Real Food Menu for Week of 8.17.2020

August 17, 2020weekly menusbroccoli and red cabbage salad with tangy peanut butter dressing, Chocolate Pecan Sweet Potato Breakfast Cookies, garlic butter pasta, kale salad with blueberry vinaigrette, layered salad, mason jar spinach salad, vanilla coconut flour paleo cupcakesarthurized Leave a comment

Having to stay mostly indoors this cool and rainy weekend, gave me time to work on sorting supplies, packing shoe boxes and making a shopping list for filler items. I’m excited to share that with you over the next few weeks.

If you’re a new reader, welcome and thank you for taking time out of your day to read here! My menus are always gluten-free, mostly real food. We define that as ‘food made in nature and not in a factory’. We’re not perfectionists, so we shoot for an average of at least 90% real food with a few 10% foods thrown in there.

We’re still pounding through all the veggies from Pa Kettle’s garden, and I couldn’t be happier about that! Here is this week’s menu:

Mark’s Breakfast:
Chocolate Pecan Sweet Potato Breakfast Cookies – Yum! These little fiber-packed goodies make the easiest grab-and-go breakfast.
https://www.eatingbirdfood.com/sweet-potato-breakfast-cookies/

Mark’s Lunch:
Mason Jar Spinach Salad – Even though he’s a fun guy (heh), Mark doesn’t love ‘shrooms. We’ll just leave those out. We use Sir Kensington’s mayo and substitute stevia sweetener for the sugar in the dressing. Instead of spooning the dressing into the bottom of the jar, I store each portion in a tiny container.
https://www.theseasonedmom.com/wprm_print/57058

Dinner:
Garlic Butter Pasta – New! We’re loving lentil and chickpea pastas. They seem to hold their shape well, and don’t get gummy like brown rice pastas. Sprinkle a little nutritional yeast on top of this hearty dish, if you like.
https://elavegan.com/garlic-butter-pasta/

Layered Salad – Here’s a throwback salad for you. This is a once in a while dish due to that mayonnaise based dressing. For the dressing, we like Kroger natural sour cream with just three ingredients: cultured cream, skim milk and enzymes. When it’s just the two of us, we divide this recipe in half. Add the dressing just before serving.
https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/layered-salad/

Broccoli and Red Cabbage Salad with Tangy Peanut Butter Dressing – This salad is crunchy and flavorful, with just a bit of tartness from the cranberries. Dress this salad just before serving. Leftover dressing is delicious served over plain, shredded cabbage.
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/broccoli-red-cabbage-salad-tangy-pb-dressing/

Kale Salad with Blueberry Vinaigrette – New! Mark went just a little crazy for this blueberry dressing! The recipe does not specify what to massage into the kale. Do you just massage it dry? I drizzled a little olive oil, and then massaged the kale. Just before serving, I tossed the salad with half the dressing. Then I topped it with the pecans and feta along with the rest of the dressing.
http://veggingattheshore.com/2015/06/kale-salad-with-blueberry-vinaigrette/

Snacks:
Hummus and cucumber slices, watermelon, popcorn, dried fruit and nuts. Rinse, repeat.

Treat:
Vanilla Coconut Flour Paleo Cupcakes – A sweet treat for Mark; these are surprisingly light and fluffy! I use Simple Mills frosting to minimize sugar. The recipe says it yields eight cupcakes, but I get nine standard size cakes out of a single batch. I decrease the coconut oil to 1/4 cup as well. Store these in the fridge, because they contain no preservatives.
https://www.healthextremist.com/vanilla-paleo-cupcakes-recipe/

Have a fantastic week, everyone!

Disclosure: In addition to occasional sponsored posts, Arthurized Home uses clickable affiliate links. That means that I may receive a small commission from sales at no extra charge to you. As always, my opinion is 100% my own, and I only recommend things that I truly love or use myself. Thank you for patronizing the brands that support Arthurized Home!

Copyright 2019-2021 © Arthurized Home – All Rights Reserved. This post is the original content of Arthurized Home. If you’re reading this on another site, it’s unArthurized.

