Tag Archives: recipes

Administrative, Finances, Healthy, Informative, Meal Plans

Weekly Eating #3 – 7/2

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Hey y’all! Welcome to the series Weekly Eating.

Here is where I’ll talk about the week’s meal plan versus reality, what we ate for the week, and how we did budget-wise. I hope it gives readers a behind-the-scenes look into our life through the lens of food, and it’s also a way to keep us on track with meal planning and grocery budgeting.

Feel free to share your wins and lessons in the comments below!

Monday:

Breakfast – microwaved 2 scrambled eggs on top of an everything Bagel Thin and slice of cheddar cheese. Homemade “mocha latte” (coffee + hot cocoa mix + milk, blended)

Lunch – leftover stir fry

Dinner – BBQ pulled pork mac-n-chili (?) This was a weird idea I had to use up several leftovers. 1/2 lb cooked penne, 1 cup bbq pulled pork, 1 cup pinto beans, 1 whole shredded yellow squash, 1 cup shredded cheddar, 2 tbsp butter and a splash of milk. Luckily for us, it turned out really delicious!

Snack – fresh cherries, hummus + cucumber/carrots

Tuesday: Fourth of July!

Breakfast – kind of slept in and skipped this part, mostly just had coffee, and then early lunch

Lunch – chicken, broccoli, rice casserole: this is ridiculously simple, and came out amazingly delicious! Layer chopped broccoli, mushrooms, 1/2 cup rice, and shredded chicken. Add 1/2 cup stock and 1/2 cup milk, and cheddar cheese. Top with some more broccoli, cover in foil and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Done!

Dinner – leftover buffet

The holiday was nice and relaxing, we got some laundry done, played some games and I finished a book. I did also bake up some red velvet cupcakes with blueberry cream cheese frosting! I made way too many, so I took a few plates to our neighbors  🙂

Wednesday:

Breakfast – peach smoothie: 2 peaches, 2 bananas, 1 cup yogurt, 1 cup orange juice

Lunch – out with a work colleague; rosemary chicken panini

Dinner – chicken and dumplings with some of my homemade foccacia

Snacks – brown rice cakes

Thursday:

Breakfast – homemade yogurt with peaches and granola

Lunch – slow cooker “refrigerator soup”. Basically I chopped up all the veggies about to spoil, added some lentils & quinoa, salsa and homemade chicken stock in a small slow cooker on high all day in my cube. By noon, the whole office smells AMAZING and I get a nice hot, filling, super healthy and super frugal lunch.

Dinner – ravioli per hubby’s request

Friday:

Breakfast – parfait with fresh peaches, yogurt, and 1 smashed up Nature Valley Oats & Honey bar

Lunch – pasta salad

Dinner – stir friday: pork! You may wonder, why stir-Friday every week? Doesn’t that get boring? Well, no definitely not because there are so many options! And the reason is simple: it’s delicious and super frugal. It gives me the chance to use up whatever bits of veggies are in the fridge, so that I don’t throw them out.

The Weekend:

On Saturday we just hung out, cleaned inside and outside a bit, and then hosted a dinner party.

I made a recipe from my sister-in-law for a knock-your-socks-off delicious summer salad with arugula, cheese, macademia nuts (from a friend’s family farm in S America!), corn, craisins, and baked salmon. I’m drooling just thinking about it! I made some lime-ade for the drivers, and some tropical rum punch for whoever wanted it.  🙂

Total:  $116.91

My goal is to keep this number under $100 all the time, and eventually get down to $75/week for food.

Oops… This is why I’m not allowed to go to grocery stores by myself anymore…

In my defense, I did stock up on several staples I will not use this week alone, like pasta, lentils, pearled couscous, 3 loaves of multigrain bread for 0.99 that I will freeze, brown rice, sliced cheese. We also were running low on doggy teeth-cleaning treats for the pups, and that is included in the total.

Lessons Learned

I did a pretty good job of using up weird bits of leftovers and creating new meals, so that was a definite plus! But, I also let the grocery gremlin get me, and tell me that “these sales are way too good, you definitely need to stock up on 5 kinds of pasta, more salad than you can actually eat in one week, $10 of beer, and the pups are so cute they totally deserve $20 worth of treats!” All we can do is learn from it, and do better next week.

How about you guys, did you have a great week or a learning week?

