Weekend cooking

 We are moving into the last week of Leeny's challenge and I am still staying on target (apart from a sip of Sam's coffee on Sunday!).  I made a buch of food to last through the week because as usual I will be late home from work most days.  I made these chicken, sweet potato and kale patties.  I haven't made them in  along time.  We used to eat them all the time....

 I also cooked a bunch of beef short ribs in the crock-pot and I roasted these chickens for dinner on Saturday night.  I figured that I could use the leftovers in the week, but we ate more than I thought!!!!

I also have to take pity on the rest of the family and made mac& cheese for the kids (mostly Maggie).  I'm sure it won't last too log, even though I made a huge pot of it

 Sam and Maggie love this broccolini quiche.  I do too, but it's out for now

I made pizza for Sam and Maggie last night.  Funny, it doesn't bother me at all to make these off-program foods and not eat them.....

Busy Sunday cooking

My Sundays are usually full of cooking for the coming week. I have been so busy at work recently that I really haven't had enough time to cook in the week, so I make enough food that we can eat out of the refrigerator all week.  This works better for Sam and me than it does for the kids.  Ben is so picky with everything he eats and will eat whatever is the worst food for him that's in the house.
Maggie went to church with Jan and Julie, so I made her eggs and hash browns before she left.  Then, I made pancakes for Ben.  I made them thicker than usual and made these small ones.  I wasn't sure if he would like them, but he loved them and there were a few left over.

I made muffins for in the week (background), I eat them every morning and never get tired of them.  Then I made two kinds of sausage (sometimes I make three!).  Sam loves the chorizo sausage from Whole foods.  Maggie likes the mild Italian, but hasn't been eating them recently so I have held off cooking them for a while.

I'm completely addicted to these blueberry breakfast sausage from Whole Foods.  I eat them every day.  The kids love them too.  If I'm lucky, they last all week.  If the kids find them, not so much....

I cooked a batch of rice in the steamer to go with a lamb curry that I made.  Then I steamed some cauliflower and broccoli for Maggie.

Finally, I made a beef stew in the crockpot that we ate for dinner.  There are lots of leftovers though.

This is why I only have to cook once or twice a week!!!!

We went out to breakfast for my birthday yesterday morning and I had an arty latte!!!  After that, we went to look at a house that we might buy.

I cooked a bunch of food for us the coming week.  I always roast vegetables for Sam, he eats a lot of them

We always have breakfast sausages and bacon cooked and ready to go

I have been eating muffins for breakfast rather than no oat oatmeal recently.  I use the honey muffin recipe but now I don't put honey in them.  I found some marmalade imported from France at Whole Foods, it is much better

Cherry clafouti is a good alternative to more conventional dessert

Kale salad for later in the week

Sam grilled beef tenderloin on the grill for dinner.  I made some sweet potato biscuits to go with it.  Caroline made a regular salad and I made fruit salad.  The fridge is now full, but won't be for long.

Sunday dinner

Caroline is a member of a CSA so she brings vegetables home that we would not normally eat.  She got some beets this week and I haven't had them in ages.  We baked them in the oven and then I sliced them up and added some cherry vinegar from Vom Fass to them (they were really yummy).  We also roasted red onions, turnips, squash and carrots with some tomatoes in olive oil.  Sam grilled some chicken and cut it up with Richard's BBQ sauce.  It was a great Sunday dinner.  Caroline had a box of Mac and Cheese and I cooked it for Ben and Maggie, it made their day!!!!

Apart from dinner, we made a batch of no-oat oatmeal, sweet potato hummus, chocolate pumpkin sun butter treats and kale chips.  We have enough food to last us for a few days.....

Sunday cooking

I cooked in two shifts on Sunday.  I knew we'd run out of no-oat oatmeal in a day so I made more before we headed out to Eckert's to pick Fuji apples.  When we got home, I made this apple cobbler with the apples we had from previous trips.  It's got almond meal, eggs and flour in the topping, so within paleo limits.  I think it's better with the peaches than apples though....

I was looking through old recipes and found this recipe for an oven omelet.  I thought it would be a nice change from the usual fare

I made another batch of Scotch eggs.  This time, I got some bacon apple-wurst from Eckerts and used it, it was really good.  We had beef bourguignon made in the crock pot for dinner and I'm planning on making salmon chowder with coconut milk for dinner tonight.  Definitely making some old recipes this week

Saturday cooking

We had a really busy weekend and I am going out of town for two days this week, so I spent as much time as I could spare on Saturday cooking a bunch of food.  First of all, I made some chicken chunks because Sam likes to eat them as a snack and the kids will eat them too-a good source of protein.  Luckily, I had a bunch of cut up chicken breast in the freezer.

I boiled 18 eggs and took the shells off them.  The kids love to eat them.  I took 8 of them and made Scotch eggs-covered them in sausage-meat and rolled in almond flour, then cooked in coconut oil.  Sam really likes them

Here they are after they are cooked-yummy!!!!

I made a batch of sweet potato biscuits to go along with all the protein that I made.  They were a particularly good batch.

