Noteworthy salad

So here's the salad I ate for lunch today: mixed greens with mozzarella, capers, kidney beans, bell pepper, salt & peper, with homemade bread croutons and a Greek yogurt. For snacks today I brought a banana, kiwi and pear. 

I get really burnt out when I eat the same meal multiple times each week. I don't do leftovers very well. And recently I've been pretty bad about taking my lunch to work. I've been running a lot of lunch time errands lately, which often means I eat out. Not good on my wallet or on my waistline. Definitely put 10 pounds back on during the holiday season. 

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Meals for week of 9/17/12

I'm trying to get the feel for how much food we need in the house to survive a week without additional trips to the grocery store. I'm not doing very well.

Thank goodness that I purchased (ew-processed in a box) seasoned rice and extra canned veggies, or we wouldn't have eaten much this weekend. 

I think part of the problem is that I plan out meals for Monday - Friday but forget there are a couple meals on the weekends that we eat at home as well. We usually eat out at least once on the weekend. Hopefully that will slow down though, so we only have "special" nights out, dates so to speak.

This week we're having:

Deer chili with cornbread muffins

Shrimp and grits with corn

Baked tilapia with rice and steamed broccoli

My lunches:

Falafel patties with rice and veggies, and cottage cheese

Salmon patties with veggies (I need to buy these veggies!)

the Hub's lunches:

Pineapple Quinoa with chicken and other veggies, similar to this quinoa recipe

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Lunch Bunch

Today's lunch was inspired by a recipe on Daily Garnish for Healthy Unfried Rice.

I made a few changes:
1. I used 3 huge carrots.
2. I added a bell pepper
3. I used a whole bag of frozen, shelled edamame (nutrition label said it had three servings)
4. I used Bob's Red Mill Wild and Brown Rice Mix.
5. I didn't add the egg. I thought that might have a funny texture after three days (which is how many days it will take for me to eat all this!)

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Sweet Potato Peanut Stew

I made a recipe out of Joy of Cooking. I fully intended to take a photo before eating it for lunch today, but it smelled so good, and I was so hungry, that this is all you get:
 

Sorry about that.

Sweet Potato Peanut Stew

In about 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil, saute:

1 onion, diced

1 bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced

In the meantime, brown and drain about 12 oz of ground beef. 

Add to the peppers/onions:

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced

Saute for 2 minutes. 

Add:

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks

1 can tomato paste

Add water to cover the sweet potatoes and simmer for 45 minutes. 

At the end of simmering time, scoop out about 1/2 c of liquid into a bowl and stir in:

1/2 c peanut butter

Add to the vegetables:

peanut butter/liquid mixture

ground beef

2 small zucchinis, sliced

Simmer until warmed through.

Salt and pepper to taste. 

I ate it with a handful of roasted/salted peanuts on top. And I made the following cornbread to go with it:

Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

2 boxes of Jiffy cornbread, prepared per package (you'll need 2 eggs and 2/3 c milk)

1 c shredded cheddar

1/2 medium yellow onion, diced

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

1/2 tsp ground cumin

Saute the onion and pepper in about 1-2 Tbsp olive oil.

Mix the cornbread per package instructions and add remaining ingredients. Bake per package. (9x9 pan for about 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.)


A couple notes about the recipes:
1. I started cooking with a frozen block of ground beef. Grandma suggested I put a little water in the pan and put the lid on it and "steam" the ground beef thaw. It worked, and then the cooking liquid cooked off.
2. Instead of using olive oil, I cooked the ground beef first and used some of the beef grease. I know, that's probably gross, but it worked.
3. The cornbread is really amazing with a smear of pimento cheese spread.

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Lunch Salad

Mama Pea is featured in today's lunch again. Well not Mama Pea herself, but one of her salads: Bliss Salad.

I followed the recipe (almost!!) exactly, except:
1. I replaced the green onions with a homegrown leek that was still leftover from harvesting in Springfield.
2. I used about 10 baby carrots instead of 2 regular carrots.
3. Instead of one big bell pepper, Mom gave me some of these mini sweet peppers:

 
The dressing on this is fantastic!

I'm a little weird when I eat my salads. I know the greens are good for me. But I really like the toppings. I know if I eat the toppings as I go, then I'll end up with all these greens at the end with no toppings. So I force myself to eat the greens first so I have fun toppings to eat at the end. (This is also the way I eat tortellini from Pasta House; I eat the pasta first so I can enjoy the peas, proscuitto and mushrooms at the end!)

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