Real Food Menu for Week of 5.4.2020

May 4, 2020Foodblueberry and raspberry baked oatmeal, breakfast scramble meal prep bowls, chocolate chip cookie dough balls, grilled pineapple with ricotta and honey, layered salad, salsa verde chicken skillet with brown rice and guacamole, southwestern squash casserole, strawberry chicken salad with avocado dressing, taco seasoningarthurized Leave a comment

Do you ever feel like you worked all day long and at the end of the day can’t name one project you fully completed? That’s what is happening at our house right now. We’ve got a lot going on but nothing much to show for it. One project depends on another and it’s snowballing out of control.

The herb garden is one bright spot. It has overwintered beautifully and the plants seem to be healthy and happy. The other night when I was coming home I startled a wascally wabbit in the garden. I’m pretty sure he was fixin’ to chow down on my lily plants. Again. The onions and garlic planted around the lilies are not deterrent enough, so I’ve got a little cayenne surprise for him. I’ll share the recipe and report back if you’re interested.

Anywhooo, it’s back to work today and we’re diving head-first into this busy week. Here’s what we’ll nosh on as we go:

Breakfast:
Blueberry & Raspberry Baked Oatmeal – This one is a perennial favorite and a real crowd-pleaser. We prepare this bake when we have overnight guests.
https://www.sohowsittaste.com/blueberry-raspberry-baked-oatmeal/

Lunch:

Breakfast Scramble Meal Prep Bowls – We love breakfast for dinner, or anytime, really! I add extra bell peppers to this recipe and use two tablespoons taco seasoning mix.
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/breakfast-scramble-clean-eating-meal-prep-bowls/
Taco Seasoning: I mix a quadruple batch of this and store it in a glass jar.
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/homemade-taco-seasoning/

Dinner:

Layered Salad – We divide this recipe in half for the two of us. Add the dressing just before serving. Also, I love ya, Pioneer Woman, but you’re layering this all wrong. Everyone knows the cheese goes on top of the salad. But, we’ll play it your way for now.
https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/layered-salad/

Strawberry Chicken Salad with Avocado Dressing – You want an avocado that is guac-ready for this dressing. If not, the dressing could be bitter, instead of creamy.
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/clean-eating-strawberry-chicken-salad/

Southwestern Squash Casserole – Delish! We use Bob’s Red Mill g-free 1 to 1 baking flour to thicken.
https://food.12tomatoes.com/southwestern-squash-casserole/

Salsa Verde Chicken Skillet with Brown Rice and Guac – New Recipe!
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/salsa-verde-chicken-skillet/

Snacks:
Along with our usual popcorn and go-to warm weather snack of fresh watermelon, I’m making these real food cookie dough balls.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls – New Recipe! Pre-exercise fuel, or post-exercise treat? That’s your call. I used a 1″ cookie scoop and this recipe yielded 30 balls. As with most real food treats, store these preservative-free babies in the fridge or freezer.
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/healthy-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-balls/

Treat:
Grilled Pineapple with Ricotta and Honey – Yum! Grilled fruit is amazing. The pineapple is so sweet, I don’t think this needs the drizzle of honey.
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/grilled-pineapple-ricotta-honey-clean-eating/

Have a great week!

Meal Prep for Week of 7.22.2019

July 22, 2019meal prepcoconut milk panna cotta, garlic butter sauteed spinach with salmon, layered salad, mozzarella parmesan chicken casserole, noatmeal, southwestern squash casserole, summer squash oregano, tomato and cheese piearthurized 3 Comments

This weekend has been all about catching up on home and garden tasks. I’m behind on weeding the herb garden, so it’s gotten a little out of hand. Even the cilantro got tired of waiting on me to clip it, and bolted instead. Oops!

While I was busy processing an enormous batch of basil, Mr. ArthurizedHome sat down and developed this week’s menu. I think he did a nice job of planning meals around what is fresh in the garden, and on sale at the grocery store. Let’s dig in!

