Thursday, December 29, 2011

Helpful Site: ingredientcritic.com

I was looking for some nutrition info on parsnips and came across this site:

Ingredient Critic
http://ingredientcritic.com/spicy-healthy-crunchy-parsnips

Helpful!  I still want a more basic breakdown of the numbers (sugars, carbs, protein, etc) but there is some helpful info here, particularly if I'm venturing into cooking with a completely new ingredient, like when we had the CSA and I had kohlrabi staring me in the face for the first time (scary!)

Meals: 29 December-14 January

We are still in the odd scheduling of the holidays, so I'm doing a bunch of meal planning all at once.  I haven't been great about sticking to the plans, but I still find it helpful to chart something out so that I have a plan in case we end up staying in.  I've been shopping every few days so that I don't have a produce overstock issue.

Tonight
Tim has a band practice and I'm out with my grandparents in the afternoon... it might be a pizza night.  We'll see if I come up with anything before then.

Friday
Burgerville :)

Saturday
Chicken Caesar Salad

Sunday
Scramble - We are going to a wedding!!  I'm planning a light, easy dinner, since it's an early evening wedding and we'll be having CAKE before dinner.  :)

2-14 January 2012
2012.  Gulp.  :)  I want to get this planned out so that I can get some shopping done, but our schedules are busy enough that I'm not going map it out to the day.  I'm just making a list of some meal thoughts and I'll shop as necessary.

- Slow-Cooker Vegetable Stew (new recipe!)

- Taco Salad

- Ham, Cottage Cheese, Pickles, Bell Peppers

- Salmon, Tomato Salad, Cranberry Sauce

- Steak Quesadillas

- Tilapia, Steamed Asparagus, Cheddar Cheese

There are definitely some holes in there, but it feels good to have a frame set up for the majority of the meals.  My Sam the Cooking Guy books are overdue to the library, so I'll be copying some of those recipes down and hopefully getting some of those into rotation soon.

How do you approach the post-holiday food planning?  Do you just naturally fall back into a great rhythm, or does it take a while to break that food cravings?  Leave me a comment with any suggestions you have for making this go smoothly.

Happy Holidays!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Meals: 18-25 December

Holiday food!  I'm already starting to feel like I might need to eat something other than cookies to give my body a break.  I am inclined to make meals that are very simple to counteract the richness of holiday foods.  Here's what I have sketched out for next week:

Sunday
Peanut chicken with sprouts and veggies - it's kind of like a Thai stir-fry that I like to throw together.  It's very simple.

Monday
Tilapia, bell pepper slices, string cheese

Tuesday
Advent devotions - we'll have dinner with my grandparents

Wednesday
Community Group - I don't know yet what is on the menu.  Last week we had an amazing spread of stir-fry dishes, sushi, and fried rice.

Thursday
Winter Fritatta (new recipe!) and I'm going to try making Pumpkin Parfaits ... we'll see!

Friday
Pizza quesadilla

Saturday - Christmas Eve
Tim and Sophie and I will be going with my grandpa to serve a meal at a homeless shelter.  We'll probably make a big batch of stew and we'll eat dinner with my grandparents before we take the stew downtown.

Sunday - Christmas Day
I don't know precisely what is on the menu, but no one goes hungry at Grandma's!  My guess is we'll have a bit meal around 2:00P and dinner will be something light (like sandwiches).

I'm thinking of making breakfast burritos on Christmas morning.  I would love to make cinnamon rolls or something festive like that, but I'm thinking by that point in our week we might need a break from the sugar.  Maybe I'll do cinnamon rolls to celebrate the first day of Tim's Christmas break.

What holiday food traditions do you have?  Do you have a classic turkey dinner on Christmas?  Is there a special breakfast that you prepare, or a special cookie that you know you will make every year?  Leave me a comment with your food celebrations.

Merry Christmas!!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Meals: 13-17 December

I'm sitting down again to plan a week of meals and realizing that this will be fairly easy for a few reasons:

1. The week is almost half over already!

2. We are again so busy that there aren't really that many at-home meals to plan.

3. We just went to Trader Joe's and explored the frozen foods section together, so I always have Palak Paneer as a great backup plan.

So it's quick, simple, and no real pressure.  Love it.  Here are the meals:

Tuesday
Advent!  Dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's (I heard a rumor of soup and sandwiches).

Wednesday
Community Group - I signed up to bring steamed rice, iced tea, and ginger-pork-apple stir-fry.

Thursday
Tim's busy and Sophie and I are headed to a bridal shower.  Sophie and I will probably have something in the late afternoon - something like pinto beans and green beans and jelly beans!  (just kidding about the jelly beans.)

Friday
Christmas party

Saturday
Chicken Chili - a new recipe I'm trying from "Sam the Cooking Guy"  We'll see how it goes.  I bought some chicken thighs at Costco because they were cheaper, and I'm missing my all-white meat tenders.  I'm planning soups and quesadillas and such to use up the thighs and then go back to my favorite (albeit expensive) tenders.

Stay tuned for next weeks meals.  That post is due tomorrow.  I should probably start working now to get a running start.