Lunches This Week - #10

Man, we had a fast weekend. Good thing I've been cooking ahead, otherwise, lunches this week would cause me much sorrow - and potentially coin. 

Monday - today was a defrosted section of my recent casserole hack, 1 cup of homemade whole milk yogurt with 1 cup organic raspberries, and a Slim Cake, which really hits a sweet spot for me. 

Tuesday - serious splurge, as I'm taking myself either to Chipotle or a local joint called Yabo's Tacos. It'll be a game day decision. 

Wednesday - repeat of Monday, except that I'll use defrosted peaches instead of raspberries in my yogurt.

Thursday - Monday's menu but with strawberries, instead of peaches or raspberries.

Friday - unless I get cooking this week, as in a week night, Monday's menu, but with strawberries again. 

Short post but never forget that:

Have a fabulous week!!!

Recipe Hack: Jen's Lunches This Week (#5)

Quick post because I have event in six days (for work), and need to get back to tweaking a PowerPoint, confirming registrations, etc. Or being awesome, however you wish to phrase it. 

Lunches This Week features a recipe hack to my fave casserole: the Spinach and Feta Casserole with Quinoa and Wild Rice. The hack was essentially a happy accident, as I had received some baby spinach and lacinato kale in my Green B.E.A.N. Delivery veggie bin, which I had wilted together - but realized that it wasn't quite enough for the recipe. 

So....in the interest of ingenuity, and the fact that I had also received a lovely bunch of fine looking asparagus, I supplemented in order to get to the required 2 cups of veggies for the casserole. 

Turned out to be a pretty good hack as it was a great addition, both in texture and in flavor - if I do say so myself. And amuses me greatly that it was a hack of a hack. 

I followed the recipe from November to the letter except for the veggies:
- chopped the spinach and lacinato kale into decent sized pieces, threw it into a pan with a few inches of water, popped on a lid and let is steam until completely wilted through. Drained it, let it cool, then squeezed all of the liquid out. 
- chopped the stalks of asparagus into bite-sized pieces, created a foil packet with about 1/2 cup of water, sealed the packet, placed it on a tray and put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. I drained the water and tried a piece, which was perfectly steamed. 

The spinach and kale mounted to about 1.5 cups, so I supplemented the remaining 1/2 cup needed with the asparagus pieces. 

Baked the casserole in a 9" x 9" pan, and it made 7 servings, of which, I threw 1 in the frig and the rest in the freezer. 

Oh I do lie a little - I added a nice healthy squirt of sriracha, because everything is better with sriracha!

Since I didn't use all of the asparagus, I plan to make another casserole (since it is incredibly freezer friendly), and use 1/2 spinach or kale and 1/2 asparagus this weekend. I'm curious how it will effect the density and hold-together factor of the casserole. 

Jen's Lunches This Week #5

Monday: I had one container of the Marcella Hazan's best pasta sauce ever + polenta, so had that with 1 cup of my homemade Greek yogurt and 1 cup of sliced organic strawberries. 

Tuesday: 1 serving of the spinach-kale-asparagus-quinoa-wild rice-feta casserole, 1 cup of homemade Greek yogurt with 1/8 c. of Love Grown Simply Oats Gluten-Free Granola. (We were totally out of fresh fruit, but veggie bin arrived Tuesday afternoon!)

Wednesday: 1 serving of the spinach-kale-asparagus-quinoa-wild rice-feta casserole, 1 cup of homemade Greek yogurt with 1 cup of sliced organic strawberries.

Thursday and Friday: planning same meal as Wednesday, although Friday may be 1 cup of diced organic pear.  

I gotta jam and get back to being Event Planner Extraordinaire. Have a fabulous week, peeps!

Back into the Groove.

The last few weeks have been a lovely return to our pre-trip groove, and while it might seem boring, it's honestly nice. The return to the groove has coincided with a flurry of house guests, which we love. So there is the practical side (gotta get the house mostly clean, change sheets, wash towels, etc.) and the zen part of cooking and baking. 

The trick with an extended trip is I didn't want to leave a lot in the frig or kitchen, since there wouldn't be a lot being eaten or made. And it bugs me to have food go bad. 

Then, since I like to eat fresh and whatnot, takes some time to get the larder back up. I have made some really yummy items which I'll be including soon: vegetable melange with polenta (aka using up all the random veggies in the frig); shrimp and veg spicy stir-fry; zucchini feta pie; squash/eggplant lasagna. And all just in time for casserole weather too! WOOT!

Also have some veggies at home that need roasting so I can keep up the experimentation .....but first:

Spinach and Feta Casserole with Brown Rice and Parmesan

(Makes 6-8 servings; recipe inspired by one found in The Big Book of Casseroles, with quite a few healthy changes by Kalyn.)