Weekly Meal List 1/30

Sunday: white bean soup with kale

Tuesday: grilled provolone cheese sandwich with pesto or for Hubby grilled turkey and provolone without pesto

Wednesday: spinach salad with salmon, barley & oranges for me, salmon with barley for Hubby.  I'm so excited to try this salad it's a little ridiculous. I saw it in my favorite magazine, Real Simple, and almost started drooling.

Thursday: pioneer woman's pantry pasta - I never got to it last week because we had so many leftovers from the roasted veggie pasta and the lentils.

Grilled Portobello Benedict

The main influence in deciding to go vegetarian for a month was our friends Brett and Kathryn.  Neither one of them is actually vegetarian but they both consume way more veggie based meals than meat based meals and they both truly enjoy them.

Hubby and I get together with them every week for our Shop & Shoot Night.  Shop & Shoot Night consists of dinner all together then the boys go shoot stuff in video games and Kathryn and I go shopping.  Week after week they've shown me that fabulous meals don't have to revolve around meat.  

When they came over for dinner this week I decided to finally try Kathryn's highly recommended recipe for Grilled Portobello Benedict (adapted from Ellie Krieger's version).  Since it was her recipe Kathryn did most of the cooking and I was her helper/photographer.  

You'll want one portobello per person.  Note there are only three.  Hubby ate scrambled eggs with ham and cheese.  There's no way he'd even dream of eating this.

Start by cleaning the portobello mushrooms. Remove the stem and weird gills and wipe with a damp paper towel.  Coat the mushrooms in olive oil, salt and pepper on both sides.  Grill in a grill pan or BBQ if you want to stand outside in the cold.

While the mushrooms are grilling crack two eggs per mushroom into a mixing bowl.  Please note my fabulous action shot here.

Beat the eggs a bit with some milk (and butter if you're Kathryn).

Scramble the eggs but don't let them get brown or Kathryn won't eat them.

When the mushrooms are done take them off the heat but keep them in the pan.  Add some spinach on top.

Top the spinach with the scrambled eggs.  The heat from the mushroom and the eggs will wilt the spinach.

Then top the eggs with feta (or whatever cheese you'd like) and some prepared pesto.

Here you should add some toasted pine nuts.  Unfortunately we forgot but we did add avocados instead which were quite tasty.  If you'd like you can also enjoy your Grilled Portobello Benedict with a little arugula salad like we did.  Just toss some arugula with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese.

After our shopping trip Kathryn and I tested recipes for the drink contest at our upcoming Super Bowl party.  I really wanted to like this drink.  Mostly because of it's name.  It's funny and naughty.  It's a Dirty Pickle.  

I didn't care for it but Kathryn, who likes dirty martinis, says that if you like dirty martinis and pickles you'd like this.  It tasted way too much like alcohol for me to like it.  I prefer my alcohol to taste like candy which is exactly what my super secret entry for the drink contest tastes like.  

Weekly Meal List 1/23

Saturday: sour cream and shrimp enchiladas (sorta like this but not really since I can't follow a recipe)

Sunday: lentils and brown rice

Monday: roasted veggie pesto pasta, garlic bread

Tuesday: Kathryn's grilled portobello benedict (adapted from Ellie Krieger's version)

Wednesday: an adapted version of PW's pasta for two

Thursday: leftover lentils

Weekly Meal List 1/16

Sunday: Pioneer Woman's Chicken Tortilla Soup, Kale and white beans with cilantro pesto

Monday: Homemade pizza

Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Wednesday: Scrambled eggs, cauliflower

Thursday: Fajitas for Hubby, fajita/taco salad for me

Friday: Quesadillas de Camarones (another Pioneer Woman recipe)


I made the chicken tortilla soup and the kale dish tonight and both of them were delicious!!!  I've decided I love kale.  It's so yummy.  The recipe I made today was a new one from Aarti on Food Network.  I highly recommend it!!!  Check it out: Greens & Beans

Also, PW's Chicken Tortilla Soup is the best I've ever had!  Make that too.  I cooked the chicken in the oven like she suggested but didn't actually add it to the soup.  I shredded it and left it on the side for Hubby to add himself.  The best part is that he was a 1/3 of the way through his soup before I asked him if he put the chicken in.  He hadn't... and he still liked it.  Ha!

Stuffed Mushrooms with Pine Nuts & Feta

This is a recipe I adapted from one I found on www.veggienumnum.com.  It's quite tasty.  I tried to get a photo of the finished product but wasn't smart enough to think of it before the leftovers got put away by my dish-washing Hubby.  When I went back into the kitchen the mushrooms were already in the fridge so I took this picture instead.

This is my beloved Lily.  She's the best pup ever!

