Bad Food Blog

Tag: salad

• My Menu Plan – July 2020

  Posted at 11:28 pm by Rachel, on July 3, 2020

  I’m back with another month-long menu plan! Actually, I will share my June plan at the end of this post also. WordPress changed their post editor recently, and my pregnant brain was too tired to deal with that last month. 😂  And it is actually pretty intuitive, so clearly I was EXTRA tired last month.

  It’s Fourth of July weekend here in the US, and of course we are celebrating with a bunch of food. I’ve made this American flag pie for the last few years, and actually just baked one over Memorial Day weekend. It is so beautiful, but it has always turned out very juicy for me. I’m going to try NOT refrigerating the berries with the cornstarch this time – I am thinking that it makes the juices solidify too much and they sneak into the pie. We will see! If you are interested in a much quicker and easier dessert, strawberry shortcake (or chocolate strawberry shortcake!) is a delicious and classic option.

  Once again, the menus are printable – if you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab, scaled to print on a standard piece of printer paper.

  

  Salads

  Salads are easy meals to adapt for your kids. Mine don’t usually like things mixed up, so we just put little bit of everything onto their plates separately, either without dressing or with dressing on the side so they can dunk and dip.

  • Sesame Chicken Salad from Meals Made Easy
  • Panzanella and sausages from You Have It Made 
  • Southwest salad – Not really planning to follow a recipe for this one, we will see what happens. As long as there is avocado I’ll be okay.
  • Chicken and peach salad from Easy, Delicious Meals – This was a hit last month, and probably took 20 minutes to carve the chicken and dice the peaches. I subbed in feta for blue cheese and used lots of peaches.

  Pasta

  • Pasta with blistered cherry tomatoes – One of my favorite weeknight pastas
  • Creamy pesto tortellini with green beans and ricotta (adapted from Easy, Delicious Meals) – The original recipe calls for gnocchi, and it is amazing if you have access to fresh gnocchi (or you feel inspired to make your own!). But I don’t have fresh gnocchi right now, so I’m subbing in tortellini.
  • Spaghetti and meatballs – I make this sauce with these meatballs in my 7.25 quart Dutch oven. Basically, I start the sauce, then start the meatballs, and pop them into the pot after I broil them. I use all of the meat to make meatballs, instead of using some to make the sauce a meat sauce (doing this yields me about 32 meatballs instead of 16). It is time consuming but oh so good. My husband will be helping me with these one weekend, and I will likely freeze most of the leftovers to start preparing for baby #4.
  • Eggplant parmesan with pasta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – This is my third month in a row making this recipe! I took a little short cut last week and used a high quality jarred sauce, and warmed it with the basil in the microwave. It’s my current comfort food of choice.

  Vegetarian

  • Veggie stir fry – My kids don’t actually mind the sauce on this stir fry, and they go nuts for the baby corn and sesame seed “sprinkles.”
  • Polenta with roasted vegetables and pesto (inspired by this recipe) – I make some basic polenta with parmesan, roast a couple of sheet pans worth of vegetables, layer it on a plate, and top it all off with pesto from the store.
  • Black Bean Veggie Burgers from You Have It Made – These burgers have beans and beets and can be made ahead! Fingers crossed at finding beets in Hawaii in July!
  • Sweet potato and black bean tacos – I’ve never had these before but I am a sucker for sweet potatoes. I’ll still be chopping up some peppers and tomatoes for the kids though.

  Eggs

  We’ve been alternating scrambled eggs and eggs-in-a-basket lately; it’s been a nice change of pace!

  Pizza

  I’m back to making pizza – this is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.

  Meat

  • Hamburgers, served with watermelon with mint, lime, & feta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – This watermelon salad takes like 10 minutes to throw together and is amazing! Easy enough for a regular side dish, fancy enough to pull out and impress guests. It reminded me of the watermelon salad we ate at Frog Hollow Tavern a couple years ago.
  • Huli huli chicken from The Complete Slow Cooker
  • Grilled chicken, served with Tomato Cobbler with Cornmeal-Cheddar Biscuits – This is one of those “plan the main dish around the side dish” meals. I was remembering the tomato cobbler recipe, which I haven’t made for years now, and I knew I had to make it again this month. Check out the cook time before you start – it is definitely a weekend recipe!
  • Whole chicken in the slow cooker – I’ll be saving some extra meat and the bones to make chicken soup for my freezer.

  And the “bonus” June menu:

  

  Happy eating!

