The weekly menu

I accidentally went to WF and bought a tin of bark.  I don’t know why I wandered over to the cookie/dessert bar section of the store, I think I was looking for an individual Califia pumpkin almond milk because I wanted to try a smaller size before committing to the big one, but anyway…they had all these different yummy kinds of bark.  And then it was like do I buy a few for $$$ or do I get my money’s worth and fill the tin for the $13.99.  Ummm…get my money’s worth yo!?!  So you KNOW I PACKED that moffa freakin’ tin to the brim.  And yet, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad as I left the store, knowing I totally won from my bank account’s perspective, but lost from my stomach’s (and by that I mean my body in general because hi calories aren’t something that just vanish once they enter my mouth).  I mean let’s be real, just because WF made it, does not mean it’s even close to a health food.  Anyway, I’m not too broken up about it because chocolate is delicious and life is short.  Hashtag treat yo self.

Monday was off to an easy start thanks to LEFTOVERS!

We all had a little of everything, except for Kyle who had a lot of turkey and no cranberry jelly.  Apparently he doesn’t love ridges the way P and I do.

Tuesday was equally easy because the rest of the Thanks-mas leftovers were made into a stew.

I put the carcass in the crock pot immediately after the main meal was done and let it simmer (in a bunch of water) overnight and the whole next day.  The next day, I picked all the meat off the bones and added lots of veggies (onion, celery, carrots, kale, etc.) and then let it cook the rest of the day.  I added brown rice too.  It was really good and P even liked it!  I didn’t give him much broth so that helped (his was basically a rice dish).

The baking bug hit me that night, so I decided to put the extra raspberries in our fridge to good use before they went bad.  Kyle and P don’t like raspberries so they were all for me and since I don’t love them raw, I thought a baked good would be the best option.

My pinterest folder had just one recipe with raspberries so that’s the one I went with.  It’s a detoxinista recipe, which means it didn’t require tweaks because Megan eats basically the same way we do.

The only issue I had was that the batter didn’t yield as many muffins as hers did.  I have no clue why but whatever…I got 9 delicious muffins.  I only added chocolate chips to half of them because I had a sneaking suspicion that P would want some when he saw me eating them (which definitely happened).

The next morning I had three.  With almond butter.

So yeah, they lasted three days, which was an accomplishment for sure.

Don’t be deceived by the two shown in these photos.  I immediately realized it wouldn’t be enough – and then bulked them up with nut butter too.

I turned to the freezer stash on Wednesday and grabbed some beef ragu to thaw during the day.

I served the brothy portion to Kyle so he could soak it up with bread, but P and I ate a smaller (less saucy) serving with salad.

P didn’t have salad dressing on his because it has dairy in it.  Luckily he likes plain lettuce, especially crunchy romaine.

By the way, I didn’t really like Annie’s Caesar dressing.  I bought Brianna’s this time which is definitely my favorite dressing brand.  If only Thrive Market sold Brianna’s!  It’s one of the few things I still have to go to WF for.

I just heaped the salad on top of my ragu.  It reminded me of the pulled pork Caesar salad I get at farmer’s market.  I already miss Wednesday night markets.  🙁  Evidently my subconscious is too, since I made this dish without even realizing it.

By Thursday I was out of muffins, so my breakfast was banana bread (from the freezer because I still have a TON that I baked before giving birth).  I also tried a new sunflower seed butter, which I order from Thrive.  I didn’t mean to order “lightly sweetened” sun butter and it was definitely sweet.  Bummer.  I’m sure the jar won’t last long so that’s fine, but the bigger issue is that they share equipment with all kinds of allergens.  As a result, I don’t think I feel comfortable giving this to P.  I still have to contact the company, so we will see what they reply with.  In the meantime, I’ll just eat it all myself.

A great sacrifice.  😉

Quick bread was gone by Saturday.  Guess I’ll have to bake again soon.

Here’s the leftover stew on Thursday night.  Good enough for me.  No complaints from the boys either.  There’s only one(ish) serving remaining though so I think it’ll be someone’s lunch.

Friday was cold and blah outside so I wanted something warm and cozy to fill our bellies.

After several months of getting pushed back to “next week’s” menu, this lasagna soup finally got it’s moment in the spotlight.

OMGLUTTONY this was fantastic in every way that a Friday night meal should be.

Kyle loves lasagna.  It’s one of his favorites that I make and he swears they get better and better every time I make them, even though I make them (basically) the same way every time.

I felt like a soup version was more my scene though (also way easier to fit in during nap times than layering), and in order to make it allergy friendly for P, I made a bunch of tweaks.

First off, I used tinkyada gluten free noodles which I ordered off Thrive Market.

I also used this vegan cheese which is new to me.

I normally go with Daiya when doing the faux cheese thing, but opted for this because it was at TJs and I didn’t feel like going to another store (WF) for just one item.  Oddly enough, Trader Joe’s sells a bunch of non-dairy cheeses that are NOT in fact lactose or casein free.  Weird right?  It says right on the front 99% lactose free.  Who is this product being marketed to?  Why would someone want something with a little bit of dairy?  So strange.  Anyway, the above cheese is, in fact, vegan (and therefore entirely free of dairy).

AAAAAAND it melts!  New favorite.

Additionally, I swapped veg broth for the liquids (chicken broth and cream) and nixed the garlic altogether (but I did use garlic infused olive oil so the flavor was there).  I intended to use plain soy milk for the cream but totally forgot about it until writing this post.  Whoops!  Didn’t need it though – it was plenty plenty rich.

This is the tomato sauce I chose.  Do you know how many marinara sauces have sneaky soy and wheat and dairy in them!?!?  Like, all of them.  Ugh.  It’s so lame.  Check labels people.  Trader Joe’s most basic ones that you think are the plainest of plain have both soy and dairy.

I grew up with the Classico brand in my mom’s pantry and now they have organic varieties that are sold in three packs at Costco.  Done and done.

I did everything in advance during naps except adding noodles and cheese.  I waited til an hour or so before dinner time to do that part.  Although it’s good to know that tinkyada can hold up to extensive simmering (see the label above).  I’ve had some GF noodle disasters lately that have been super frustrating, so this may be the brand I stick to from here on out.

Ok, so actually, Pacman did all the noodle work.  I didn’t do any of it, just stood there and supervised.

He is such a sweet little chef.

Pretty soon he will be cooking me breakfast in bed, no??

Oh!  I also just found this at TJs.  So cool right?  I often find that I end up wasting the unused portion of tomato paste (and yes, I know you can freeze it, but I think they disappear in the depths of the freezer or something) so this is the perfect solution.  A little tube that you can just squeeze out the amount you need per recipe.  It’s not organic, which is a bummer because tomatoes are a dirty crop, but I suppose I use tomato paste so infrequently that it’s an okay place to bed the rules.

Kyle’s (first) portion had parmesan on top, but the rest of us obviously kept things dairy free.  His second portion was without parmesan and he thought it was perfectly good on it’s own, so there you have it.  No dairy needed.  He also didn’t even know there was vegan cheese involved.  This recipe provided enough for two days worth of dinners, so anticipate seeing it again in next week’s meal plan (because I’m not donating these leftovers to Kyle’s lunches – they are too good!).

TGIF much?  Vino and home-made baby food.

Here are some desserts from the week, too.

Obviously this is supplementary to the bark that I opened the post with.  And the Halloween candy that we stole from my parents’ house.