Work Week Menu Plan - June 14-19

It's Saturday! Wonderful, beautiful Saturday. It was a good week but I was still plenty ready for the weekend. We're getting Mexican food tonight so I won't have any dishes And beans, yay!

So, I've been a little more food obsessed than usual. I watched the documentary Food Inc. And Chew This TED Talks. And read some food books. Which was followed by the urge to throw the contents of our fridge in the trash. And what about food shopping - should we even eat anymore? We should just consume plants. We grow ourselves. That we keep the bugs off by gently fanning them away.

But then I got Michael Pollan's Food Rules and this simple tip helped - don't eat products with more than 5 ingredients. I love that!  All the crazy ingredients that don't sound like food AREN'T food. There shouldn't be a paragraph of ingredients on cheese labels. It should just say, like, milk and love.

In addition to that, my other takeaway was less meat. And I totally get that. But it's hard to put into play because I associate meat with fullness. So whaddya do?

Last week, I decided to do lunch falafels.

We had some TEErific falafels at an event here called the Taste of K.C. I decided to give a baked version a whirl with a falafel recipe from my favorite food site, the kitchn. I was out of baking powder so I'm definitely going to make them again with the correct ingredients. But, I think they turned out pretty well just the same. I had them with a greek yogurt mint tzatziki & cucumbers. Made for a great - meatless! - lunch.

After the Sunday falafels prep, it was time to get dinner started. Because Black Betty takes some time to get slow an low.

 

I had gotten some nice ribs on sale. (Post-Memorial day meat sales are great. Oh, and don't throw the meat in my face! While I shall eat less, I shall also enjoy on a tasty rib.)

Sunday

Dinner –Smoked Ribs with Baked Beans and Roasted Cauliflower

I'm not sure why I didn't take a right-side-up pic. But you get the drift.  

These turned out great. I did a dry rub with paprika, brown sugar, cayenne, and so forth, and then we had some sauce on the side. I love my smoker. With it being in the 90ºs consistently starting next week, I don't think the grilling is going to be fun. But the smoker can fill our outdoor food quotient.  When we have some hours to kill.

Monday

Lunch – Baked Falafels

Dinner – Thai "Noodle" Bowls

I asked the hubs what he'd like on the menu and he said a Thai "noodle" bowl? I said ab-so-lutely. (I love that he honestly enjoys the squash zoodles.) It was perfect timing too because I've been pinning a ton of pasta dishes, thinking I'd de-pasta-fy them so I had the perfect recipe. Also, I had half a bag of shredded carrots.

This turned out colorful and really tasty. I know that spaghetti squash isn't pasta. But when it tastes this good, who cares?

Tuesday

Lunch – Baked Falafels

Dinner –Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Sliders with Roasted Zucchini

This was too easy. Chicken and barbecue sauce in the slow cooker. Annnnd done. I topped mine with leftover shredded cabbage and a big ole pickle. And it was so good.  I mean, once again, Hawaiian rolls are the business.

On Wednesday we had leftovers and on Thursday we had guests! (Did that sound like we literally had them for dinner?)  Our friend stopped by with his 2 kids on the way to Nebraska. We got pizza for the kids. It was very exciting. Sugarbear got chased around by a 4 year old and I was warmed with the memories of what it was like to have friends. Good times! To close out the week on Friday, I cooked some lovely trout fillets. And that brings us to today. The day of rice and beans! And salsa. And chile rellenos.

Last week was good. I feel like I've almost redeemed myself (from the curry-we-don't-talk-about incident). Hopefully next week is even better. We're doing our first meatless Monday. So we'll see...

Before I sign off - Happy Father's Day weekend to the fathers out there! And especially to mine. He's known to many as pastor but to me he's dad. He's the one I got my sense of humor from (sorry, Mom), my love of old movies and radio shows, and has always been there for me. (I mean, he married the hubs and I!)  He's also the one that taught me that after lunch you say 'Thank you...  So what's for dinner?' I love him to a million tiny pieces and wish I could be there on there on this special day.

Love you, Dad-Dad. And hope the rest of you have a wonderful rest of the weekend!