Breakfast:
Noatmeal with Strawberries – What could be easier than heating up water and stirring this mix into it? One day we’ll tire of it, but today is not that day!
https://www.healthysweeteats.com/my-favorite-noatmeal-aka-low-carb-oat-free-porridge-the-basic-recipe-and-6-variations/?cn-reloaded=1

Lunch:
Garden Salad with Grilled Chicken – No recipe, just throw whatever is fresh at it! We’ll have Pioneer Woman’s dill dressing on our salads.
https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/layered-salad/

Dinner:

Summer Squash Oregano – This old Southern Living magazine recipe is a favorite. It’s so old that I can’t find the recipe online! I’ve searched. We’ve got oregano growing like crazy this year, and fresh summer squash from Pa Kettle’s garden.

Summer Squash Oregano
3 T. butter
1 onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small, green bell pepper, chopped
1 T. chopped fresh oregano
3/4 lb. yellow squash, sliced
3/4 lb. zucchini, sliced
4 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Melt butter in a large skillet; add onion, garlic and bell pepper and saute until tender. Stir in oregano, yellow squash and zucchini. Cover, and cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Stir in tomato, salt and pepper; cook, uncovered, until squash is tender. Spoon into a serving dish, sprinkle with cheese.

Southwestern Squash Casserole – Yum! To make this gluten free and lower in carbs, I’m substituting ~~gluten-free baking mix~~, ~~coconut flour~~, arrowroot powder for the wheat flour.
https://12tomatoes.com/southwestern-squash-casserole/

Tomato and Cheese Pie – We didn’t get to this one last week! We had too many leftovers and other produce we were trying to use before it spoiled, so this one is back on the menu.

Tomato and Cheese Pie
adapted from The Supermarket Diet Cookbook
Prep: 20 Minutes
Bake: 30 Minutes
Makes: 4 Servings
1 container (15 ounces) ricotta cheese
4 large eggs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. salt, plus additional for sprinkling
1/8 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper, plus additional for sprinkling
1/4 cup milk
1 T. cornstarch – I use arrowroot powder
1 cup packed fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 pound ripe tomatoes (three medium), thinly sliced

1) Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, with whisk or fork, beat ricotta, eggs, Parmesan, salt and pepper until blended.
2) In cup, with fork, stir milk and cornstarch (arrowroot) until blended; whisk into cheese mixture. Stir in basil. Pour mixture into 9 inch glass or ceramic pie plate. Arrange tomatoes on top, overlapping if necessary. Sprinkle tomatoes with salt and pepper.
3) Bake pie until lightly browned around edge and center is puffed, 30 to 35 minutes.

Mozzarella Parmesan Chicken Casserole – New Recipe!
https://www.eatwell101.com/mozzarella-parmesan-chicken-casserole

Garlic Butter Sauteed Spinach with Salmon – This spinach is so bright and flavorful. Even better, you can have dinner on the table in 20 minutes, start to finish. Salt and pepper a salmon filet, squeeze some lemon juice over and pop it in the oven skin side down (450° for 15 minutes or until it flakes easily) and saute the spinach while it bakes. So good!
https://www.eatwell101.com/garlic-butter-sauteed-spinach-recipe

Snacks:
Keto cucumber slices, celery sticks or boiled eggs for me. I know I’m making this sound like prison rations, but I’m generally not hungry between meals on keto.

Hubby will nosh on his glorious, carb-laden watermelon, cherries, peaches and popcorn.

Treat:
Coconut Milk Panna Cotta – This recipe is tried and true, but I’ve never made it without the honey. I’m going to give it a whirl with Whole Earth sweetener to bring those carbs down.
https://deliciouslyorganic.net/coconut-panna-cotta-dairy-free-gaps-paleo-grain-free/

Have a great week, everybody!

Meal Prep for Week of 7.7.2019

July 8, 2019meal prepcheeseburger salad bowls, dilled tuna-stuffed tomatoes, greek salad, keto cobb salad, layered salad, noatmeal, skinny blt avocado wraps, strawberries and whipped cream, strawberry chicken salad with avocado dressingarthurized 1 Comment

Y’all. It’s hot in Virginia.
Like, surface of the sun, hot. Gimmie all the salads, hot. Too hot for cooking, hot. Maybe we should grill a burger or piece of chicken? Keep that heat outside of the house.

