Meal Plan for February 27 - March 5

No special events lined up for this week - here's what we're having for dinner:

Sunday: Baked Cod with Chili-Roasted Carrots and leftover pasta salad from Saturday

Meatless Monday: Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpeas, and Olives, homemade bread, and grapes

Tuesday: Frozen entree (not sure what yet, there's quite a selection in the freezer), brown rice, and green salad

Wednesday: Ginger Chicken with Avocado with brown rice and steamed veggies

Thursday: Chicken Peanut Stew with couscous and steamed broccoli

Friday: Dinner out at a local teriyaki place (with a buy one entree, get one half off coupon - take out for under $15!)

Saturday: Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup (special request from Sean)

Chicken Peanut Stew

This was a staple of the "Stephanie's working a horrible job and Sean's still in school" years. I got it off a message board, maybe? I actually have no idea, I just look in my recipe book now :) It was described as having a West African flair to it. I'd say it's about as authentic as Chinese food from Safeway is.

Chicken Peanut Stew

1 chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
Olive oil
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes and green chiles
1 15 oz can chickpeas
2 tbsp tomato paste (I've omitted this in the past and used a little cornstarch and water because really? what do you do with the rest of the can?)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1-2 tsp cumin
garlic powder to taste

Heat olive oil and chicken over medium heat. Saute with garlic powder until cooked through. Stir in tomatoes & chiles and chickpeas, stirring constantly for one minute. Stir in cumin, broth, and red pepper flakes, cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomato paste and stir until smooth. Add peanut butter and stir until smooth. Replace lid and simmer until thickened. Serve with rice, couscous, or what have you.

Menu Plan for February 20 – February 26

This is what we’re having for supper this week:

Sunday: Nibbler’s adoption day! (See more tomorrow.) Grilled hamburgers, sweet potato fries, and green salad.  Nibbler will be having a mini burger and brown rice.

Monday: Leftovers / TBA. We’re celebrating Sean’s birthday with a belated pizza buffet lunch, so we’re not quite sure if we’ll be hungry for dinner.

Tuesday: Black bean pumpkin soup (subscribers only link), homemade bread. We’re celebrating Meatless Monday today. 

Wednesday: Pilaf with Chicken, Spinach, and Walnuts (from Cooking Light First Foods), carrot sticks (steamed for Henry)

Thursday: Picadillo, applesauce

Friday: “Chinese” peanut butter noodles (whole wheat spaghetti noodles and a Chinese Peanut Dip recipe from Cooking Light First Foods), steamed mixed veggies

Saturday: Tilapia, pasta salad (I'll toss in leftover veggies and make a simple vinaigrette)

Picadillo

Picadillo is a Latin American ground meat dish that I’ve been making variations of for years. I was first introduced to it by a seasoning packet from Whole Foods, and I believe it just called for ground beef and a can of tomatoes. I didn’t think much of it, and we didn’t have it for a while.

But then we started the South Beach diet, of which the beginning stage limits you essentially to meats and vegetables. Tired of salad and stir fries, I found a recipe on a South Beach message board that had a variant of the below recipe. We tried it, and it was delicious (at least it was to me. I think Sean merely tolerated it). It omitted the raisins.

We ate the raisin-less version for a while, not knowing the difference, until I saw another, more authentic version. It was good, but not quite right.

So I combined the two and came up with the following recipe (I’ll omit the tomatoes and olive juice for Henry’s meal):

Picadillo

Olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound ground turkey (or extra lean ground beef, whatever)

½ lb finely chopped cold cut ham (optional, or add less)

1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles undrained

1/4 cup of pimento-stuffed green olives cut in half and a tablespoon if its juice

1/3 cup raisins

½ tsp all purpose seasoning (I use Spike)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes.

Add the turkey and ham and cook, stirring until the turkey is done, about 10 to 15 minutes. Drain off the excess fat. 

Add the remaining ingredients to the meat mixture in the skillet and cook through, another 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with rice or tortillas.

As a side note, I have always seen this described as a Cuban dish. However, according to Wikipedia, the above version is actually a Dominican dish.

Menu Plan for Feb 13 through 19

It's a little unusual for us to be going out twice for dinner in the same week - but we have excuses :)

Sunday - Fried brown rice made with chicken and veggie leftovers

Monday - Heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphys (paid for with gift certificate from Plum District) and green salad
We get this pizza every Valentine's Day in lieu of experiencing an overpriced restaurant meal with loads of other couples.

Tuesday - "Indian" veggie puree w/garbanzo beans, served over brown rice
I steam and puree root veggies and spinach, and simmer with curry seasoning, ginger, tumeric, or whatever else I have on hand.

Wednesday - Roast chicken, asparagus, and homemade applesauce

Thursday - Cheesy veggie soup and homemade bread - I will be making a simple vegetable soup in the crockpot, then adding a can of condensed cheddar cheese soup I found in the recesses of the pantry

Friday - Restaurant mystery shop

Saturday - Chicken and bean soft tacos (made with leftover chicken from Wednesday), homemade applesauce

Applesauce

I LOVE making applesauce. It's so easy and tastes better than anything you can get at the store. The best part is it is just apples - you can add anything else that you want, but it is so nice having a versatile base.

Ingredients:

Apples. Around eight pounds, to be exact. If you get the sweeter varieties like Gala or Fuji, you don't need added sugar. I almost exclusively use Gala.

Directions:

Peel, core, and slice the apples. I like to peel the apples while watching a tv show, then use a corer/slicer to simultaneously core and slice the apples into eight slices each. The slices can be pretty chunky.

Place the apples in a six quart slow cooker. Cook on high for two hours, then stir. The apples should be soft and hot, but not mushy at this point. Turn down the temperature and cook on low for three to four hours. Stir it up, and voila! Chunky applesauce. (If you like a smoother texture, go ahead and puree it.)

For variations, I like to sprinkle some cinnamon in, or blend it with berries.

Enjoy! Perfect for tired mommies, hungry babies, and scrap happy dogs.