The weekly menu

There may be a lot of apple recipes in the future because we went picking at Apple Hill and came home with quite a bounty…

The first place we went (Pine ‘O Mine) only had granny smiths left (not my fave) so after we got a few pounds of those we headed up the road to another spot (Boa Vista) where we got apple cider, apple pumpkin butter, apple donuts (SO MANY!) and apple BBQ sauces…oh, and more apples (pink ladies and yellow delicious).

There was a huge crowd but our friends got there a little earlier and waited in the loooooong line for baked goods, so we had fresh donuts waiting for us right when we pulled up.  Not bad!  Aside from the sesame street soundtrack on the ride, it was a super fun trip and I think it’ll be an annual trip for sure.  [Laura, I would have bought some honey sticks if you were coming to the States any time soon]

Remember when P was a still just a bump on our last apple picking adventure?  That was exactly two years ago to the date…boy how time flies!  I still stand by my apple variety ranking from that post too.

Ok, now onto the weekly menu!

If you recall, the sausage and kale skillet was on last week’s menu but I never got around to it.

Made it this week and we all LOVED it!

TJ’s has several chicken sausages that are gluten free that are also processed in peanut, sesame, and tree nut free facilities, so they are a big hit around here.  I still love applegate of course, but Trader Joe’s prices are much better.  P ate every part of this dish, including the sautéed onions and kale.  Win.

Spaghetti with ground beef marinara.

P and I had GF noodles, but I didn’t have as many as I thought, so P and I had spaghetti squash too, and then Kyle ate wheat noodles.  I bought extra grass fed organic ground beef a while back when WF had a one day sale and it was super cheap and they wrapped them up separately for me and I froze them for days like this.  P ate ground beef separately without the marinara because I haven’t found an allergen friendly marinara yet.  🙁  For some reason Newman’s Own sauces have soybean oil in them, while several other brands are co-packed on equipment shared with nuts.  Still searching…

The Italian theme continued the next night with pizza.

This is Vicolo’s vegetarian goat cheese pizza, which they finally started carrying at Costco again.  Phew!  We missed it.

I paired it with a simple spinach salad that had avo, dried cranz, and a home-made balsamic vinaigrette.  P ate leftovers from the night before instead of this meal.  Sorry buddy.

Here’s a horrible picture of our al fresco dinner, because I never took one once it was plated and we started eating it.

That’s goat gouda, crackers, berries, and canned smoked oysters.  I didn’t love the oysters (texture thing…flavor was good) so Kyle ate most of them.  Not pictured: fig butter (yum).

 

For the BBQ night, I made this mustard sauce (again)  to pair with the chicken thighs.

P loooooved the thighs and broccoli but wasn’t interested in the sweet potatoes at all.  Still doesn’t dig any kinds of potatoes, silly kid.

Last but not least, nacho night!

I served the leftover tortilla soup from two weeks ago on top…with goat cheddar for me and cow cheddar for Kyle.  P had leftover chicken and broccoli from the previous night, plus some of the soup’s veggies picked out (carrots and corn).

Other random eats…

A foamy almond milk latte with pumpkin spices on top.

A vegetarian lasagna for Kyle’s lunches throughout the week (he never ever ever gets sick of it) and one night for dinner.

Lots of salad for my lunches…including a few with Quorn chik’n tenders because I felt like them.

The above has roasted sweet potatoes (leftovers from dinner), kale massaged in oil and tamari, and coconut flakes.  The below has the same but with quinoa and avocado instead of sweet potatoes.

The Quorn stuff is actually really good, especially when tossed in tamari, even for something pretty processed.

This salad was simple with spinach, roasted butternut squash, dried cranberries, and a home-made mustardy red wine vinaigrette.

This was kinda the same but with hard boiled eggs and avo too.

Finally got around to pickling the rest of my garden’s green beans.  I really liked the first batch, so I hope these turn out as well.

And with that, I’m off!