Meg's Meal Planning

zucchini pasta

Week of Aug 30th

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I hope everyone enjoyed Grill Week! Brian did a great job and I know he enjoyed a week off from doing any dishes! Hopefully he’ll return again soon! 

  
Monday – Zucchini pasta with cherry tomatoes and cashews. I really need to use my spiralizer more; I’ve only used it a few times. More importantly, I need to show my husband this wasn’t a waste of money and we REALLY NEED IT!  

Zucchini Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes and Cashews

 Ingredients

  •  2 large zucchinis, spiralized
  •  2 tablespoon olive oil
  •  1/3 cup cashews
  •  3 garlic cloves, minced
  •  ¼ cup onion, minced
  •  1 container cherry tomatoes, rinsed
  •  Handful of basil, chopped

 Steps

1. Heat cashews in large skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring 

2. Add olive oil, garlic and onion to skillet, sauté about 5-7 minutes

3. Add cherry tomatoes and cook until they start to burst open

4. Add spiralized zucchini and stir together, turn off heat

5. Add basil, stir

 

Tuesday – Grilled chicken with grilled veggies and mac and cheese. I used left over squash and zucchini and grilled it to reheat it, along with the chicken. This recipe for mac and cheese is by far the creamiest one I’ve ever tried and it’s so simple to make! The mac and cheese was inspired by this recipe. The chicken was seasoned with ½ teaspoon ground cumin, paprika, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, chili powder, and 1/8 teaspoon salt and ground cinnamon.

Creamy Mac and Cheese

 Ingredients

  •  Two cups dried egg noodles
  •  2 ½ cups of milk
  •  1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  •  1 tsp hot sauce

Steps

1. Pour milk and egg noodles in a large sauce pot. Bring to a simmer then lower the heat and cook for about 10 minutes or until the noodles are done.

2. Turn the heat off, add the cheese and hot sauce. Stir

Wednesday – Kale salad with quinoa, mango, sliced almonds, and feta cheese.  (I was inspired by this recipe, but used different fruit). Yum, yum, yum! What a healthy salad, and it’s great as a left over the next day! I made extra quinoa and stored it in the fridge for some easy lunches the following week.

Thursday– Grilled BBQ chicken with grilled sweet potato fries and a caprese salad. I was baking zucchini bread at the same time, so I couldn’t put the fries in the oven. We tried them on the grill, seasoned with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. They came out ok, but not the greatest – definitely prefer them baked.

Friday– Tacos! Enough said. 

 

Shopping List

  • 2 large zucchinis, 1 small zucchini
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Fresh basil
  • 1 small squash
  • Milk
  • Shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 bag of kale
  • 1 mango
  • Feta cheese
  • 2 large chicken breasts or 4 small pieces
  • 4 chicken drumsticks
  • 1 sweet potato
  • Two large tomatoes
  • Fresh mozzarella
  • Taco shells
  • Ground beef
  • Lettuce
  • Salsa
  • Sour cream

 Pantry

  • Olive oil
  • Cashews
  • Garlic
  • Onion
  • ½ bag egg noodles
  • Hot sauce
  • Red quinoa
  • Sliced almonds
  • Lime juice
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Honey
  • Dijon mustard
  • BBQ sauce

Zucchini pasta with avocado cream sauce

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First off, let me tell you I debated for a while about buying a spiralizer.  I read about them, saw recipes about them, but it wasn’t until I recently read some reviews about the Veggetti, that I decided to take the plunge!  And I do not regret it.  I bought it from Bed, Bath, and Beyond for $15. Can’t beat that price.  I used it a few weeks ago to add zucchini to my egg muffins. But this is the first time I’ve used it for a full meal. I was a little nervous, I anticpated calling for take-out if it ended badly, but thankfully I didn’t have to resort to that.

Most recipes say you can cook the veggie any way you like, saute, boil, microwave (ew, gross), or eat it raw.  I decided to eat it raw because that meant one less step to do! I used two zucchinis, which was enough for two people. And used a food processer to make the avacado-basil sauce.  Toppped it off with cherry tomoatoes and you have a heathy, vegetarian meal! My recipe was inspired from this one, from Damn Delicious.

Spiralize zucchini into a bowl

Add avocados, basil, garlic, salt and peper into food processor bowl

Pulse while slowly adding 1/4 cup olive oil

Pour avocado mixture over noodles, add cherry tomatoes

Ingredients

  • Two zucchinis- washed, ends cut off, do not peel
  • Two ripe avocado, halved, seeded , and peeled
  • 1/2 cup fresh basil
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1. Insert zucchini into one end of the Veggetti, hold over a bowl and twist the vegetable clockwise while pushing forward.

2. Add avocado, basil, garlic, and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Turn on to pulse, while machine is running, slowly add olive oil.

3. Pour sauce over pasta and add cherry tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Week of May 10th

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Monday – BBQ grilled chicken with rice and garlic and balsamic roasted brussel sprouts. A perfect, easy Monday night dinner to get back into the swing of things. 

Tuesday – Cobb salad wraps. I love making cobb salads for dinner for a couple of reasons: 1. It’s healthy and 2. It’s filling enough so I’m not hungry an hour later. When I came across this recipe for a cobb salad wrap, I knew I had to try it!

Wednesday – Chicken sausage strombolli. This is a repeat, but that’s okay! It’s one of my go-to recipes, and since I had the dough and chicken sausage in the freezer and leftover tomato sauce in the fridge, it was a no-brainer!

Thursday – Zucchini pasta with avocado cream sauce. First time using my spiralizer for a full meal! I’m so excited! It’s like Christmas morning!! This recipe was kinda of an experiement.  I used two zucchinis, which was enough for two people.  I didn’t cook them in any way, ate them raw.  For the avocado cream sauce I used two avocados, two whole garlic cloves, a lot of fresh basil, and only about 1/4 cup of olive oil.  It tasted great! 

I used the Veggetti spiralizer and it was super easy and quick! Also it’s very affordable. I bought mine at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for $15. With the Veggetti, you have the option of a thick or thin noodle; I grated the zucchini through both, but saw no difference.  Stay tuned for a separate post on the Veggetti later this week! 

Friday– Turkey tacos.  I make my own taco seasoning sauce using onion power, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, and ground cumin. Serve with a side of guacamole and you got yourself a pretty aweome Friday night dinner! 

Brown the meat over a skillet, stirring often. Drain fat if any (usually when I use ground turkey, there isn’t much fat).  For 1 lb meat, add 1/2 cup of water and spices

  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • salt and pepper to taste

Lower the heat and let meat simmer until the water is absorbed.