  Posted in Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged burgers, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, pie, pizza, salad, side dish, vegetarian

• My Menu Plan – January 2020

  Posted at 9:37 pm by Rachel, on December 31, 2019

  Happy New Year! I’ve been listening to fireworks all day today – no one does New Year’s Eve fireworks like Hawaii! After six long months, I am happy to announce the return of my monthly menu plan. My nights have switched around a bit since I last shared a monthly menu plan. It feels less festive than Fridays deserve to be, but since Fridays look like they are going to be the busiest night of the week for a while, I decided to make them leftovers night for the quickest, easiest possible dinner. I rounded out the weekdays with other meals that I can prepare with a bunch of kids underfoot – some less than fussy salads, eggs, meats, and soups, many of which can be made ahead. I stuck new-to-me recipes on Sundays, when my husband will be home to wrangle our kids in case things go terribly wrong. Pizza, which is easy to scale up and share with visitors, got Saturdays, the day we would be most likely to have other people over.

  I decided to try out a new program to make the printable menu this month. If you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab. I scaled it to be 8.5×11, or the size of a standard piece of printer paper, so it is ready to print.

  

   

  New Recipes

  • Black Bean Veggie Burgers from You Have It Made – We got some take out from Down to Earth, and one of the stand-out items was the Black Bean & Roasted Beets Burger. My 5-year-old, who is really into the idea of burgers right now, said she would eat it again, so I’m trying this homemade variety, which also contains beets and can be made ahead.
  • Barley Stuffed Peppers from Thug Kitchen – These kind of remind me of the pepperoni pizza quinoa stuffed peppers that I love, but you know, vegan.  I will probably set some of the filling aside to increase the chances of my kids trying it.
  • Roasted Brussels Sprouts Bowls – This recipe has been on my “to make” list for a while. I will probably use some chicken sausage instead of veggie sausage, we will see what the store has in stock.
  • Roasted Chickpea and Broccoli Burritos – Six months ago, I made Thug Kitchen’s BBQ Bean Burritos with Grilled Peach Salsa and they were phenomenal. Like, hands down the best burritos I have ever made at home and probably the best burritos I’ve had outside of little burrito shops when I was in college. These chickpea and broccoli burritos look like a lot less work, but the authors say they are a fan favorite. Fingers crossed that they are just as tasty!

  Salads

  • Kale and Apple Salad with goat cheese and candied walnuts – We’ve eaten this salad several times in the last few weeks because it is so fast to throw together. I like to add some baked chicken breast to make it a meal (note that the recipe is for a “side salad”) and I swap goat cheese for blue cheese because that is my preference.
  • Asian chicken salad – Prepare the chicken breasts ahead of time and this is a super fast dinner
  • Farro Salad with Kale and Grapes from You Have It Made – I was asking my family what they want to eat this month, and one of my kids said, “I like farro!” We’ve been eating farro a lot lately, but I decided to throw in this salad for her.
  • Southwestern Salad from You Have It Made – I’m feeling inspired to up my southwestern salad game after trying so many salads this summer. Ellie Krieger’s salad calls for jicama, an ingredient that I haven’t used since 2011! It wasn’t a great experience, which is why I haven’t really used it since then – hopefully this goes better.

  Meats

  • Ginger Peach Chicken – My tips for this recipe are 1) slice the onions very thin – I use my food processor’s slicing disc and 2) cook the chicken WITHOUT the peaches, then add the peaches in for the last 30 minutes
  • Pot Roast – Prep for this always takes me a while so I will probably start it the night before
  • Chicken Parmesan Burgers – I made these for the first time since 2016ish a few weeks ago when my burger-lover started asking for burgers. She liked it (with no sauce and cheese on the side) and asked to have them again. If you’ve never used ground chicken, these are worth a try!
  • Whole Chicken in the Slow Cooker – save some extra meat for chicken noodle soup
  • Spaghetti and Meatballs – As I have previously described, I make this sauce with these meatballs in my 7.25 quart Dutch oven. Basically, I start the sauce, then start the meatballs, and pop them into the pot after I broil them. I use all of the meat to make meatballs, instead of using some to make the sauce a meat sauce (doing this yields me about 32 meatballs instead of 16). It is time consuming but oh so good. I’ll be working on this on a weekend and then freezing the meatballs and sauce to use on a week night.

  Soups

  (Our 1-year-old eats what we eat, and she really likes soup. Feeding her with the spoon is hit or miss, because she likes to feed herself. Right now, one of my favorite ways to feed her soup is by dipping chunks of bread in the soup and letting her feed herself the soupy bread.)

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is still my kids’ favorite soup
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup
  • Chicken Noodle Soup
  • Winter Lentil Soup from Easy, Delicious Meals

  Pizza

  I haven’t made pizza in the longest time, not because I have stopped eating pizza, but because there is actually a really great pizza place nearby (Boston’s Pizza, if you are on Oahu). I think there is a 50/50 chance I will make pizza versus ordering some take out, we will see where the weeks take me. This is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad” pretty interchangeably, but my goal is to have a bunch of veggies at dinner every night, and especially a bunch of green veggies. I keep it vague on my menu plan and then usually look for the best looking, most reasonably priced stuff when I’m at the store.
  • Similarly, I have listed “bread” as a side dish several times, but depending on the night that might be homemade biscuits, an artisan loaf, buttermilk bread, cornbread, or even some Annie’s crescent rolls.

