On the topic of food... a (cook)book recommendation

My mum recently gave me a book that I find myself referring to as a "(cook)book" because it is so much more than a collection of recipes. It's called The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time by Laurie David (ex-wife of the producer of Seinfeld, interestingly enough). This book is not only beautiful to flip through and a source of a good variety of recipes (many vegetarian, and many not), but also a real inspiration when it comes to building up the tradition of the family dinner in your home. It's full of anecdotes about family dinner and ideas for connecting with your kids (admittedly older than ours are at the moment) at the table.

When I first got this book, I sat down and read the first 60 pages practically straight through, which is not something I can say about many books at all, let alone cookbooks. And, get this: little a. is extremely drawn to flipping through the pictures in this book - cover to cover - with me! I find that particularly touching, because I have no doubt that this book will be a staple in our home throughout her childhood. Maybe someday I will give her her own copy when she starts a family of her own. Yes, this book really does make me feel that sappy.

Happy reading, and bon appétit!

K - weeknight meal planning for sanity

I was so happy to see some of your meal ideas, and especially recipes! Lately, in the balancing act of life, having something good to eat for supper is one of those challenges that we're really trying to work on. C, when she is well (i.e., not this week!), is eating pretty much what we eat. We do try to keep something on hand that's quick in case she's in a picky mood or our supper is taking too long to prepare. (She loves frozen homemade chicken fingers, cooked veggies with pasta, mini-pitas with humus, banana...) It's only recently that we are all sitting down to eat together, and it takes a lot of coordination because C and J only get home around 6:00, hence the meal planning! But we find that if we can eat right away together, we get to spend a little time with her before bedtime. So, I get off work a bit earlier and motor home in order to have supper ready when they get home.

So, here are the meals we ate the past 2 weeks. Like some of you had mentioned, we're now planning meals on the weekend and getting groceries accordingly. We try to do meals that make good leftovers on Sundays and near the beginning of the week so we have good repeats either for supper or lunches. Things deteriorate a bit the nearer we get to Friday!

Sunday: Quesadilla
Monday: Chicken Casserole (of the Campbell's Soup variety - but we all like it!)
Tuesday: Beef stew (slow cooker)
Wednesday: Salmon and couscous with salad
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Frozen pizza (I love the thin-crust ones that are always on sale at Provigo!!)

Sunday: Tofu & veggie stirfry with rice (bottled sauce)
Monday: Tuna casserole
Tuesday: Leftover stirfry
Wednesday: Leftover casserole
Thursday: Baked chicken and veggies
Friday: Chicken caesar wraps (with leftover chicken from last night)

So this week there was a lot of repetition!! Probably could have planned for an extra meal in there, but we don't mind the leftovers and we had a rough week with C being home sick a lot, so it was nice just to have food in the house that was ready to eat at the touch of a microwave button!

A few notes:
-C LOVES the quesadillas, which consist of: refried beans, shredded chicken, corn, black olives, cheese and salsa. Put it all in whole wheat tortilla and fry in the frying pan. It makes great leftovers! I like to eat them with sour cream and guacamole.

-When I cook chicken (e.g., for the quesadillas), I cook enough for a second meal - last week, we used that the next night in chicken casserole. This week, it was chicken caesar wraps on day 2 (which take about 5 minutes to throw together - a real favourite!)

-Lunch ideas: I'm really tired of sandwiches for lunch, so I like to take leftovers instead and most of these meals do well for travel and re-heat. Another lunch idea I'm enjoying lately is homemade greek salad. I never usually find that salads are enough to fill me up enough, but this one is really quite good:

Greek salad: cucumber, tomato, red onion, black olives, feta cheese, red/green pepper. Olive oil and lemon juice, with a bit of oregano.

I don't have links to any of the recipes, but maybe I'll make a separate post later with a few of the good ones. I'm enjoying seeing all of your ideas too! I'm planning on trying some new things out this weekend based on your suggestions, so I'll let you know how it goes!

M- Mundane Meals

A few of us had once expressed frustration with feeling like we were always eating the same old. "It's not the cooking we mind", we said, "it's the coming up with ideas for a nutritious meal that is quick!". I know I personally feel like this!

So today I change this! I am going to start posting my weekday meal plans and hope to inspire you guys to do the same! By seeing what is one everyone else's menu, we may be inspired to try new recipes! I personally love diving through my cookbooks, cooking magazines, and websites to find new recipes and to come up with my plan for the week. This can be a bit daunting at time! S. had once mentioned that she saw somewhere that it can be helpful to plan your meals around specific themes for specific days. So I will try this...but more on that later!

First - here is what we actually ate two weeks ago:

Sunday - Vegetarian Moroccan Stew
Monday - Pulled Pork Sandwiches (slow cooker)
Tuesday - Spaghetti with Meatsauce (meatsauce from freezer)
Wed - Banger's and Mash (slow cooker recipe from Emma)
Thurs - Pork Fajitas with leftovers from Monday
Fri - ordered in pizza (hey, nobody's perfect!)
Sat - Gnocchi with bacon and pasta sauce (pantry diving!)

So then switching gears to go with themes. I think this will change as I try to get it to feel right.
This should hopefully make it easier to plan the meals and get grocery shopping for the week!
Monday - pasta dish
Tuesday - Slow Cooker
Wednesday - Vegetarian
Thursday - Casserole/Meat Dish
Friday - Fun! (pizza, tacos, order in)

So the plan for this week:
Monday - Linguine with Spinach Pesto (actually was pretty good, substitute spinach for basil)
Tuesday - Lentil-Veggie Soup
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Maple-Glazed Pork tenderloin with baked apples
Friday - homemade pizza

In posting this for each other, I hope to inspire and be inspired but also to feel somewhat accountable for providing my family with good, wholesome foods! Of course, there will be ordering in more often that should happen!!! I look forward to seeing your menus in separate posts so they don't get lost in comments!