What's for dinner? Installment #1

I work full time, Darren works full time. And there is not something new and exciting every night. We plan to eat leftovers at my house. So generally, about 3-4 meals (with planned leftovers) is how we roll for our weekly meal plan.

I try to have a little structure and organization with our meals (like everything in life), but sometimes (especially when we travel on weekends) the meal plan gets made on the back of a receipt, in the truck, on the way back to Blacksburg.

I try to do a meatless meat at least once per week. And a fish entree once per week as well (but we live in SW Virginia, not the beach, so this doesn't always happen if the seafood supply doesn't look good). Also when we have a late night where cooking just doesn't happen (or we suspect it won't) we always have salad stuff on hand to make a big entree salad (greek salads are a favorite lately).


Meatless Monday

For Meatless Monday this week the headliner will be Zucchini Crust Pizza.

I got this idea from "The Gluten Free Vegetarian Kitchen" by Donna Klein (great book with a lot of terrific g-free ideas that are also vegetarian and some lower carb recipes).

Zucchini Crust Pizza

Ingredients

(I'm going to increase the amounts in this recipe, as compared with the cookbook, so we would have extra for lunches and leftovers)

4 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pepper to taste

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 (15 ounce) can Italian-style tomato sauce

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Vegetable toppings (go with what you have! if you have some beautiful broccoli in your garden or some fresh herbs, go wild, this is just what I am going to use).

green bell pepper, chopped

chopped onion

sliced fresh mushrooms

sliced black olives

sliced banana peppers

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Place the zucchini in a colander and sprinkle with salt; let drain for 15 minutes then squeeze out the moisture.
2. Combine the zucchini, eggs, Parmesan, 1 cup mozzarella, and 1/2 cup Monterey Jack in a large bowl. Press the mixture into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Bake, uncovered, in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
3. Mix italian seasoning with italian tomato sauce. Spoon the sauce  (or use premade pizza sauce) mixture over the baked zucchini crust. Top with the bell pepper, mushrooms, black olives, banana peppers, and the remaining mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheeses. Return to the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes or until heated through. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Tuesday

Leftover night (not very excited, but as I like to say....it is what it is)

Tuesday we will have leftover zucchini pizza with caesar salads

Wednesday

Parmesan Baked Salmon

(Modified from Kraft's website and recipe for Baked Salmon)

1/4 cup Light Mayonnaise

2 Tbsp.  Grated Parmesan Cheese

1/8 tsp. ground red pepper (cayenne)

4   salmon fillets (1 lb.), skins removed

2 tsp. lemon juice

*Add a little fresh dill if your herb garden is booming!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix mayo, cheese and pepper until well blended.

Put fish in shallow foil-lined pan; drizzle with lemon juice. Cover with mayo mixture and fresh dill (if you have access to fresh herbs).

Bake approximately 15 min. or until fish flakes easily with fork.

Serve with a fresh green salad and brown rice

Thursday

Breakfast for dinner night!!

This recipe is also from Donna Klein's cookbook (slightly modified by yours truly)

Ingredients

Crustless Spinach Quiche

• 1 1/4 skim milk
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 tablespoon arrowroot flour
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pepper to taste
• 2 cups gfree shredded Swiss, Cheddar, or Monterey Jack cheese ( I think I will go with a sharpe cheddar)
• 1 cup fresh spinach chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease 9 inch pie plate and set aside.

Beat milk, eggs, arrowroot, onion powder, salt, and pepper until blended.

Arrange cheese on bottom of pie plate, top with spinach

Slowly pour egg mixture over the top.

Bake for 40 minutes or until its puffed and brown and knife inserted comes out clean.

Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Serve with a green salad OR for a truly breakfast for dinner night serve with hashbrowns and some nitrate free bacon. We will probably have a green salad  and add some bacon for Darren.

Thursday

Salad night! (We will likely be getting ready for trip I am taking so cooking will be minimal)

I will likely have a green salad with spinach, fresh tomato, banana peppers, cheddar cheese, maybe some avacado topped with my favorite twin oaks tofu  (I know my salad compilation might sound a bit odd but right now the flavors are working well for my tastebuds). Make your own combination up, go crazy in the produce aisle or use what's in your garden (our garden didn't happen this year, we just didnt stay home enough this summer so I have been getting my veggies from the farmers market, mooching off friend's plentiful gardens, or just going to the grocery store).

Twin Oaks tofu is delicious just cutting it into one inch cubes, and tossing into a skillet with a dash of olive oil, salt, pepper, and even a dash of bbq seasoning (I like stubbs bbq seasoning). Saute until browned.

This extra firm tofu should be called 'extra versatile' tofu. If you are new to using tofu, it has a very mild taste that makes it very versatile and easy to season. I've seasoned it with the same things as I've seasoned chicken for Darren and it always tastes delicious. I'll try to come up with a recipe that showcases this tofu for next week's plan.

Darren will likely go for his latest standby the greek salad: spinach, tomato, chickpeas, fat free feta, black olives, and Naturally fresh greek feta dressing. The Naturally Fresh dressings we have tried have been out of this world good. I love their light ranch, and balsamic, and greek feta dressings.

 

 

 

Friday

 

I will be off on a little adventure starting Friday. Darren will likely have some leftovers or maybe go out for a bite on Friday.

 

So there is our meal plan for the week. It's not always super exciting (I'd love to make something new every night but time just doesn't always permit) but here it is. Take from it what you think will work for your family.

 

Have a great week!!