Well, happy Wednesday. Monday holidays always get me a little off course. You too, maybe? If so, then you’ll be thrilled for another meal planning post on your Tuesday…err…Wednesday. Ugh, life and kids happened yesterday, but hey, a little meal inspiration and planning help any day is better than no day. At least I hope that’s how you feel. 🙂

As always, I’ll show you what we really ate last week, compared to the meal plan, and then I’ll show you what’s planned for the coming week and why. I’ll also share substitution ideas where appropriate. This particular week will be more “what we actually ate” and a little short on planning since we’re mid-week already. Let’s dig in!

Here’s how our meals shaped up last week:

Monday: Fish Tacos with Cod, Tropical Salsa Slaw, Sautéed Squash and tortillas

This is definitely a family favorite meal around here. Everybody loves the tortillas, they love fish (for which I’m very thankful) and they love pineapple and mango. Now the kids don’t like slaw, but I leave a little of the fresh fruit out of the cabbage mix for them and that doesn’t create any extra work for me.

Tuesday: Carnitas, more slaw (just lettuce for my slaw hating kids), and roasted sweet potatoes

This was another fan favorite dinner around here. Not sure why, but we haven’t had carnitas in a long time and everyone loves this tender, succulent meat. It’s super simple to put together too. For the Cole slaw, I just made extra on Monday and set aside half before I added the fruit for the tropical version.

Wednesday: Jambalaya over rice

It’s almost like I’ve done something to make them mad and I’m trying to make up for it because I’m cooking all their favorites this week. My son begs for jambalaya almost every day. No kidding. I always prefer to make it after we have carnitas because the extra spices from the meat flavor the broth and it is ahhh-mazing! The recipe calls for shrimp, which I did not have, but I did have two pieces of cod in the freezer so I used that. It was delicious in this recipe. And yes, you do see some form of bread peaking around the bowl. See below…

Paleo Breadsticks – a new creation that is still under development. These tasted really great, but I need to try them with a different flour. The best flour to use for any paleo bread where you want a bit of a chewy texture is tapioca, but too much tapioca can be pretty hard on the body so I’ve been experimenting with other options. Stay tuned – these were really close to just right. 

Thursday: I made Fed and Fit’s Hawaiian Chicken and Rice Bowl with Pineapple Avocado Salsa

This recipe came to my inbox a couple weeks ago and looked so good that I wanted to try it. Usually, I’ll end up changing a recipe a good bit from how it’s written, but not this one. I made it just as it was written because it looked so darn good. My kids wanted plain pineapple, rather than the salsa, so I did leave out a teeny bit for them to eat plain. Here’s my assessment of this recipe: it was very good, but way too salty. It called for a full cup of coconut aminos, which I thought was awesome because we love coconut aminos, but it was just way too overpowering. I was parched all night afterward. It was also a little spicy for my taste. The sriracha in the chicken plus the jalapeño in the salsa was too much. I’d opt for one or the other. You may see this recipe here at some point after I’ve made it my own and perfected it. It was a good recipe and I recommend you give it a try, but definitely cut back on the aminos, maybe even by as much as half.

Friday night, Pizza night. Can I just confess that it’s been a hard week? I’ve felt very unmotivated. This is the trouble with entrepreneurship – there is no one breathing down my neck if I don’t get my work done. I put a lot of pressure on myself and usually I deliver, but this week has been tough. I’ve just not been motivated to work. And then at the end of the day, I feel bad about not being productive. I love ending my day knowing I’ve accomplished a lot. I did make some good food this week so at least there’s that! This confession/rant has nothing to do with dinner, I just felt like throwing it in. But this yummy pizza with banana peppers did made me happy.

Saturday: Bacon and Egg Salad (I needed to document this recipe because even though I’ve been making it for many years, I have never published it. You’ll see it soon). I also made spinach salad because I had all that yummy bacon grease from the bacon for the egg salad. I toasted the leftover breadsticks for croutons. And last, but not least, I made a patriotic fruit pizza, the recipe for which you will have in time for July 4th. But in case you want to make this now, it was just a recipe of my paleo sugar cookie dough, topped with the almond “buttercream” frosting and then lots of fresh berries.