10-15 large cremini mushrooms (or a few portobellos), wiped cleaned, stems removed
1 yellow onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 slices whole grain bread, roughly diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese (or however much makes you happy)
2 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F.

Set the mushrooms on a baking tray; cut side up.

Heat 1T olive oil in a medium saucepan.  Cook the onion over medium head for 3-4 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute.  Add the pine nuts and cook for another few minutes until they turn golden.  Add the breadcrumbs and toss through until well combined.

Remove from head, add the feta, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add a little extra oil if needed.  Top each mushroom with stuffing.  Drizzle with a little extra olive oil.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

Books in 2010

I love to read and since I got my Kindle a fews ago I'v enjoyed reading even more.  Here is a list of the books I read in 2010.  I think it's complete.


Abby Cooper: Psychic Eye: A Psychic Eye Mystery by Victoria Laurie
Better Read Than Dead: A Psychic Eye Mystery by Victoria Laurie
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
A Vision of Murder: A Psychic Eye Mystery by Victoria Laurie
Killer Insight: A Psychic Eye Mysteriy by Victoria Laurie
Crime Seen: A Psychic Eye Mysteriy by Victoria Laurie
Food Rules by Michael Pollan
Death Perception: A Psychic Eye Mysteriy by Victoria Laurie
Doom with a View: A Psychic Eye Mysteriy by Victoria Laurie
Ten Big Ones: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Eleven on Top: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Twelve Sharp: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Lean Mean Thirteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Fearless Fourteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (again!)
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster
Finger Lickin' Fifteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life by Laurie Notaro
Breach of Trust by DiAnn Mills
Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
A Proper Pursuit by Lynn Austin
A Scattered Life by Karen McQuestion
The Pawn by Steven James
Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu by J. Maarten Troost
Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger
I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman
Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (again!)
A Glimpse of Evil by Victoria Laurie
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
The Sex Club by L.J. Sellers
Secrets to Die For by L.J. Sellers
The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn
Rain: A Lilliphim Novel by Melissa Niska


Some of my favorites:
The Help:  Read this book!  That's my official suggestion.  Just do it.  You won't regret it.  I think it was my favorite book of the whole year.


A Proper Pursuit: This was a very cute love story set in the late 1800s.  This is not my usual style by any means.  I generally stay away from sappy love stories (this one isn't particularly sappy) because the unrealistic sappiness annoys me.  Period pieces usually aren't my thing either but I LOVED this story!  I think I only downloaded this book because it was a cheap Kindle purchase but I'm so glad I did.  


The Mockingbirds:  This is a fabulous story.  It's about a high school aged girl who is date raped.  The story doesn't include any details of the rape but discusses the aftermath and her (sort of) revenge.  It's very good.  


Also, I'd like to give a shout out to my co-worker friend Melissa Niska who wrote Rain: A Lilliphim Novel.  She just recently got her story published.  It's available in print at http://www2.xlibris.com/Bookstore/bookdisplay.aspx?bookid=90169 or through Amazon or Barnes & Noble for their e-readers.  If you enjoy science fiction or a good vampire/werewolf story you'll enjoy all the interesting mythical creatures in this book.


What books did have you read recently?  I'd love suggestions for 2011.

Weekly Meal List

This week we have a few things going on so my meal planning is pretty simple.  I'm only making two meals and we're having leftovers of each one.  While I really enjoy cooking I hate doing it when I come home from work when I'm tired and hungry.  This works for me.

Sunday: vegetarian chili

Tuesday: leftover chili

Wednesday: plain brown rice and teriyaki chicken for Hubby, brown rice mixture with kale and veggie stir-fry.  My brown rice mixture is a take on this: http://www.mydailydiner.com/2010/03/not-my-grandmas-brown-rice.html

Thursday: same as Wednesday for me, brown rice and shrimp for Hubby [and maybe an orange if I'm lucky : )]


How do you plan your meals?  Do you grocery shop weekly, monthly, daily, whenever you run out of food?  Or do you plan your meals at all or just eat whatever you feel like that day?

Week in Review

I've officially survived a week without eating meat.  For the most part.  I must confess that I did slip up but it was totally unintentional.  Last Sunday (yes, that's right... on the 2nd day of the month) I came across a Slim Jim that Jon had given me in my stocking and I just ate it.  Didn't think anything about it.  It was hours later that I realized what I had done.  Crap!  A Slim Jim, really?  Couldn't I have accidently eaten bacon?  Several people have mentioned that a Slim Jim probably doesn't count as meat anyway so I shouldn't worry about it.  But there it is... my meat eating confession.

