Food Love Link or This Week's Meal Plan

I follow many food blogs and plenty of times I find gorgeous food with beautiful photos that I really really want to try and make at home.
For this week I picked a few recipes, the Husband went grocery shopping with the Kiddies, and we’re going to have…

Organic Carrot Risotto from Foodie Tots

Roasted Cauliflower and Red Pepper Farro Salad from Closet Cooking. I never ate or cooked Farro. This will be interesting and new as well as Mushroom and Thyme Farro Salad.

I love clementine, so I plan to try the Clementine-Cranberry Bread from The Kitchen Sink

15-Minute Fried Herbed Chicken from NY Times Mark Bittman looks delicious.

Now I only need to find a new and exciting recipe for a cake for the weekend. Any suggestions?

More than a Weekly Meal Plan – December

The last weekly menu plan for 2008. Posted recipe for December were…

Party times – Holiday (or Birthday) Party Food – Appetizers

Entrées:

Breadcrumbly Pumpkin Ravioli – Sometimes Life Gives You Breadcrumbs
Upgraded/dressed-up Pizza – Sometimes it’s Pizza for Dinner
Surprise – Time to Tell You What It Is
Amazing, but simple, Chicken Wrap
Linguine with Shrimp Scampi
Orange-Colored Soup

Side dishes:

Zucchini Pancakes Addiction
Mashed Potatoes with Cheesy Crunchy Topping

On the sweet side:

Babbo Modenese Crumbly Cake
Apple, Cinnamon and Walnuts Cake
Cookie #3: Jam Thumbprint Cookies
Warm Winter Herbal Tea
If you’re still baking, I got some cookie recipes here.

Miscellaneous:

Last minute gift shopping? You don’t need to go to the store… Click the link, Holiday Gift Ideas for Kids Who Cook

Fun event in Seattle – Gingerbread houses at the Sheraton, Downtown Seattle

Previous weekly meal plan:

Weekly Meal Plan – November
Weekly meal plan - October
Weekly Menu Plan - September

Have a wonderful time in the season to be jolly…
Nurit

Weekly Meal Plan – November

Dear blog readers and subscribers,
It's time for another weekly meal plan suggestion. As always, mix and match according to what you and your family like to eat.

A reminder - one day left to vote for your favorite animal – is it chicken/fish/lamb/beef/pork, so I know what kind of recipes you are looking for. The poll is on the right side column.

Also, I encourage you to subscribe to the blog to get updates (it’s FREE), and, to share it with your friends… (We have added a “ShareThis” button at the end of each post).

So what's on the menu?

Entrées:
Balsamic and sweet roasted chicken
Fresh Wild Pacific Northwest Salmon
Thanksgiving-y chicken dinner with carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes
A simple yet delicious fall stew beef with butternut squash, Jerusalem artichokes, potatoes
Grilling in the rain - Balsamic marinated lamb, Tomato and mint orzo salad, and Hummus

Side dishes:
Garlic & Thyme Roasted Brussels sprouts
Light-as-a-feather potato pancakes
Orange marmalade salad
For more side dishes, click here.

On the sweet side - NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
For snack - Pumpkins Seeds Roasted With Curry Seasoning

More weekly meal plans:

Weekly meal plan - October
Weekly menu plan - September

Have a wonderful wonderful week!

Nurit

Weekly meal plan - October

Cumin chicken breast with mango sauce and cilantro mashed potatoes.
(Yes, it’s green).

Hi dear family, friends, blog readers and subscribers,

Below you will find a suggestion for a weekly meal plan.
Of course, mix and match according to what you and your family like to eat.

PS. – Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to get updates, and, if you like my ideas do forward and share with your friends… (Did you see the little envelope icon below to “Email Post to a Friend”?)
It feels nice to know that people are visiting here.