  Lunches

  • Adults – Some combination of leftovers, egg & cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies, hummus
  • Kids – PB&J sandwiches/crackers, mac&cheese, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies

  Breakfasts

  Cereal, yogurt, smoothies, fruit, oatmeal

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged beef, breakfast, burgers, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, salad, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian

• The Salads of Summer 2019

  Posted at 11:17 pm by Rachel, on October 6, 2019

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  My food goal for our summer road trip was to eat a salad for lunch or dinner every day. I wanted to do this mostly because it can be hard to eat enough vegetables when exclusively eating out, and not eating enough vegetables makes me feel gross. More simply, greens > fries.

  My husband surprised me by joining in my pursuit, which was great because it made choosing restaurants easier. Unfortunately I didn’t always remember to snap a picture before eating, but we ate a lot of salads from a wide range of places. Fast food salads, fast casual salads, room service salads, sit-down restaurant salads… we tried a bit of everything.

  I’m going to start out with the saddest salad I ate on the trip, this Chicken Caesar from the Embassy Suites in Birmingham, Alabama. When I say “sad salad,” I’m talking about that salad you pick up out of the refrigerated section of a gas station with limp, pale lettuce and like one tomato. If you have only ever eaten sad salads, I’m sorry. I don’t usually order Caesar salads because I think they frequently do lean towards being sad, but this was the only salad that room service offered during our stay. The chicken was decent and it did have some nice big parmesan shavings, but that lettuce was so limp and yellow. Sad.

  

  For comparison’s sake, here is another room service order from the Embassy Suites in Amarillo, Texas (I think this was called the “House Salad,” it was the most basic offering and I added chicken). Some nice lettuce goes a long way, and a couple more tomatoes, some croutons, and pickled onions don’t hurt either. I had pickled onions a few times on this trip – I’m not a raw-onions-on-salads person, but pickled onions were a welcomed addition.

  

  Really though, lack of toppings is not what makes a salad sad. The Simple Green Salad from St. Leo in Oxford, Mississippi lives up to its name, and it might be the happiest side salad I have ever eaten. Look at those greens! Quality over quantity, folks!

  

  We stopped at McDonald’s a few times because they are just about everywhere. It had been a while since I had been to a McDonald’s, so I don’t know when it happened, but apparently they updated their salad offerings. I was impressed by this one – the Bacon Ranch with Grilled Chicken – that I tried somewhere in Alabama. The chicken was still warm from the grill and everything else seemed really fresh too.

  

  I think that McDonald’s two biggest shortcomings are lack of variety (they only have two entree salads) and lack of consistency/availability. This salad – the Southwest Salad with Chicken – was from somewhere in rural Arkansas. That McDonald’s actually only had enough to make one salad, and as you can see they subbed in a lemon for the lime. It was still tasty and I am glad I caught the last salad, but definitely be aware of.

  

  The Spicy Southwest Salad (with grilled chicken) is the only salad I get from Chick fil A. There are two other salads on the menu that I have never ordered, which I guess means that I really like this one. It is kind of spicy, so if that’s not your thing then this is not for you. I’ve gotten this salad all over the place and it is *very* consistent.

  

  Of course we sampled just about every salad from Panera too. New-to-me salads I tried included the Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken, Modern Greek Salad with Quinoa, Southwest Chile Lime Ranch with Chicken, and the Strawberry Caprese Salad. The Green Goddess originally appealed to me because it is a cobb salad without blue cheese. As I previously mentioned, I was pleasantly surprised by the pickled red onions, but my favorite part is that they included like half of a large avocado. Avocado lovers know what a big deal that is! The only thing that would have made this better is a crunchy element, maybe some nuts. I suppose that isn’t part of a “true” cobb salad, but I think it would eliminate some of the mushiness that can happen with a cobb salad.

  

  I tried the Modern Greek Salad twice. The first time was a take-out order; I was very impressed by the size and quality of the take-out salad. I have heard people say that you get more when you dine-in, but that was not my experience. In fact, I think that the take-out salad was larger than the dine-in portion I had a couple of weeks later. The Modern Greek Salad is in the least expensive menu category – the same category as the Seasonal Greens, Caesar, and Greek Salads. In my opinion, it is much more substantial than the other “basic” salads and better suited to standing on its own for lunch or dinner, even without adding chicken. As I mentioned, my dine-in salad surprised me by being a bit smaller, but even then I wasn’t starving afterwards.

