Last Week's Menus - October 12th - 16th

This last week has been pretty hectic. My husband has been working on German time, so he's been up by 3am and on conference calls all morning and afternoon. On the plus side, he's been coming home from work early and we've been getting to bed pretty early. We've also moved up our son's dinner time by an hour to 6-6:30 PM, to help him try to go to bed a little earlier (which hasn't really worked yet - but one can hope).

In addition to making dinner, I've been getting ready to can some apple sauce all week. We went apple picking last Sunday and I've been prepping everything in stages. First, I washed all the apples and let them dry, then a couple of days later, cored and cooked them, the next day, they got blended and the next they got reheated and canned. So all in all, a full week long process. This does, however, mean that we now have enough apple sauce for the coming year. Yippeee...

Monday - Fenugreek, Green Peas, and Cottage Cheese

Tuesday - BBQ  Roast Chicken, Brussels Sprouts, and a ready salad

Wednesday - Spicy Khichdi with Vegetables

Thursday - Turkey lettuce wraps

Friday - Scrambled Eggs and Polish Kielbasa

Turkey Lettuce Wraps

These are the easiest thing to make in a pinch; especially if you have leftover turkey breast sitting in your fridge.

1 cooked turkey breast, chopped into small cubes
1 stick celery, cut into small cubes
2-3 radish, cut into small cubes
1 medium sweet pepper, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup shredded cheddar
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1-2 tbsp milk
10-12 whole leaves romaine lettuce, washed and dried

In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, mustard, salt, pepper, and milk. Put in milk, a little at a time till you get it to the desired consistency.

In a separate bowl, mix together the turkey, celery, peppers, and radish, then fold in the cheese. Stir in the mayonnaise mixture and stir until evenly coated. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Spoon the turkey mixture into the leaves of lettuce allowing space to fold the tops of the lettuce over. Serve immediately with chips or fries.

NOTES-
*If you don't have a ready turkey breast in the fridge use turkey (or any other meat) luncheon meat.

Last Week's Dinner Menus

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Since my son was born last year, this house has been a permanent disaster where I have been struggling to get organized and get things done. I'm sure you've heard this before from other people, but I've found that making some sort of meal plan helps me get something other than a frozen pizza on the table at dinner time. And now that our son is eating the same food as us, and is sitting at the table with us, I've been trying to make our meals a little more healthy. To add to it, in an attempt to lose some weight I have been on a low-carb diet, which means no carbs for dinner. So, everything we make has to have the option of rice or bread on the side.

Making these meal plans on a Saturday or Sunday also means I get the groceries for the week all at one time, and don't have to keep running to the store for 1 or 2 things. I am going to try and post our meal plan every week, along with the links to some recipes I may have already put up here. I have got to tell you, that despite these meal plans, we end up eating a bag of steamed vegetables and some Tyson's chicken, or meatballs once a week.

My plans are only for the weekdays, because we usually go out for dinner on Saturdays and eat all the weeks leftovers on Sundays. I make large quantities for dinner so that my husband can take leftovers for lunch the next day too; while D and I eat sandwiches, yogurt, or mac n cheese.

Monday - Easy Prep Turkey Moussaka and a ready bag of salad
Tuesday - Lentils with carrots and Kachumbar
Wednesday - Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup, Ready-to-bake Honeysuckle White Turkey breast
Thursday - Moroccan Chicken Stew with garlic bread
Friday - Gorton's Beer Batter Fish and Steamed Vegetables with herbs

NOTES - For Tuesday's dinner,  I added a handful of baby carrots to the lentils before putting the lid on the pressure cooker, so that we would have some vegetable in our lentils.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

A friend of mine had forwarded me this recipe by Food Network's Ina Garten several years ago, and I finally got around to trying it. At first I made the soup exactly like the recipe states, but I found that there was too much cider, and that it had become too sweet and too sour, so to mellow those flavors i added a little more curry powder and a little chili powder, for the most part the recipe is exactly the same.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

2 tbsp olive oil
3 large yellow onions, chopped
4 tablespoons mild curry powder
1/2 tsp chili powder

2 large butternut squash
4 sweet apples, such as McIntosh
Salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups water
2 cups good apple cider or juice

Peel the squash, cut in half, remove the seeds and cut into chunks. Peel, quarter, and core the apples. Cut into chunks.

In a large stockpot warm the olive oil, add onions, chili powder, and curry powder; cook over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the onions are tender. Stir occasionally, scraping the bottom of the pot.

Add the squash, apples, salt, pepper, and 2 cups of water to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook over low heat for 30 to 40 minutes, until the squash and apples are very soft. Puree the soup coarsely in a food processor or use an immersion blender.

Pour the soup back into the pot. Add the apple cider or juice and enough water to make the soup the consistency you like; it should be slightly sweet and quite thick. Check the salt and pepper and serve hot.