Menu Plan to get us through the Last Crazy Week!

    June is a crazy month around our house...Never mind that Teacher Rob is up to his eyeballs in marking (stuff that should have been handed in in February, March and even some from November!), preparing for report cards and all that, but it seems that every activity that goes on all year, wraps up in June.  This week wraps up a few things, but that makes for a bit of a crazy week, what with Athletic Banquets and Dance shows, baseball games and gymnastics, Fun Day at school, doctor's appointments, haircuts.

    Why, then, on what feels like the craziest week since Christmas (darn good thing Christmas is in December!), have I decided to defrost the freezer??  Well, first of all, it is finally warm enough to want to have the freezer open all day!  And, more importantly, the freezer is almost empty (well, it is empty, now!).  Normally this is a chore I leave until August (we just eat down what is left in the freezer in July, and then defrost in August).  However, April and May were so crazy busy, that we ended up "eating down" the freezer in May instead of July this year.  So, before I fill it all up again, I figured I had better get it defrosted.  It did make it easy to plan this week's menu tho'!  Just went through what was left (that I had transferred to the smaller freezers) and made a menu!
So...What will we eat this week?  Things that will lend themselves to leftovers for lunches, I am hoping...Well, except for maybe the pork chops, since there are only 5 of those!

• Today (Saturday): My version of Italian Pasta Bake (a recipe a friend got from "All Recipes", but the pound and a half of cheese was something I just couldn't do, so I made many changes...see the recipe at the end of this post), and Caesar Salad.

• Sunday: This is the Dance show, so I am not cooking!  We will be out at Rehearsals all morning, and then the show!  Out for dinner we go!

• Monday: Salmon Pasta Salad, with broccoli and cauliflower and Santa Fe Salad.  And mocha iced vanilla cake for dessert (because I found some icing from a few weeks ago in the freezer!) ...Tuesday lunches will be turkey Santa Fe wraps, because I have just enough turkey breast in the freezer to make lunch wraps for everyone, but not enough for supper!)

• Tuesday: Baked Chicken and and rice casserole (for daycare we are having chicken and rice for lunch, so I just make double the rice and the chicken, and then make the casserole in the morning so it just has to go in the oven when we get home from school...Means it is ready just in time for everyone to eat before heading off in 5 different directions.

• Wednesday: Crust less Salmon and spinach quiche (and if the boy turns up his nose, he can always have leftovers)

• Thursday: "Make your own Sandwich night", not everyone is home over the supper hour, so there will be leftovers and fixings for sandwiches, but you are on your own (yes, even if you are seven, altho there will be a grown-up to help you cut things and run the toaster)

• Friday: Lamb burgers on the BBQ wrapped in whole wheat pita, with Greek salad and tzatziki, and Greek roasted potatoes if you're lucky~

And on Saturday, I am out for a 10 year reunion of our Baby Group, so the family will be foraging without me!  I will be dining with my fellow mums on appies (from some lovely take-out menu!  I believe Greek got the vote) and enjoying wine and grown-up chitchat that will no doubt revolve around school PACs, baseball schedules, social housing developments, School fun fairs and who still won't eat what (and any camping plans that may have been made for the coming summer)... 10 years...Wow!
A quote from the Invitation:

"...1 Baby Group

11 Fabulous Women

13 Girls & 10 Boys

175 Children's Birthdays

22 First Days of Kindergarten (1 still to come)

10 Houses bought & 13 moves made

1 Broken arm

Hundreds of visits from the Tooth Fairy (sometimes on the second night cuz she was busy)

Zero divorces (that deserves a party itself)

A thousand nights camping (over half in the rain)

Unknown bottles of wine consumed

A million memories made..."

Should be a wonderful evening!  I love the "zero divorces" statistic...

The promised recipe...

Turkey Pasta Bake

1 tsp canola oil

1 lb ground turkey

1 coil homemade kielbasa (from the butcher, you could use the one from the grocery store), half chopped, half sliced thin

2 small onions chopped fine

1 medium sized red pepper, chopped fine

salt and pepper to taste, 

1/2 tablespoon dried oregano

1 14 oz can crushed tomatoes

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes (no salt)

1 6 oz can tomato paste 

1/2 tsp salt, 

1/4 tsp pepper

2 cups cottage cheese, or low fat ricotta cheese, 

1/2 cup steamed spinach (or one package, thawed, of frozen chopped), drained

1 300g package of low fat grated mozzarella cheese for sprinkling.

1 12 oz package short whole wheat pasta (I used penne)

1. Grease 9x13 lasagna pan.

2. Mix cottage cheese, spinach, and salt and pepper, set aside.

3. In large saucepan, heat 1 tsp canola oil, brown ground turkey, add onion and red pepper and cook until soft.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Add chopped kielbasa (leave sliced for the end), canned tomatoes and oregano.  Mix well, continue cooking on medium low for 20 minutes, stirring frequently.  Taste and season as needed.
4. Drain pasta, return to pot.  Add cottage cheese mixture and stir well.  Spoon into prepared lasagna pan.  Spoon sauce over noodle mixture, and stir in.  Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and garnish with sliced kielbasa.  Cover with foil and bake in 375F oven for 30 minutes.  Remove foil and continue baking (now at 425F) for 5 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.  Remove from oven (with oven mitts!) and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Leftovers make great lunches!

