February 16, 2012

FAMILY MEALS: WEEK FIVE

It feels to good to be meal planning. We have eaten less frozen food boxes from Trader Joe's, in fact none at all during the week, though those are still nice in a pinch. Meal planning also helps save time in the evening because usually it takes us forever to figure out what to eat after Ben gets home and he is usually the one who would have been cooking it. Now, it is actually me cooking. I am not as good as Ben, but it works.

Wednesday started the new recipes for the week and I tried the Rice and Black Bean Pilaf...
family meals
It is a quick recipe, but I substituted celery with red bell peppers because I don't like celery. Also, the recipe calls for parsley, which we used, but I think would have tasted better with cilantro. The flavors were pretty mild and if I were making it for just me and Ben, I would have sauteed the veggies with some chopped serrano peppers. A whole lot of them actually. Fresh slices of avocado is also good mixed in.

Thursday, I tried Korean Spicy Quick Braised Tofu that BFF and Jane recommended (those ladies know me well)...
family meals
Ben was completely loving this dish and said if it were at a restaurant, he would order it! My only change would be to double the sauce recipe, so that you would have more sauce to drizzle on! It was yummy and had a really nice kick! We love kick!!! We will make this again soon.

Knowing that our dish would be quite spicy, I made the girls Citrus Soy Tofu and Broccoli...
family meals
I used the leftover marinade from last week's squid dish and let the tofu sit in that for a bit and then cooked that along with broccoli in a pan. When Brave saw the dish she said, "Ooh! I love tofu!!!" It was really cute. True ate all her broccoli and Brave ate her tofu, but I think if Brave weren't so tired at the dinner table, she would have eaten more on her plate.

I have got my eye on some of the other tofu recipes you all shared. I can't wait to try them out! If you have more recipes to share, keep them coming!

Week of 2/20 - 2/24:
Monday: Pasta Puttanesca and Roasted Cauliflower
Tuesday: Chicken Cacciatore and Brussel Sprouts
Wednesday: Monday's leftovers
Thursday: Spaghetti and Meatballs (we have some church family coming over)
Friday: Pizza or something super easy

I haven't made any salmon recipes yet, anyone have any good and healthy ones to share?

7 comments:

  1. The braised tofu looks so good. I will have to try that!

    My favorite way to have salmon is really simple and healthy;

    I bake a salmon fillet, or steaks, in the oven with a little lime juice, red pepper flakes, crushed garlic and soy sauce and sesame oil) Sometimes I make this as a marinade and soak the salmon in it for about 10 minutes before cooking. Any longer and the acid will start to cook the fish!

    Then I put the salmon in foil (with the sauce) and stick it in the oven preheated to about 300 until it is done. I like to open the foil and broil the salmon for the last couple minutes. - it should be flaky but still moist.

    I serve this with brown rice and braised baby bok choy. Yum!

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  2. I'm happy to see that your are enjoying it. I think personaly, not meal planning is a nigthmare ! You don't know what to cook and you don't have the ingredients for what you would like to cook !

    Your choice of recipe seems really good.

    For the salmon one things I wanted to try taht is supossed to be very good since a long time, is to cook it on the bbq on a cedar plank. Like this :
    http://www.canadianliving.com/food/cedar_planked_salmon_with_maple_mustard_glaze.php

    I don't know if it is popular in the States. But here in Canada we often hear about it !

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  3. this may be the best tasting salmon i have ever had, the sauce is out of this world, and if you have extra it tastes great on all sorts of things, especially pork, and although it has sriracha in it the spiciness level is pretty low, in fact i didn't really taste it at all


    Miso-Sriracha Glazed Salmon
    3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
    ½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
    ¼ cup soy sauce
    ¼ cup white miso paste
    3 tablespoons Sriracha
    1 glove garlic, mined
    6 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, about 1 inch think
    Preheat broiler. In a small nonreactive mixing bowl, combine the oil, brown sugar, soy sauce, miso paste, Sriracha, and garlic. Spritz the broiling pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place the salmon on the pan and broil 6 inches from the flame, basting the fish twice. Broil until the fish flakes easily at the center of the fillet, 9-10 minutes.

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  4. Just wanted to say again how much I'm enjoying your meal planning posts. I've made a few of the meals you've mentioned (breaded chicken, burgers, chicken piccata, taquitos) and they've all worked out really well for my family - thank you!

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  5. This recipe for Stir-Fried Tofu and Peppers is really easy and delicious (especially when served over brown rice)! We like to double the marinade and sauce. So yummy!

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/health/nutrition/18recipehealth.html

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  6. Looks yummy! This is the first week I have actually meal planned for the whole week and it's been so nice, thanks for the inspiration! For salmon, we love making salmon cakes: I mix canned flaked salmon with bread crumbs, finely chopped onion, celery, minced garlic, an egg or two, and seasoning, we love cayenne pepper to make them spicy! Then shape into patties and bake in a pan with a little grapeseed oil until crispy, flipping after 15/20 min.

    ReplyDelete

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