Weekly Meal Planning for February 28 - March 5

We start tiptoeing into our crazy spring sports schedule this week, with next week being the big dive-in headfirst. We are also enjoying some milder temperatures so I am anxious to start adding lighter meals and grilled meats to the menu. 

Sunday: Greek marinated grilled chicken breasts and flank steak, Greek seasoned potatoes, Greek salad 

Monday: black bean nachos (quick meal before softball practice)

Tuesday: leftovers to make gyro tacos 

Wednesday: grilled cheese and tomato soup 

Thursday: mezza - grilled haloumi, cucumbers, hummus, olives, labne, pita

Friday: dinner plans at church

Saturday: out to dinner before a show 

Weekly Meal Planning for February 21 - February 27

It's a dreary Sunday and it's going to be a dreary week. There are also two softball practices scheduled this week, though given the forecast, they will likely be canceled. I will have to reevaluate the plan if they don't get canceled, at least for Monday! 

Sunday: kubba in lemony tomato sauce (similar to this recipe), spinach salad with carrots, raisins, and cashews 

Monday: broiled salmon, roasted golden beets and cauliflower, steamed asparagus 

Tuesday: black bean and zucchini quesadillas 

Wednesday: sausage and peppers with Parmesan grits

Thursday: breaded chicken cutlets, peas, Mac n cheese 

Friday: crustless quiches: broccoli and spinach

Saturday: grilled chicken and veggies, Greek salad

Weekly Meal Planning for February 14 - February 20

Well the groundhog is a liar, it seems. This is not spring. It is freezing! It's cold enough this weekend for outdoor sports practices to be canceled. So, back to comfort meals, I guess. For Valentine's Day, we are having a cozy, early dinner at home. The rest of the week will be usual and chaotic but because of the President's Day holiday on Monday, we have a short week!

Sunday: mussels in white wine broth, linguine, kale salad

Monday: spinach & mushroom lasagna 

Tuesday: ground beef tacos/nachos, guacamole, black beans 

Wednesday: leftover lasagna and salad

Thursday: lentil soup, tabouli

Friday: out to dinner 

Saturday: BLTs

What's on your Valentine's menu?

Recipe: Heart-Shaped Chocolate Graham Cookies

We spent Friday afternoon in and out of a friend's house between errands and various children's activities. They offered up a nice spread of snacks for the kids, which included these graham crackers. My friend told me how easy they are to make, and I decided I needed to try to make them for my youngest's Valentine's Party today. So, we made Monday our baking day (she isn't in school) and tried the chocolate graham recipe from the same website. We used two cookie cutters - heart shaped for the class, and dove shaped for us to have at home. I halved the recipe because of a lack of all purpose flour (and still the ratio was a little more towards whole wheat flour) but the initial taste testing by the 4-year old was followed by very positive feedback! If you use smaller cookie cutters, this recipe makes 14 dozen! Since ours were on the larger side, we got two dozen out of the halved recipe.

Here's the recipe we used from weelicious:

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, chilled & cubed
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup water
• 
  

• Preparation

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. 2. In a food processor or mixer combine the first 7 ingredients.
3. 3. Add butter to the mix and pulse/mix until it resembles coarse meal.
4. 4. Add honey and water and continue to mix until it all combines.
5. 5. Remove and shape the dough into a flat disk and place between two pieces of parchment paper.
6. 6. Roll dough out until it is 1/4 inch thick. Cut into crackers or shapes with cookie cutters.*
7. 7. Place cookies on a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
8. 8. Cool and serve.
10. * To Freeze: After step 6, place cut-out cookie shapes on a baking sheet and freeze for 20 minutes. Remove, place in a Ziploc bag, label and freeze for up to 4 months. When ready to bake, follow steps 7-8, adding an additional 1-2 minutes baking time.

Cutting dove cookies

Imperfectly perfect.

Weekly Meal Planning for February 7 - February 13

Happy morning-after-superbowl! We did not make it very long last night. We went to a pre-Superbowl party at my sister's and left before kickoff! This week has snuck up on me after being on a Girl Scout camping trip all weekend and having softball evaluations for my oldest yesterday afternoon before our pre-party. Whew! So I'm throwing some things together. Thankfully my farm box came early this morning so I know I have some good stuff in there.

Sunday: wings, raw veggies, corndog muffins, layer dip
Monday: Asian salmon and bok choy rice bowl (inspired by that recipe but not exact - Happy Chinese New Year!)
Tuesday: chicken taco soup
Ash Wednesday: lentil sloppy joes
Thursday: leftover soup
Friday: leftover sloppy joes
Saturday: not sure yet

Star fruit

My kids picked it a star fruit at the farmers market last week. No, they're not in season. But I let them grab it anyway. It's so pretty! When it's sliced up, the pieces look like tiny star fish. It has a very mild, sweet taste and is relatively juicy but not as juicy as a citrus or melon variety of fruit. Try it and let me know what you think!