Weekly Menu

I'm always searching through cookbooks, food magazines and web sites to find meals that are:
1) Healthy
2) Jacob friendly - pasta and fruit are always good, but everything else is a mystery
3) Michael friendly - your typical meat and potatoes guy who likes to stick with his favorite veggies
4) Doesn't require ingredients that I can't find - doesn't mean I won't try something new, but I'm not going to waste time hunting it down
5) Somewhat easy to make - whatever prep time it says on the recipe I know I almost always have to double it to deal with cooking ability and the million other things going on while I'm making dinner, so I don't want anything too complex

Anyway, I've been pretty proud of our menus lately and thought I'd start sharing them in case there is anyone like me out there looking for weekly menus for the whole family.

This week I got my Food Network Magazine in the mail (love, love, love this magazine) and picked up a Rachael Ray magazine so many of the recipes come from the October 2011 issue of there. Plus I got back into my Deceptively Delicious cookbooks by Jessica Seinfeld to make sure there were some veggies consumed.

* This is a short week since I won't be home to cook Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Sunday
Mini Kicked Up Meatloaf - made in muffin pans with chopped sweet potato, chipolte pepper, cilantro and adobo sauce in them (I put Jacob's in the pan before adding spicy ingredients). For the topping I mixed ketchup and adobo sauce for the adult version and ketchup and agave nectar for the kid version. Spicier than I expected, but really good with mashed potatoes as a side.
Cauliflower Whipped Potatoes - similar to your usual potatoes, but I mixed in some cauliflower puree. Jacob has been on a no potato kick lately, but gobbled these up, and Michael didn't know there was cauliflower in them.
Tangerine Glazed Carrots - sauteed carrots in a little bit of vinegar and tangerine juice. I thought they were delicious and would fool Jacob since he loves oranges. Jacob thought they still looked like carrots and wouldn't touch them.
Yogurt and Fruit Popsicles - plain yogurt mixed with pureed strawberries and blueberries. Plus a splash of agave nectar. Big crowd pleaser.

Monday
Chicken Parmesan - nothing hidden or anything here. Since Jacob doesn't like meat lately I shredded the chicken and he liked what he thought was spaghetti
Side Salad - salad mix kit.

Tuesday
Chicken and Mushrooms - made in the crock pot with chicken broth, mushrooms, green onions, red wine (was supposed to be white, but since I drink red we made do with what was available). Very simple and tasted amazing. There is also a gravy you make to top it with the juice from when it was cooking, corn starch and evaporated milk.
Brown rice - to place the chicken on and tempt Jacob
Fruit salad - This is a regular side for us and I just use whatever fruit we have on hand mixed with a little powdered pudding mix

Wednesday
Sloppy Joes - the recipe called for bison, but I had turkey in the freezer. It was really good, all three of us liked it, but I think it would be better with red meat.
Macaroni and Cheese - This was a Deceptively Delicious recipe with the marking that it is one of Jerry's favorites, and after trying it I do believe he has no taste. You mix up any type of white beans (we used chick peas) with milk and add to the noodles with cheese. Jacob loved it and ate the huge portion I put on his plate, but neither Michael nor I ate much of it. At least Jacob liked it and got some beans in him.
Cherry Jubilee Brownies - Another Deceptively Delicious recipe with better results. Hidden in the brownies is pureed spinach. You can taste that brownies aren't as oohy gooey chocolaty and decadent as most, but I think that's because there really isn't much sugar in it. Nobody knew there was spinach in it, and Jacob loved the cherries in it