Week in Suppers: Week 3

Monday
Menu::Chicken pesto penne with kalamata olives
Details::Not enough vegetables (ahem, any? I'm guessing pesto and olives don't count) and I forgot to cut up carrots and put out the hummus until after we had sat down to eat. We had some applesauce my mom canned in the fall for dessert to sort of make up for the starch heavy meal. Everyone ate it, and three out of four of us had seconds.

Tuesday
Menu:: Black bean loaf and roasted veggies
Details::Basically the same recipe as lentil loaf, but I used black beans. Love the recipe as it's so adaptable and everyone gobbles it up. No leftovers at all this time. Roasted potatoes, carrots, beets and yams. Boys demanded dessert, so we had a jar of cherries I put up in the summer. So good.

Wednesday
Menu::Black bean quesadillas
Details::Had extra beans leftover from making them for Tuesday's meal, but not enough to freeze (I usually make big batches and freeze most of them), so quesadillas it was, with tomatoes, peppers, and cheese inside and salsa, guac and sour cream for toppings. A2 complained again, but he managed to eat about half of one.
Bonus::Made two loaves of chocolate chunk pumpkin bread that day, so we ate a slice each for dessert. Pureed pumpkin frozen from our Halloween jack o'lanterns.

Thursday
Menu::Beef stew with mashed potatoes and fresh bread.
Details::So good! First meat stew of the season and with the snow on the ground, it was a perfect meal. Stew had loads of carrots and parsnips for veggies.

Friday
Menu::home made pizza
Details::Hawaiian this time on a multigrain crust. Crust still not perfect but getting better.

Saturday
Menu::nothing planned
Details::Kevin took over dinner that night as I was attending a round table discussion on intimate theatre as part of the PuSh Festival. He makes a fantastic Thai seafood curry and I was very happy to return home to that for dinner.

Sunday
Menu::Chicken breasts
Details::My standby chicken breasts (mustard, honey, garlic, a bit of juice and olive oil) with roasted blue potatoes (discovered at the back of the fridge), carrots and parsnips. No leftovers. We all thought dessert would be a good idea, but I didn't want to open up another jar of preserves, so I found a fast chocolate pudding recipe. To say it was a hit would be a huge understatement. Will be making again.

::

By request, my lentil loaf recipe (please note that all measurements are approximate):

2 cups cooked lentils (I usually use french lentils or black beans. Can substitute any bean.)
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 large onion chopped finely
2-4 chopped garlic
2 eggs beaten
1 cup oats (other cooked grains could be substituted, though I haven't done any yet)
1 tbsp Worchestire sauce
1 large squirt/plop of ketchup (or bbq sauce)
1 cup of grated cheddar
salt and pepper
herbs (I usually do about 1tsp each of sage, savoury/thyme, 1 tbsp oregano, but you can figure out what you like best)

1. cook lentils (or beans)**
2. fry up onions and garlic until onions are translucent, then add mushrooms; cook until tender**
3. add all ingredients in a large bowl, mix well
4. dump into a loaf pan, squirt a bit more ketchup on top to look fancy (or don't)
5. bake at 375F for about 45-60 minutes or until it looks done

**these steps can be done ahead of time

This is a bastardized version the lentil loaf recipe that was in We Eat Together a great cookbook that features almost all of my favourite vendors from the Edmonton Downtown Farmers' Market (which I miss incredibly).