Breakfast:
Noatmeal – I make two-serving packets and store them in the fridge. Add hot water and whatever toppings you like! Toppings: Strawberries, Walnuts, Unsweetened Coconut, Lily’s Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter
https://www.healthysweeteats.com/my-favorite-noatmeal-aka-low-carb-oat-free-porridge-the-basic-recipe-and-6-variations/?cn-reloaded=1

Lunch:
Keto Cobb Salad
https://www.ketoconnect.net/keto-salad/
We make Pioneer Woman’s dill dressing and substitute 1 T. Honey for the sugar. This adds a few more carbs than using stevia, but it’s worth it!
https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/layered-salad/

Greek Salad – We never tire of this one!
https://www.spendwithpennies.com/greek-salad/

Dinner:

Grilled Burgers on Lettuce Buns – We stopped at Five Guys on the way back from the beach and had their cheeseburger in a lettuce wrap. So good! I’m trying to recreate that at home.

Skinny BLT Avocado Wraps – New Recipe! I meant to sub in cucumber slices because hubby doesn’t care for avocado, but I forgot. Oops. These were delicious. And messy to eat!
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/clean-eating-skinny-blt-avocado-wrap/

Cheeseburger Salad Bowls – Tried and true!
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/cheeseburger-salad-bowls-healthy-recipe/

Strawberry Chicken Salad – New Recipe! Don’t let the garlic in the dressing scare you away; you won’t get dragon breath. My avocado was a little green, and I think the dressing would have been creamier with a ripe avocado. Maybe you can catch your avocado during the fifteen minute window of time between unripe and rotten?!
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/clean-eating-strawberry-chicken-salad/

Dilled Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes – New Recipe! My cousin made this delicious tuna salad and shared the recipe with me. Thanks, Ruby! I’ve made it ~~twice~~ three times in the last week. I might be just a little obsessed.

Dilled Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes
adapted from The Supermarket Diet Cookbook
Prep: 25 minutes
Makes: 4 servings
2 cans (6 ounces each) solid white tuna in water, drained and flaked
5 T. mayonnaise – I like Sir Kensington‘s
2 medium cucumbers, unpeeled, cut into 1/4 inch pieces – or one English cucumber
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh dill, finely chopped
2 T. capers, drained and finely chopped
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1 T. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 large, ripe tomatoes (12 ounces each)

1) In medium bowl combine tuna, mayonnaise, cucumbers, dill, capers, lemon juice, mustard and pepper.
2) Cut each tomato, from blossom end, into 6 attached wedges, being careful not to cut all the way through. Spoon one-fourth of tuna mixture into center of each tomato.

Snacks:
I’ve found that I’m not really hungry between meals on keto.
See also: too hot to cook.
Delicious carb snacks for hubby: Watermelon, Cherries (Oh my gosh, the cherries are beautiful this year), Tiny But Mighty Popcorn

Treat:
Strawberries and Fresh Whipped Cream

Happy Salad Week! Stay cool, everyone!

Real Food Meal Prep for Week of 4.28.2019

April 29, 2019meal prepalmond flour biscuits, almond flour pancakes, breakfast egg muffins with ham, broccoli cheese soup, cauliflower pizza, keto chia jam, layered salad, pimento cheese, quick and easy chicken salad, southwestern squash casserole, turkey meatball zoodle souparthurized Leave a comment

Like most people, I’ve got enough stress and chaos going on in my life right now. Nothing I can’t handle, however. I’ve had a couple high blood pressure readings lately so I went to the doctor to get that checked out. Wouldn’t you know it, at the check-up my blood pressure was fine. The doctor wants me to keep an eye on it and also suggested that I try a ketogenic diet. So, I’m pinning keto recipes like crazy and dipping my toes into extremely low carb for the next few weeks before testing out full-blown keto. (Ain’t nobody got time for the keto flu!) I’m not entirely sold on this idea.

