The weekly menu

Last week closed out with lots of simple meals.  With Kyle being gone I lost steam by Wednesday and turned to the hippie bowl formula I know and love.  Grain + green (veg) + protein.  No objections from the mini man.

He helped me chop up this butternut squash and toss it in olive oil.  He then napped through the oven time and woke up to some delicious squash.  I let him sample one but then wait til dinner for the rest.

For dinner I fried bacon and then sautéed kale and brussels sprouts in their fat.  We both shared the greens but the bacon was all for P.  I made mega servings so I would have extras to nosh on for lunches.

I served it with wild rice for dinner.

Here’s how it looked for lunch the next day with leftover shredded chicken from the WF #onedaysale rotisserie stash I mentioned a couple weeks ago.

Same hippie bowl formula for the next night.

White rice + kale + sweet potatoes + applegate chicken sausage.  The weather was sorta fall like and I got really into it.  Of course it only lasted a couple of days before spiking back in the 100s but it made me eager to cook up some warm hearty meals.  Not that I don’t love summer and salads and the fresh light fare it brings.

One of our Music Together songs is called “sweet potato” and it has made P super into – you guessed it – sweet potatoes.  I will take any excuse to get him to eat more foods!

He gobbled the kale and sausage down like whoa.  And the rice, obviously.  The sweet potato took a little more coaxing in spite of the enthusiasm he initially showed…but he still ate everything I put in his bowl.  He really likes sharing meals with me (us) so if he sees us all eating something he wants to be in on it.  Which is why it is nice that we all eat the same things.  I know people’s minds are blown that my son eats kale (and chard and basil and…everything in the produce section of the grocery store or at farmer’s market) willingly, but it’s not something I consider as exceptional as others do because my kid has a ton of allergies.  So to the moms who are starting to compare and stuff – STOP.  The grass is always greener.  Pattycakes doesn’t know anything else because he doesn’t have the option to.

Kyle got home the next day and forced me to take a break from cooking and let myself have a day off.  So we went to Nugget and got salmon skewers from the prepared section.

On the side I made a quinoa asian slaw salad.

The skewers had sesame so I just gave P leftovers.  Then he asked for salmon.  So I told him we’d make some the next night.

Which is exactly what we did.

Paired with asparagus and miso-almond sauce.

This sauce is from It’s All Good.  Kyle and I both loooooved it.  Paltrow Project winner yet again.

Weekends when Kyle can grill make me so happy.

Nice fork use, huh?  Please note the avocado bread in his other hand.

There was extra sauce which Kyle and I will fight over, I’m sure.  P couldn’t have any because it has almond butter in it, but he had no idea he was missing out because he loves salmon so much he didn’t care what else was going on at the table, period.  I kinda agree with his taste buds.  Salmon is wonderful.

We bought a bunch at Costco so his little tummy will be happy for a while.

I vacuum sealed the rest for the freezer.

Same for this bulk pork sirloin chop we got.  Such a crazy good deal, we couldn’t pass it up.  The math broke down to ~$1 per chop, which makes for some banging bargain meals.

I’ll post the recipe I used later, but I used the crock pot on Sunday because we had a pool party that got us home late.  My friend kept trying to send us home with dinner but I told her I already had this dinner in the works.  So she sent us home with dessert instead.

Gluten and dairy free chocolate cupcakes?!  Way better.  🙂

And now that I finally posted this, I’m already half way into the next week!