February 15, 2013

Week 7 - Kid Friendly Meals

Printable Version of Meal Plan & Grocery List

For the first time I planned my meals around a theme, instead of grasping at straws to come up with a theme after the fact.  I'm really excited about this week, I had so many recipes to choose from I simply couldn't fit them all in.  You'll likely be seeing a 'Kid Friendly Meals - Part 2' sometime soon.

Two of my goals this week:
- Pack lunches that were school lunchbag friendly (ie. kid pleasing, travel well and nut-free)
- Showcase recipes that were kid-pleasing yet not overly processed and "junkie"

Two of my main sources this week were a couple of my favorite blogs - 100 Days of Real Food and Weelicious.  100 Days of Real Food was started by Lisa Leake who blogs about cutting out processed food.  I can't claim that we're 100% off processed food but I can tell you we have cut way back over the last several months since I've been following Lisa's blog.  I came across Weelicious browsing cookbooks at the library.  Weelicious focuses on cooking for...well... wee ones.  I borrowed it and found that I wanted to try every recipe!  Some of the recipes from the cookbook and many others are available on the website.  I've only included recipes I could link to but highly recommend the cookbook!! 

Now that I'm cooking for a wee one I find I'm much more concerned about things like GMO's, organics, artificial colors and flavors, sugar content, etc, etc...  If you are too, 100 Days of Real Food is excellent resource and here are a couple of other links that might be of interest:

Recipe Quick Links

Whole Wheat Pizza, 100 Days of Real Food
Fish Sticks, Attack of the Hungry Monster
Slow Cooker Deli Style Chicken, 100 Days of Real Food
Pasta Primavera, Weelicious
Red Beet Pancakes, Weelicious
Coconut Chicken Tenders, Canadian Living
Veggie Nuggets, Weelicious
Whole Wheat Banana Bread, 100 Days of Real Food


And before I jump into the week in review I want to point out another change I made this week... the PDF version of the meal plan now has links to the recipe sources.  Since most of meals this weeks were linkable I didn't copy the recipes.  I'd appreciate your feedback on what you prefer!

Week in Review

Monday - Here's another reason I love my Kitchen Aid - I can now make dough.  For the first time ever I made my own pizza dough and I was so excited!  We had pizza for supper Sunday night and leftovers for lunch.  What kid wouldn't like leftover pizza for lunch??   For supper we had Fish and Chips.  The fish was super quick and easy to throw together and we all liked it.  This meal is kid tested and approved!


Lunch - Leftover Pizza, Banana Loaf, Popcorn & Fruit

Tuesday - Tuesday's lunch was Chili Mac.  I made a simple Chili (Browned ground beef, carrots, onion, celery, chili powder, crushed tomatoes and kidney beans), added some noodles and topped with cheese and served with a dollop of sour cream.  I had originally planned on Mac & Cheese but this week started to be higher in carb than we like so the Chili Mac was a compromise.   We can reheat in the microwave at work but I think it would stay warm enough in a good quality thermos for a school lunch.  Supper was a slow cooker deli style chicken.  We love chicken done this way!  You don't add water, just place the chicken on top of onions or rolled up foil balls and turn on low.  The recipe says 5 hours but mine was on for close to 9 and it was fine.  I served with some simple steamed veggies.  The brocolli and corn weren't her favorites but Marin did give the chicken a thumbs up!


Lunch - Chili Mac, Apple & Cheese String, Yogurt


Supper - Slow Cooker Deli Style Chicken


Wednesday - This lunch was by far my favorite!!  On 100 Days of Real Food she posts her kids school lunches.  One day it reminded me so much of those Lunchmates I loved as a kid!  You know the little packs with crackers, cheese and deli meat.  That post inspired my version of a healthy "Lunchmate" - Natural Selections Deli Meat, Havarti Cheese and Wise Crackers (Costco).  We had it with veggies and homemade ranch dressing - so good!!  Thank-you, Lisa Leake, for the inspiration.  And we rarely eat deli meat because of the sodium content so this was an extra special treat.  Supper was leftover chicken and a super easy Pasta Primavera from Weelicious.  Again kid tested and approved - I was on a roll this week!!



Lunch - Ham, Harvarti & Crackers, Vegetable & Dip, Fruit


Supper - Pasta Primavera


Thursday - Leftover Chili Mac for lunch - just as good a couple days later.  And in honor of Valentine's Day we had Red Beet Pancakes.  Most definately kid approved!!  They got an "mmm... I love red pancakes!"  Definately worth a try.



Lunch - Chili Mac, Cheese & Crackers, Pomelo



Supper - Red Beet Pancakes

A quick note about the grapefruit looking fruit in the lunch pic above - this is called a Pomelo.  It's bigger, sweeter and not quite as juicy as a grapefruit.  It's really easy to peel and break off chunks of the flesh.  LOVE!


Friday  - I didn't end up making Friday's meals.  Dave ended up heading out of town and I made lunch plans with some of my work gals.  For supper Marin and I had enough odds and ends leftover from the week to clean up on.  I'm really anxious to try the Veggie Nuggets on the weekend though - will keep you posted!

This post needs some editing but I'm falling asleep at the keyboard.  Will have to get back to that.  One thing I'd like to point out though is the new Pin It and Like It buttons at the end of my posts.  If you like this week please share!!! 

Night All!
 

3 comments:

  1. Such productivity. Love the red pancakes. Wish I had as much success with packed lunches.

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  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  3. Excellent blog, good to see someone is posting quality information. Thanks for sharing this useful information. Keep up the good work.

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