I always loved cooking and writing about food, but these days I spend a lot less (okay, none) of my time fully developing recipes like I used to. So I want to get into recapping what we eat in a week, and I think it’s going to be fun. I hope you’ll find a new favorite recipe or some meal inspiration in these posts!
You don’t get food pics this week, except for the old one above, because I completely forgot I planned on doing this. But in the future, I’ll aim for some pictures. I’ll also try to get a price on everything, but again, forgot I planned on doing this and tossed the receipts, so I’m not sure exactly what I ended up using this week.
Snacks are not included below because we’re working from home, snacks happen frequently, and I don’t feel like keeping track of every thing that goes in my mouth. That said, this week, they included pineapple, watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, toast, a spoonful of peanut butter, a handful of chocolate or mixed nuts, kombucha, and cottage cheese. Oh, and a lone Pop-Tart Jack brought back from drill. It was less good than I remembered, but that doesn’t mean it was bad.
Here goes nothing.
Sunday
Jack was at drill. My dad asked if I wanted to go to the dog park so the boys could meet their new dog. I said yes, and hurried up and went to the grocery store so I wouldn’t have to go later.
We ended up not going to the dog park due to rain, so I walked the boys, did some yoga and was about to eat lunch and hop in the shower when my dad said it wasn’t raining near them anymore. I grabbed a piece of toast and a La Colombe latte (I drink black coffee 99% of the time, but I was curious and it was tasty) to tide me over, and headed out the door.
I showered and had a piece of avocado toast and a piece of peanut butter toast, plus half a banana when we got home. The dogs had the other half of the banana, plus a little peanut butter.
Jack got home in the early evening and we hung out and watched The Wire, planning on getting Chipotle later. Neither of us got hungry again, but I had a couple glasses of white wine before we fell asleep.
It was a weird day.
Monday
I had errands to run and a morning full of meetings. Even though I grabbed a Perfect Bar while I was at the store, I was still starving by 11, so we ordered Chipotle for lunch.
I got a salad with light white rice, black beans, fajita vegetables, chicken, guac, tomatoes, and cheese, plus Tabasco. Plus chips and guac. It was perfect. Jack had a burrito plus chips and guac.
For dinner, we had these Mediterranean Turkey Burgers on sourdough buns with roasted broccoli. They were so good I’m making them again next week. I added some roasted red peppers to the artichoke feta spread because I needed extra liquid to make it blend, but didn’t want to just add water and make it bland. I’m pretty sure it just made it even better, because roasted red peppers are awesome.
I recently discovered relatively recently that I actually like ground turkey, after growing up with the notion that ground poultry is disgusting (thx, Mom). It’s kind of awesome, and it works super well here. I doubled the recipe so we’d have 8 burgers instead of 4, because leftovers are awesome.
Tuesday
I had a few spoonfuls of cottage cheese and some peanut butter toast for breakfast.
Lunch was a little more than one leftover burger crumbled on a salad with romaine, spinach, roasted red pepper, leftover roasted broccoli, feta, pine nuts, and the artichoke feta spread as dressing. I want that salad forever.
We made Peanut Chicken Zucchini Noodles for dinner, minus the red pepper because I cut one open and it was horrifyingly moldy inside. I added extra red cabbage to attempt to make up for it, and next time I’ll probably also add shiitake mushrooms. It’s a really good meal for eating a lot of vegetables but also not feeling like you’re eating a giant salad. We love it.
I started this All Butter Pie Crust after dinner, since Jack requested pumpkin pie as his birthday dessert. He asked if I make good pumpkin pie. I very confidently said yes, because I knew Sally had a pumpkin pie recipe and therefore was pretty sure I could pull it off. Sally has the best dessert recipes.
Wednesday
Breakfast was a lot of cottage cheese and a piece of peanut butter toast. I was super hungry and wanted all the protein.
Lunch was a repeat of the day before because it was so awesome.
I made this pumpkin pie around lunchtime so it would have time to cool before after-dinner dessert. The pie crust from the night before worked out beautifully. I had extra high hopes because the filling was pretty freaking good even before being cooked.
I made cast-iron butter-soaked ribeyes for dinner, along with roasted potatoes and asparagus. Steak, potatoes, and asparagus is Jack’s favorite meal, and he makes it for me almost every Sunday. We switched it up a little this week. I loosely followed this recipe for the steaks.
It was all awesome. It was easily the best pie crust and the best pumpkin pie either of us have ever had. And now I know I can make pie, I want to make ALL the pies.
Thursday
I had cottage cheese with peanut butter toast for breakfast again, and leftover peanut noodles for lunch.
And then I made dinner Hoisin-Glazed Salmon (one of our favorite salmon recipes) plus this Smashed Cucumber Salad with Sesame. It was awesome and light and refreshing.
Also, I really wanted brownies but didn’t have all the ingredients, so I settled for these Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. I doubled the recipe since we don’t have a square baking pan. Actually, I’m pretty sure I have one and I packed it away in storage. I made these for the first time when we went to the beach in June (post on that next week), and they’re awesome. This time, I messed them up a little and totally left out the white sugar, but since they have so much chocolate, they’re plenty sweet. Just extra soft.
Friday
We made the most difficult avocado toast ever for breakfast. I cut open 6 avocados that were totally fine on the outside but grey on the inside, radiating from the pit outward. It was dumb, but we finally found a couple suitable ones.
I used leftovers from Wednesday’s steak dinner to make lunch salads of ribeye, roasted potatoes, roasted asparagus, grape tomatoes, Parmesan, spinach, romaine, butter lettuce, and balsamic dressing.
And for dinner we had Five Guys, milkshakes included, because Jack was trying to make me decide what I wanted between Chipotle and Five Guys. He was leaning toward Chipotle. But then he asked if I wanted a milkshake and I couldn’t get Five Guys out of my head.
Saturday
I ate some cottage cheese with a banana for breakfast. The dogs each got a chunk of banana and took turns licking the cottage cheese container when I was done.
We ordered Chipotle for lunch again because when I decided on burgers last night, I said we could do Chipotle for lunch today.
And we’re going out to dinner with Jack’s mom tonight to celebrate his birthday.
Your turn:
What’s the best thing you ate this week?