  

  

  The Southwest Chile Lime Ranch was my favorite “Southwest” salad from this trip, and maybe of all time. Everything about it is good, especially the plentiful and perfectly ripe avocado and the quinoa tomato sofrito blend. I am pretty sure than this is the same quinoa in the Modern Greek Salad, and although they are two very different salads, the quinoa is a chameleon that blended in seamlessly with both of them. This is one to recreate at home if you are looking to up your salad game! (I might do this in the near future but with the addition of beans.)

  

  Last up for Panera was the Strawberry Caprese. I love Caprese, and this felt like a fresh take on that salad without completely ruining a classic. Strawberries seem like the best fruit they could have chosen for the mash-up – I don’t think it would be as good with say, blueberries, but maybe a peach Caprese would work? Sadly I made the mistake of adding too much dressing and ended up with a borderline-soup situation… and I still ate the whole thing.

  

  The last two salads that I enjoyed on this trip are from smaller, local restaurants. In Albuquerque, we had the pleasure of finding Vinaigrette. This place is the stuff my wannabe-hipster dreams are made of. As you may have guessed from the name, Vinaigrette is a restaurant centered around beautiful, delicious, nutritious salads, and it is unlike any other restaurant I have eaten in. I was not expecting to love this place so much – I was in kind of a sour mood that day, and when we arrived to the restaurant the hostess looked at our three kids, gave us a less than welcoming look, and then set a place at the table with a regular chair (as opposed to a high chair) for our 9-month-old. It was not looking promising. Fortunately for us, our waitress was great (she even brought us a high chair).

  There were so many tempting options on the menu, but I decided on The Beet Goes On with Grilled Marinated Baby Artichokes. This is another excellent example of a relatively simple yet powerful salad – it’s just greens, goat cheese, pistachios, beets, vinaigrette, and artichokes. When I say powerful, I mean that it was absolutely fantastic. I still daydream about this salad (not joking) and I when I get an oven again I absolutely plan to try to recreate this positively magical food. I was surprised by a couple of things. First, it was actually a lot bigger than I anticipated. Second, the artichokes specifically were a lot bigger than I expected – the word “baby” had me thinking they would be teeny tiny. I don’t think I have ever purchased fresh artichokes, so that may just be my lack of experience showing.

  

  My husband ordered the Reuben with a side of the Omega, which turned out to be a gorgeous and generously portioned side salad. In case you are wondering, we ordered a mac & cheese for the kids. They did not eat any of the mac & cheese, but they did eat the sliced fruit and veggies that came with it. I wish that we could have ordered more raw fruit and veggies a la carte (that might actually be an option, we did not ask, but it is not on the menu). They also ate the bread that we requested for the table. They did not eat the side of roasted vegetables that we attempted to feed them.

  

  We visited the Albuquerque restaurant, but Vinaigrette has other locations in Santa Fe and Austin, Texas. I wholeheartedly recommend stopping in, or if you are miles away like I am, check out their menu online for a treasure trove of salad inspiration.

  The last stop on our trip was San Diego, where we sampled some of Bread and Cie‘s offerings. I think we chose Bread and Cie because we wanted some baked goods and they had excellent reviews, but I wanted to eat a salad before indulging. I deliberated between the Chicken Papaya and Cranberry Goat Cheese salads, and ended up going with the Cranberry Goat Cheese. It was exactly as advertised. Not a groundbreaking salad, but a solid performer and it got the job done before I ate some sweets. I probably wouldn’t seek out Bread and Cie just for salad, but it is a good option if you are there anyway.

  

  Overall, I am really pleased with how my salad challenge turned out. I felt so much better eating this way than how I have eaten on road trips in the past, and just reminding myself of that made it relatively easy to stay on track. Right now I make a big salad for dinner about once a week, and hopefully I can do some more at lunch time soon too. I have probably mentioned before that restaurant salads are where all of my salad for dinner ideas come from, and thankfully this trip has left me with plenty of inspiration to freshen things up for the next few months.

  Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged Dinner, inspiration, lunch, restaurant review, salad

• Oxford, MS

  Posted at 3:00 pm by Rachel, on September 22, 2019

  My family recently drove cross-country en route to Hawaii. Many years ago, my grandmother told me that she had visited all 50 states (twice!). I admittedly have a touch of wanderlust, but I was so impressed by my grandmother’s travels that I made a goal to visit all 50 states. Everyone has different criteria for what constitutes a “visit;” for me, it means actually spending some time doing something there, even if it’s not overnight.

