What's for dinner? (May 21-25)

Monday:  Sweet dijon chicken thighs, wild rice, carrots, cucumber slices
Tuesday:   Sundried tomato sole in a bag, sweet potato, fiddleheads
Wednesday:  Lamb burgers, salad
Thursday:  Grilled sandwiches, salad
Friday:  Out

Real Food Connections Kitchen Basket

Milk, herbed raw-milk gouda, eggs, bread

Arugula, fiddleheads, potatoes, frozen blueberries (2), basil plant, sprouted bean mix, garlic

Who still eats english muffin pizzas?

THIS GIRL.

English muffin, homemade pizza sauce, diced ham, caramelized onion, red pepper and mushrooms, topped with onion and garlic raw-milk Gouda.  Side:  fresh spinach and radish greens with homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

YES.  PLEASE.

Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

We had frozen strawberries and rhubarb stalks in our kitchen basket this week.  I saw a great recipe on Skinny Taste for strawberry rhubarb compote and I decided it would be a great way to use of the rhubarb.  It was realllllly easy and now I can't wait to make compote out of other fruits.

Ingredients:

• 1lb of strawberries, fresh or frozen
• 3 large rhubarb stalks
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp sugar (I used raw)
• 1 tbsp water

Directions:

1. Chop the strawberries and rhubarb.
2. Combine everything in a sauce pan.  Bring to a boil.  Turn it down to low-med and simmer for about 15 minutes.
3. With a stick-blender, purée the contents of the pot for a bit.  I didn't blend mine perfectly smooth, I just broke it down a little.
4. Serve with yogurt or over frozen yogurt, either hot or cold.

Random Meal Plan (May 12-17)

This week is random.  We were out and about for most of the weekend and I didn't get a chance to do much grocery shopping.  This is the plan as it stands today.

Saturday:  Dinner at parents, contribution = coleslaw
Sunday:  Church potluck, contribution = pasta salad
Monday:  Husband's birthday!**
Tuesday:  Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and soup
Wednesday:  Burgers and salad
Thursday:  Something with steak, either sandwiches or stir-fry?  (I have radish greens to cook up...?)

**For his birthday, my husband has requested an buffet of his favorite appetizers.  The plan is pastry wrapped cocktail sausages, a small wheel of baked brie with cranberry jelly and baguette, scallops and a little plate of nachos.  Yes please!

The best part about this week is that our kitchen basket had GREENS in it!! Woohooo!!  I love spring!

Real Food Connections Kitchen Basket

Staples:  Bread, milk, eggs, cheese
Veggies:  Spinach, radish and greens, rhubarb, potatoes, fiddleheads, cabbage, pea shoot greens
Extra:  Salmon

Salmon and Stir-Fry

Our kitchen basket included fiddleheads this week.  What are fiddleheads you might ask?  A delicious fern that you can only get in very particular environments at a certain time of the year (when the spring water is receding!)

You can learn more here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddlehead_fern

I thought I would get creative and try them in a stir-fry, instead of the usual steamed-with-butter.  I steamed the carrots and fiddleheads for 10 minutes.  Then I stir-fried them with onion, red pepper, mushrooms, a little soy sauce and sweet chili.

The salmon was marinated and baked in a soy-maple glaze.

Soy-Maple Glaze:

• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 1/4 c. maple syrup
• 1 tbsp crushed garlic
• 1 tsp ginger
• salt and pepper
• green onion for garnish

This was definitely a nice spin on a traditional meal.

BBQ Chicken Salad (in a mixing bowl)

Do you eat your salad in a mixing bowl?  In case you haven't noticed from previous posts, I am a volume eater.  I like to cram all of my food full of veggies so that I can eat the largest quantity possible.

This is recipe is definitely a keeper.  My husband loved it too and this says a lot, as he was formerly part of the "you don't make friends with salad" camp.



P.S.  I seriously need to STOP taking photos with my broken phone!

Makes:  4 large bowls of salad

Ingredients:

• 2 heads/stalks of romain lettuce, chopped
• 1/4 red onion, sliced
• 1 sweet red pepper, sliced
• 2 c. mushrooms, chopped
• 1 can sweet corn, drained
• 3 green onion stalks, chopped
• 4 oz lite havarti (or jack), shredded
• 2 rotisserie chicken breasts, chopped (or cook and shred your own breasts)
• 1/2 c. BBQ sauce
• 1 tbsp Frank's hot sauce
• 4-8 tbps of ranch (depends how ranchy you like it)
• Optional:  tortilla chips, crushed

Directions:

1. Chop, slice and shred all of the veggies and cheese.  Divide into four bowls.
2. Heat a non-stick skillet.  Toss chicken, BBQ sauce and Frank's in the pan until heated through.
3. Top salad with the chicken and ranch dressing.  Tortilla chips add a bit of crunch too, if you can spare the calories.
4. Mix it alllllll up and NOMNONNOM



Cheap and Easy Eatin' (May 7-11)

We were traveling for the end of last week and all weekend.  I had been trying to clean out the fridge before we left, so we came home to very empty cupboards!  This week is busy and having had lots of "fun" on vacation, I was looking to plan a menu that was both easy and cheap.

Monday:  Rotisserie chicken thighs and Costco quinoa salad
Tuesday:  BBQ chicken salad (using the rotisserie chicken breasts)
Wednesday:  Spaghetti and caesar salad
Thursday:  Steak and salad
Friday:  Either out or omelettes or something silly like english muffin pizzas

This is Monday's supper.  We are huge Costco lovers and this quinoa tabbouleh salad is a particular favorite.  I wanted to stretch the salad a bit and added a can of 6 variety beans, a chopped red pepper and some mushrooms.