Dinners This Week
This week we are going back to those amazing roasted chicken breasts, but this time we are going with a creole/mediterranean themed seasoning. Hopefully you still have some leftover pork in the freezer from a few weeks to use up one night this week, but if you don’t I have some easy alternatives for you. We also go big on salads this week (no specific reason, it just kind of worked out that way) and we have 2 nights of shrimp (frozen raw shrimp was on sale). You can substitute any relatively firm white fish or seafood (bay scallops work especially well) for the shrimp if you don’t have any on hand or can’t find any that’s reasonably priced.
Below is the week’s menu. Click the links to get to the recipes and additional information.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
- Roast pork leftovers from a few weeks ago.
- If you don’t have any pork leftovers you can roast a 1-lb pre-marinated tenderloin (follow package direction) in about 20 minutes.
- Tossed salad (basically any lettuce-based salad will do here, even a bag of salad from the store, although I truly believe it tastes better (fresher) when you make your own.
- If you need more bulk with this meal, make some brown rice in the rice cooker with chicken or vegetable stock instead of water. I usually have a bag of previously made brown rice in the freezer for those OMG-I-need-brown-rice-stat! occasions.
Thursday
- Chicken quesadillas
- One of these days I will get to posting a quesadilla recipe but in the meantime use this recipe from Hamilton Beach but use corn tortillas instead of flour.
- If you don’t have a panini press you can make these instead which uses a skillet rather than a panini maker. However I recommend not using spray oil (too many chemicals) but just brush the tortilla lightly with some good oil instead.
- Dirty quinoa (leftover from Sun)
Friday
- Greek salad bowl with chicken
- Make a greek-themed salad bowl simply by using greek-style ingredients in the recipe. This will complement the flavors of the leftover mediterranean seasoned chicken made earlier in the week (by the way you could also use shrimp, or a combination of both). There are no rules when it comes to salad bowls, so feel free to experiment with other ingredients — you can’t mess this one up!
- Here are some ideas for ingredients: feta, olives, roasted red peppers, chopped tomatoes, red onions, scallions, garbanzo beans, hummus, and cucumbers (all thinly sliced or chopped).
- A yogurt-based vinaigrette or tzatziki sauce are great dressings. A simple squirt of lemon or lime could work also.
Shopping List for This Week
Produce
- Yellow onion, 1 (Sun)
- Green pepper, 1 (Sun)
- Quinoa, 1 C (Sun, Thu)
- Chicken or veg broth, 2 C (Sun)
- Lemons, 2 (Tue)
- Limes, 2 (Mon)
- Fresh Parsley (Tue)
- Green onions, 1 bunch (Mon, Fri)
- Grape tomatoes, 1 small container (Mon, Wed, Fri)
- Avocados, 2 (Mon, Wed)
- Organic Romaine Lettuce, 3-pack (Mon, Wed, Fri)
- Celery, 1 bunch (Mon, Fri)
Meats and Dairy
- Chicken breasts, 2 lb (Sun, Mon, Thu)
- Plain greek yogurt or skyr, 5-6 oz container (Mon)
- 1 lb cooked roast pork (check your freezer!) (Wed)
- If you don’t have pork, you can substitute with any pre-cooked meat or get a pre-marinated tenderloin (just be careful of nitrates – check the package label).
- Crumbled feta cheese, plain, 8 oz (Sun, Thu, Fri)
- (Also see freezer section below)
Pantry
- Box of linguine (GF or whole grain), 8 oz, (Tue)
- Canned clams, 1 can (Tue)
- White wine (Tue)
- Long grain brown rice, 1 C (Wed)
- Quinoa, 1 c (Sun, Thu)
- Black beans, 1 lb package (Wed)
- This is for the stewed beans, which you may already have in your freezer if you followed the eMeal Plan from a few weeks ago. If so, you can cross these off the list.
- Corn tortillas, 8″ GF (Mon, Thu)
Freezer
- Petite/baby peas (Sun)
- Raw shrimp, bay scallops or seafood blend, 1 lb (Mon, Fri)
Oils and Seasonings
- oregano
- crushed red pepper
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil
- grapeseed oil
- creole seasoning
- vinaigrette of your choice, or make your own.
Breakfast and Lunch
Check this post regularly to remind yourself of the variety of options for breakfast and lunch.
https://getcookinghealthy.com/lunch/automate-breakfast-lunch/