Summer meals

As it turns out, I am not a gourmet cook. To complicate matters, Trey and I have very different food preferences. He is a meat man and starch man. Doesn't care for green foods. I could live off of humus and vegetables. And mexican. And ice cream.

And then there's Jones.

The kid likes to eat. But not just anything. He has expensive taste: Greek yogurt, fresh fruit (currently on a blueberry and kiwi kick) and cheese. The only vegetable he will eat comes in a pouch. You know, the baby food that is about $1.50 a pop. A buy them in bulk because it makes me feel better about his lack of vegetables. And meat? Only if it's ground very finely and in something like spaghetti or tacos.

As you can see, this poses a problem for meal planning.

Throw in busy schedules and the hot Mississippi summers, and I pretty much avoid the oven for months.

So I am on a quest: light, fresh, easy summer meals that is pleasing to my whole family.

Enter Pinterest.

Goodness, I love Pinterest.

I saw a recipe for poppyseed chicken salad. All three of us love poppyseed chicken casserole, so I gave it a shot.

Poppyseed Chicken Salad
Source: myrecipes.com

I loved it. Trey thought it was good, but he was hungry two hours later. (I think he would have preferred it on a sandwich with a bag of chips on the side.) Jones picked through it, ate the fruit and some of the chicken then demanded "booooberry and yaaaguuurt".

I considered it a success.

You can find the recipe HERE.

I altered it a bit for ease and personal taste:

I used Tyson pre-cooked, pre-chopped chicken.  I added diced green and red grapes, strawberries and chopped pecans, then stirred in the Poppyseed dressing.  I found that the fat free dressing was super watery, but the light version looked creamier with only 1 gram of fat. (I think it was Ken's Steakhouse brand) It was a good choice.  Kinda tangy. I just added enough until it looked good.  Then I put a big scoop over a bed of romaine lettuce. 

It was really good.  A different take on the traditional chicken salad and it took 10 minutes to have the meal on the table. 

So there you go. Not exactly mind-blowing or revolutionary, but it's a summer meal.  Would be yummy by the pool with crackers or pita.

Happy summer eating.  Hope you stay away from the oven as well.

Feb. meal planning

I have tried several different meal planning techniques since I started working full-time. Including not cooking at all.

I even signed up on an online meal planning website. They send you a meal plan and shopping list for each week. It is convenient and I recommend the site, but it just didn't work for our family. The problem I ran into was that I was not realistically cooking 6-7 times a week, I was spending more money on groceries each week than I would like, and the recipes often took longer to prepare and cook than I was willing to do.

Jones and I get home between 5:15 and 5:30 during the week. Jones immediately goes to his highchair and says "ee-ee-ee" (eat, eat, eat). I can sometimes get him distracted by playing with Trey while I cook, but the bottom line is the kid is hungry after school! So I needed fast - but healthy - meals with little prep.

I decided to make my own meal plan. I am only in the first week so I can't say it's perfect, but the past two nights have been easy - and tonight's dinner is already prepared.

I worked out a plan for two weeks, cooking three times a week. 3 times a week is a little more realistic for me. Plus, it gives us nights to eat leftovers, which we always have.

Trey and I made a commitment not to go get Mexican this month (we are trying to not eat out at all). We have found ourselves eating Mexican once a week- it's fast, yummy, and cheap. But it's not really healthy and we don't need to spend that money eating out.

Anyway, thought I would share the first two weeks of meal planning. I try to grocery shop on Sunday afternoons after I get coupons from that morning's paper.

It is nothing fancy or earth shattering and definitely not gourmet, but hopefully it will work for us.

Jones certainly enjoyed the yummy chicken soft tacos Monday night, which is success enough for me. I cut up avocado and grape tomatoes and he loved it! He is not a meat eater at all, but this chicken was so flavorful and tender, he ate it all. We had it for leftovers last night. Just as good.

Tonight we are having poppy seed chicken, which I prepared last night. All I have to do is put it in the oven and heat the green beans. Yay for low stress week nights.

Friday night we are having zucchini fries. I have to sneak vegetables not only in my toddler's meals, but also my husband's. Wish me luck!

Here are the links to some of the recipes I am trying:

http://pinterest.com/pin/237776055296085946/ - Weight Watcher slow cooker lasagna
http://pinterest.com/pin/237776055296097612/ - taco chicken
http://pinterest.com/pin/237776055296041670/ - fries
http://pinterest.com/pin/237776055295957804/ - crock pot french dip


What are some of your favorite easy weeknight meals? How do you quickly get healthy meals on the table? I would love to know!