I made these meatballs for Sam (I suspect they are his favourite).  They are super-easy to make, just ground beef, sun dried tomatoes, basil and garlic.

I made a batch of chimichurri sauce to go with the meatballs-or anything else, for that matter

I also put together a beef stew that I cooked in the crockpot on Sunday and of course I had to make a batch of no-oat oatmeal before I skipped out of town.....

Sunday cooking marathon-5 hours

This is going to be a very busy week, so I thought I'd better get a head start on it on Sunday.  Sam and I have realized that we have pretty much moved into a mode where I cook a bunch of stuff and we each pick something to eat every day.  Leeny had posted a recipe for Chimicurri sauce, so I thought I'd make some and see how it was.  She has been putting it on everything so it's a good opportunity to try it out on the meatballs I made yesterday (they are below)

I have come to the realization that we really do need plantain pancakes on hand all the time. They are just THAT GOOD and handy to have as an accompaniment to many of the meat dishes I make in the week

I made some taro root chips while I had the oven on.  I can't eat them while I am doing the Whole Life Challenge, but everyone else loves them so much.  I think Ben ate the vast majority of them

I made sweet potato hummus.  It's great with the taro chips or with raw vegetables.  Easy snack to have on hand

The meat offering was these pork meatballs.  I got some ground pork from Soulard farmers' market the other week and added chives, ginger, garlic and coconut.  When they were cooking, I realized that she said the pork was seasoned with sage.  I thought the flavour combination would be disastrous but they turned out fine-a little salty though.  Will remember not to season as much next time

On top of all of this, I made pizza for Sam and Maggie for dinner.  Ben doesn't like my pizza and it's off limits for me right now.  After I made lunches for Monday, I'd been in the kitchen for 5 hours!!!!

Major cooking episode

Well, we had absolutely nothing to eat in the house after coming back from Little Rock, so I set about making a bunch of things for this week.  I made a batch of plantain pancakes.  I think my plantains were not as ripe as the last batch and the pancakes came out a little better.  They are really good.  I baked a couple of sweet potatoes while the oven was on so I could make some hummus.

I fried up a batch of chicken chunks.  I haven't made any for a while because Sam hasn't been eating as many salads, but he likes to snack on them.  The kids will eat them for lunch or dinner too.

A friend gave me some butternut squash from her garden so I made a batch of curry with one of them.

One of Sam's favourite things to eat are these meatballs.  They are pretty easy to make, just beef, sun-dried tomatoes and basil.

The kids had Richard's ribs for dinner.  They look pretty happy with them.....

I also made a batch of no-oat oatmeal and put together a crockpot meal with chicken and apricots to eat tonight....
All told, it took me about 4 hours to cook everything and get cleaned up

Sunday-whole day of cooking!!!

Sam is going out of town this week.  This means that things always change dramatically, including changing my schedule completely and our diet.   I spent the whole day making food for the week ahead so that I have a jump start on feeding everyone.  I made chicken chunks and chicken salad for Greta to take to school for lunch, then I made chicken noodle soup with the rest of the chicken because I know the kids will always eat that.

I had made a bunch of no-oat oatmeal on Saturday, but I will need to make more tonight as it's almost done.  I take it to work for breakfast every day.  I decided that I'd make something new to take for lunch this week, so I made these buffalo chicken egg muffins.  They are really good.

I made this vegetable side dish and meatballs for dinner.  The meatballs are one thing that everyone in the family will eat!!!  Hadn't ever made the vegetables before, but they were pretty tasty.  Sam and I ate them, of course the kids wouldn't go near them.....



I made Sam a couple of things to take with him so that he has something he can eat in an emergency.  I made this granola and these mango treats.  The mango treats were the first thing I made in the morning. Unfortunately, trying to chop up the mango fried the motor in my food processor, so now I need a new one and I won't be trying this again......

I'm going to make crispy pork for dinner tonight.  I cooked some pork butt in the slow cooker and then I will cook it in the oven tonight.  I hope it turns out OK.  I think we have enough to get us through.....

Weekend cooking....

I didn't make as many things this weekend as I usually do, but I still made quite a lot of food. I made a batch of no-oat oatmeal and honey muffins for breakfast. I made a huge batch of taro root chips on Sunday. I had to cook them in five separate batches and we ate them all as they came out of the oven, they didn't even have time to cool!! I have finally found a paleo food that everyone in the family LOVES!!!!

I made this paleo version of alfredo, made with delicata squash, bacon and coconut milk.  I cut up the breast from a Sam's Club chicken and added it to the sauce.  Then I used the chicken legs and carcass to make the base for chicken noodle soup for the kids.  I made some chicken patties with sweet potato and kale that we can use as a good protein source in the week.  Sam made hamburgers for dinner on Saturday night and I made a batch of cole slaw with red and green cabbage with carrots.  I made the best batch of mayo that I have ever done, I used apple cider vinegar and walnut oil to make it.

I also made this paleo dessert that Sam loves.  It really is not sweet at all because I used 100% cacao chocolate to make it.  The kids wanted to try it and Maggie made a face-I don't think we have to worry about them stealing it!!!!