1 Week Meal Plan Night 4

Tuna, Veggie & Bean Lettuce Wraps
Description: tuna mixed with sautéed peppers and onions with beans and seasonings in iceberg lettuce wraps
Ingredients:
1-2 cans of tuna
1 can of white or black beans (NOT white kidney beans - they have NO flavour)
any type of stir fry veggie:
peppers
zucchini
onions
carrots
Bragg's or soya sauce
s&p and/or some kind of seasoning, like fajita seasoning (btw, I know someone who sells Epicure - let me know if you are interested!)

Directions:
Stir fry all the veggies (chopped) and add tuna, beans and sauces/seasonings after the veggies are tender. Cook all together for a few minutes and DONE!

Wash the iceberg lettuce and pull apart in leaf "cups". Spoon the cooked mixture inside the leaf and wrap it up and eat! Grated cheese on top is optional.

The next day, you can put the cooked mixture in some veggie or chicken stock with some coconut milk and it makes an almost vegetarian, dairy free chowder!

1 Week Meal Plan Night 3

Honey Chicken Bake
Description: chicken breasts baked in a honey-mustard-curry sauce
Ingredients:
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast per adult (sauce is for up to four before you need to double)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup of mustard
1/4 cup oil or butter (optional)
1-2 tsps of curry powder
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Combine everything (but the chicken) in a bowl and mix until smooth (softening the butter might be necessary, although I always leave chunks of butter and they melt as the dish cooks). Pour over chicken in an oven safe dish. Bake at 385 degrees for about an hour, basting a couple of times throughout the bake.

This dish can be prepared the night before.

Side: Roasted Cauliflower
Ingredients:
Cauliflower
Olive oil
powdered or minced garlic
salt & pepper

Directions: Cut up cauliflower in florets and coat with olive oil, garlic and s&p. Spread out on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven with the chicken for 20 minutes (flip half way through)

Leftover sauce from the honey chicken bake, and leftover cauliflower with some chicken stock and coconut milk make an incredible pureed soup.

1 Week Meal Plan Night 1 & 2

Night 1

Peas & Q's Pasta
Description: Rigatoni with peas, ham, onions & mushrooms
Ingredients:
Peas (1-2 cans, opened and drained)
1/2 red or yellow onion chopped
1 pkg of cooked ham, cut into small strips
2 handfuls of mushrooms (washed and chopped)

1 tbsp oil
2-3 tbsp of Bragg's or chicken stock
Salt & pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese - garnish

Directions:
Cook Rigatoni according to package directions. While the pasta is cooking, in a pan or skillet, sautee onions in oil 1-2mins, add mushrooms and ham 1-2 mins, then add the peas. Stir mixture with a bit of stock or Bragg's (or soya sauce) and mix the contents of the pan into the drained pasta (in the pot). Serve with parmesan cheese.

Side: Italian tomato salad
Ingredients:
6-8 Roma tomatoes (add any other type or colour of tomato, just make sure they are ripe, but firm)
4-5 tbsp of fresh, extra-virgin cold pressed Olive oil
1/4 cup of chopped fresh basil, or 2 tbsp of dried oregano
coarse salt (to taste)

Directions
Cut tomatoes into bite size pieces, pour olive oil, coating the tomatoes, stir with the basil or oregano and salt.

Night 2

Southwest Gratin
Description: Thin-sliced yams, potatoes, onions with turkey bacon and baked with salsa, sour cream and topped with cheese

Ingredients:
2-4 yams (skinned)
2-4 potatoes (Yukon Gold) (skinned)
1 red onion
1 pk of cooked back bacon, or turkey bacon (cut into quarters)
salsa
sour cream (optional)
grated cheese (cheddar, mozza, parmesan, monterey jack)

Directions:
Get a large baking dish and drizzle the bottom with olive oil and minced garlic. On the thinnest setting of a mandolin or food processor, slice the first three ingredients and layer them on an angle (like dominoes that have been knocked down) Tip: layer a small wad (about 6 slices) of yam, then a wad of potato, a pinch of red onion and then 1 thick slice of meat. This makes it go faster then layering one at a time. Add wallops of sour cream, and salsa randomly on the top (optional: onion dip mix lightly sprinkled on top - I love the Epicure 3 onion mix - no msg). Cover with cheese.
Bake at 400 degrees for 35-45 minutes. If you used thicker slices, it might need a bit more time. (optional: bake covered allowing a few minutes at the end uncovered for the cheese to bake) Potatoes should be soft and edges slightly crisped.

NOTES TO USE LEFT OVERS:

All the ingredients of the pasta dish can be added to an omelette the next day if you leave about 1/2 cup aside of it.

The tomatoe salad can be added to fresh pasta as a summer sauce or stewed and added to lasagna, soup, or any tomato-based sauce.

The juices from the potato bake make an awesome stock for soup.

The Wait is OVER! The MENU

Here are the recipe titles and descriptions for the meal planning challenge of next week. I will post two recipes at a time, starting on Sunday. I will post the shopping list (in two parts, for freshness) today.

Night 1

Peas & Q's Pasta
Description: Rigatoni with peas, ham, onions & mushrooms
Side: Italian tomato salad

Night 2

Southwest Gratin
Description: Thin-sliced yams, potatoes, onions with turkey bacon and seasonings baked with salsa, sour cream and topped with cheese

Night 3

Honey Chicken Bake
Description: chicken breasts baked in a honey-mustard-curry sauce
Side: roasted cauliflower

Night 4

Tuna, Veggie & Bean Lettuce Wraps
Description:  tuna mixed with sautéed peppers and onions with beans and seasonings in iceberg lettuce wraps

Night 5

Tacos
Description: either sauteed veggies, or seasoned ground beef with all the classic trimmings

Night 6

Colourful Veggies Chicken
Description: chicken thighs cooked on the stove top with zucchini, carrots and red peppers in a tasty soy broth
Side: Rice or Dreamy Couscous

Night 7

BREAK!!! All moms need a break from cooking - tonight you a) get your hubby to cook, b) your kids to cook c) you order pizza or take-out or d) you go out to eat!

Alternates if one of the recipes REALLY doesn't work for you:

Roast Chicken with root vegetables

Open-faced cordon bleu melts

The Shopping List

Around the house
·       Extra Virgin Cold-Pressed Olive Oil
·       Salt (fine & coarse)
·       Pepper
·       Curry Powder
·       Red wine or Balsamic Vinegar
·       Sugar (pinch)
·       Butter
Product Suggestions
·       Bragg's Liquid Aminos (instead of Soy Sauce)
·       Vegenaise Grapeseed or Original (instead of mayo)
Day 1-4
MEAT
·       Pre-cooked ham (whatever style, deli meat, whole ham, etc.)
·       precooked turkey or pork back bacon
·       Chicken breasts (1 per person)
SPICES/ Condiments
·       honey
·       mustard
·       butter/oil
·       curry powder
·       Oregano
·       Salt (fine & rock)
·       1 bunch fresh basil or cilantro
·       pepper
·       olive oil (extra virgin, cold pressed)
·       red vinegar or balsamic
·       onion dip mix (I recommend Epicure three onion dip mix - not hiddeningredients)
·       salsa
·       soya sauce
·       ranch dressing
DAIRY
·       Shredded Cheese (monterrey Jack, mozzarella, etc.)
·       Feta cheese
·       butter
·       sour cream
CANS/Packs
·       2 cans of white beans
·       1 can of coconut milk
·       2 cans of tuna
·       1 can sweet peas
·       1 tetrapak of Chicken or Veggie Stock
PRODUCE
·       1 bag sweet yellow or red onion (1 red onion in any case)
·       1 bag of carrots
·       6 Roma or firm, but ripe tomatoes
·       2 heads of Iceburg or firm Romaine lettuce
·       1 bag of yams
·       1 bag of yukon gold potatoes
·       2 heads of cauliflower
·       1 bag of mixed peppers (yellow & red)
·       2 stalks of celery
·       squeeze of fresh lemon
DRIED GOODS
·       1 bag of Rigatoni, penne or rotini pasta
·       1 box couscous
Day 5-7
·        1-2 packs of Chicken thighs
·        3 med Zucchini
·        1 head of Iceberg or firmRomaine lettuce
·        ground beef
·        tomatoes
Alternates:
Whole Chicken
new potatoes
yams
Italian bread or ciabatta,     or foccacia bread sliced length wise in half
pesto
mayo
pieces of roast chicken     (premade or prebought) optional: use deli chicken
sliced ham
cheese

Meal Plan Week

Hey Folks,

Part of my passion with cooking is making it easy for families to have tasty, healthy meals. So I am still experimenting with the best way to communicate this and I am doing a meal planning week through my blog. My hope is that if you are participating you will check in every couple of days to get the directions and give feedback on how it's going.
This Thursday (August 11, 2011) I will post the shopping list and the menu. The following week we will go through the recipes, strategizing making meals stretch into another meal and also how to prep more meals in one sitting to make it faster. It won't be a huge committment since I will have everything posted - you just need to be willing to participate for the whole week!

Invite your friends by hitting "share" :)
Feel free to become a "follow"er on this blog.

Cheers! Miriam