Menu Tuesday

Menu Tuesday. Yes, well. We did eat yesterday. Here you go:

Monday:
First course: roasted rutabaga (with ketchup for dipping, because, well, ketchup.)
Main course: Presidential chili
Dessert: bananas with chocolate and peanut butter chips (They push the pointed end of the chips into the banana.)

Well, it was suggested they use the pointed end. Turns out they stick in the banana just fine if you use the other end!

Nutrition, fine motor activity, and a craft, all at the same time!! Can I multi-task their educational environment, or what??

Tuesday:
First course: corn niblets
Main course: lentil-beet salad
Dessert: oranges

Wednesday:
First course: winter vegetable salad
Main course: meatloaf
Dessert: cantaloupe

Thursday:
First course: raw asparagus
Main course: lentil soup and biscuits
Dessert: muffins

Friday:
First course: cooked carrots
Main course: felafels in pita with yogurt sauce
Dessert: ??

Menu Monday

Monday:
First course: cucumber slices
Main course: cheese omelette on toast
Dessert: muffins

Tuesday:
First course: garden salad
Main course: roast chicken with various roast vegetables (separate dish of roast veg and beans for veggie tot)
Dessert: applesauce

Wednesday:
First course: quinoa and asparagus
Main course: broccoli-cheese soup
Dessert: strawberries

Thursday:
First course: chop salad
Main course: veggie meatballs on egg noodles
Dessert: muffins

Friday:
First course: zucchini frittata muffin
Main course: Southwest bean salad
Dessert: gelato

Menu … Tuesday

This past weekend was a long one here in Canada. I spent it doing exactly what one does with long weekends … a lot of whatever I wanted. It was lovely. Some yard work — a nice long line of packed leaf bags filled with needles. (Has the time come to do something about that dratted pine tree back there?) Some porch-tea-and-book time. (Raymond Chandler’s “The High Window” devoured in two and a half days.) Some wandering around with my sweetie time. Some drinks-on-a-patio-with-friends time. Some chatting with my kids time.

Yup. Just about perfect.

And now it’s Tuesday, and back to work, and all refreshed and ready to go! For food this week, we have planned:

Tuesday:
Peanut butter sandwiches, not so much because I am starting myself off easy, as the spinach-feta torte on a potato crust was a big hit with my family, and they ate all ours, and the daycare’s, too… Oops. (Or is that ‘yay!’? But also, oops.) So a quick switch was required. Easy!
First course: cucumber and green pepper slices
Main course: peanut butter sandwiches
Dessert: homemade applesauce

Wednesday:
First course: roasted veggie pilaf (in quinoa, rather than rice)
Main course: Stuffed green peppers
Dessert: Peaches

Thursday:
First course: chopped salad
Main course: lentil-rice cakes
Dessert: muffins

Friday:
First course: zucchini fritters
Main course: ginger-baked tofu
Dessert: gelato

Menu Monday

Monday:
First course: chef salad
Main course: stuffed peppers
Dessert: apricot oatmeal muffins

Tuesday:
First course: Indian-style cauliflower
Main course: ginger-baked tofu
Dessert: bananas

Wednesday:
First course: cucumber salad
Main course: felafels in pita with yogurt sauce
Dessert: home made applesauce

Thursday:
First course: mixed cooked veg with peanut sauce
Main course: Spinach pie
Dessert: apricot muffins

Friday:
First course: raw veggies and dip
Main course: baked pasta with spinach and chevre sauce
Dessert: gelato

Menu Monday

Monday:
First course: cucumber raita
Second: basil-coconut chicken/tofu
Dessert: whole wheat muffins

Tuesday:
First course: Moroccan salad (cucumber-carrot-apricot)
Second: lentil-rice cakes
Dessert: bananas

Wednesday:
First course: chef salad and cauliflower au gratin
Second: coconut-lentil soup
Dessert: dried apricots

Thursday:
First course: sweet’n’sour green beans
Second: pasta bake
Dessert: apple slices with peanut butter

Friday:
First course: tabouli
Second: ginger-baked tofu (They love this. Honestly. They cheer when I tell them it’s on the menu!)
Dessert: gelato

As always, if you’d like a recipe, just ask!

Menu Monday

Monday
First course: red cabbage and apple salad
Main course: black bean soup on fusilli pasta
Dessert: Oatmeal Orange muffins

Tuesday
First course: frittata muffins
Main course: veggie burgers, rice
Dessert: bananas

Wednesday
First course: lentil-beet salad
Main course: chicken (or bean) pot pie
Dessert: pineapple

Thursday
First course: balsamic mushrooms, kale cups
Main course: gyros in pita with veggies and yogurt sauce
Dessert: muffins

Friday
First course: cauliflower au gratin
Main course: peanut butter sandwiches
Dessert: gelato

As always, if you’d like a recipe, just ask!

