough tends to fall apart during transportation if you just try and move by hand. I find the best method is to roll out the dough in between two pieces of parchment paper. Once you get to the desired thickness (1/16-1/8^th of an inch), place the bottom piece of parchment paper with dough onto the baking sheet.
·         Pierce the dough with a fork all over and delicately slice into squares. Repeat with the remaining dough.
·         Bake for 10-15 minutes at 375°F. Makes (roughly) 15 3” square cookies 1/8 inch thick.
o   Note: The baking times of the crackers will depend on the thickness of the dough. It may take a little longer if your dough was rolled into thick squares, or take less time if the crackers are really thin. It all depends on your preference.
o   My kids and I also like to use cookie cutters to cut the crackers into fun shapes.
o   Store these crackers in a sealed container or bag and they keep for about a week.