  We tried to stop and see as many states as we could as we headed west. Now, my husband and I have lived in Alabama three times, and while we did a fair bit of traveling around the area while we were there, we never visited Mississippi! Natchez always intrigued us with its beautiful historic mansions, but it was not close enough for a long weekend trip, and taking vacation days to visit Mississippi was not appealing. Natchez was not along the route we took, so we decided to stop in Oxford. The main reasons for stopping in Oxford were because it was along the general route we were taking and there were places to stay, so let it suffice to say that I had VERY low expectations for this stop. As we pulled into our AirBnB, everything seemed pretty humdrum. Then we went out to find dinner… You guys, Oxford is BEAUTIFUL and a total food destination! My jaw literally dropped driving through the Square and past all of the historic homes on North Lamar Boulevard. I actually wish we had more time there to explore and eat!

  If you are passing through the area, it is totally worth a stop. We spent a lot of time that Sunday just walking around the Square (Square Books and Square Books, Jr. were a treat) and walking around the Ole Miss campus. It is still Mississippi, so a number of eateries are closed on Sundays, but on the bright side, Sunday parking is free.

  Here are a few places we tried that I would recommend:

  1) Snackbar

  We were headed over to the Oxford Canteen – and pretty excited for it – but when we got there it looked closed. I spotted the Snackbar across the street and it had really good reviews, so we decided to give it a try. The menu and prices gave me the impression that this was a fancier place, so I sent my husband inside to order some takeout (he ordered at the bar). Considering that 2 of 3 kids were asleep in their car seats by the time we parked, and most of the people inside did not have kids with them, I think it was the right choice :D.

  We ordered a Tomato Stack, a Monte Cristo sandwich, a Fried Catfish sandwich, and a grilled peach (my first choice was the Suman but they did not have this option at the time).

  

  I thought my kids would eat the Tomato Stack, and I was completely wrong. I was actually really surprised by what this was – it really is stacked up in a neat little tomato, soft cheese spread, and bread tower. It was not at all like a caprese salad (this was clearly a reading comprehension fail on my part) and is not easy to separate out the different components. We ended up feeding our kids some odds and ends we had from stopping at Trader Joe’s earlier in the day, so it’s not like they starved, but I just want to be clear that unless your kids like some seriously bougie food, you might want to find them something else. In the end we were glad to have our Tomato Stack as it was arguably the best item we ordered. The tomatoes were as ripe and red as I have ever seen, and the sourdough bread was like a giant crouton, but not as hard to bite through.

  

  I had the Monte Cristo sandwich, although I did surrender a couple of bites to my 3-year-old and husband. It was very well executed – my favorite component was the challah bread – although I don’t think there was anything out of the ordinary about this sandwich.

  

  My husband had the Fried Catfish. He reports that it was rather plain and he liked both my sandwich and the tomato stack more.

  There are two types of french fries at the Snackbar and we tried both kinds. One was covered in parmesan and was quite savory. I ate them plain and also dipped in the mustard that came with the Monte Cristo. The other fries were a bit spicy, but not unbearably so. I ate those ones plain, but my husband dipped them in the mustard too.

  

  Last up was the grilled peach. I started laughing when I opened the box for this because it was literally half of a single peach! For the price I thought that we would get at least one whole peach. Cost aside, the whipped goat cheese was very interesting and it played nicely off of the sweet brown butter sauce. I didn’t taste pecan in the pecan crumble, but it did add a nice crunch to every bite.

  If we went back, I would want to try more of the small plates and desserts, and I might just make an entire meal of those items. Maybe that’s why it’s called the Snackbar?

  2) Uptown Coffee

  We headed here after mass on Sunday morning. I ordered a regular 16 ounce iced latte (pretty sure that this is a “mom drink” now but whatever, I’m a mom) and a couple of chocolate milks (also about 16 ounces each) for the kids. Everything was very reasonably priced, I think it was like $7 total. The baristas were friendly and gave my kids the “fun” green straws for their drinks. My kids let me sample their milk; it was very chocolatey, which is really all that matters with chocolate milk. My latte tasted different than other lattes I have had of late, I still cannot put my finger on why, so I’ll just chalk it up to whatever locally roasted beans they used. Not the strongest coffee I’ve ever had, but it was still a solid cup of coffee, and very refreshing as we strolled around in the Mississippi-in-August heat. If coffee isn’t your thing, they had a big tea selection and some very tempting cakes and pastries too.

  

  3) Saint Leo

  I loved everything we ordered from Saint Leo. We ordered the large size Simple Green Salad, a Prosciutto, Arugula, & Mozzarella Pizza, and a Margherita Pizza.

  

  The Simple Green Salad is the quintessential example of elevating basic ingredients. It was just three components – bibb lettuce, radish, and lemon vinaigrette – and they were all perfect. Seriously. The lettuce was the best lettuce I have ever seen in a restaurant – not wilting, not soggy, just bright green with a great texture. The jewel-like purpley-pink radishes really popped against the lettuce – I didn’t know that radishes could be so big! The vinaigrette was intensely lemon in the best way. I appreciate that they put it on the side because I for one am not a fan of salad soup. We ordered the smaller size and had enough for 2 very generous servings (I think 3 people could easily share this salad).