Menu Monday

Monday
First course: broccoli-cheese soup
Main course: Roast chicken, rice
Dessert: muffins

Tuesday
First course: carrot salad
Main course: lentil soup, naan
Dessert: almond-chocolate macaroons

Wednesday
First course: Indian-style vegetables
Main course: tofu fingers with peanut sauce
Dessert: bananas

Thursday
First course: stewed zucchini and tomatoes
Main course: stuffed green peppers
Dessert: applesauce

Friday
First course: cucumber raita
Main course: Jamabalaya
Dessert: mixed berries

As always, if you want a recipe, just ask!

Menu Monday

I’m off on Monday! 🙂

Tuesday:
First course: gazpacho
Main course: chili (beans, no meat), biscuits
Dessert: muffins

Wednesday:
First course: Moroccan salad
Main course: Lentil-rice cakes
Dessert: fruit salad

Thursday:
First course: broccoli-cheese soup
Main course: soy loaf with tomato sauce
Dessert: muffins

Friday:
First course: Southwest bean salad
Main course: enchilada bake
Dessert: bananas and walnuts

Menu Monday

Monday:
First Course: Orange-ginger broccoli*
Main Course: Fettucine carbonara*
Dessert: Muffins

Tuesday:
First Course: Parmesan tomatoes*
Main Course: Farmer’s Omelette
Dessert: Bananas and walnuts

Wednesday:
First Course: Almond beets**
Main Course: Macaroni and Cheese
Dessert: Apple slices with peanut butter

Thursday:
First Course: Coleslaw (red cabbage, rutabaga, carrot)*
Main Course: Polenta with cabbage-peanut stew
Dessert: banana bread

Friday:
First Course: salad*
Main Course: Singapore noodles
Dessert: fruit fool*

*Starred recipes again from my new cookbook, Michael Smith’s Fast Flavours.

**This one is from Cook’s Illustrated magazine, an excellent magazine to which I have a subscription because I love not just the recipes, but the educational aspect of their articles. I’ve learned a lot from their articles: how flavours meld, how to bring out the best, varying techniques. I’ve been able to follow a recipe since I was ten; now I’m learning how recipies — and food — works. It’s terrific!

However, I strongly, really, truly object to their restrictive practices re: their website information. I could give you all a link to the recipe, but there’d be a whacking great pop-up in the middle of the page requesting you to sign up for a 14-day free trial of their site before you could see the recipe hiding behind said obnoxious pop-up. (And may I say how I object that, even as a subscriber — with a three-year subscription, yet — to the print magazine, I am not entitled to view the recipes on their site without paying still more? Obnoxious, I tell you.)

Chef Michael is way classier. (Also less grasping.) Neener, neener. AND his recipes are usually simpler. So there. 😛

As ever, if you see something in this week’s menu that interests you, just ask and I’ll post it.

Menu Monday

Monday: Tomato-corn crumble (adapted from this; I’ll be adding crumbled feta cheese and corn to the tomatoes, and making a crumble topping with flour, oats, melted butter, ground almonds and salt and pepper.) The cheese may make the tomatoes (pretty suspect with this group, unless they’re fresh cherry tomatoes) more appealing. Those who are still dubious will have the corn, and there’s at least some nutrition in the crumble.

Tuesday: Broccoli-cheese soup with baking soda biscuits

Wednesday: Chicken cacciatore. For the vegetarian, I’ll skip the chicken and beef it up (ar,ar, the irony) with pureed chickpeas.

Thursday: Black bean falafels in half-pitas with yogurt sauce and shredded veggies

Friday: Vegetable-cheese tart

Jazz is vegetarian. When they interviewed with me, that was one of the first questions asked: Could I accommodate a vegetarian? Though they were quite prepared to provide meals for her if I said no, they were relieved when my answer was “no problem!” It had proven quite an obstacle in other daycares, apparently.

Honestly, I find that odd. Now, this could be because I’m well used to cooking healthy, balanced, meat-free meals. At least half our family dinners are meat-free, often more. But we’re not vegetarians; we do eat meat, and I don’t find adapting meat meals for a vegetarian difficult at all.

The only meat meal on offer to the toddlers this week is the cacciatore. Conveniently, the chicken is the last item added. (You cook it first, then let it rest on a plate while you chop and cook everything else.) Does it make my life any harder whatsoever to use a vegetable broth instead of chicken when simmering the other ingredients? Nope. And then, before I add the chicken, I’ll remove a cup or two to a different container. Easy.

The only additional step I’m taking is to take a handful of cooked (or canned) chickpeas, which I always have in the house, whirl them in a blender with some water till they’re creamy, and pour into the soup. Takes 45 seconds, plus washing the blender. Call it three minutes. If I were feeling reeeeally lazy, I could crumble some tofu into the broth. Additional effort? 5 seconds.