Day 1:

Roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots

Day 2:

Cold Sesame Noodles & Chicken wrap, In: Leftovers: Roasted Chicken

Day 3:

Beef Goulash Nurit’s savory bread pudding with cheese, In : A cake for the weekend & Leftovers: Bread (There’s a recipe for dessert too.

Day 4:

A little bit of this and a little bit of that chicken breasts, ginger-scented rice, haricot vert, In: A little bit of this, a little bit of that

Day 5:

Lamb with chickpeas, yogurt and pan-roasted veg, In: jamie’s dinners by Jamie Oliver

Have a wonderful wonderful week!
Nurit

Weekly Menu Plan - September

I thought that in addition to posting recipes on the blog, I will collect a few to create a weekly menu for you. This way you can have a meal plan for the week. How easy is that? It sure does;

* Save time on planning and thinking what to cook (that’s the part that takes most of my time, going through recipes and cookbooks and trying to choose what to prepare)

* Make a grocery list through copying & pasting the ingredients in the recipes

* Print the recipes to make a collection

* All recipes are easy and/or quick to make

There are a lot of chicken recipes since this is a kids’ favorite ingredient. I always have a success with chicken.
So, your weekly menu plan can look like this:

Monday – Grilled potatoes, corn, and lamb with yogurt-mint sauce

Tuesday – Chicken thighs, Israeli couscous, steamed cauliflower, and salad with feta

Wednesday – Rib-eye steak, grits, cherry tomatoes and butter lettuce salad

Thursday – Pork schnitzel, potato-yam mash, roasted cauliflower

Friday – Roasted chicken with orange-mustard marinade, yellow jasmine rice, steamed broccoli

Vegetarian meal – Artichokes, Brussels sprouts, Eggplants, Simplest vegetable salad/Love-ly Heirloom tomatoes salad, Easiest corn on the cob ever, with good bread, cheeses, etc.

Let me know if you like this idea and would like to have more weekly menu plan ideas.
E-mail me: chef@wflavors.com, Post a comment below, or forward this to a friend (click on the little envelope icon below).

Have a wonderful week!
Nurit

How to spend more time with your kids AND have a daily home-made meal

It all starts with having a weekly meal plan.
Choose recipes with no more than 20 minutes of prep time. That is, the time you have to be active and actually prepare the recipe, unlike the cooking time which is usually inactive and allows you to do other things while the food cooks.

Here is an example for a weekday meal plan. These meals don’t take more than 30 minutes to prepare. If you keep it simple, like in the example below, you will find that you have more time to do fun stuff like go to the park with the kids, because dinner is almost ready and all you need to do is 1-2 quick side dishes!

In the summer it is especially easy because you can grill the food and have fun outside in your backyard, deck or porch and play with your kids while the food cooks.

Monday
Grilled Salmon
Grilled baby potatoes
Grilled asparagus
* Do ahead – cook Bolognese sauce for Thursday on Monday/Tuesday night

Tuesday
Grilled steaks
Mashed sweet potatoes
Steamed broccoli

Wednesday
Grilled lamb chops
Israeli couscous
Cinnamon glazed carrots

Thursday
Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce (reheat)
Pasta
Small salad

Friday
Buffet OR Pizza party = take all the leftovers out and “clean” your fridge before Sunday’s grocery shopping (put it all on flatbread and make “pizza”), OR Light dinner of fried eggs, cheeses, deli meat, veggies, tuna salad, etc

* Do the grocery shopping on Sunday and you are good for the week.
* Do ahead the prep or cooking is best to do in the evening after the kids are in bed. I know it might be the last thing you feel like doing at the end of the day when you can finally rest, but he next day you will be happy you did it. You will feel so wonderful when you know you don’t have the pressure of cooking dinner fast and can do something “funner” instead.
* If you have leftovers, that is the best. Pack everything and have a picnic dinner in the park, or the backyard.

Make your life and easy, keep cooking simple, and you’ll see that having a home-made dinner everyday can be easy. It just takes some practice (or a cooking class, see World Flavors).

Enjoy summer.
Nurit