My hesitation with keto is:
1) All that fat. Blah. I like my veggies and fruit.
2) All that dairy. Dairy and I don’t get along. Right now we use cheese, sour cream, and cream cheese as a condiment and unsweetened coconut milk for most everything else. I really don’t want to increase my dairy intake.
(First world problems, I know.)
3) I don’t mind using stevia as a sweetener; in fact I’m trying to grow the plant this year. But nearly every keto treat contains sugar alcohols, which gives me pause. I prefer a teaspoon of local, raw honey or organic maple syrup over a teaspoon of erythritol.
4) Mr. Arthurized Home is not joining me in this keto adventure, so I’ll fix different breakfasts and snacks for him like I did before he went gluten free. Again, with the first world problems.
5) What should I eat before and during running? I usually eat a piece of toast with peanut butter before a short run and eat a Larabar or Honey Stinger waffle during long runs. I have no idea how to fuel on keto. Some say you can’t do keto and strenuous exercise, others say it’s amazing for endurance sports.

The jury is still out on this decision. That said, here is this week’s menu:

Breakfast: Breakfast Egg Muffins with Ham – New Recipe
https://www.foodfaithfitness.com/breakfast-egg-muffins-with-ham/

I used spinach, roasted red pepper strips and mozzarella in my egg muffins.
They’re delicious!

Almond Flour Biscuits with Keto Chia Jam – New Recipes – I made the jam to go with a coconut chia pudding. I added a smidge of stevia sweetener and it’s very good. So good that I nixed the pudding and found a low carb biscuit recipe to go with the jam.
https://www.gnom-gnom.com/paleo-keto-chia-jam/
I used ghee in the biscuits and they were buttery and filling. They are not sweet at all, and could go savory with the addition of a little garlic powder and cheddar cheese. Maybe some crispy, minced bacon?
https://www.wholesomeyum.com/recipes/paleo-almond-flour-biscuits-low-carb-gluten-free/

Lunch: Broccoli Cheese Soup – New Recipe – To decrease the dairy I’m subbing canned coconut milk in for the heavy cream. I’m not sure this will work, but I’ll give it a whirl!
https://www.wholesomeyum.com/recipes/broccoli-cheese-soup-low-carb-gluten-free/
Garden Side Salad with Dill Dressing – This dressing recipe is an old standby and normally we substitute honey for the sugar. This week we left the sweetener out all together. It’s tasty without it.
https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/layered-salad/

Dinner:
Southwestern Squash Casserole – My sister-in-law made this for Easter and we’ve gone slightly crazy for it. We substitute a gluten-free flour blend (not low carb) for the all-purpose flour. We also use 1/8 tsp of cayenne and leave out the jalapeno.
https://12tomatoes.com/southwestern-squash-casserole/

Breakfast for Dinner – Almond Flour Pancakes – New Recipe
https://joyfilledeats.com/almond-flour-pancakes/

Cauliflower Crust Pizza – So good! Add some Italian herbs and a little more parmesan to the crust if you don’t love the slight cauliflower flavor.
https://thestonesoup.com/blog/2016/09/27/cauliflower-pizza/

Turkey Meatball Zoodle Soup – New Recipe
https://www.paleorunningmomma.com/paleo-turkey-meatball-zoodle-soup-whole30/

Chicken Salad on Baby Spinach – We’ll add grapes for my husband, omit them for my salad.
https://cleanfoodcrush.com/quick-easy-chicken-salad-recipe/

Snacks: Hard-boiled eggs, Celery, Cucumber and Green bell peppers, organic guacamole from Aldi
Pimento Cheese – Every good Southerner should have a favorite pimento cheese recipe and this is mine. I use Sir Kensington’s mayonnaise and finely grate the cheddar.
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/09/sauced-pimento-cheese-recipe.html
Additional snacks for my hubby – Banana, Watermelon, Pineapple and Apples
*sniff* I love you, fresh fruit.

Treat:
Chocolate and Peanut Butter Keto Cookies – New Recipe
https://thesoccermomblog.com/keto-no-bake-cookies/

Let’s have another look at that biscuit, shall we?

Have a great week, everyone!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: