Turkey Meatloaf. My best friend introduced me to skinny taste and tried out this recipe and said it came out good, so I wanted to try it too. I have never made meatloaf before and boy is it easy! I am a fan. I doubled the recipe, made the girls their own in a cupcake pan (cooked it slightly too long and burned the edges) and I made ours in a bread pan and of course threw in half a tablespoon of cayenne (next time I will throw in a full tbsp). Gotta have that spice! Adding this to the home cooked meals regularly based on how yummy and fast this is!

Mashed Cauliflower. This accompanied out meatloaf. We had our friend Jun over this night, he comes over once a week for dinner and to share life, and while he was enjoying the mash, we asked him, “Did you know this isn’t potatoes?” Well, there is one in it, but it was mostly cauliflower. He was surprised, but not, since it is our house after all. I loved mashed cauliflower! You just steam a bunch (we used two heads) until it’s soft, along with one potato (or two), and then mash it all together. Throw in some smart balance, garlic, chives, and salt and pepper to taste and oh man… bomb diggity. If you haven’t tried it, you must!

We had only one home cooked meal this week because either we had leftovers or went out to eat to celebrate their first day of school. We still have more left overs of meatloaf, so I know what I am going to be eating for lunch. Can’t wait! I’m hungry just thinking about it.

Week 8/27 – 8/31
Monday: Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp
Tuesday: Mexican Slow Cooked Chicken Carnitas
Wednesday: Cajun Chicken Pasta
Thursday: Black Bean Soup
Friday: Pizza

I’ve never tried cooking with a crock pot, but I want to. Though I need to get a crock pot first. Any of you use a crock pot? I would love to hear some good recipes if you have any!

Seafood Medley. This is one of our meal staples. Ben is typically the one who makes it, but this week I did. It’s fast, delicious, and always turns out great. We saute the seafood in some chili garlic oil, then put it on top of some whole wheat spaghetti, lightly drizzled with more chili garlic oil. Then we top that with a lot more red pepper (yes, we like it really spicy!) and parmesan cheese. Yum!

New Orleans Shrimp Pizza. I took out two balls of dough for dinner and didn’t want to make two of the same pizza, so I looked up another one that might have spice and did it. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but this was definitely another pizza that will be made over and over again.

Spicy Garlic Shrimp Pizza. The next pizza, I just put the garlic chili oil (we make tons so we have it ready when we need it) with mozzarella & shrimp on top. When it’s out of the oven we usually sprinkle with parsley, but in this case I used garlic chives from the garden.

Malaysian Chicken Curry. Virginia, owner of Addiah, saw my cry for curry last week and told me about Malaysian Curry. I looked up some recipes and tried it out. Oh man. It was so spicy! Not because I doubled the chili powder, but because of those little red chilies that I sprinkled on top for garnishing. This was really good, but the chicken was a bit dry because I cooked it too long. Though the reason I did that is because the potatoes were still firm. Next time, I would put the potatoes in first and let them cook for about 10 minutes before I put the chicken in. There is only 2 tbsp of oil in this recipe and it doesn’t call for a coconut milk or heavy cream, so this is a really healthy curry. Though it lacks the creaminess, it still is really good. Definitely will try this again!

Week 8/20 – 8/24
Monday: Turkey Tacos
Tuesday: Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate the first day of school, just like we did last year!
Wednesday: Spicy Salmon
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Sushi

If you have any other good curry recipes, do share. I would love to try more out!

Just this week, True had a request to have her typical school lunch served for lunch at home. It was an easy enough request, that I knew they would all love, so I happily obliged. All the kids got a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich (True is allergic to peanut butter) with a side of raw, mini bell peppers and fresh picked tomatoes. Some people wonder how in the world  our girls can eat vegetables. Ben, is a registered dietitian, thus healthy eating is very important to our home and we want to instill in our kids good eating habits. He says that thankfully, early on in True’s life, he was exposed to Ellyn Satter’s Division of Responsibility in Feeding; and while sometimes counter-intuituve, and not always easy, adoption of these principles has helped tremendously.

As we try to teach our children to identify foods that are more nutritionally-dense, we find we use the terms “high nutrition” and “low nutrition” often in our home. Our girls have changed the terms a bit and now say, “high-nu” and “low-nu.” Brave is the one who came up with those cute, little abbreviations.

I mentioned last week, how True comes home telling me the commentary her classmates have regarding the foods in her lunch. She will also make sure to tell me how most of their lunches were filled with “low nutrition.” She can get snobby about her food and the fact that she eats mostly “high nutrition,” but this also makes me and Ben laugh because she is like any other kid and totally loves her sometimes foods too. We have to remind her that while she does love eating foods high in nutrition, she shouldn’t get haughty about it because she loves to have her share of “low-nu.”

In regards to what we feed our kids, we try to give them more opportunities for “high-nu” than ” low-nu,” which we also call as “sometimes foods.” We know if we deprive them, they’ll just go crazy behind our backs (and we don’t want that), so we make sure to try and teach them that “sometimes foods” are okay, but just sometimes, as it is better to fill your bodies with “high nutrition.” Thankfully, Ben and I eat pretty healthy (I do love desserts though!), so since the very beginning, these girls have been exposed to a lot of different types of fruits and vegetables. They aren’t very many fruits and veggies they will say no to and we encourage them to try everything at least once. I am thankful that we don’t have to fight our kids to make good food choices, but we do continue to try to teach them balance and moderation.

My girls even eat the highly unpopular vegetable brussels sprouts! They really are so good!!! Do you like brussels sprouts?

Scallion Meatballs with Soy Ginger Glaze and Sesame Spinach. Those meatballs are always good. I’ve made this recipe a few times and I think I am comfortable enough making it without looking at the directions. The girls are big fans and I think it has a bit to do with that sweet and tangy sauce. I am a fan of that too. The spinach was a wing-it-kind-of-thing sauteed in sesame oil and garlic. Tasted good to me and we all devoured everything that there was nothing leftover.

Homemade Mexican Pizza. I learned how to make this from Ben. I used this focaccia recipe for the dough and topped it with lean ground turkey cooked in taco seasoning, Mexican cheese, tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, serrano peppers (for me and ben), and queso fresco (because it looked pretty with it on). I tripled the recipe so that I had some dough to freeze. Next week, we will be having homemade pizza again for sure.

One night this week, we just popped in frozen Trader Joe’s pizza because things were too crazy during the day to actually get to real cooking, so for those days, it’s always TJ’s to the rescue!

Week 8/13 – 8/17
Monday: Seafood Medley
Tuesday: Garlic Shrimp Pizza
Wednesday: Chicken Curry
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Sushi

I want to make a good Indian Curry with a lot of kick. If anyone has a good recipe for curry or tikka masala, please do share!

Chile Stuffed Burger on Fresh Focaccia. So good. In fact, it was made twice this week! Who can resist fresh bread and a yummy, spicy burger?! The first time I made it, I used serrano peppers and didn’t just stuff it in the middle but just mixed it in the meat. The girls had a separate batch as theirs was sans spicy peppers. Ben and mine was loaded with spicy peppers. I didn’t have the bread the recipe called for, so I baked my own. The second time I made it, I used the Anaheim Chiles. I much prefer the serrano peppers because it had much more kick. Bread is one of those things that are so easy to do, you really ought to do it more often, but just don’t because it sounds hard. It really isn’t. Of course, our fave with any burger is sweet potato fries. Such a good combination.

Cold Soba Salad with Dried Shiitake Dressing. The girls really loved this one. Actually, they really love soba noodles, so I knew this was going to be a fan favorite. We topped ours with tofu for protein. Ben and I loved this too, but of course, we have to add our own spicy sauce because we prefer dishes with kick. It’s just our style. My spicy tolerance has gotten so much higher since being with Ben.

Week 8/6 – 8/10
Monday: Scallion Meatballs with Spiced Coconut Spinach
Tuesday: Cilantro Chickpea Salad
Wednesday: Mexican Pizza
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Sushi Night!

I’m late in posting this because I took a few days off to focus on prep for my Brave’s birthday, but I couldn’t neglect this post because meal planning has really helped our evenings become smoother. Are you a meal planner? How do you decide what to make for dinner?

Last Saturday, I was itching to try some Crunchy French Toast. I saw it on my friend Owen’s facebook and I was curious as to how it might taste because it sounded really good. I kind of followed this recipe and made an additional batch with no almonds because True is allergic. The girls loved it, but I thought it was eh. I think it was also because I used sugar free syrup and I don’t really like the taste of sugar free syrup, so that didn’t help much. The girls loved it though, so that’s all that matters. Although for tomorrow, I may just make regular French Toast and get me some loaded with sugar syrup. Yes, please.

Do you make a special breakfast for Saturday mornings?