Weekly meals August 31 – September 4

Meal updates from last week:
The vermicelli salad with pork was amazing!  The recipe says to skewer your pork onto lemongrass stalks, but I couldn’t find any so I grilled the tenderloin right on the BBQ.  The marinade for the pork made the meat so tender.  The chicken shawarma bowls were a bit of a miss, only because I added feta on top of the salad not realizing that it had gone bad!  So I had to take all the lettuce out and rinse then vegetables.  I was so mad!  I also made some tzatziki and added it to the top of the salad.  I never made the mushroom ramen as I took the kids out to eat.  Friday night we ordered the family feast from @thegoose, it included a whole roasted chicken, fries, roasted veggies and a large kale caesar.  I decided to add another side of roasted beets.  For dessert I made a skillet chocolate chip cookie!  It was massive and thick, topped with vanilla ice cream, it was the perfect dessert!

This week is a BIG one!  Everyone will be back to school, child care and work.  I cannot believe that it has been almost 6 months since the last in-class learning!  It is not a full week for anyone, as students are being staggered into classes.  Summer baseball is also coming to an end, we are so thankful that our son got to participate in an activity this summer.

We will be eating at home Sunday-Thursday, this weekend we are heading to the mountains for some family time, and to celebrate my mom’s birthday.  Slight curveball this week, I have asked my son and husband to plan and cook dinner one night.  We will see how that goes?!

• Classy chicken from @bestofbridge starting the week off with a family comfort recipe, just to ease the back to school nerves.  Served as always with egg noodles.
• BLT salad with buttermilk dressing from @marthastewart another family favourite, my kids LOVE the croutons and could eat just those for dinner!  I have some leftover corn from last week, so I am going to add it fresh to the salad.
• Greek turkey burgers from @skinnytaste we will have some tots and a simple salad on the side.
• Minestrone with kale and sausage from @foodnetwork this soup is one of our favourites, I am going to use some leftover spinach instead of kale.
• This meal will be planned, shopped and prepared by my husband and son.  I will report back to let you know what they made.

There won’t be a lot of time to bake this week, I have a ton of bananas in the freezer as well as a zucchini in the fridge.  I was hoping to make a lemon zucchini loaf from @twopeasandtheirpod, but it all depends on how much time I have.  Back to school meal planning made easy with grocery list 137

Stay safe and happy back to school,
Sara

Weekly meals August 17 – August 21

Meal updates from last week:
My husband and I loved the Sicilian pasta!  I used rigatoni pasta for this recipe, and we topped it with fresh parm and some torn basil.  We all really enjoyed the tacos, I didn’t have any turkey in the freezer, so I used ground beef instead, they turned out just as good.  I picked some zucchini last week and grated two of the smaller ones into the taco meat, with the larger one I made a batch of chocolate chip zucchini muffins.  This weekend we ate out on Friday night and then were invited to friends for dinner Saturday night.

This week the weather is supposed to remain HOT, so I will be trying to use the grill and make large salads.  We are getting ready for back to school, so our late nights and sleeping in days are coming to a close!  I still have a large zucchini left and found a recipe from @pinchofyum for gluten-free zucchini muffins.  Head to her Instagram feed for the recipe.

• Mexi salad from Mandy’s Gourmet Salads cookbook, I paired this salad with some sautéed shrimp.  Find a similar Mexican salad recipe here.  I seasoned the shrimp with some cumin, salt and chili powder these complimented the salad flavours perfectly.  As I mentioned last week this cookbook is amazing (and a steal of a deal $21 on Amazon)!  I will be using it three times this week for recipes.
• Wolfe salad from Mandy’s cookbook, find a similar recipe for arugula and quinoa salad here.  I won’t be using quinoa as it is not our favourite, instead I will use some steamed brown rice.  Our salad protein will be marinaded chicken thighs.  I will use the marinade from the spring roll bowl recipe from @littlebrokenblog.  This is the best marinade!
• I am keeping it simple tonight with some BBQ beef burgers, black bean burgers, grilled corn, baked beans and tots.  I am trying a new veggie burger that came recommended from a friend.  I will let you know what I think.
• Spicy noodles with pork, scallions and bok choy from @cookinglight I will need to use the stove for this meal, but this is the only time this week.
• We are heading to friends for dinner and I will be taking the Shanghai salad from Mandy’s.  As I mentioned last week, I made this salad but used the tamari dressing instead of the dressing from the recipe.  Find a similar tamari dressing recipe here.

Other than making the gluten free zucchini muffins I don’t have plans to bake.  I did buy a large bag of peaches this weekend at the market, but I’m not sure if I will use them to bake, or we will just eat them fresh.  Blueberries are still plentiful and very inexpensive, so there may be more muffins in my future. Grocery list 135 is back!

Stay healthy,
Sara