Are we still on stay at home orders or are we not? For many of us around the country, that is the question. Where I live, our County has lifted the stay at home mandate, but the state has not. So who’s the boss?

No matter the rules, my family has decided we aren’t changing anything right now. According to the experts, virus cases have not yet peaked in NC so we are still playing it cautious.

Whether you’re slowly getting back to a normal routine or still firmly planted at home, I hope this week of meal show-and-tell and new ideas will be helpful to you. And don’t forget, if you’ve made something extra tasty this week, please share in the comments. We all need more ideas!

Here’s a recap of last week’s meals (we diverged a bit from the original plan). I’ll tell you what I planned, but what we really ended up eating and why.

What we really ate last week

Monday: Ham soup made with ham broth from the freezer, lots of vegetables, some ham and a little rice. This was really delicious on a chilly night and we all loved it.

Tuesday: The plan was hotdogs and salad, but we still had leftovers from the weekend (Shepherd’s Pie, lasagna and soup from Monday night). Everyone chose what they wanted and I made myself a little stir-fry. My son worked Monday night (he’s a server at a retirement home) and he brought home dinner of grilled shrimp, squash, some sort of green vegetables (we couldn’t tell what it was, but smelled like broccoli to me!) and rice. He only ate about half of it, so I sautéed the squash and mystery vegetable, added in the rice, the couple shrimp that were left, got that all hot and then added in a couple eggs to make like a fried rice. I served it with coconut aminos. It was super tasty!

I also decided how I wanted to treat myself for passing the National Board exam for Health and Wellness Coaches – snickerdoodles! I have eaten approximately 25,000 of these cookies this week. 🙂 They’re just so perfect and delicious. They demand to be eaten in great quantities. Make some yourself and see.

Wednesday: The plan was tuna salad or tuna casserole, but this ended up being a warm night so we had our Chinese take-out this night. Everyone loved this little parking lot picnic. We devoured everything and I forgot to take a picture.

Thursday: The plan was burgers, sweet potato fries and okra, but I scrapped that plan because all of those ingredients will last a while. I had some vegetables I wanted to use up so I made the tuna noodle casserole. I didn’t have enough squash so I added in a bunch of broccoli too. I also found a half a pound of sausage in the fridge that really needed to be cooked so I added that. And, oh yeah, my canned salmon was older than my canned tuna so I put in the two cans of salmon and one can of tuna. I ended up just calling it “casserole” since it was a pretty far cry from the tuna noodle casserole I set out to make. Three out of four Heinzes liked this meal, although we all agreed it was strange. 🙂

Friday: Crazy Crust Pizza  – look for this recipe on the website and YouTube soon. Sausage, pepperoni, lots of veggies. Just a really great, basic, easy, gluten free pizza that is super easy to customize at home.

Saturday: Because I’m filming the pizza recipe on Friday, our normal “kids learn to cook” night, and my son really wanted to cook shrimp anyway, we had shrimp Saturday night. In my weekly plan, I said that weekend plans were up in the air, but this shrimp salad is what I had penciled in. It’s just a basic spinach salad with hot bacon dressing and grilled shrimp. It feels light, but is still filling. You can add in whatever fresh veggies you like. And you can top with any meat or seafood you have on hand. We added a little crumbled goat cheese and fresh strawberries to make it extra special.

Sunday: Grilled sandwiches, kale salad, corn (off) the cob and tomato soup. My dad dropped off some gluten free bread from a local bakery so we used that to make grilled cheese sandwiches, which felt extra indulgent somehow. Kale salad recipe is here. The tomato soup is super duper simple. It’s actually a recipe from Trim Healthy Mama that is on the web so I can share it with you here:

1. 1. Pour 1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce into small saucepan.
   2. Add about 1 cup of water or chicken broth – I recommend broth if you have it
   3. Add 2-4 Tbs. heavy cream or dairy free milk/cream of your choice
   4. Add 1 tsp Pure Stevia Extract Powder or just a drizzle of honey or maple syrup
   5. Add sea salt, black pepper to taste and optional cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes
   6. Heat through and enjoy

The plan for this week

This week’s meal plan is full of recipe experiments. They will either turn out well and you will see them here in the future or they will turn out poorly and you will not see them here. 🙂

Monday: Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

• This one actually isn’t an experiment (see the gravy recipe here), but the biscuits are a new creation and I’m wondering how this version will hold up to the gravy.
• My son has been asking for me to make this for at least a year and I’ve just been putting it off. We love it and it’s delicious, but it feels so darn unhealthy, I just can’t bring myself to make it very often. Of course, this version is way healthier than any restaurant version, but even still, it’s not a salad!
• We will serve this light dinner (ha ha) with a big fresh fruit salad – assuming there is any fresh fruit left. If not, I’ll defrost some frozen berries or I might go on the hunt for some fresh strawberries around town. Friends have told me there are some strawberry farmer stands set up nearby, but I just haven’t been out to find out for myself.

Tuesday: For Cinco de Mayo and Taco Tuesday (how wonderful that they merged this year) we are having Taco and Rice Soup in the Instant Pot

• Super easy recipe made with basic ingredients like ground beef, salsa, a few vegetables (totally flexible on which ones), coconut milk and cauliflower rice. Lots of easy substitutions with this one. I will be using some of our leftover tomato soup from Sunday night.
• There will be lots of vegetables in the soup so you can add a salad to the side if you want or maybe just some chips to dip in the soup (Siete Foods grain free tortilla chips are really good! Plantain chips would also be great.)

Wednesday: Pizza egg bites

• This recipe is intended to be an easy, kid-friendly, intro. to paleo sort of recipe. We’ll see how it turns out!
• Will be served with some sort of vegetable. My fresh produce is dwindling, so may be frozen okra that I will just roast in the oven.

Thursday: Butternut squash and sausage risotto

• I’m creating this one for hopefully a fall launch because it seems like a fall recipe, doesn’t it? I just found butternut squash at the grocery store last time (weird times = weird food) so I picked some up and thought I’d get creative.
• We will have something green to go alongside. My spinach patch is coming along great so maybe some fresh spinach or I might even stir some into the risotto. I’m planning to use cauliflower rice instead of traditional rice so this main dish will be veggie packed anyway.

Friday: Lemon Chicken Picatta

• Because there has been a jar of capers in my fridge for…I don’t know how long. And I have some lovely lemons. And chicken. Enough said.
• I might make this extra saucy and serve it with some gluten free pasta, which is always a hit around here.
• This will be “Kids learn to cook” night and this is basically a sauté the meat, deglaze the pan and make a sauce dish that I think my kids should be able to pull off pretty easily.

Whew! That’s the plan! If we make it through in the produce department, that will be two full weeks on one grocery trip and I’ll be pretty stoked. A new Aldi opened up really close to my house and I’m excited to go there, but I know it will be crazy busy for a while and so I want to stay away as long as I can. I wish they were open 24 hours a day like some stores used to be because I would totally stay up late to go shopping in a way less busy store right now!!! But I’m not complaining! I’m so thankful for all of the people who are making things run right now.

I currently have plenty of protein to last us a couple more weeks, but we are just about out of fresh produce. I have a feeling I’ll be heading to the store by the end this week for produce alone.

I hope you make it a great week and eat some yummy, healthy food!