2020 Week 35 Menu Plan
The 2020 Week 35 Menu Plan is complete. It reflects travel as well as meals with family, making it extremely easy to plan dinners. I will plan food for travel to allow us to pick and choose if we want to stop or push on.
Breakfast
The breakfast plan for 2020 week 35 relies on favorites. Normally we plan our hotel stays at properties that provide breakfast. During this pandemic that is no longer possible. I have planned to take a cooler on the drive and will stock it with both BAM cake from the freezer and breakfast cookies so that we have morning options.
Ricotta and Sausage Breakfast Casserole
Lunch
The lunch plans for the week will utilize an abundance of frozen cooked chicken from the Costco rotisserie chickens we have purchased in the past. I plan to include leftovers I have from last week to include in our travel cooler to allow for options aside from restaurant eating. At this point we prefer to eat outdoors or take out. Healthy on plan options may not be readily available on the road.
Cake Batter Frappe (Fuel Pull Snack)
Dinner
My daughter had already planned meals from Green Chef that she would prepare this week, so planning and shopping for dinner was incredibly easy. It will be the one time each day that we would eat out while on the road. I will research the best places to stop depending on our drive time and current location. If we are home in time on Friday, we will join together at my son’s for a cook out. The sausage and peppers are in the freezer for our Monday meal and the aim for burgers on Tuesday simply makes planning and shopping easier.
Green Chef Kale Salad and Pork
Green Chef Creamy Greek Shrimp
Hits and Misses
Whole Foods had a sale on halibut, and prime had free delivery. Obviously the meal plan was easy. I have several good recipes for halibut, but I wanted to have a deep S meal. Aside from a splattered stove top…this halibut was phenomenal. I served it with roasted balsamic garlic mushrooms and roasted asparagus and a tossed salad. Restaurant worthy for a fraction of the price.
I have made these mushrooms in the past, forgetting just how flavorful and EASY they are. I will not forget them in the future!
This cheese spread is worth repeating the link once again. The only change that I make is using Pepper Jack cheese in place of Monterey Jack. This is so delicious. I actually made this for Happy Hour at my son’s…it is a favorite of his, but I also found a new recipe for Shrimp and Pimento Cheese Grits that I hope to make in the near future.
Initially I was going to try to combine two different Thai Basil Chicken recipes to develop my own, but I decided to try each one on its’ own before doing that. This recipe was the simplest with really great reviews plus I had all of the ingredients on hand. The ‘Ole Buckeye had brown rice, while I had cauliflower rice to curtail the carbs. We all agreed that this recipe was very tasty, and I appreciated the ease of preparation.
Aside from cleaning the wild caught shrimp, this meal was relatively easy. I roasted the spaghetti squash in advance, as well as prepping the shrimp. The dish came together quickly and we loved the layers of flavor with the olives and lemon. It was indeed restaurant worthy. We will definitely make this again.
Mediterranean Spaghetti Squash with Shrimp, Olives, and Feta
Food for Thought
New to me…Castelvetrano olives. Castelvetrano olives (pronounced kah-stell-veh-TRAH-no) are named for a town in the center of their growing region, the province of Trapani on the western side of Sicily.
Olives are a very healthy fruit. Some people avoid them because of their “high fat content.” But that’s the same incredibly heart-healthy, monounsaturated fat that we’re encouraged to consume via olive oil. Monounsaturated fats have been found to reduce the risk of atherosclerosis and increase HDL (good) cholesterol. Olives have a trifecta of healthy components that work in synergy. In addition to the monounsaturated fats, olives are rich in the powerful antioxidant vitamin E–which neutralizes damaging free radicals–along with polyphenols and flavonoids, which have anti-inflammatory properties. As a bonus, olives are also rich in copper and iron, and are an excellent source of fiber.
Read more at: blog.thenibble.com
We will definitely keep a bottle of these on hand.
Recap
We had some superb meals over the past week making the effort very worthwhile. I won’t do a lot of cooking in the week ahead, but that will give me the opportunity to be more creative the following week. Bon Appetit!