Healthy, Main Dishes, Sneaky Healthy, Vegetarian

Turkey & Veggie Tacos

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Tacos are always a popular meal choice. They are great for so many reasons:
  • Frugal – use up whatever meat or vegetables are in the house
  • Green – use up vegetables before they go bad & reduce waste
  • Customizable – you can please meat eaters and vegetarians
  • Healthy – easy to add tons of extra veggies and fiber with beans
Unfortunately, tacos are also very easy to go overboard with and make into fatty cholesterol nightmares. If you use fatty ground beef and heap on cheese and sour cream, your arteries will not thank you. The good news is, there are simple swaps you can make that don’t have a huge impact on overall taste but will have an impact on how huge your waistline is in 20 years….
  • Use ground turkey, pork, or chicken instead of beef
  • Better yet, don’t use meat at all! Use tofu or lots of beans instead
  • Make sure to cram in as many sneaky veggies as possible
  • Swap unflavored Greek yogurt for sour cream
These simple switches seem small, but have big long-term impact. You don’t have to go cold-turkey health nut all at once. Try one at a time and see what works for you.
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These turkey tacos are super-charged with healthy greens and multiple veggies. But once rolled up in a warm tortilla, you would never know there is so little fat and far fewer calories than your typical taco. My meat eater s.o. even had to admit that they are delicious!
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Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey
1 tortilla
1 onion, diced
1 cup diced bell peppers
1/2 head kale
Refried beans
1/2 cup cooked rice
1 tbsp plain Greek yogurt
Sprinkle shredded cheese
Seasoning: garlic salt, cumin, Nature’s Season
Step 1: Brown the ground turkey in a pan. While that is cooking, dice up your veggies. You could use whatever vegetables are in season and that you like, try eggplant, asparagus, spinach, sweet potato…
Step 2: Drain the grease from the meat and season it to your liking. Add in the veggies, hardest ones first. Cook until onion and peppers are soft, and kale is wilted.
Step 3: Open a can of refried beans, or make your own. Heat up in a frying pan or microwave.
Step 4: Warm up a tortilla in the microwave for 10-30 seconds. Layer on the turkey and veggies, 1/4 cup cooked rice, a few tbsp of beans, 1 tbsp Greek yogurt, and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar. Roll it up and enjoy! Alternatively you could use a hard taco shell, or spread over tortilla chips as a fun appetizer.
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Tacos are so endlessly customizable. I love topping mine with salsa, guac, diced avocado, lettuce, spinach, black beans, shredded carrots… the possibilities are endless. They can be extremely frugal too, rice, beans, and tortillas are all easily found for under $1, and make a very filling and healthy meal. It’s super easy to make them vegetarian or vegan too.
What’s your favorite taco toppings?
Vegan, Vegetarian

Ratatouille niçoise

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There are several recipes or types of food which I’ve heard of, tried, or seen but have not yet tried to cook myself. One of those is ratatouille. The 2007 Disney movie brought the dish into the main stream consciousness with its adorable main character, Remy, a rat who just wanted to be a great chef. Ever since then it’s been in the back of my mind as a ‘make this someday’ dish.

Ratatouille the dish is traditionally a French dish consisting of stewed vegetables. It originated in the French province of Nice, and comes from the Occitan language “ratatolha” and the French word “touiller” meaning to toss food. There are similar dishes in many other cuisines, including the Catalan samfaina, the Majorcan tombet, the Spanish pisto, the Italian caponata, Greek tourloú, and Filipino pinkabet. French chef Michel Guérard came up with a new version called Confit byaldi for the Disney movie. It can be served as a side dish, or made a whole meal when served over rice.

In my version, I pulled together several variations, and used what I had available in my kitchen. I had planned on a potato leek soup sometime this week, but silly me had only bought one leek, so into the ratatouille it went. While I’m at it, I’ll throw the potato in there too. Oh, and a single turnip I had bought for who knows what reason. Also I had no fresh tomatoes, but my pantry is never without a can of diced tomatoes.



Ingredients:
3 zucchini (I just happened to have three different colors, so at least it’ll look pretty)
1 turnip
1 potato
1 leek
1/2 red onion
3 large bulbs garlic
1 leek
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1/4 green bell pepper, sliced

Step 1: Slice the onion into thin strips, dice up the garlic, and slice the leek. Add them and the bell pepper to a frying pan on low with the butter and cover.

Let that cook and caramelize, stirring occasionally, while you preheat the oven to 350 and proceed to the next step. 

Step 2: Slice the zucchini into thin coins. Peel and slice the potato and turnip as well.

 Step 3: Layer the potato, turnip, and zucchini in a casserole pan.

Step 3: To the pan add the can of diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then pour over the vegetables in the casserole dish.

Step 4: Cover in foil and bake at 350 for 45 min to an hour. You’ll know it’s ready when the slices are soft when poked with a fork.

I also took the foil off after 45 minutes and let it bake another 15 minutes to evaporate some of the juices. You can now serve it over rice or couscous, with fresh crusty bread, and/or sprinkle on some mozzarella. Deliciously vegetarian and very low fat and low calorie. Bake up a batch, put on the Ratatouille movie or some classic Julia Child and enjoy!

If you have a favorite French recipe, anecdote of your trip Paris or first year of chef school, or a story of attempting a French recipe that ended unfortunately, please share here!