A Week of Dinners

Well I finally did it. I remembered to take pictures of a week's worth of dinners. My hope is that these pictures may inspire you to cook everyday.  Now I will say that I do love to cook and I am very willing to put in the time.  In general we don't eat until 7:30 p.m, so I have time to relax and make dinner.  

Monday: "Meatball" stuffed pasta shells  This is so easy, but my middle daughter requested it so I made it.  I like to use either leftover meatballs or meatloaf.  Just roughly stuff the meat in the cooked shells, top with your favorite marinara sauce and cheese.  Bake covered for about 30 minutes and another 5 uncovered.  I served it with a side of braised celery and parsnips.

Tuesday: Sizzling shrimp with basmati rice and steamed broccoli.  A super quick and easy dinner to prepare.  

Wednesday: I like to try something new each week.  Not always for dinner, but last week it just happened to be. As I mentioned in my last post I tried blacked chicken with avocado crema, quinoa and the rest of the broccoli.   My husband knows we like broccoli, so he picked up a lot of it. 

Thursday: I  had some leftover mushroom gravy from another dish in my fridge.  So I made hamburger patties, sautéd them on the stove and simmered them in the gravy.  Mashed potatoes and roasted carrots, mushrooms and parsnips on the side. 

Friday: Our grocery happened to have whitefish.  I always serve it simply: broiled and seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika.  At the end I add some melted butter.  We had pan roasted potatoes and a salad of fennel, orange, sliced black olives, parsley topped with a few tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper.   Delicious!

Bon Appétit and don't for get the wine. 

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

What I ate Wednesday 6

Well I'm back again with another Wednesday.  My oldest daughter and I are still counting our fruits and veggies in our bullet journals. It really makes you mindful of what you are eating. I like to see at least 6 little dots in my journal per day.  This is actually not too hard to do.  We're not exactly counting serving size, but a small amount doesn't count.   

Breakfast: Green juice, crock pot steel cut oats, sunny side up egg, broccoli with a splash of soy sauce for a touch more flavor.  To drink? Coffee of course. The juice give roughly 1 fruit and 1 veggie and the broccoli is 1 veggie as well.

I had a lunch meeting today; so I snapped this picture before I went to school.  

Lunch: Kale salad with artichoke hearts, tomatoes, carrots, and pepitas. I also had a side of cottage cheese topped with hemp and chia seeds.I figured this was at least 2-3 veggies depending how you count it.  

Dinner: Blackened chicken breast, quinoa, broccoli with and avocado crema. This was a new recipe; I found it just okay.  I feel I can do better, so not a keeper. However it got me another vegetable and my kids love broccoli so a win there.  So that was 6 today. 

Dessert: My son loves 7 layer bars, and so do I.  I had the ingredients sitting around so of course I made them.  They are so easy and so good.  I made them with unsweetened coconut, and you would never know the difference.  There is still a lot of sugar, but they are a treat.  

Bon Appétit!

As always love from the Midwest,

Beth

What I ate Wednesday 5

Well we're at another Wednesday and another day off of school.  With temperatures in the negatives all day there isn't much reason to go outside.  So of course I ate well and enjoyed my meals slowly and looking out a window.  I don't always get this at school for lunch.

Breakfast: Buckwheat protein pancake again, 1/2 grapefruit, blueberries and green smoothie. I love this breakfast so much! It really keeps me full until lunch.

Lunch: With the time I had today I decided to try a recipe I had sitting around.  Kale, mushroom & lentils.  The recipe called for topping toast with it, which would be delicious, but I had a left over baked potato so I used that instead.  I also added a side of red cabbage kraut from a local fermentation stand at our farmers' market.

I'm not a big snacker, but since it was so cold I couldn't help but have a cup of homemade hot coco.  I added some Kahlua and extra bittersweet chocolate to make just that much better. Oh of course whip cream too. 

Dinner:  This is an old favorite of my daughter's.  Stuffed shells with leftover meatloaf, marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese.  The veggie was braised parsnips and celery. I'm still using our local veggies when possible.

Dessert:  Mexican Chocolate Bundt cake.  Again a family favorite with our without some more whip cream. 

As always I hope this inspires you to spend time in your kitchen at least for one meal a day.

Bon Appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Anatomy of a Snow Day

Well it's already snowed 7" and it's 10:30 am. The snow just keeps coming.  Honestly I don't know how much school we'll have this week. The weather looks awful; I've never seen anything like it predicted.  Highs at -10, yes in the negatives.  So we'll see.

5:40 am - I still woke up early.  I set the alarm a bit later, but the dog had other ideas.  Honestly, I still slept in so I was happy and got close to 8 hours of sleep. 

5: 50-6: 50 am -For the next hour I practiced yoga and meditation. I'm really lucky that I have my own space and a bright cheery room in my basement. 

When I came upstairs I heard my husband outside snowblowing.  As I write this my daughter just came in from shoveling a second time.  