  

  

  I generally don’t like gambling with new-to-me pizza places because I love pizza so so so much and bad pizza makes me alternately sad and angry. Maybe I am just less critical of it, but Neapolitan pizza seems to be a pretty safe bet. These pizzas had a flavorful crust and classic toppings.

  I know that Oxford is not completely unknown or even overlooked – it is actually featured in 36 Hours and it does have Ole Miss, after all. This visit still felt like stumbling upon hidden treasure. If you love small cities and college towns, Oxford is definitely worth a visit!

  Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment | Tagged coffee, pizza, restaurant review, salad, travel

• My June Menu Plan

  Posted at 9:34 pm by Rachel, on June 1, 2019

  Happy June! This is my last monthly menu plan for a while – we are moving in August so I will be spending July trying to use up the odds and ends in the pantry and using shorter-term planning to really hone in on what I already have. I usually do grocery shopping once a week, but last month I planned ahead and purchased all of our meat the beginning of the month. I really liked doing one meat prep, pre-cooking and portioning chicken for salads, chopping, and otherwise just making prep work easier for the rest of the month. I don’t know why I haven’t been doing this all along with these monthly meal plans, because it did make dinner time go very smoothly all month long. All that to say, I was just at the store yesterday and I did the same thing.

  I picked up two cookbooks from the library this month – Thug Kitchen, which is all plant-based/vegan, and You Have It Made. I borrowed You Have It Made a few months ago, so I already knew that it had more recipes that I wanted to try. Most specifically I wanted to take a look at the salads because she puts together some really interesting ones. I picked up Thug Kitchen to take a look at making my own vegetable broth (super simple, by the way), and ended up bookmarking at least two dozen recipes with post its. I am trying several recipes from each book this month before returning them to the library.

  

  Slow Cooker

  • Whole chicken in the slow cooker with hummus, pita, and raw veggies (cucumbers,  bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and olives) – Sometimes I just buy a rotisserie chicken and BAM – a healthy, no cook dinner. Making my own chicken this time means a little more meat leftover for chicken soup this week and chicken, broccoli, & rice later in the month.
  • Slow cooker maple & dijon pot roast – It’s been a few months since I’ve made this one! I’m going to prep the night before so I can just turn on the slow cooker in the morning. This recipe suggests serving with grits, and yeah, that is really tasty, so I also recommend grits if you have the time (I use this recipe, which is actually for polenta, but hey, it’s still creamy cornmeal). If I’m short on time I’ll pull out some egg noodles.
  • Maple mustard chicken thighs – prepping this one for the freezer! I have made chicken thighs in my slow cooker using the maple mustard and sweet and sour marinades from this list and both came out great! Cook boneless skinless chicken thighs for 4-6 hours on low.
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is a family favorite that always turns out excellent.
  • Rosemary chicken thighs

  Stovetop

  • Chicken noodle soup – It’s only going to be in the 80s here this week; that’s soup weather, right? 😉 But seriously, don’t let the bones go to waste!
  • BBQ bean burritos with grilled peach salsa from Thug Kitchen – Reviewing this recipe, it is really 3 recipes in one – rice, salsa, and finally burritos – so there will be some decent prep work involved. Hopefully it will all pay off!
  • Chicken, broccoli, and rice – I make a deconstructed version of the classic casserole, but with a lot more broccoli and probably a bit less chicken.
  • Beef tacos with pineapple guacamole from Thug Kitchen – Now that I am writing this, I can see the irony of pairing beefy tacos with a recipe from a vegan cookbook…

  Eggs

  Last month I made the broccoli cheddar quiche from You Have It Made, although due to some menu shuffling it ended up being a breakfast item instead of dinner. I don’t have anything special planned for egg nights this month, just our basic scramble with lots of veggies!

  Salads

  • Layered farro salad with kale, feta, and grapes from You Have It Made 
  • Berry chicken poppy seed salad – Last month I made this with the dressing from this recipe. I’ve made it a few times before and it is fine, but I am pretty sure we have some of this poppy seed dressing lying around, and it goes really well with this salad too.
  • Red cabbage & kale salad from You Have It Made – I’m adding some baked chicken breast to this one, and will probably substitute pepitas for sunflower seeds because I have a bunch.
  • Southwestern salad – As I have said before, I make different variations of this recipe with black beans, pinto beans, corn, avocado, tomatoes, and salad greens. Last time I added some cheese, and completely forgot about the pepitas. Don’t worry, pepitas, I’m still coming for you. The cilantro-lime vinaigrette I made last month was good, but this time I really might just squeeze some lime on top and call it a day.

  Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.

  Pasta

  • Grilled eggplant with soba noodles from Thug Kitchen – I usually think of pasta night being more Italian-influenced dinners, but really why not throw in some Asian noodles to mix things up? I couldn’t find soba noodles at the commissary, so I ventured out to Earth Fare today to get some. I’m going to try cooking the eggplant under the broiler because I don’t have a grill and I’ve broiled eggplant a couple of times now. Overall this seems like it should be a quick and easy recipe.
  • Lemony broccoli pasta – Fast to make and my kids love the “worms”! I know I have said it before, but my kids will eat this as is – pasta and broccoli being mixed together, with lemon and all. That is a big deal around here!
  • Pasta with pesto
  • Fettuccini with vegetable bolognese from You Have It Made – There is no meat in this recipe, and I could not be more excited to try it.
  • Fast and Easy Pasta with Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce – My favorite, super fast sauce. Remember to dry the tomatoes on a towel after you rinse them to stop them from exploding all over your kitchen.
  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 4 Comments | Tagged beef, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, salad, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian

• My May Menu Plan

  Posted at 10:04 pm by Rachel, on May 1, 2019

  Well, April got away from me and between Easter and everything else, I didn’t get to make a couple of the recipes on my last menu plan. But that’s just life, isn’t it? So I moved the recipes that we did not get to eat right onto my May menu. A couple of other recipes are repeats just because we like them.

  There are some special days this month, too! I think I will make a special dessert for Memorial Day, perhaps this flag pie or another berry dessert. And I’ve never tried chocolate covered bananas, and what better day to try than Cinco de Cuatro?

  

  Slow Cooker

  • Maple Jalapeño Pulled Pork Tacos – I don’t usually make pork other than bacon but these look good and super easy.
  • Sweet and Sour Chicken Thighs – Last month I used the Maple Mustard marinade from this list to make slow cooker chicken thighs and it was amazing – I think that was the most chicken I have ever seen my 4-year-old eat in one sitting! Now I’m wanting to try every marinade from this list.
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is a family favorite that always turns out excellent.
  • Huli Huli Chicken from The Complete Slow Cooker – Another family favorite! The juice from a can of pineapple slices is about the amount you need to make the sauce, and the pineapple slices make a beautiful accompaniment to the chicken.

  Eggs

  I never got around to making the quick quiche from Ellie Krieger’s You Have It Made last month, so that is still on my list for one night in May.

  Sandwiches

  • Quesadillas – I will be filling things with bits of whatever food is left in my fridge, probably some of the pork from the Maple Jalapeño Pulled Pork Tacos, or plain cheese for my kids. If you need some serious quesadilla inspiration, check out Budget Bytes (Beth is the queen of quesadillas as far as I am concerned) or these caramelized onion, spinach, and avocado quesadillas.
  • Grilled cheese
  • Mayonnaise-Free Chicken Salad Sandwiches – I saw this recipe in an email newsletter a few years back and I still reach for it when I want to make chicken salad. I usually bake a bunch of chicken breasts for all of my dinner salads and anything else that calls for cooked chicken at once.
  • Cantaloupe Soup with Prosciutto and Mozzarella Sandwiches from Real Simple: Meals Made Easy – I’ve made these sandwiches with the prosciutto cold and also cooked in a frying pan, both ways are great. The cantaloupe soup might seem unusual – or at least I have never seen it before – but it is worth a try.

  Salads/Bowl Meals

  • Southwest salad – I make different variations of this recipe, but the general formula is black beans, pinto beans, corn, avocado, tomatoes, and salad greens. I have some pepitas in the pantry, so I will probably toss some of those on top. This recipe for a cilantro-lime vinaigrette looks promising.
  • Cobb salad – I guess what I make is not a true cobb salad, because I don’t use blue cheese. My recipe is chicken, hard boiled eggs, bacon, tomatoes, avocado, salad greens, and either cheddar or jack cheese. I think I have everything on hand to make the salad dressing from this recipe.
  • Almond, Berry, and Chicken Spinach Salad – I’m pretty sure that this is my kids’ favorite salad; they love all the berries and the mandarin oranges!
  • Asian chicken salad – This was one of our favorites from last summer. The toppings make the salad!

  Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.

