Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Menu Plan...Wednesday?

In light of all my newfound energy and re-desire to plan our meals and actually prepare them myself, I thought I'd share with you our menu for the week (which started...Monday. Sunday we moved, so we had pizza for dinner). So far it's involved very little prep work, which has been really, really nice. I love it when we can eat healthily without me spending hours upon hours in the kitchen!

First let me say that I rarely plan to cook breakfast. Sometimes it happens on weekends, sometimes when I have a random potato (for hash browns), but usually we just eat fruit and cereal. I'm lazy like that (or it just takes me long enough to wake up in the mornings that it's usually lunchtime before I'm capable of cooking without burning the house down).

Monday:
lunch: leftover braised balsamic chicken from Saturday night
dinner: homemade chicken and rice soup, bread

Tuesday:
lunch: leftover pizza from the move on Sunday, chicken soup from Monday

Wednesday:
lunch: Shannon ate out with friends, Lane and I had leftover rice and beans and cornbread from Tuesday
dinner: sautéed veggies, couscous pilaf, and chicken paillards (chicken pounded flat, dredged in breadcrumbs, and pan-sautéed)

Thursday:
lunch: tuna salad with avocado (if I can find one) on whole-wheat bread, carrot sticks
dinner: leftover rice and beans, cornbread from Tuesday

Friday:
lunch: leftover chicken paillards, couscous pilaf, and veggies from Wednesday
dinner: spaghetti, garlic bread, green salad

Saturday:
lunch: leftover spaghetti from Friday
dinner: whatever our small group decides to cook

Sunday:
lunch: leftover spaghetti from Friday
dinner: that southwestern salad that I mentioned yesterday

Ahh. Healthy food all week long! There are times that I wish I lived in the States when it comes to cooking. We can't get whole-wheat pasta here, which would make our spaghetti healthier. I want to put an avocado in our tuna but I don't know if I'll be able to find one at the bazaar tomorrow. My chicken soup only had about half the amount of celery in it that I'd like because it's over $2.00 for a super small amount (about 1/3 of a bunch that you'd get in the States), and I just can't justify buying more for soup, especially when I'm using it twice in one week. I just trust that if I do as much as I can to make our food healthy, God will take care of our bodies and redeem my efforts, even if we could eat "healthier" in the States.

Anyone have any fantastic recipes out there? Anyone have any great ones that involve little prep work (no canned soups or pre-packaged goods to save time...they're not available here), are cold dishes (I'm not going to want to spend lots of time over a stove come August!), or are recipes specifically for tuna? I'm trying to eat it at least once a week since I'm pregnant and it's good for me, but I'm worried that I'll get burnt out on tuna sandwiches. Any ideas are appreciated!

7 comments:

  1. http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/greek-tuna-puttanesca/ Don't know if you can get all the stuff...but this is tasty!

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  2. Ever try cooking an ethnic dish from your country? I'm looking forward to trying local recipes!

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  3. This all sounds delicious! Have you tried a pasta salad with tuna, or other type of tuna salads. there is a delicious Tuscan tuna salad that uses red beans, corn, tuna cheese and oil/vinegar + a little spicy mustard. delicious!

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  4. I'm not sure what all you can get there, so not all of these may work...

    Farfalle with Pesto and Tomatoes:
    (I made this when I was in Serbia using premade pesto)
    http://www.digsmagazine.com/nourish/nourish_nocookpasta3.htm

    Ham n' Cheese Potato Salad:
    http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Ham--n--Cheese-Potato-Salad

    Beef Stroganoff:
    http://kokocooks.blogspot.com/2010/03/beef-stroganoff.html

    Baked Honey Mustard Chicken:
    http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-honey-mustard-chicken/detail.aspx

    Baked Sweet Potato Fries:
    http://www.food.com/recipe/ina-gartens-baked-sweet-potato-fries-333618

    Chicken Tikka Masala:
    http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/06/chicken-tikka-masala-by-pastor-ryan/

    Baked Lemon Pasta:
    http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/baked-lemon-pasta/

    Bratwurst Potato Skillet:
    http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bratwurst-potato-skillet/detail.aspx

    Slow Cooked Smothered Pork Chops:
    http://www.food.com/recipe/slow-cooked-smothered-pork-chops-316886

    Sauteed Bacon, Mushrooms, and Lentils
    http://leitesculinaria.com/68174/recipes-bacon-mushrooms-lentils.html

    Sloppy Joes:
    2 lbs ground beef
    1 large onion, chopped
    1 green pepper, chopped
    4 tbl mustard
    2 tbl vinegar
    1 1/2 c tomato sauce
    2 tbl worchestershire sauce

    Brown meat and drain. Add other ingredients & simmer 1/2 hour. Serve over hamburger buns. Feeds 10 people.

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  5. This is probably not new to anyone with kitchen common sense (I am not one of them) but I cook up a batch of "Lazy Chicken" every so often for dinner. We only use two pieces for me and Matt and then I keep the rest for Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Chicken Quesadillas, soup, etc. It's waaaaaaaay easy for lazy days. I absolutely LOVE Tasty Kitchen recipes. I find the best stuff there:

    http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2010/08/a-tasty-recipe-lazy-chicken/

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  6. Do you have Dijon mustard there? I made this for dinner yesterday - http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/01/roast-chicken-with-dijon-sauce/ - and it was really good and simple. The recipe calls for wine, but it's fine with using all chicken broth, which what I usually do.

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  7. Wow ....!!! what a sweet family picture you have posted in the front page. That is looking really wonderful and attractive. I love these two babies.

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Thanks for commenting!