The 2023 Week 8 menu plan is complete. Once again it includes recipes untried from past weeks. It has become the exception rather than the rule that the menu plan for the week is fully completed. In addition many of the recipes prove to be cook once/eat again and again meals. Believe me I am not complaining. Luckily both the ‘Ole Buckeye and I enjoy leftovers.
Breakfast
I plan a breakfast menu for every morning, however since more and more mornings I choose to fast, the ‘Ole Buckeye is on his own. Occasionally I prepare a menu item for him, but more often than not he prepares his own. His standby is soft boiled eggs or oatmeal. That being said, many recipes move forward into the next week.
Hearty Blueberry Oat Pancakes
Lunch
Many of our lunches last week consisted of cook once/eat multiple times or left overs from dinner…hence the reappearance of several soup recipes.
Greek Lemon Chicken Soup (Avgolemono Soup)
Creamy White Bean Enchilada Soup
Dinner
The dinners for the week were extremely easy to plan because I had lot of leftovers. The only new recipe is the baked shrimp. There is one goal…the mushroom stroganoff was a fail but there is still a lot remaining and I refuse to waste food. I will attempt to salvage it by creating additional flavor and using pasta rather than rice. I love a challenge.
Marry Me Chicken (from the freezer)
Hits
Although I did not have this breakfast bowl, the ‘Ole Buckeye gave it a thumbs up.
Farro Breakfast Pudding with Dates and Cardamom
We eat a lot of hummus. Normally we purchase it at Costco and the Kirkland brand is delicious and highly rated. In order to eliminate the sunflower oil, I decided to make my own. I made the basic recipe and it is great. I will be anxious to try several of the “additions” to see which version we like the most.
What a great lunch! I served the sandwich along with the salad and both were great. The bread actually overpowered the “No Tuna” so the next time we will have it with crackers and on a lettuce leaf. The Mediterranean salad was delicious, both worthy of a repeat and both will enjoyed for another lunch!
Both the enchilada bake and the salad are repeats of favorites which we enjoyed once again. The beauty of the kale salad is how well it keeps. I simply add some additional kale to freshen it up and it is just as enjoyable as the first time.
This was a brand new recipe and surprising satisfying with great tuscan flavors. Potatoes are a stretch for us, but I used small mixed colored potatoes as a more healthy option. I served it with corn muffins, but deleted the sugar and used coconut oil as a sub.
and Misses
Wow…did I have a lot of misses this week!
I have a myriad of great salmon recipes, but this sounded good and I wanted to do something special for Valentine’s Day. Although this was “fine”, it did not meet up to my expectations. Luckily the ‘Ole Buckeye requested the spinach (a true favorite) which more than made up for the disappointing salmon.
My granddaughter requested the Gigi Hadid pasta when she was recuperating from having her wisdom teeth removed. My daughter acquiesced to her request and it was amazing…the veganized version was NOT. In the future, it would definitely be worthwhile to stray a little and enjoy the original.
Gigi Hadid’s Vodka Pasta Sauce (Veganized)
The original…
Gigi Hadid’s Vodka Pasta Recipe (Original)
I had made a mushroom stroganoff in the past, but strayed from that recipe. Big mistake. This creamy vegan mushroom stroganoff was a huge disappointment. I immediately researched the other recipe included below which is a definite keeper.
Creamy Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff
Truly the best…
Best Mushroom Stroganoff (Vegan)
Recap
It is always unfortunate when I take the time to prepare interesting healthy meals only to be disappointed. When that happens inevitably the ‘Ole Buckeye reminds me that we have many, many fantastic meals to rotate…why bother with experiments. I just remind him that in order to find the “fantastic” I need to “experiment”. The goal of health eating continues. Bon Appetit!
