The weekly menu

How about I just jump right in.  Dinners!

Kyle manned the grill last Sunday and did salmon.  This was the last of the bulk salmon I bought and vacuum sealed and it was still just as good as the first portion.  Shocker of all shockers, there were leftovers!  First time I’ve ever UNDER estimated pacman’s appetite.

I roasted red potatoes and made a corn salad which was basically a deconstructed version of a classic Mexican street corn.  This one but with goat feta instead.

The second surprise of the meal was that P ate potatoes!!  Lots of them, no less!  I ask him if he wants potatoes a lllll the time and he always says no, so I never even bother.  He tries a bite about once every 10 times and then says he doesn’t want anymore and I leave it at that (it’s not like I care if he doesn’t like them as long as he eats a healthy alternative).  But this time I asked and he said yes and then proceeded to ask for more and more and more.  Hooray!  Just in time for our trip to Idaho.  😉

He ate the corn too (a portion I set aside before adding dairy).  Lime and cilantro yo.  Wins my mouth over every time.

As of Monday I hadn’t yet tested soy enough with P so I swapped the edamame in this Asian soba noodles salad for shredded chicken that I prepped in advance in the crockpot.

First time working with soba.  Eden is the only company I’ve found with 100% buckwheat as the ingredient (most other brands are cut with wheat flour making them unsafe for those with gluten intolerances/allergies).  That said, I couldn’t find enough info on their website to feel safe giving them to P.  They weren’t on the company’s GF list and don’t say GF anywhere online or on the package.  But maybe that’s just because they aren’t “certified”?  The wrapper does say processed on equipment shared with wheat and soy, but I’m not sure what that means about the cleaning practices and whatnot.  Anyway, I ended up being uber safe and making P his own meal in the end.  I had tried feeding him trace amounts of soybean oil that AM and didn’t want anything to confuse results – if he did have a reaction I wouldn’t know what it was to!?

I ordered these for cheap off Thrive Market.  Have you joined yet?  I am doing monthly orders now and I just add pantry items as I need them to my cart until I hit >$50 for the free shipping.  Boom.  So easy.  Here’s my referral link if you want 25% off.

It made lots and Kyle’s enjoyed the leftovers for lunch(es) this week.

Tuesday was carnitas and broccoli over brown rice.  P is wild about all three of these ingredients so it’s a slam dunk of a meal.  I basically used the same as here.

On Wednesday we went to market with my sister and I didn’t take pics of our food.  We brought it back home to eat because baby girl likes to be down by 6 pm.

Before pics on the left, afters on the right.

Mr. P liked this too, naturally.  Fried chicken?  What’s not to like.  This was Kyle’s request, although we all do enjoy breaded (corn meal and coconut flour) and pan fried chicken.  [His actual portion consumed is probably 250% what’s pictured below, plus strawberries and grapes.]

I roasted tomatoes with onion and basil, plus we had the leftover roasted potatoes.

In truth, I gave all the onions to K, while P had none of the tomatoes.  He eats tomatoes once every few days straight from the garden but doesn’t like them otherwise.  Whatever.  Like I said, I don’t care since he requests green beans, peas, corn and carrots instead.

Half way through making the chicken I realized it wasn’t going to be enough and I quickly ran to the fridge outside and grabbed an extra breast to toss in flour and fry up.  Now we have leftovers, but that just means easier lunches to come.

Kyle was out of town on Friday night so instead of showing my dinner (leftovers) I’ll show my desserts of the week.

My favorite were the dark chocolate walnuts (ordered from Thrive), but the chao firecracker bar was a very close second.  I got it in NYC and only just now busted it open.  It is sooooo weird how it pops in your mouth!  It’s like a cross between pop rocks and rice crisps snap crackle pop but in a fancy rich dark chocolate way.  Seriously good.  Now it makes me want to try the TJs version which I’ve seen at checkout counters for the past few months.  Has anyone tried those?  The fact that they had chili peppers in them always made me a bit apprehensive about trying them, but if they are anything like the chao bar, its totally mild and complimentary.  Nothing crazy.  PS I’m out of candied ginger.  UGH.

Other things I prepped for the week

• this cracker recipe (SUPER easy and allergy friendly)
• ginger lemonade
• crockpot chicken to shred for dinner and lunches
• shredded zucchini (for fritters and muffins and whatever else)