  Stovetop

  • Veggie Stir-Fry – So many vegetables, so many textures. The baby corn is my favorite – it’s just so cute. I’m pretty sure my kids ate this one even with the sauce last time.
  • Vegetable soup made from homemade vegetable broth – I have a big bag of veggie scraps in my freezer that I am going to try to turn into broth for soup. I have made chicken broth many times, but I have yet to try making vegetable broth! I read somewhere that the rind from a piece of parmesan is a great addition to vegetable broth, and I’m pretty sure I have one of those floating around my freezer too. A friend suggested I check out the vegetable broth recipe from Thug Kitchen, and it looks like that book is at my library!
  • Orange chicken – This is one that I didn’t get to make last month! I still plan to make the sauce and cut up the chicken ahead of time, and will probably try to make it in my wok.
  • Fast and Easy Pasta with Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce – My favorite, super fast sauce. Make sure you dry the tomatoes on a towel after you rinse them, or you will be dealing with some serious fireworks in your frying pan.
  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 1 Comment | Tagged chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Menu plan, salad, sandwich, slow cooker, soup, vegetarian

• My April Menu Plan

  Posted at 8:00 am by Rachel, on March 31, 2019

  My kids keep reminding me that April will be here on Monday! And Easter is in April! All that to say that we are very excited for April. Here in Georgia, things are finally heating up, so I’m starting to pull out some of my favorite warm weather foods. I’m looking at you, dinner salads! I tried to keep the meals pretty simple for this month, so there is a lot of low-prep, make ahead, and some store-bought favorites.

  I still haven’t finalized an Easter menu yet. A couple of years ago I made Easter Dinner on Two Sheet Pans, and while it was a very satisfying meal, we really enjoyed our Christmas meal of appetizers and sides. Ahh, decisions! Either way, I’ll be making another lamb cake, and maybe some other sweet things since we like sweet things.

  

  Sandwiches

  My kids have trouble eating most sandwiches beyond a PB&J or grilled cheese – it is hard for their little hands to hold it all together! I usually serve them the sandwich components on a plate – it keeps them happy and is just easier for everyone.

  As with all recipes, if you want great results, start with high quality ingredients. Don’t skimp on the bread! I’m serving these up with oven fries – probably going to alternate between Russets and sweet potatoes, throw some different seasonings on them – these look pretty tasty.

  • Caprese sandwiches – fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil, and a balsamic reduction on some good bread
  • Black bean burgers – It’s been a while since the last time I made these. I am guessing that at least one of my kids will not want to eat the black bean patty, so I’m going to reserve some plain, unmashed black beans for them just in case.
  • Roasted Sweet Potato Wraps with Caramelized Onions and Pesto – These are SO GOOD and they freeze phenomenally. Even better, my local Target now carries Simply Balanced tortillas (no hydrogenated oils!).
  • BLTs

  Eggs

  Eggs are moving to Mondays for April! These are a great, easy meal, so perfect for a weeknight. I want to make the quick quiche from Ellie Krieger’s You Have It Made one night. It is nice to change things up from time to time and this was a solid recipe.

  Pasta

  I’m keeping things fast and easy this month. All of these pastas are easily served with or without sauce, and two of them (bowties with pesto and tortellini with red sauce) I’m just going to buy at the grocery store. My sometimes picky eaters will eat the Lemony Broccoli Pasta without modifications and sometimes like to dip their pasta in the sauce.

  • Penne with Arrabbiata Sauce
  • Lemony Broccoli Pasta
  • Fast and Easy Pasta with Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce – If you’ve never tried making a homemade tomato sauce, this is an excellent recipe to start with! It is so easy but still so flavorful. One or two times and you’ll be able to make it by heart.
  • Bowties with pesto
  • Tortellini with red sauce

  Meat

  • Maple mustard chicken thighs – Already prepped and in my freezer! I’m going to try these in my slow cooker.
  • Slow Cooker Shredded Balsamic Beef – I always like to try new slow cooker recipes, and I thought that this one sounded pretty good. I want to sear the meat before putting it in the slow cooker, and other than that I’ll follow the recipe as written.
  • Huli Huli Chicken from The Complete Slow Cooker – My husband has requested this again! It’s so good and the leg quarters look so impressive when they come out from under the broiler. I’m no grilling expert, but I suspect you could finish this up on the grill instead of using the broiler.
  • Orange chicken – I plan to make the sauce and cut up the chicken ahead of time and stick them in the fridge until dinner – just a bit more manageable than trying to get it all done at dinnertime. I might try making it in my wok this time.

  Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.

  Salads/Bowl Meals

  • Polenta with roasted veggies and pesto –  I’m linking this recipe so you can get the general idea and see a picture of what the end result looks like. The pesto and polenta recipes they include are probably great, but I have not tried them – I simplify a bit by using store-bought pesto and this polenta recipe. Also, tomatoes and zucchini are delicious, but feel free to sub in whatever veggies you like.
  • Greek salad with broccoli and sundried tomatoes – This looks like less prep work than my previous go-to Greek dinner salad, and it has sundried tomatoes, which we recently rediscovered at a friend’s house.
  • Southwest salad
  • Asian chicken salad

   

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged beef, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Lent, Menu plan, pasta, salad, sandwich, soup, vegetarian

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