Happy Packing!

(My apologies if you read through this before and it was missing half the directions...I came back to re read it and see how it looked and realised, that again, blogger had deleted a portion of the post!)

U is for...Unanimous

   When the liking of a food is unanimous in our household, I cheer!  Up until a year or so ago, the list was very short...Spaghetti & meatballs and chicken & black bean stir fry with broccoli and noodles were about it.  Yes, there were other things that my children would eat and loved: macaroni and cheese for example, or baked chicken with rice and peas, chicken quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches...But when I say Unanimous, I mean all of us, and while I will eat those things, they are the foods I make so that everyone eats, not necessarily because I like them. 
   As the parent primarily responsible for the food in our house (I am not saying Mother, because I know that in many homes it is the father or the grandmother, or the big sister who takes on this roll, and not necessarily the Mother), it isn't very often that I make something just because I like it.  I make steak when it is on sale and we haven't had red meat in a while.  Seafood however, I make because I am craving some.  And tonight, we will be having Seafood!  Again though, not because I am craving it or because it is what everyone likes, but because my Mum is here visiting from Montreal and she loves seafood. She is heading home in a few days and it would be nice if we could have it once while she is here. 
    The rest of the week, however, I am shooting for a "unanimously popular"  (where is my English teacher husband?  can I even say that?) menu....
-Spaghetti and turkey meatballs on Tuesday (Turkey Tuesday, don't you know!)
-Caesar salad and baked chicken pieces on Wednesday (I can make both ahead of time and then we avoid the baseball game/dance class/soccer practice rush)
-Chicken Pot Pie (that I am making this afternoon) on Thursday (another silly day: Skating, baseball practice and gymnastics all requiring that folks be somewhere by or before 6pm and then some not home until 7 or 8pm).
-Pizza (frozen for now) and salad on Friday.

 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday lunches will all take care of themselves with leftovers, which means I really only have to "think" for tomorrow's lunches.  But now, I am off to check the fruit situation for the week...Might just be heading to the grocery store AGAIN before the long weekend comes to an end.

Happy Packing!

Making it your own

The one plus to being sick with a kidney infection and sidelined on the couch for a few days was that I got to catch up on my magazine reading!  That, and watching "Oprah" (boy do I miss Oprah).  I pulled out back issues of "Clean Eating" magazine and re-read them.  It is my favourite "new" magazine from the past year.  I bought a few new food magazines ove the last year and some were quite disappointing.  But "Clean Eating", well, I have 5 issues so far, including February 2011.  There is also a website, at least 2 cookbooks, a facebook page and who knows what else.  While I haven't spent too much time on the website, I love the magazine and enjoy the updates that appear on my facebook wall from time to time.  Tosca Reno, the mind, body and spirit behind "Clean Eating" is quite an inspiration. 
One of my favourite parts of the magazine are the menu plans with matching grocery lists.  This has become my "go to" for the holes in our family weekly menus.  Some ideas are as easy as "Clean Tuna salad on whole grain toast with fruit for dessert".  And when the alternative was frozen pizza and popsicles?  Well then, we are ahead on both nutrition and time for those nights when it seems like everyone has to be somewhere all at the same time and we have about 7 and a half minutes to get supper into them.
So, last night, feeling somewhat recovered and hungry enough to feel inspired by my recipe reading, I set about making supper from the February issue.  The recipe, "Clean Chicken and Waffles" calls for making whole grain and grated zucchini waffles (which sounded really good), but I just wasn't up for getting out the waffle maker, so we had Kamut penne noodles with ours.  The chicken and veggies part called for Broccoli Rabe, brussel sprouts and mushrooms.  My crisper had regular broccoli, mushrooms and leeks.  The final change?  Smoked Paprika...
The kids came up from downstairs sniffing the air, "What smells so good?"  
"Your supper", I answered.
"I'll set the table!" my 9 year old grinned.  "Has the cat been fed?" asked my 7 year old.  The older girls began getting plates and glasses out of the cupboard.  Somebody made a jug of orange juice....
...Yes!  Jamie Oliver was right!  Smoked paprika is magic!  (the author of this blog warns readers that these results may not be typical and makes no guarantees that smoked paprika will have this effect on other families)
    And I was in such a good mood, I mixed the bit of leftover chicken and veggies with some leftover brown rice (from another meal) and made "Clean chicken and brown rice wraps" for today's lunches!   Yum Yum yum!  (and cut up melon and pineapple, so not local!, with mixed frozen berries and vanilla yogurt to round out the lunch box).  I love a yummy lunch!
Happy Packing!

Find more yummy clean recipes at www.cleaneatingmag.com