What’s going on friends? After a few weeks of crazy, I finally sat down and made a meal plan last week. I put together some really nice meals! Two of them were from Cook Smarts. And for breakfast I celebrated National Oatmeal Day with a big bowl of hot pumpkin oats!
But first…
I started the week with a frozen waffle {Julian’s Recipe brand} with butter and maple, fried egg and orange.
Day two I had pumpkin pancakes with Naturally Nutty Cinnamon Vanilla sunflower butter and seared pineapples. An odd combo but yes!
Happy Oatmeal Day!
To celebrate I made whipped banana pumpkin oats with cottage cheese stirred in the end. Topped with some Taste of Maine Naked Granola I was sent to try (thumbs up!) and more CVSB
Next on the menu was scrambled eggs, toast with raspberry jam and grapes. Enjoyed waaaaay before sunrise.
And finally, yogurt topped with mixed fruit salad (that Karen brought over) and Naked Granola.
This salady lunch featured greens with bell peppers and carrots dressed in olive oil, honey and salt. Plus beans, a No Bull Burger and some ABC focaccia leftover from dinner.
Day two was a mix of leftovers brought together with some Bone Suckin’ Sauce: rice, green beans, ravioli, navy beans and Oak River Salmon I pulled out of the freezer. I’m so sorry the kickstarter campaign fell through for them because I am ready to order more.
Another salmon-happy lunch-
Mixed greens, salmon, tomatoes, blue cheese, peppers, crackers and apple. These are the 365 Flatbreads from Whole Foods and they are so buttery good! Plus a little bit of pickled okra from my friend Becky’s stash!
Lunch #4 was a mix of leftovers – rice, beans, zucchini with smoked paprika and honey almonds (plus crumbs) on top. I’m a little sick of salads for lunch (despite eating quite a few this week) so I appreciated the leftovers.
And finally, greens with leftover meatballs and sweet potato fries, lots of blue cheese and more flatbreads
My goal this week was to be organized with meal planning and take the stress out of the 5:00 hour. Goal achieved! The rice cooker got tons of use.
The first night I pulled out a simple bag of stir-fry I’ve had for a while. It’s hard to find an onion-free stir-fry so I snagged this when I found it for a quick dinner. It’s from Trader Joe’s with shrimp and veggies.
We served it over coconut butter rice
Matt loved it, but I thought it was just ok
Next I made an awesome new twist on my favorite meatball recipe – Harvest Balls!! Recipe coming soon.
Served with squash and roasted zucchini, these were sooo good!
Night three we had the Butternut Squash Curry from Cook Smarts. Jess’s meals are the perfect blend of user friendly and gourmet and both recipes I made this week were excellent. I’ll definitely be renewing my meal plan subscription when this quarter is over. It was fab! A lot of my friends are now hooked on Cook Smarts meals and Meg recommended this recipe. It was super easy and full of flavor
We loved the addition of fresh cilantro and lime juice on the finish – those are the finishing touches that I need the push to do! Matt RAVED about this dish! I can’t eat anything curried without plain yogurt on top.
Determined to keep my week organized, I prepped some of my night four ingredients after dinner so I could just dump everything in the crockpot at naptime the next day.
The above potatoes, carrots and rosemary turned into this amazing chicken tomato stew!!
I made grits in the rice cooker to go with. It was wonderful!! The chicken thighs were falling off the bone, and the polenta (grits for me) underneath was such a creative combo. Next time I’ll add some kale, but I forgot!
The last night of the week we used up leftovers from both dinners – soup for Matt and chicken for me!
Yum! I love your salad variations!
I need a steamy bowl of pumpkin oats this week! Ran out of canned pumpkin last week and had to wait for a new iHerb order to arrive!
What type of grits/polenta did you use?
Local ones by Wade’s Mill – the big gritty kind
Your meals always look colorful and delicious Kath. I can’t wait for the recipe for those Harvest Balls – they look really good! I also thought your chicken tomato stew looks wonderful.
One of the things I love a lot about Fall is more oatmeal. For whatever reason I never feel like hot oats in the middle of Summer but I’m definitely looking for many bowls as the temps drop. 🙂
OMG, the chicken tomato stew looks great, and I just made grits this morning! Can you post the recipe, or maybe a link to something similar?
All your meals look so great, I esp. love the salads made from leftovers, I often toss my leftovers on greens and call it a salad 🙂
The recipe is by Cook Smarts, which is available to subscribers. But you can do a free trial to test some out 🙂
I love that trader joe’s shrimp stir fry! Although I always end up eating the whole bag since there aren’t very many shrimp in there for multiple servings.
