Week of February 26

 Should anyone outside my immediate family happen to drop by here, you'll want to know that I'm referencing Melissa Joulwan's cookbook Well Fed in all my meal plans. My aim is to cook my way through all the recipes in this book this semseter, to make this way of cooking and eating a way of life. Not a Rule, mind you. That's St. Benedict, and can't nobody improve on St. Benedict. But a lower-case little way . 



It's already Monday, and I've shopped and cooked-up and done a bit of planning. And eating . . .

Sunday night's dinner:

After cooking up 9 pounds of boneless, skinless chicky breasts and three pounds of ground turkey for use this week, I made what I guess amounted to paleo Italian-style Hamburger Helper for our Sunday-night supper. Here's what I did:

* Brown 3 lbs ground beef with 1 diced onion, a lot of garlic powder, and Italian spices (basil, sage, oregano, etc) also liberally applied

*Add 1 can tomato paste, mushrooms, and a shake of frozen chopped spinach (just enough so that there's really spinach in the "sauce," but you don't exactly taste it. Let the meat sauce/mixture simmer and fill the house with its delicious aroma.

*Make cauliflower "rice" by dicing it to a rice-like consistency in the food processor (a Well-Fed invention -- cauliflower "rice," that is, not the food processor). Add to the meat mixture and cook until tender (about 5-10 minutes -- I wanted it gently al dente, but not raw-cauliflower crunchy).

On the side:  carrot sticks and kale chips (see Melanie's recipe in Snacks)

I had enough beef/cauli stuff to send with my husband to work for his lunch today.

What we have left to work with for the rest of the week: 

Protein

The aforementioned chicken breasts and ground turkey (plus more uncooked in the freezer)

Tuna (about 4 cans)

Salmon (2 cans)

eggs (4 dozen left of the 5 dozen I bought, including one dozen hard-boiled)

Produce

carrots
1 more cauliflower head
2 heads cabbage
onions
8 sweet potatoes

Freezer (non-meat)

bell peppers & onions
a little chopped spinach
leftover cabbage soup from last week

In cans

tomato paste
stewed whole tomatoes

The usual complement of fats, condiments, and spices

Outdoors

very fresh new tiny dandelion greens

Other

seaweed sushi wraps, ie snacks for the 8- and 9-year-olds who love seaweed

Meal Possibilities: 

Mexican, Chinese, Indian hot plates
crockpot chicken/vegetable stew (probably on Thursday)
sausage-egg scramble
tuna salad
salmon-egg muffins for Friday
cabbage soup for Friday

Monday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  tuna salad (husband took Sunday supper leftovers to work)
dinner:  Mexican-style chicken breasts with peppers and onions, with sides of cumin-roasted carrots and cauliflower "rice" -- recipe below! (UPDATE: and now in the recipe file)

Tuesday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  dudes took Mexican chicken leftovers to work. The three of us at home had plain chicken breasts (I put some fresh cilantro on mine) and apples
dinner:  Greek Cabbage Rolls 

Wednesday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs (we're boring, but it gets the job done)
lunch:  Thai-Style Totally Paleo Chicken Salad 
dinner:  crockpot meal:  Well Fed's "Velvety Butternut Squash" recipe made us as soup, using sweet potatoes instead of butternut squash, with shredded chicken breasts to make it a complete veg-and-protein meal

Thursday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  chicken breasts, leftovers
dinner:  ground-turkey chili (using Well Fed's "Chocolate Chili" recipe)

Friday
breakfast:  oatmeal/eggs
lunch:  salmon muffins
dinner:  First Friday Dinner at Belmont Abbey (which will be pasta and not paleo, but we'll go with it) 

Mexican-Style Paleo Chicken Breast Dinner

I had all these chicken breasts which I'd cooked up on Sunday, plus a bag of frozen peppers and onions, plus carrots and a head of cauliflower. Here's what I did with them: 

*Sauteed peppers and onions in a knob of coconut oil. They were frozen, so I wanted not only to thaw them but to cook down the water in them so they wouldn't be runny. I turned the heat down on the big iron skillet and let them simmer away while I worked on other parts of the meal.

*While those were cooking, I put chicken breasts (about 8 -- they're kind of small) in a bowl, then in a microwaveable cup I melted another big spoonful of coconut oil (about 2 T, I would guess) with chili powder and unsweetened cocoa powder. Not quite sure how much:  "to taste," anyway. I stirred this all up together and poured it over the chicken, tossing to coat. Then I let that sit.  

*I had the kids peel five carrots, which I then cut into carrot sticks. As I'd done with the chicken, I melted some cumin and cinnamon with a knob of coconut oil in the microwave and then tossed the carrots in that and put them in the oven on 375 to roast for about half an hour (this is a Well Fed recipe, and actually in the cookbook it's more detailed, and they're even more delicious than what I'm describing here. This was my quickie corner-cutting version).

*When the chicken had marinated for a while in the spice/oil mix, and the carrots were close to done in the oven, I added it to the sauteed peppers, scraping all the spice marinade into the skillet. I covered the skillet and let all that simmer together (but not too long -- just enough to warm the pre-cooked chicken)

*I stemmed, chopped, and "riced" the cauliflower in the food processor. In a separate skillet, I sauteed it for about five minutes in coconut oil, until it was tender but not mushy.

Kids liked their chicken and cauliflower rice to be separate on the plate. At least one grownup opted to have chicken, peppers, and the chili-chocolate-mole-tasting pan juices over the cauliflower rice. Carrots on the side.