The Fresh 20

Last Sunday I was meal planning as usual which takes me FOREVER. I spend a minimum of an hour to 3 hours a week meal planning. Trying to make every other meal vegetarian without making my husband miserable and trying to make sure there is at least 1 vegetable with each meal, protein, etc. SO I can't remember how but I came across this website.

The Fresh 20: Budget Meal Plans for Busy Homes
http://www.thefresh20.com/

I signed up for 3 months to test it out immediately and was sooo excited to print out 3 weeks of meal plans immediately.
 I signed up for the classic meal plan there is also a gluten free and a vegetarian meal plan option.

There was the menu for the week which included a list of the 5 healthy meals you would make that week.
Then there was a shopping list that listed the foods you needed and their estimated cost.

There is also a "pantry list" things that they expect you to always have on hand, but the items are also listed on the shopping list so you don't forget them, they were listed under pantry items needed.

There were "make ahead" recipes that I made right away like the marinade for the chicken, and some pesto sauce etc.

We've made 2 meals now and both meals were awesome. My husband hates fish especially Salmon, the only fish he generally is willing to try is very mild fish. He actually LOVED the salmon recipe I made which was a shock and the kids loved it too even though there was a "green" pea puree and it was soup both things my 4 year old usually refuses to eat...green things and soup but she ate it all.

So far I'm LOVING it and after 3 months I'm going to sign up for a year because you have access to all of the archive meal plans.

I will NEVER meal plan again!!!!

Menu Plan

MONDAY: Alsakan Cod, Brown Rice, and Grilled zucchini

TUESDAY: Sweet Corn Soup, Salad, Bread

WEDNESDAY: BBQ at community group

THURSDAY:  Nut Burgers, salad, homemade baked fries

FRIDAY: pesto baked chicken

SATURDAY:

SUNDAY:

FUTURE VEGETARIAN RECIPES (NO PASTA):

Simple Orange Muffins

Sweet Potato Pie

Robin’s Pot Pie

Sloppy Joe

Gazpacho

Eartheasy Vegetarian Recipes

Vegetable Gumbo

Lentil Burger Patties

Sweet potatoe and leek rhoulade

Creole-style vegetarian jumbalaya

Indonesian Rice salad with orange sesame cilantro dressing

PissaladiereII – looks like a deep dish pizza?

Vegetarian Ragout

Sweet and Spicy Vegetarian Chili

Baja Vegetable Stew

Ribollita Tuscan Minestrone

Mixed Grain Salad

Mediterranean Latkes

Falafel with taratoor sauce

East Indian Pea and Potato Wrap

Lentil Waldorf Salad

Blue Cheese Broccoli Casserole

Vegetable Pot Pie

Breakfast Quesadilla

From: mom

Ingrdients:
tortilla of your choice
cheese of your choice
scrambled eggs

Directions:

Grill both sides of one tortilla, set aside.
As you begin to grill another tortilla sprinkle a little cheese on top, top with a little scrambled egg, add more cheese place the previously grilled tortilla ontop. Once you've done that it is probably time to flip it.

I place a large spatula under the quesadilla and lift it. Then I lift the pan up and flip it over holding it as close to the top of the tortilla on the spatula as possible then in unison flip the pan/spatula with the tortilla on it so that tortilla is as close to the pan as possible otherwise egg will fall out. If it falls out just tuck it back inside the tortilla.

We like it with cholula sauce. This is something I usually make when we have left over tortillas. If you want less carbs make it an open face and only use 1 tortilla then you don't have to deal w/ flipping it. Instead grill one side flip it over and add the toppings.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
From: Mom

Ingredients:

1-2 Tbs olive oil
1/2-1c diced onions
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, diced
1 grilled corn on cob, kernels taken off cob
1 can black beans, drained
1 c quinoa
2 c chicken broth
salt
pepper
1-2 Tbs chili powder
1 Tbs cumin
1-2 tsp thyme
1 Tbs garlic powder

bell peppers
mexican mixture of cheeses

Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a pot and saute the onions, garlic, carrots & corn in the pot until the carrots are tender. Add the beans the quinoa and the chicken broth. Stir in the spices and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook until quinoa is done, about 15 minutes.

Cut tops off of peppers. Slice a thin slice off of the bottom of the peppers to make it so they can stand up straight without toppling over. Place them on a foil lined cookie sheet.  Fill the peppers with the quinoa and top with cheese. Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove, let cool and enjoy.

We suggest a little siracha sauce w/ it.

Pasta Primavera

  

Pasta Primavera

From: Mandi Ausman

Ingredients:

broccoli

1can cream of chicken w/herbs soup

1/2 c milk

1/4c grated parmesan cheese

1 garlic clove minced

1/8tsp pepper

2 cups cooked spaghetti/fettucini

Directions:

Cook pasta as directed.

In a large saucepan combine the first 7 ingredients. Cook uncovered on medium heat until the  veggies are tender. Stir in the spaghetti and heat through.

I forgot to take a decent picture of this meal so its not being posted on our favorites page because I'm going to turn that into our cook book. 

Since it was our "Vegetarian night" I used cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of chicken although I don't feel like I'm eating meat if I eat cream of chicken soup. I used 3 cloves of garlic and steamed the broccoli for  a side w/ garlic and salt instead of adding it to the pasta because I wasn't sure the kids would eat the pasta if I added it to the pasta.

Jim LOVES this pasta, but who doesn't love pasta? We need some veggie recipes that do not include pasta.

Stratton Favorites

http://favoritestrattonrecipes.blogspot.com/Last year I made our cookbook through blurb.com and I plan on doing it again. Last year I put every post I made on the our kitchen blog in the book. It would be really helpful though if I were to make a book of all our favorite meals or at least meals that we would gladly make again.

Its actually rare for me to remake meals. I forget about them because I'm constantly trying new recipes. So I want to have a cook book of our guranteed to please go-to recipes. Especially when it comes to vegetarian meals. It is hard for me to find vegetarian meals that please the whole family. So once I find a vegetarian meal that everyone can live with I cling to it as if my life depended on it. We eat far too much meat.

I was making a meatless meal every other night, which sounds like nothing to some people but that is hard for people that are used to eating meat at nearly every meal. I figured once we got a hang of that we would branch out to less meat during other meals and eventually have an entirely meatless day every other day and maybe even branch out as far as to only eating meat twice a week.

Anyways. I don't think meat is TERRIBLE for you but I do believe that modern methods of breeding animals has made meat all to readily available and that our bodies are not made to ingest the amount of meat that we do.

So I made another blog to make it easier to keep track of our favorite meals or meals we would eat again. They aren't necessarily our absolute favorites but we would all happily eat the meal again. Maybe by the time my kids are in high school I will have a great list of recipes and cook books created by us that they can take with them when they move out of the house.


Stratton Favorites
Our future cook book of our Repeat Meals

Pumpkin Bread

Roasting Sugar Pumpkins: Allrecipes.com

covered with foil at 375* for about 1.5hours for a medium sugar pumpkin

Pumpkin Bread: Allrecipes.com

I have made this pumpkin bread twice now and it is sooo moist and tasty. I haven't made it with canned pumpkin puree but I'm sure that works just as well. I actually roast the sugar pumpkin scoop out the insides and all it really isn't that much more work just more time.