weekly eating 10/25 - 10/31

Kinda a crazy week and I didn't update each day like I've done for the last two posts. Soooo, I don't quite remember our lunches. It was most likely tortillas with cheese or pb&j with fruit and vegetables for the kids and salads of some sort for me.

Sunday - Pumpkin Waffles and fruit

Monday - Pinto beans & rice, corn muffins

Tuesday - pancakes (with a bit of pumpkin stirred in) and fruit

I topped mine with chocolate coconut butter - heavenly!

Wednesday - I made this white bean, ham, corn, potato and carrot soup again. My little girl ate 4 bowls and kept saying it was the best soup I make. I served it with a loaf of bread.

Thursday - Bree's Lentil Soup. Such a good recipe.

Friday - Sunday- My in-laws were in town and we ate out a lot. I did make pumpkin scones again, as well as a couple of new recipes, like sweet potato chickpea burgers.

Weekly Eating 10/16 - 10/24

Saturday

lunch: at California Pizza Kitchen (eating out is a separate budget for us)

dinner: black bean burgers - new recipe for me to try - pretty good

although they look like cow patties.....

Sunday

lunch: Kids and Husband had Taco Cabana breakfast tacos, I had collard wraps

dinner: Penne with Tomato Cream Sauce - sorry, no picture

Monday

lunch: kids had black bean and cheese tortillas, almonds, triscuits, mangos, cucumbers, celery. I had a green smoothie, some nuts and mango

dinner: BLTs with the rest of the bacon I bought last week. This was the first time I tried Applegate Farms (thanks to a coupon). I usually buy the Hormel Nitrite Free version, but really liked this one. I also made baked potato chips and the kids devoured them. I'll be making them again soon.

Tuesday

lunch: Chick-Fil-A with a friend

dinner: Black Bean Soup, tortilla chips and fruit

Wednesday

lunch: Kids had turkey, cheese, cucumbers, grapes and red peppers. I had a big salad with a jalapeno tahini dressing.

dinner: Buttermilk Pancakes (I make a half recipe) and fruit. My little guy ate more than my daughter and I combined and woke up Thurs morning asking for more.

Thursday

lunch: muffin tin lunch for the kids,a big salad for me, actually 2, I was hungry.

dinner: Vegetable Soup - a kind of clean out the fridge soup - this one had celery, kale, onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes and diced potatoes - and bread. I intended to make bread bowls, but the bread turned out rather flat and would be not much of a bowl. :)

I ended up forgetting that I had the soup on heat and left to go to the playground with the kids. When we got back, the soup had almost no liquid left and ended up tasting like pot roast vegetables - not the greatest. The husband and I ate it, but the kids pretty much ate bread, butter and fruit for dinner. Not a great night. I drowned my sorrows in a 2nd dinner of steel cut oats with bananas (cooked in) and chocolate.

Friday - Saturday

Friday lunch - Kids had PB& J, peanuts, cashews, cucumbers, grapes and carrots. I had another salad with the jalapeno tahini dressing.

My folks were in town, so we ate out for most meals. I did make a batch of pumpkin scones. These are so good. Make them!!!

Pumpkin Scones

I started with this recipe and, well, de-veganised it. Not because I have anything against the vegan version, but because I didn't have any vegan butter spread on hand.

Pumpkin Scones

1/4 c milk

1/2 c pumpkin

1 t lemon juice

1 c whole wheat flour

1 c white flour

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 c sugar

1.5 t baking powder

1/4 t cream of tartar

1/2 t salt

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1/4 t ginger

1/2 c butter, chilled

Preheat oven to 350

1. Mix together milk, lemon juice and pumpkin. Set aside

2. Mix all dry ingredients together. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter until thoroughly incorporated.

3. Mix in wet ingredients - batter will be very thick and dry.

4. Knead lightly and form into a circle.

5. Cut into 8 wedges and carefully place each wedge on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

6. When cool, glaze with the following two glazes:

Sugar Glaze

1/2 c powdered sugar

1 Tbsp milk

Spice Glaze

1/2 c powdered sugar

1/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

1/4 t ginger

1 Tbsp milk

Often times I leave out the glaze in cookie and muffin recipes, but this recipe needs the glaze. The scones aren't very sweet on their own and the glaze add just the right amount of sweetness.

Budget Eating - 10/11-10/15

Monday

my lunch - sprouted quinoa and grape salad (recipe link to my raw food blog)

kid's lunch - randomness: boiled eggs, cucumbers, pumpkin bread, celery, red peppers, cashews and apples. This is pretty much how and what they eat every day.

dinner - Oven Baked Lentils and Rice with Bread Machine Butter Rolls.

Tuesday

my lunch - more sprouted quinoa, this time over greens and without grapes (sadly was out of grapes)

kid's lunch - like Monday.

dinner - pasta from a box and sauce from a jar. No picture - just pretend you are seeing Barilla Plus rotini with Bertolli Olive Oil and Garlic jarred sauce.

Wednesday

my lunch - raw 'pizza'

kid's lunch - more randomness: sliced turkey (costco), boiled egg for the girl, cucumbers, celery, peppers, carrots, apples and go-gurt

dinner- Black Bean tacos and fruit

Thursday

my lunch - raw 'pizza' again

kid's lunch - McDonalds drive through eaten at the park: hamburger for each and split a small fry. Keeping it real. :)

dinner- Eggs, Bacon, Fruit and Bread/Toast

Friday

my lunch - collard wraps

kid's lunch - black bean & cheese quesadillas, strawberries, cucumbers, carrots and celery

dinner- Chicken Pot Pie (frozen from this day of cooking) and fruit

Budget Eating - 10/8 - 10/10

Friday

Wontons (from costco) in soup for the husband and me (sliced up green onions, red pepper and bok choy and simmered with the frozen wontons in chicken stock and water). I pan sauteed some wontons for the kids.

Saturday

I was inspired by this vegan version on Peas and Thank You. My version is not vegan. I used the whole wheat pretzel recipe from my bread maker manual and some frozen Coleman Organic hot dogs from Costco. My son, who would live on junk if I let him, ate the hot dog out. My daughter, who likes junk but also good stuff, ate only the bread. Jack Sprat, I tell you.

kids plate - yogurt dip, fruit, veggie, pretzel dog (on a stick!), cheese

my plate

Sunday

lunch - black bean and salsa quinoa 3 ways using some frozen black beans

Kids had the quinoa, some black bean nachos and a black bean and cheese quesadilla:

I had the quinoa atop greens with some crushed up tortilla chips and diced avocado:

Husband had quinoa with avocado, more salsa and tortilla chips:

Dinner

Out of a box for the kids - we love Annie! My daughter ate a couple of bites and then told me she wasn't really in the mood for mac & cheese. She ended up eating cucumbers, red peppers, pears, cashews and a boiled egg. Random, but healthy.

I had a green smoothie and husband had leftovers.

White Bean, Ham and Corn Soup

My entire family really liked this, which tends to be a rare occasion these days. 3 out of 4 I can do, but 4 out of 4? Quite a victory. I served it with bread and butter.

Crockpot White Bean and Ham Soup

2 c cooked white beans

1 c frozen corn

1/2 - 3/4 c diced ham - used mostly for flavor

2 carrots, diced

1/2 onion, diced

2 c chicken broth - I used the broth from this post

1 potato, cubed

1 c water

Mix all in crockpot and cook on high 2-3 hours

1 chicken - 4 dinners

I don't eat much chicken anymore, mainly because I don't want to eat traditional, factory farmed chicken and organic, free range chicken is really expensive. But, this week I was at Costco and they had organic (not free range - which isn't ideal) whole chickens for $2.99 a lb. They were bundled in twos and my two birds cost about $20, so roughly $10 a bird.

I roasted the chicken using this Cooking Light recipe:

We had it for dinner with a salad. We had about 2 cups of shredded chicken left over.

I used the carcass (hate that word) and put it in the crockpot with ~6 cups water, celery, onions, carrots, bay leaves and peppercorn and cooked on high for a couple of hours. I got about 6 cups of stock.

I used the chicken, 4 cups of the broth (froze the other 2 cups for later use) and about 6 cups of cut up veggies to make Chicken Pot Pie. I got enough filling for 3 pies and froze the 2/3 of filling.

So - 1 chicken got us 4 dinners and an extra can worth of chicken broth. Not bad for $10!