I love how creative your salads always are at lunchtime- if I could work from home, I would love to eat beautiful salads every day! Normally I just bring dinner leftovers- today I have some rice and stuffed poblanos with sliced raw veggies and hummus on the side. While I love eating things over and over (after making them for dinners), there is something wonderful about big salads. Maybe if I try making salads for dinners too I will have leftovers of salad 🙂 I also am on the market for a rice cooker and yours always looks so handy!
Oh man, how is it you always make me hungry even when I’ve already eaten?
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who FRIES my egg…IE: some brown on it. I like eggs either scrambled or over hard (no runny yolk) and people always say “how can you eat those hard, rubbery eggs!?” Uh, they are not rubbery, they are quite delicious with a bit of a snap, thankyouverymuch! HA!
What temp and for how long do you roast your zucchini and squash? Did you do basic seasoning with evoo, salt and pepper? Whenever I roast zucchini it always gets too mushy but I noticed yours had some color to them. I’ve basically resigned to only sauteing them!
I don’t remember exactly because I popped them in while a bunch of other kinds of squash were also cooking. But yes, just evoo salt and pepper and I probalby had them in for about 20 minutes or so? They were juuuust tender
Yum, everything looks so wonderful! Plus, the rice cooker is a great idea and seems to easy to use!
Your food always looks amazeballs! YUM!
I need a better rice cooker and crockpot…
Oh now I have a serious pumpkin oatmeal craving – yum! It has been way too long since I’ve had that for breakfast… though I do love my eggs.
Mmm those harvest balls look delectable! I love making different versions of meatballs or burgers depending on the season and what produce is available!!
Any particular reason why you don’t like onions in your stirfry? Either way, looks like an amazing week of eats! I def need to make some curry soon 🙂
I just don’t care for onions in general at all
Fair enough 😉
Everything looks delicious, as always — especially the Chicken Tomato Stew! Yum! 🙂
Just curious, are all these meals for Monday-Friday? Are your weekends much different? I also love my slow cooker, but have never tried a rice cooker! Interesting!
They usually are – or perhaps Sunday through Thursday. Any meal you don’t see is usually eaten standing up with Mazen, so most of the weekend ones make it in the weekend posts
Kath,
Funny about the onions… whenever I use one of your recipes, I always know that I need to ADD onions to them (if it lends itself to have onions). I LOVE onions in almost anything. 🙂
What is ABC foccacia bread?
Albemarle Baking Company
Everything is making me drool! I love how you get so many meals using your rice cooker and crock pot.
Everything looks soooo good. Can’t wait to see what’s in the Harvest Balls recipe. What are the white sticks on your yummy waffle????
Butter!!
this just made me crave waffles!
Did you cut up potatoes the night before for you crock meal? I’ve wanted to do that but thought they might turn brown? love your blog.
V
I did. Covered in the fridge they were fine (I was surprised too! )
I’m in the market for a new rice cooker and everyone tells me the Zojirushi brand is the best. Do you have any tips for buying a rice cooker? Any regrets about your own rice cooker? (Anything you wish it had that it doesn’t?) I make rice two or three times a week and my tiny cooker isn’t cutting it! Confession: It kind of smells like melting plastic when I use it … yikes.
No regrets! It has exceed expectations. And sounds like you need a new one stat!
Good to know! I have a gift card burning a hole in my wallet. Maybe I’ll nab one this weekend.
Mmm…I love grits. The perfect comfort food! I love shrimp and grits, but the chicken tomato stew looks perfect on top.
Hey, I love day one breakfast looks yummy! Can’t wait for the recipe for Harvest Balls YUM YUM. Thanks for sharing Kath xx
I’m not a big fan of onions either. The oatmeal looks good, I’ve started eating more oatmeal now that the weather is getting cooler
Hey did you know there is a mcdonalds ad at the bottom of this post? Was kind of odd to see on a real food blog so wanted to be sure you knew. Thanks, love the food pics!
Do you use crock pot liners in your slow cooker? They seem so convienent but I’m worried about the plastic…!
I went to buy some once but they were like $4 a piece which I felt was too high
So, I’m assuming your waaay before sunrise is due to Mazen? What time does he get up most days? You must snack before lunch time?
Yes he has been getting up at 520! Sometimes I have a nibble off of M’s snack but I dont have anything big.
so much pumpkin!! yum!
Kath! Thanks for including two of our recipes in your week. They are definitely very fall dishes and hopefully provided some heartiness. BTW, our new mobile friendly site is coming in just a few weeks! I’m so excited that folks can now follow along without scrolling and pinching their screens!