24

ooey, gooey, cheesy goodness, anyone? welcome to dinner: i sauteed broccoli, cauliflower, and onion; made creamy bulgur wheat; threw everything together in the pot with a homemade cheddar cheese sauce, and sprinkled chopped pecans and bread crumbs on top, baked at 400 for about 20 minutes. cantaloupe on the side, and dinner is served!

23

i think anyone would love breakfast for dinner if they had the right plate in front of them. david said this one tasted like eggs benedict! here's the pile: whole wheat toast, one egg crepe, steamed asparagus, creamy cannellini beans (sauteed shredded carrot and onion, mashed cannellini beans, sour cream, lemon juice, parsley, s+p), and a steam veggie pack on the side.

22

oxymoron meal: whole wheat pasta with homemade tomato sauce and veggie meatballs. yes, veggie meatballs. we found them at costco, and thought we'd give them a try. they were very thanksgiving stuffing-like in texture, full of veggies and seeds, and overall not too bad. on the side: steamed snap peas and carrot-slaw (shredded carrot, apple, craisins, walnuts, and chopped asparagus)

21

another fabulously stuffed roasted squash. this time: butternut squash stuffed with bulgur wheat, sauteed apples, onions, celery, tri-color peppers, topped with parmigiano-reggiano. YUM. on the side: sicilian-style beans and greens--the recipe called for raisins, carrots, red onion, cannellini beans, and escarole, but i used swiss chard from the co-op.

19 & 20

last saturday we had a grilling dinner with the elders' quorum from church...and yes, we brought veggie burgers. it was david's first-ever veggie burger, and it was a success! i wish i had a photo.

sunday was leftover day: wild rice and lentils with sauteed veggies, cauliflower pasta, and a beautiful mango from the co-op.

18.

i asked david if he had any requests for a fun friday night dinner, and he said he wanted a big bowl of ground beef topped with cheez whiz. i told him he was off his rocker. if he wanted a meal with meat, i'm totally fine doing that, but i will never serve a bowl of ground-up fattiness topped with radiation-orange fake cheez product that can't even be spelled correctly because there isn't enough of the real food to qualify as cheese.

so we had the next best thing: broccoli pizza.

17.

i know a monochromatic meal is typically a sign of low nutrition, but this pasta dish does actually hold some substance:

sauteed cauliflower (super high in vitamin c and lots of the b vitamins, potassium)

onions (pretty high in vitamin c, known for quercetin, an anti-inflammatory flavonoid)

cannellini beans (magnesium, fiber, folate, protein, and twice as much iron as beef, believe it or not!!)

grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese throughout (calcium, protein)

16.

i usually equate soup with the fall or winter, but today was overcast and rainy. so we had chickpea, potato, and spinach soup with cheese and chive biscuits. very creamy and satisfying!

15.

if you want the flavor of a quiche without the fuss of a quiche, a spinach and cheese strata is the way to go! thanks, america's test kitchen cookbook, for the great recipe! on the side--baked sweet potatoes with sauteed peppers.

14.

stuffed acorn squash with spinach salad and ciabatta. in the squash: sauteed carrot, onion, celery, red pepper, chopped walnuts, wild rice, lentils, egg/bread crumbs as a binder, s+p/herbs, and freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese. SO GOOD. david and i love any squash roasted, and the filling here was so flavorful and satisfying. david said he felt like he was eating ground beef!

10; 11-13

spinach and potato galette with roasted tomatoes. after reading through the recipe, i decided to add a bit more flavor and turned it into a potato lasagna, of sorts.

i made so many different recipes last week, and didn't half any of them...so we ate leftovers all weekend long. literally. i am not a leftovers girl, so i have to say thanks to our friends chris and jenny and their kids for helping us eat the turnip gratin, risotto, potato lasagna, tzatziki, and any other leftover i am blocking from my memory!

9.

pumpkin and pistachio risotto and caprese salad. i think i was supposed to have been italian... the pumpkins came from our garden last year. they've been hanging out in the garage all winter, so it was nice to find a recipe that used whole pumpkin instead of pureed. although i may still use the last pumpkin to steam and make a fresh pumpkin pie!

8.

my menu has changed slightly this week due to the fresh veggies we got from the co-op that need to be used up. tonight was a full co-op meal: turnip gratin (good news: tastes just like potato gratin), sauteed green beans, yellow squash, and pecans, 9-grain bread with jam.

7.

huevos rancheros anyone? david and i agree next time it needs a salad component--chopped romaine and fresh tomatoes on top. i wanted something green, too, so i was getting an avacado ready, but it was rotten. that was the first time i'd seen any sort of fruit or veggie fuzzy on the inside!...ew.

6.

we always just heat up leftovers on sundays. especially now with church from 1-4, it's so much easier to come home and just heat something up and eat, instead of taking time to make a big meal. so leftovers on sunday...

reheated polenta and beans, and rosti pancakes. i took the leftover rosti we had (essentially a hashbrown pie with wild rice and onions), added the carrot puree, and mixed it all up with a pancake batter. they were...interesting...definitely a savory pancake NOT worth repeating! i also had leftover pie dough from apple pies i made last sunday, so i whipped up a couple of blueberry crumble pies. we had a lot of dessert after not enjoying dinner so much...

5.

veggie pizza!! we love having homemade pizza on the weekends. i was just going to make pizza margarita, but we had so many veggies still in the fridge, we decided to make veggie pizza with a spinach cesaer salad on the side.

4.

breakfast: oatmeal squares cereal, fruit

lunch: tomato sandwiches, leftover steamed veggies, baked chips, and we shared the last slice of homemade apple pie

dinner: there is nothing better than a big plate of pasta at the end of a long week! except maybe a big bowl of pasta (butternut squash and spinach ravioli) covered in my homemade 7-veggie tomato sauce and parmesan cheese!

3.

breakfast: homemade granola cereal, dried apricots

lunch: tzatziki with tomato slices and feta, pita, almonds, popcorn, v8 fusion

dinner: cheesy polenta with black beans/salsa/tomatoes/cottage cheese/guacamole (now that's a plate!)

2.

breakfast: cottage cheese and fruit, wheat toast

lunch: egg salad roll up with spinach, red/yellow/orange pepper slices, baked chips

dinner: wild rice and potato rosti with carrot puree, steamed veggies, mango and orange slices, wheat toast

1.

being the domestic goddess that i am, i derive great pleasure from catering to david's dinner requests. i love to cook, and love to eat what i cook even more, so it's a win-win. he mentioned last week he'd like to go meatless for a while. i always plan at least 2 meatless dinners a week, but we decided to try to go meatless for the whole month of march. we bid farewell to february with five guys, and began meatless today. i'm not saying vegetarian because we're still doing eggs and animal products. although i guess cutting those would be vegan, not vegetarian...anyway, time to put my nutrition skills to the test!

breakfast: oatmeal with banana, walnuts and maple syrup

lunch: tzatziki with pita and feta cheese crumbles, greek yogurt (pomegranate flavor!), fruit, almonds, v8 fusion juice

dinner: quinoa pilaf with apples and pecans, baked sweet potato with sauteed peppers, spinach salad