Family meals 7: guest blogger Emily

This family meals series continues to be great fun! Today I'm sharing meals that were planned and prepared by my friend Emily. We haven't been friends in person since many years ago (we met at summer camp!), but Facebook has kept us in touch from a distance. Her second daughter is just a tiny bit older than Charlotte, so I love to see what's new in their house so I can prepare for what's to come in our own house :)

Here's Emily....

Working full time and also being a mom of two young girls makes evenings very hectic. I honestly don’t think that we would ever eat a “from scratch” meal if I didn't plan ahead! I am an RN and recently transitioned from working 12 hour weekend shifts to a weekday desk job, and overall it has allowed more family time with my husband and our one and three year old daughters. It has added the expense of daycare to our budget, which makes menu planning all the more important. 

Living in Maine, we totally take advantage of our short grilling season, but the rest of the year I use my crock pot like it’s going out of style! I do grocery shopping and some meal prep on the weekends when my husband and I are home with the girls. 

I did a gluten free trial 2 years ago after learning a lot about the paleo diet, and I have stuck with it due to weight loss, mental clarity, and increased feeling of well-being. The rest of my family does not eat strictly gluten free, but our dinners are always gluten free. I find that this mostly means we eat less processed foods. My girls both have broad palates for toddlers, including plenty of fruits, vegetables, and meat, and some grains. I like to have on hand a few meal options for when I don’t plan ahead: hot dogs, frozen burger patties, ground beef (for making tacos or taco salad), kielbasa, ham steaks, cans of tuna fish, just to name a few. 

This is what our menu looked like last week:

Sunday: Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup  Our 3 year old loves soup and she will eat it as is (albeit messily at times). For my 1 year old, I strain the soup and give her the beans, tomatoes, and chicken. I didn't add jalepenos because the kids don't enjoy too much spicy. 


Monday: Chicken Wings
About once a month we take out our deep fryer and do a couple of meals with it. Chicken wings are super easy. After they are cooked through, we just pop them in a mixture of Franks Red Hot Sauce and melted butter for the adults and do plain wings for the girls. Our 3 year old will eat them off of the bone with supervision but we pick the meat off for our one year old. I usually do carrot and celery sticks on the side. 

Tuesday: Pepper Steak I love this because it isn't super involved as far as prep goes, but it tastes amazing and everyone likes it! I cut the black pepper in half since our littles don't love spicy, and serve over rice. 

Wednesday: Kielbasa with Peppers and Onions (and sometimes potatoes)
We do kielbasa as an easy weeknight meal in the biggest frying pan we have. In the summer we stick it on skewers with onion and peppers and grill it! 

Thursday: Bacon Wrapped Chicken
Wrapping chicken breasts, thighs, or tenders in bacon adds awesome flavor and moisture to the chicken. Seriously who doesn't love bacon?! Sometimes we stuff chicken breasts with a little pesto sauce and shredded cheese before wrapping with bacon! Yum! We bake at 350 until they are cooked through, 20-40 minutes depending on what kind of chicken cuts we use. I love serving roasted asparagus, brussel sprouts, or broccoli tossed in EVOO and salt. I cook those at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, tossing halfway through cooking.

Friday: Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin Here comes into play the crock pot I love so well! I was never much into pork roasts but this method comes out awesome. My friend suggested using apple cider vinegar or apple juice if you don't cook with wine. 

Saturday: Crock Pot Chicken Fricassee This is a super easy "throw and go" kind of recipe that is really a crowd-pleaser. It's comfort food for me. A little messy as a finger food, so I usually strain out meat and veggies for my one year old before I add the roux. Leftovers freeze really well, so sometimes I double this for easy lunches. Admittedly, it is harder to thicken this with gluten free flour than wheat flour, so I have used corn starch to thicken to my desired consistency. 

And there you have 7 gluten free, family friendly meals!

Thanks so much, Emily! I'm inspired to use my Crock Pot in all sorts of new ways!

NOW! Who wants to share their family meals next? 

Family meals 4: guest blogger Melanie

Wow! This family meals series keeps getting better and better. I'm not going to want to share my own meals any time soon, because our guest bloggers have some awesome ideas. They are so inspiring :)

Next up is my friend Melanie. She's from Alberta, Canada, and is living nearby while her husband is in graduate school. I have been so blessed by her friendship and am thrilled to let you hear from her today.

