Week of Dinners #7

Here is our latest week of dinners! I realized I hadn't documented any dinners for the past month. Now that the holidays are all behind us I was anxious to start cooking some better food. I also really want to start preparing some freezer meals for when baby comes. I've done this before and it was so helpful. Here is my blog about freezer cooking before Jenna was born: http://nullybabyblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/freezer-cooking-gone-wild.html

I loved having all that food in the freezer. The only problem is that 90% of it were meals my boys wouldn't eat. This time around I want to make fewer casserole-type meals, because the kids won't eat them. What picky-kid-friendly freezer meals can you recommend? I want to get started soon!

Ok, on to our meals from last week:

Sunday: Cod, Whole Wheat Couscous/Quinoa, Broccoli

We had just returned home from the Bay Area and our fridge was pretty bare. I dug some frozen broccoli out of the freezer. On the side I microwaved one of those single serve quinoa bowls. Then I cooked the last of our whole wheat couscous and mixed it all together. It turned out pretty tasty! I also cooked this frozen cod I got from Costco. It has great flavor.

For the kids I baked these fish sticks, also from Costco.

Monday: Steak, Baked Potato, Salad

I found this grass-fed steak on a great clearance, so I snatched it up. I pan-seared it and just seasoned with salt and pepper. I dip my steak in Worcestershire (so does Ryan). On the side I baked a few Yukon gold potatoes and made a big salad of lettuce, cucumber, radish, cherry tomatoes, and avocado.

Tuesday: One-Pan Pesto Chicken and Veggies

This was a new recipe for us. Here is the link: http://juliasalbum.com/2016/06/one-pan-pesto-chicken-and-veggies/ It contained chicken breast, pesto, cherry tomatoes, green beans (instead of asparagus), and sun-dried tomatoes. I served it over whole wheat thin spaghetti and topped with parmesan. Adam doesn't typically like pesto but he really liked this!

Wednesday: Ham and Bean Soup, Whole Wheat Rolls

I had ham in the freezer leftover from Christmas, so I defrosted it and chopped it up to make this ham and bean soup. Recipe is here: http://www.artandthekitchen.com/ham-and-bean-soup/
Now bean soup isn't generally Adam's favorite. And neither is ham. But Adam and I both love this soup. It has terrific flavor. On the side we had buttered whole wheat rolls, also defrosted from Christmas. Here is a close-up of the soup.

Thursday: Turkey Taco Quinoa Skillet

Another new recipe! http://www.spoonfulofflavor.com/2016/01/20/turkey-taco-quinoa-skillet/

I make tacos quite frequently because Adam and Ryan both love them. But sometimes I just get tired of making the same old thing. I found this recipe online and it sounded easy and healthy. It was basically a one-pan meal with ground turkey, seasonings, quinoa, corn, black beans, tomatoes, green chiles and cheese. I thought it was just okay. The flavor was good but we weren't exactly sure how to eat it. I guess I could have gotten out tortillas to put it in, but instead I ate mine salad style, over lettuce. I added avocado and tomatoes on top to freshen it up. Not sure I'd make this one again.

 Friday: Baked Ziti, Garlic Bread, Green Beans

Adam requested that I make baked ziti one night this week. Back in high school we used to walk to the nearby mall food court at lunchtime. Adam always got baked ziti from Sbarro. But he had a bad habit of leaving his leftovers in his locker, and so you can guess what his locker used to smell like. So anyways, baked ziti reminds me of when Adam and I were dating in high school. I looked online for copycat Sbarro ziti recipes, and settled on this one: http://www.food.com/recipe/copycat-sbarro-baked-ziti-217908
I had such high hopes for this dinner but I thought it was pretty bland. I added a little extra sauce on top, but it still seemed like it needed something. My Dad was here for dinner so he kindly brought us some garlic bread. I was going to cook the rest of our fresh green beans from earlier in the week but they had already gone bad, so I just opened a can of green beans.

What recipes have you tried recently?