Anyway, besides the Slim Jim incident, my non-meat eating is going well.  I don't really miss it all that much.  Because I'm cooking mostly meat free at home it hasn't bothered me.  The only time I was really tempted was this morning while making pancakes and bacon for my godson's birthday breakfast.  I really had to remind myself constantly not to eat the bacon.

Surprisingly my carnivorous husband hasn't complained.  He's had meatier versions of the same things I've been eating for the most part.  For example, the night I ate broccoli rice casserole, he had it with some ham added but picked out the broccoli.  So far it's working without a huge amount of effort.  The only thing that is noticeably more challenging is figuring out our meals for the week.  Normally this doesn't take me much time but I'm having to put more effort into in now.

Hubby and I made a slight modification to our eating out rules.  We basically decided they don't count towards lunch at work.  Sort of.  Hubby decided he's going to allow himself to eat out for lunch without it counting towards the six meals out for the month and he can basically do it whenever he wants.  I think that might be a little too loose but it doesn't really have anything to do with me.  I occasionally enjoy lunch out with my lunch buddies at work although it's really rare.  I decided that I can have lunch out with them no more than once a month and it won't count towards the six meals out a month that I can have with Hubby.  They also don't have to be pre-planned.

On that note, I ate out only once this week.  I enjoyed Mr. Pickles for lunch one day.  Some questioned my willingness to pay $6 for a sandwich without meat but it was totally fine with me.  And it was delicious!  I'm still 0 for 6 on the official eating out count.

I'm officially hating eating at the table.  When we're in the habit of doing this it's no big deal but we've been out of the habit for months.  Every day I've begrudgingly sat at the table for dinner, a few times because Hubby insisted.  It's getting better at dinner when we're together but I'm absolutely not sitting at the table when I'm having meals by myself.  Now that I've admitted that I suppose I should cut it out.

Everyday I've found something to be thankful for.  I honestly thought this was going to be really easy but it's way more challenging than I thought.  I figured it would be a cinch but some days it's kind of a pain in the ass.  I don't want to be flippant about it so I'm really trying to come up with something genuine and so far I've come up with something specific to that day.  If I was going to be lazy about it I could just spout off things like I'm thankful for my husband, my family, my friends, my house, my dog, my job, my fill-in-the-blank.  Granted I am thankful for all of those things and a I am thankful for them all the time but I want this to be something unique to the context of each day.

Unfortunately, Hubby and I were sick all week so we never made it to the gym.  I'm bummed out by that but there was no way my pounding head could have handled a treadmill.  Oh well.  We'll be at the gym at o'dark-hundred tomorrow morning.  Yay exercise!

If I keep chanting that do you think I'll believe it?

Meal planning

Last year I took a class called Eat Your Roots taught by Amanda at www.mydailydiner.com.  Amanda encourages eating local, whole foods without artificial preservatives.  Her class really changed the way I cook, shop for food and plan our meals (as in it made me actually plan our meals).  I think adopting her style has been one of the best changes we've made to improve our health.


Every week, usually around Thursday, I come up with a meal list for the following week. Usually I plan about 4 meals a week and have leftovers of one of those meals at least one night.  I find that we eat much better and spend much less money on food this way.  For the most part I plan our meals, buy only what we need week then we eat what I buy!


I do all my food shopping on Saturday morning.  First I hit our local farmer's market, which is thankfully open year round, for our fruits, veggies and eggs.  Then I do the rest of food shopping at Whole Foods or sometimes Trader Joe's.  


Most of my big cooking I do on Sunday.  This lets me cook when I have time and feel like it.  When I get home from work during the week I just have to put things together and do a minimal amount of cooking.  


This week, because I'm trying out this not-eating-meat-thing, I'm making almost all new recipes.  I don't usually do that but these struck me as interesting.

Sunday: Vegetarian pasta bake and winter fruit salad.  This pasta dish is made with lentils in the place of ground beef.

Monday: Miso soup for me, Spaghetti O's for Hubby since he won't touch tofu.  I don't consider Spaghetti O's a whole food but Hubby is perfectly fine believing these cans grow on a tree.  He'd eat them every day.

Tuesday: Leftover pasta bake, salad

Wednesday: Broccoli rice casserole and salad for me, rice casserole (with the broccoli picked out) and sausage for Hubby

Thursday: Portobello mushrooms stuffed with pine nuts & feta and salad for me.  I don't know what Hubby is eating yet.  I didn't quite think this meal through.

On a side note, I'm not really sure how me not eating meat for the month is going to work for Hubby.  He pretty much despises all vegetables although he's gotten much better over the last year.  Normally I do NOT cook two separate meals because that just irritates me.  Generally we can find enough common ground in our food and I just make a veggie or salad for myself.  But I realize this no-meat thing is entirely my own idea so I'll probably end up making some sort of separate thing for him on occasion.