7:00-8:00 am - Breakfast time! I love breakfast on a snow day, because I don't have to rush.  I even have time to make multiple breakfasts. 

For my husband - 1/2 grapefruit, OJ and a few slices of banana bread.  

For me - Buckwheat protein pancake, 1/2 grapefruit, baked apples and coffee.  This is a great protein packed pancake that just happens to be gluten free. I topped mine with maple syrup. 

My son- came down stairs a bit later so I made homemade waffles.  

8:00-9:00 - Reading a book on my sofa.  I'm currently rereading An American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin. It's a light easy read.  

9:00-9:30  - I decided to take a short walk on my tread mill.  I listened to a new podcast for me, Pantry Raid.  It was about 16 minutes long -so perfect for a short mile.  

9:30- to the rest of the day - who knows?  I'll bake something for dessert, read more, knit, paint and watch some TV.  What ever I do it will be relaxing.  Oh, I'll also shovel some snow.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

What I ate Wednesday 4

Well without thinking about it much this day was a no added sugar day. The only "cheat" was the Simply Heinz ketchup I used in our meatloaf. I'm far from perfect, however it is very easy to not add too much extra sugar to my day.  

Breakfast: 1/2 grapefruit and sea salt, avocado toast on homemade sourdough bread and a sunny side up egg, juice (made with apple, carrot, and orange) and of course coffee.  It's  been fun trying new blended juices this winter.  I like using my Vitamix to keep the pulp and fiber of the fruit and veggies.  Also this week I starting sectioning my grapefruit the night before.  This is a total time saver in the morning.  

Lunch: As usual in my classroom.  I much rather do a lot of work at school and come home and do things I love such as reading, exercising, blogging etc.  So today I had soup with quinoa, kale and chick peas along with other vegetables.  On the side a quick slaw with plumped apricots. Water to drink as always.  I've also made this soup with black beans and it is super.  I do reduce the amount of cream to about 1/4 cup.

Dinner: Meatloaf, couscous, roasted mixed veggies (brussel sprouts and Jerusalem artichokes) and a green salad.  Of course wine and water to drink. 

This is what the Jerusalem artichokes looked like before I roasted them.  They didn't seem to have much flavor, kind of like a water chestnut.  I'll try another recipe in the next week or two.  

Dessert: Banana, cherry, lime nicecream.  Nothing else is added.   I must say I was skeptical of this at first, but the flavors are very bright and the texture is much closer to ice cream than sorbet. Also the whole idea of nicecream is a great way to add an extra serving of fruit in your day. 

As always I hope this post inspires you to try different meals in your week.  

Bon Appétit.

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth

What I ate Wednesday 3

Well another successful day of remembering to take pictures of my meals.  I started this Wednesday with a 3 mile run on the treadmill. It's not my favorite, but at least I have one and don't have to go to a gym.  I always try to watch something light since it's 5:30 in the morning.

My oldest daughter made me breakfast. She had everything ready to go and on the table, what a treat!  Protein pancakes, blueberry compote, maple syrup, home made applesauce from the fall and of course coffee.  There is no extra sugar in anything she made - just the maple syrup that I added.  

Lunch was at home yesterday because of final exams.  So I didn't have to eat out of a Pyrex dish.   I came home and made carrot soup in the Vitamix and avocado toast topped with Herbes de Provence sea salt and olive oil.  We had Perrier  to drink.  I would say the soup was just ok. I know I can do better and have done so.  But it's always fun to try something new.

For dinner I made chicken cacciatore with large roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and red onions.  On the side I served polenta and a simple kale salad.  Of course I had some wine too.

Another treat for dessert. My middle daughter made a swiss roll cake since she needed a break for studying.  Lucky me.  

I hope this inspires you to get into your kitchen and start cooking.  

Bon Appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth

Green Smoothie

Green smoothie! I'm not on a super foods/fruits and veggie/vegetarian January cleanse kick, but I do like to consume my fruits and veggies.  We recently did a staff challenge at the school I work at; it was as simple as putting down how many servings of fruits and veggies you consume a day.  There was also a category for water, sleep and exercise.  I must say this made me more mindful.  We all know that we need to eat a diet rich in fruits and veggies, and I also think a variety is good as well.  It was nice to see in numbers everyday.

So I turned to my Vitamix.  I have a juicer, but I thought I'd see if the Vitamix worked as well, and it did.  The only change from the original juice recipe to the smoothie was the addition of ice cubes and water.

I started with celery and apple.

Next I added spinach, cucumber, ginger and lemon juice.  I blended it all up and came up with this green smoothie.

Originally I added a bit too much spinach; the taste was a bit earthy so I added a bit more lemon juice and water.  It worked out very well, and I had a great juice to start my day.

Here are measurements I used. Please change them up for your taste.

3 celery stalks

1 apple chopped

1 1/2 cup spinach

1/2 cucumber

1/2 lemon - juiced

2 tsp ginger

1 cup water

4 ice cubes.

As I said if you make a juice with a juicer just omit the water and ice cubes.

Bon Appétit,

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth