Our Menu for this week:
Pizza- I know, I know not the healthiest but sometimes I need a break
Spaghetti - With Lentil penne pasta and homemade meat sauce
Taco- Super easy and delicious. A go to for busy nights
Grilled Chicken with quinoa salad-because the lentil quinoa salad I intended to make was a big fat Pinterest FAIL
Chicken and veg Primivera with "Zoodles" -Pinterest
For our Pizza this week I used a store bought whole wheat dough from Trader Joe's. I can and have made from scratch pizza but sometimes it's nice to have a little help. I'm human after all! I made a quick sauce by sautéing some spinach and garlic then blending that with a can of fire roasted tomatoes, a tiny bit of onion, oregano, basil and salt and pepper. SORRY, no pics for this.
Next time I promise.
I like to add nutritional yeast to little Miss section to limit the cheese and boost the nutritional value. She LOVES pizza and I really try to limit the traditional dough cause I just feel like it's so void of nutrition but every now and then it's a nice treat. I have made her cauliflower pizza, which isn't our fav but both times I've made it she gobbled it up. SHOCKED! She calls it, "pizza, pizza cauliflower" I also like to make mini pizza's on Ezekiel English muffins with my quick spinach tomato sauce and nutritional yeast for a quick lunch during the week. She loves it! Be on the look out for those recipes coming up! Follow Me~
The featured recipe for this post
I really want to make this work so I'm going to try again soon. Stay Tuned and Follow me!
I had to change it up at the last minute cause it was
If you haven't tried Quinoa before you must! It's is so easy and quick to make. It's pretty bland which is actually a good thing cause it can adapt to anything pretty easily. This is the kind I buy from Costco.
So here is the recipe:
Roast chopped brussel sprouts, 2 thinly sliced shallots and 1 sliced red pepper
Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper
Roast at 400 for about 20-25min
In the meantime combine 2cups chicken stock/veggie stock/ water (one of these, not all of them) with 1 cup quinoa
Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer for about 10-12min. This is what cooked quinoa looks like.
Once the quinoa and roasted veggies are done combine them and add the zest and juice of 1 lemon and a good handful of chopped parsley.
SO guys, if you don't regularly zest your lemons you must, you must, you must!!!! Go buy a zester, spend $12 on a decent one (a cheap one won't work!) and zest away!
At the last minute I decided something sweet and juicy would be delicious so I grabbed a big handful of grapes and cut them in half. If you don't have grapes it's fine, but the grapes definitely take this salad to the next level. Oh yeah, a handful of chopped parsley is a nice fresh touch too.
I Served this with Grilled Chicken
I saw this pic on Pinterest for garlic and basil grilled chicken and thought it looked good. It calls for skin on Chicken breast. I don't ever buy skin on chicken breast so naturally I didn't have any on hand. I just used my regular skinless boneless chicken breast. I really like to cut my chicken in half butterfly style. It cooks faster and more evenly and I just like it!
Here it is whole
and.... in half
at some point I may upload a quick video of how I do this with ease!
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The recipe called for basil butI didn't have any so I used thyme.
Now, it's important to know that
you can't just sub herbs willy nilly.
#Yesthat'sarealword! If a recipe
calls for cilantro you can't just
sub parsley! Sorry mom. I mean, you could
it just wouldn't taste at all the same!
Anyway thyme and garlic grilled chicken
is something I've done variations of
and it all goes together. Obviously
it's not going to taste like basil but thyme
and garlic are perfect together so it's fine.
#trustmeit'sfine
I chopped all this thyme and about 3T worth of fresh garlic (please don't use the jar stuff, it's just not the same). I added some olive oil and salt and pepper. Mixed it all up and added my chicken.
I threw the chicken back in the fridge cause we were going to the pool!
I meant to add in some lemon juice when we got home before I put it on the grill but I forgot. It was still OK, but a squeeze of lemon would have really brought everything together.
I grilled these to 160-165. 165 is done but when they are truly done the temp rises high and fast so if the temp is rising fast you can take it off around 160 cause it will get to 165 in about 10 seconds.
Also BIG TIP here unless you cook chicken to perfection 10 times every night you need a meat thermometer! You DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT! DO NOT! want overcooked chicken. Nothing ruins a nicely seasoned chicken breast like dry, chewy, overcooked chicken! Don't cut in to the chicken and let all the juice pour out! Just use a meat thermometer! Please!
There ya go!
Follow me! My plan for now is to post on Wednesdays and Fridays. Follow me!
I will be posting our weekly menu's and a meal or 2 from the list as well as some random breakfasts or things we are eating for lunch. Friday's will mostly be "treats" Follow me!
That's it for now, see you back Friday!
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