My name is Melanie and I'm currently on a maternity leave as a junior high humanities teacher from Western Canada. My husband and I moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia seven months ago with our then five week old daughter. We moved so my husband could go back to school, now studying to be an optometrist. I love music (singing & playing the piano), reading, fitness, and caring for our beautiful daughter. It's been a crazy half year, but we're enjoying our 'quaint' American life here! 

I've never been huge into cooking, preferring to bake because it's less pressure than hungry tummies everyday. But sitting down at the beginning of the week before a grocery run with a calendar and grocery list makes it a whole lot less stressful and even enjoyable. I'm pretty formal with cooking, preferring to stick to a recipe rather than experiment (although I'm always looking up substitutions for spices/ingredients I don't have). I do cook with a few things in mind: my husband is sensitive to dairy and although my seven month old is eating most of our food, I try to keep large chunks for her to eat. I sometimes cook for my in-laws who also have a number of food sensitivities (including tomatoes, apples, MSG, corn) and also are gluten-free and semi-vegetarian).

For my husband I can basically sub out milk for a variety of alternatives (I prefer almond milk because I've been aware about some concerns with soy). I usually buy a 'fake' cheese, which I can find locally for a reasonable price (unfortunately this alternative is soy as there don't seem to be as many options). I avoid recipes with yogurt because I haven't found a good substitute. When preparing food for our daughter I cut a few large chunks of tomato or sweet potato for example, toss it in with the rest of the dish, and find it for her later when we serve the dish. This is no exact science... LOL

One aspect that has really gotten me more excited about cooking is finding really tasty & healthy recipes I know I'll use over and over again- this is one recipe book I swear by! I also have a binder with slip covers where I collect recipes that I rip out from magazines or print out from the computer. During the week I try to vary meats (chicken, beef etc), vary serving meat and meatless dishes, and I serve fish at least once a week. I've also tried to avoid the 'dirty dozen' by buying organic food from this list. I can find a lot of organic produce for an affordable price at Walmart and of course Trader Joe's (I struggle to pay the $ at Whole Foods). I can buy more organic food in bulk now because stores like Costco offer it (like tomatoes and applesauce). I'm also trying to do a better job at adding healthy fats etc. to our meals like flax and chia. 

Over the past year and a half I've started to buy dry beans, cook, and freeze them in can-size portions. Not only is it cheaper but it avoids the dangers of BPA in the lining of canned food. I don't do it all the time and for things like canned tomatoes and tuna I can't avoid it, but I try to do what I can. I find meat out here a lot more expensive (I come from a province known for its beef) and I'm also trying to find other ways to supplement protein (ie beans) so I usually reduce the meat portion a bit and trying to serve at least one or two meatless recipes a week. My husband looooves meat but I'm slowly finding more meatless recipes that he enjoys almost as much as dishes with meat- that's a success! He would also love to have pasta everyday... but that's a whole other endeavor.

I'm also a bit of a cheater: With just two adults in our house I can often cook one day and serve leftovers the next day, especially because the recipes I use often make large quantities. I really value having an 'off' day and frequently end up baking that day instead. I usually prefer one-dish recipes where I can toss everything together. If I do serve sides it's usually with fish or a whole chicken in the crock pot. I have been trying to include more varieties of plain vegetables (as opposed to in a dish, but still served with things like lemon, garlic etc) because we're trying to introduce to our daughter to them one at a time. 

Monday: Leftover jambalaya. This is an easy dish I usually just serve with shrimp. This time I also had kielbasa (extra happy husband!). It's got lots of kick. The recipe uses canned diced tomatoes, celery, bell pepper, onion, lots of herbs and is served with rice. You can make it in a crock pot but often I just toss it together and let it simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Tuesday: Ate out with in-laws (a rare treat and success with our seven-month old!)

Wednesday: Roasted Vegetables with rice (I would usually serve it with whole wheat couscous but it's not gluten free. Also this recipe has no tomatoes). This is not the exact recipe I use but it's easy to mix and match veggies. The recipe I use includes zucchini, sweet potato, portabello mushroom, carrots, red onion, bell pepper, chickpeas all in a balsamic vinegar/olive oil with rosemary. Add feta cheese for me!

Thursday: Leftovers. I'm pretty predictable with leftovers. Heat on stove or microwave and serve. Easy as pie! 

Friday: Baked salmon with lemon juice, garlic powder, parsley, and a bit of butter. Cook for 20-25 at 400; Served with quinoa salad with red onion, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper, and feta cheese for me. 

