Good Eats II

Last week's re-cap of our family's suppers went over surprisingly well! Thank you for your curiosity and positive comments! I was even asked to do more posts like this, so here's the low-down on what we ate for supper this week.

Friday: Grilled veggies with penne pasta. I grilled the veggies on my pannini press with no oil or anything, then mixed them with pasta, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, basil and parsley. I love this dish in the summer, especially when our garden in cranking out zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil and parsley--those are the veggies in this dish. When that happens my eye starts twitching with happiness, both in the taste of the fresh meal and in the budget! What does a box of pasta cost, a dollar? Ever fed a family of five for ONE dollar?! Yeah, that didn't happen this time as I had to buy these veggies. But as we all know from this post, at least I got them at a good deal!

My 5-year-old helped me make the brownies in the first picture, by the way. He did a great job cracking the eggs and pouring in the other ingredients! I got the idea from Pinterest to use the brownies as the base of strawberry short cake. I definitely recommend try it!

Saturday: This is last week's picture because we ate the same thing. And then we had more of this.

I've been making the cream topping from coconut milk but can't seem to get it to whip up and be fluffy! The recipes on Pinterest say to refrigerate the can of coconut milk overnight, then spoon out the thicker part and leave the rest, then whip it with powdered sugar. No luck! So this time I thickened the coconut milk with cornstarch over medium heat. I also added vanilla and sugar. I chilled it in the freezer while I made the rest of the meal and it was a nice, creamy consistency.

Now might as well be the time I explain some of our dietary choices. We believe our bodies were created by God and it is our job to take good care of them. Since God made us, he knows what is best to put in us, so we try to eat foods as grown. Ideally, that would mean raw, fresh, organic, fruit, nuts, veggies, some legumes and grains, no processed foods, etc.  Yikes!

We also feel one should do the best with what you have and we simply can't afford to eat that way right now. So we choose to eat a plant-based diet, add veggies and/or fruit to every meal and usually avoid meat and dairy. We try to limit the amount of sugar and processed foods we eat. Obviously there are exceptions--you've already seen two pictures of brownie strawberry shortcake! You'll also see a meal with fish in it later in the week. I'll explain that one when we get there. 

Sunday: Thai vegetable and tofu stir-fry over brown rice. This was a new recipe and it was so good! It's basic stir-fry veggies with a sauce of coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce, red pepper flakes and a pinch of brown sugar. (If you're really trying to stay away from processed sugar, you can use brown rice syrup or honey instead.)
 

Monday: Bluegill fillets with fried cornmeal and green salad with apple-walnut dressing. About the fish, because I know you're wondering... We will occasionally--as in, maybe four times a year--eat fish that my husband catches. This was bluegill from a friend's pond, caught the day before. Somehow we're able to justify it because we know it's fresh, free from preservatives and cleaned by us. It was so good too! Bluegill is the least fishy fish I've eaten! We dipped it in a batter of egg and flour/cornmeal and seasoned salt. 

I do have to mention this salad because it was delicious! I took a basic green salad with several kinds of lettuce, added cucumber, orange bell pepper, green apple and walnuts, then put a homemade mustard-maple syrup vinaigrette on top. Yum!  

Tuesday: We have a Bible study group that meets at our house on Tuesdays. One family brings a big salad, another brings a side dish of veggies, and a third brings dessert. I make the main dish which is usually a soup. This week I was in town until an hour before this supper, so I made my favorite pasta dish again! I had to re-create this meal to take the picture the next day, so the veggies aren't as vibrant and I'm missing the steamed veggies and rhubarb cake. It's basically the same as the pasta dish earlier in the week (above) but sauteed instead of grilled and I included an eggplant as well as basil. Oh, and a different kind of pasta.

Wednesday: My sweet husband took this picture for me because I had to run off to a school board meeting and ate my meal in the car. Yes, yes I did. I enjoyed every bite as I sped along on the quiet country roads for an hour with about 5 stop signs... Oh, country living. 

Anyway, I must have been bored with cooking this week, because I looked up another recipe. I do that if I have no clue what to make for supper--start browsing pinterest or google something. On Wednesday I knew we had leftover brown rice from the stir-fry a couple days ago, so I kept that in my search and came up with a cuban salad. It's black beans, brown rice, tomato and lime juice with a pinch of red pepper and a few herbs. It was only ho-hum, so my husband stuck it on top of the left over apple-walnut salad and added the rest of that dressing. And some chia seeds. :) I wasn't too sure how it would end up, but BOY was it tasty! 

Thursday: I baked bread on Thursday, so we had egg salad and avocado sandwiches with broccoli. I know the broccoli looks brown--it is! I sauteed it with sesame oil and soy sauce. Yum! 

If you're wondering about the plant-based diet people eating eggs, well, we have special rules for those too. We get 75% of the eggs we use from someone who has chickens that forage for food. No steroids or anything questionable in their diet. We also know the eggs are fresh. When I buy them at the store, I get eggs that are from hens fed a natural diet. That's what works for us!

Source: theprimalhome.blogspot.com via Ellie on Pinterest

I almost forgot, we had this "ice cream" for dessert! It's frozen strawberries and bananas with a little coconut milk and a splash of vanilla. I couldn't get mine as thick as this, but it was really sweet and tasty! 

So there you have it! Another seven suppers. Does it make sense to you? Are there recipes or things that you would like me to include in the future? What did you eat this week? Did you try anything new? 

Oh dear, there's another supper coming up... What should I make?