Sunday: We ordered takeout. We’ve only eaten restaurant food four times (including today) since quarantine began in early March. I just haven’t felt good about it from a safety standpoint, but I was ready for a night off from cooking, so I just went for it. We chose Chipotle and I made a homemade queso dip. I was just in the mood for that and wanted to know for sure the ingredients would be ok for me.

I hate to complain, but I’m going to for just a minute. This Chipotle meal is exactly why I cook at home 99.9% of the time. I paid about $10 for that carnitas bowl and I got about three bites of meat, one slice of onion, two pieces of pepper and about two cups of rice. They left off the salsa altogether and added about a tablespoon of cheese. It was just super disappointing, not what I even ordered and without being there in person during the preparation, I was trusting them to change their gloves and avoid cross-contamination. Boo hoo. I wanted this to be a good experience because sometimes I want a night off! Ok, rant over.

What’s on tap for this upcoming week:

Monday: Burgers, tater tots, grilled squash and a patriotic cake.

• burgers: self-explanatory and nothing fancy
• tater tots: I figure it’s better to make these at home than eat them in a restaurant so occasionally I’ll buy some decent quality organic, frozen ones and bake them up
• grilled squash – with balsamic glaze/dressing is delicious!
• cake – the kids (my son especially) have been asking to bake a cake together, so who am I to refuse? They have been wonderful lately, so good through all this quarantine stuff and I am loving spending time with them. I gave instructions and helped a tiny bit, but they baked the cakes almost entirely on their own, I made the icing (because I have tricks for keeping it lower in sugar) and they decorated it.
• PS. I’m writing this Tuesday morning so I can actually show you how this meal turned out – the cake anyway. I forgot to snap a pic of my dinner plate. And I forgot to cook the tater tots, but my son brought home some roasted potatoes from work, so we all ate a few of those with our burgers and squash.

Tuesday: Honey Mustard Chicken in the Instant Pot, Rice and Green Beans

• chicken: this is an experiment, but my plan is that it will be fast, easy, yummy and one that can easily double, prep ahead and/or freeze. It’s a simple sauce combo of mustard (any kind you like), a little honey (can sub maple syrup), coconut aminos and garlic all cooked up in the Instant Pot in about 10 minutes
• rice: easy carb we can all eat and enjoy
• green beans: purchased during my last shopping trip and I’ve been using the more perishable veggies first. After this, I’m down to broccoli, cauliflower and kale.

Wednesday: Nut-Crusted Snapper and kale salad

• I’m going to use the snapper we brought back from our day at the beach. You can easily use different fish and even chicken in this recipe. It’s a family favorite around here.
• Kale salad is a little sweet, a little tangy and is flexible too. You can put in some fresh apples or use any dried fruit you like.

Thursday: Hot dogs, oven-fried okra, and applesauce

• All food from the freezer!
• If you haven’t tried my oven fried okra, try to find some frozen cut okra and give it a try. It’s addictive!
• Thursday is new Invisalign day for me and my teeth are always super sore. I think I can handle the okra and for sure the applesauce, but maybe not the hotdogs. Might have to switch my protein to eggs.

Friday: Girls’ night! We’re kicking the boys outside to camp for the night so we’re having a girls’ night. My little assistant has chosen the dinner and surprise, surprise, it’s pizza! She loves raw veggies so she’ll make herself a little veggie platter with ranch dressing and I’ll probably cook something for myself that’s a little easier on my teeth – maybe squash! There are currently a couple dozen little yellow squash in my garden and there’s a chance I’ll have one ready by the weekend.

Saturday: Salad with grilled chicken

• One more package of chicken tenders is in the freezer from my Costco run a month ago and I think I’ll just drizzle them with some olive oil, salt and pepper and grill them up quickly.
• Salad will be whatever greens are still looking good. I’ve had a decent amount of spinach coming in the garden, so that will probably be it. And maybe a little kale. It’s a hardy green that lasts a long time so I think I’ll still have some edible by next weekend.

Sunday: Either leftovers or takeout or inspiration may strike and I’ll create something, but I have a feeling it will be leftovers or takeout. 🙂 If there’s a new recipe you’re looking for, let me know and I’ll try to create it for you. I’m always looking for new recipe inspiration and most of my good ideas come from you!

I hope you make it a great (rest of the) week and eat some yummy (and healthy) food!