Healthy Meals 4th Week January

Here are our final meals of January! How is everyone else doing with their cooking this month? I always love hearing new ideas. You can find our first 3 weeks of meals here: 3rd Week, 2nd Week, 1st Week

Saturday - BBQ Chicken and Rice Casserole

This is a recipe from my Cook Once Eat All Week cookbook. I made it last year and we really enjoyed it. The base of it is rice combined with riced broccoli. It is topped with BBQ sauced chicken and fresh bacon crumbles. It is so tasty that even Ryan ate it, knowing there was riced broccoli in it!

Sunday - Cheeseburger Salad

I cooked up burgers and topped them with cheese and a combo of ketchup/mustard. I served them with lettuce, tomato, pickles and red onion.

Monday - Red Lentil Soup and Sourdough w/ Homemade Butter

The soup looks yellow but it is made with red lentils. It was a basic recipe but really tasty! I made homemade sourdough and then we just happened to make homemade butter that day for our nutrition science curriculum. It was such a delicious totally homemade meal!

These are the red lentils I buy.

Side note: I recently discovered these granola bars and they are SO good! They are grain free and only flavored with natural sweeteners (maple syrup, honey) and so good.

Tuesday - Breakfast Nachos

This started out as breakfast night and then morphed into breakfast nachos. I cooked potato slices and scrambled eggs, and then topped with lettuce, pico de gallo, and guacamole. This meal had so much flavor!

Wednesday - Asian Ground Turkey, Rice, Sauteed Veggies

I was going to make asian turkey lettuce wraps but forgot to buy the boston butter lettuce. I still cooked the turkey and seasoned it with coconut aminos, ginger, garlic, and a touch of garlic chili sauce. On the side I intended to make brown rice but ran out of time, so I just cooked some white rice. (The kids were happy!). I also stir-fried a big pan of onions and celery, which I topped with a drizzle of sesame oil. I had forgotten how much I like stir-fried onions and celery! We also had edamame (Jenna's favorite. We call it Eddie's Mommy).

Thursday - Random Chicken Bean Veggie Combo

I was SO close to buying food this night, but now I can't remember why. I think maybe I had a headache? Finally I decided I could at least cook a little bit of chicken and boil some whole wheat spaghetti noodles. I decided to top mine with garbanzo beans for added protein, since the kids ate most of the chicken and noodles. Then I cooked a frozen package of vegetables from Costco that contained peas, zucchini, green beans, and leeks. I decided it needed something fresh on top, so I diced up a tomato and then added parmesan. This meal made me think of my Mom because it was really random and a mixture of fresh food and leftovers. (She's known for combining strange foods to use them up) It ended up being good!

Friday - Beef and Sweet Potato Stew, Homemade Sourdough

I had a pound of stew meat but no potatoes. However, I did have white sweet potatoes! So I tried out a new stew recipe using sweet potatoes, and I thought it was excellent. Recipe is here. I didn't tell Adam about the potatoes, and he said this version of stew was not his favorite. On the side I warmed up the 2nd sourdough round that I had made earlier in the week. Comforting and nutritious.

Saturday - Baked Chicken Parmesan, Green Beans, Sourdough Garlic Bread

Our final meal of the month! It doesn't look impressive but it was SO good. For the chicken parmesan, I simple spread a thin layer of marinara in a glass pan, and layered thinly sliced chicken breasts on top. I sprinkled with garlic powder and oregano/basil. Then I topped with mozzarella, more sauce, and then parmesan. I baked it for about 30 minutes. I also sliced up the leftover sourdough and topped with butter and garlic salt/parmesan, and then baked for 15 minutes. Finally, I steamed some green beans. The flavors in this meal were amazing, and Andrew and Jenna had seconds and thirds of the chicken!