Freebie

I don't often use pre-packaged meals. I cook nearly everything from scratch. However, I do have to admit that sometimes I just don't get around to it. Like this morning, there is no food in the house because our weekend was so hectic and I didn't get to the grocery store. So in these instances, I may fall back on a frozen meal for my lunch.

Kashi is sending out coupons for a free frozen entree. Get yours while it lasts. It sure would be nice to have that in my freezer this morning to take to work, instead of getting to play guess the mystery meat in the hospital cafeteria!

Free Kashi Frozen Entree

Green Smoothies

The lack of greens in my diet lately prompted me to try an unusual recipe - green smoothies. If you can get past the odd appearance (or disgusting as my kids so delicately put it), these are actually quite good. You can't taste the spinach at all. The beauty of smoothies is that you can throw in whatever fruit you have, and it will still be tasty.

Green Smoothie

1/2 cup kefir (or yogurt)
1/2 cup orange juice
Roughly 3 cups spinach
1 banana
1 apple, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 cup of frozen fruit of your choice (strawberries or blueberries are good)

Pour the kefir and orange juice into the blender. Fill to the top with baby spinach leaves. Blend on high until spinach is broken down and mixture is smooth. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Makes about 3 - 1 cup servings. I found that this freezes well. Just thaw it the night before and stir it up a bit.

Note: If your blender can handle it, leave the apple unpeeled for extra fiber. Just core and slice.

Maple-Glazed Salmon

Let me just start off by saying that I don't like fish. I think it stems from memories of the nasty smell that filled the house the one time my mom made fish sticks when I was growing up. Or it could be that I have some sort of weird mental block because I always had fish as pets when I was little. Whatever the reason, the thought of eating fish totally disgusts me. I always feel like a bit of a hypocrite when I am counseling cardiac patients to eat fish because of the benefits of the omega-3s. I hate counseling them to do something that know I won't do myself. (I could go off on a tangent here about how my preceptor made me try Ensure since I am so fond of recommending it to patients, but I will save that fun experience for another post.) Anyway, for awhile I was subjecting the family to tilapia once a week to get those beneficial omega-3's. That ended though when I read a study in the ADA journal about how farm-raised tilapia really isn't such a great source of omega-3's after all. I was greatly relieved to no longer feel obligated to put it on my menu. I recently found a recipe in a magazine that has convinced me to give fish another try. According to Mr. Organic, salmon has a better flavor than the tilapia we had been eating. Of course this was the same man who somehow convinced me to try calamari in Cancun by telling me it tasted like chicken!

Maple-Glazed Salmon (From the Dec. issue of All You magazine)
2 tbs real maple syrup
2 tbs dijon mustard
1/4 tsp garlic powder
4 - 6 oz salmon fillets
salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or non-stick foil. In a small bowl, stir together the maple syrup, mustard, and garlic powder. Place salmon, skin side down, on baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with salt and brush with maple syrup mixture. Bake until fish is just cooked through and flakes easily with a fork, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Menu Plan Mondays (2/16)

Here is what the 6 of us are eating this week.

Sunday
Chicken quesadilla wraps made with homemade tortillas and using this recipe for the filling
Butternut squash soup
Leftover quinoa salad

Monday
Chicken asparagus bake
recipe originally from Clean Eating magazine but I mutated it a bit.

Tuesday
Pizza meatloaf
Make ahead potatoes
Steamed carrots

Wednesday
Homemade mac and cheese (from Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook)
edamame
tomato spinach soup

Thursday
Maple grilled salmon (from Woman's Day magazine, I think)
Twice baked potatoes
Steamed broccoli

Friday
Ham and ricotta pizza with a homemade soaked crust (I used half kamut)
Roasted Red Pepper Cauliflower soup
Cantaloupe

Saturday
Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet

Visit Organizing Junkie for more great meal plan ideas.

So my poor neglected blog is a casualty of my insane school and work schedule this semester. Five classes and what amounts to a full-time job (even if I am not getting paid) means that certain things fall to the wayside. I am going to attempt to update it at least weekly with my weekly menu planning. No promises though.