Saturday: It was Valentine's Day so I made butternut squash (roasted and then served with butter), ribs (cooked in the crock-pot with an easy sauce from epicure saved for a special event), green beans (boiled) and rice (cook half white and half brown). My husband LOVES ribs, so it was a special treat.

Sunday: Leftovers

Monday: Moroccan Stew. This website (same as Roasted Veggies from Wed) is put together by the Canadian sisters who wrote the cookbook I love so much. This recipe is slightly different online than in my recipe book. The online version includes kale and coconut milk which I'll have to try next time! 

But don't be fooled- my easy meals when I haven't planned or I'm tired include shrimp stir-fry with frozen veggies from Costco, pasta with a veggie tomato sauce, or scrambled eggs & toast! If I have extra after a meal (or two with leftovers) I try to put some homemade chili or cooked meat in the freezer for a fast option later.

Thanks for letting me share some of my journey with cooking. I'm always trying to improve my approach and I'm inspired by others' stories. Bon appetite!


Thanks so much for sharing, Melanie! These are some yummy sounding meals!

Family meals 3: guest blogger Becca

I'm so happy that today my friend (and fellow blogger!) Becca is sharing about the meals she makes for her family. Becca always has delicious treats and food to share, so I'm thrilled that you get to benefit from her creativity in the kitchen.Without further adieu....

My name is Rebecca, I live outside of Philadelphia in a little apartment with my husband and our dog. I'm a kindergarten teacher, and I tutor after school (for some reason I don't get enough of it during the day!). I am lucky enough to love my job, but when I have free time (ha) I like to read, bake, and be outside. I'm also lucky because I actually love cooking--everything from the planning to the eating--so preparing food for my little family is something that generally brings me joy instead of stress! My sister lives nearby and eats with us at least once a week, and she is a vegetarian. One of our closest friends also lives about two blocks away, and he eats with us regularly. While he doesn't have any dietary restrictions, his lovely fiancee is gluten-free, as well as some-other-stuff-free, so I'm becoming much more mindful as to how my favorite meals can be adapted to be meat-free, gluten-free, and more! I tend to view this as an exciting challenge rather than a nuisance, and it encourages me to try new recipes and ingredients. Thus, even though technically it's just me and my husband at home my cooking needs to accommodate other people and needs on a regular basis. 

I started meal planning very early on in my marriage. I'm a list-maker and a planner by nature, but we are also very social and have multiple busy nights every week so we need lots of flexibility. Usually on Saturdays I go through the kitchen, check for food that needs to be used up, and make a list of 4-5 meals that we want to eat throughout the coming week. I use Pinterest, food blogs, and cookbooks for my inspiration, although my husband would probably be happy with a steady rotation of tacos, chili, and tuna salad (much to my experimental chagrin). I jot those meals down and then make a list that includes all the necessary ingredients, plus some staples (for example, I always keep cans of tuna, frozen shrimp, frozen veggies, some pesto, rice, and pasta on hand so a quickie dinner is never far away, just in case). My goal is usually to try one new or interesting recipe per week, and the others are more familiar fare. Now that my sister is a vegetarian, I also try to incorporate one meatless meal a week.

Some meals that are almost always in the rotation (meaning we eat it at least every other week if not more often) are tacos, spaghetti (either with meat sauce or chicken sausage in red sauce), and chopped salad. We usually eat out once or twice on the weekend, but we also share meals with friends or family most weekends.So this week represented a moderately typical week for us, except for the fact that we didn't host any meals this week (although it wasn't for lack of trying--Westminster Seminary students apparently have a lot of studying to do. Shocker, right?). 

Included in my meal plan for each week are two nights of tutoring. On Mondays I go straight from school, and on Wednesdays I head back out mid-evening, so I plan meals for these nights that either A) Dan can make, B) I can make very quickly, or C) go in the crock-pot (or once in a while it's D) takeout). Also, Dan is taking a grad class Tuesday nights, so our Tuesday meal is disjointed at the moment. 

This week we ate: 

Monday - Chicken with mushrooms and onions, over mashed potatoes (this is an unusually involved dinner for a Monday night, but I had mushrooms that I needed to use up). This is such a comforting meal, with a hearty homemade sauce to pour over the meat and potatoes. 

Tuesday- salad with roasted veg for me, tuna melt for Dan. This is one of my favorite meals when I'm cooking for myself, and I made tuna for Dan when he got home from class. This week I roasted broccoli and sweet potatoes, and ended up taking the leftovers for lunch on Wednesday! 

Wednesday - takeout pepperoni pizza. It was one of those weeks.  

Thursday- Before school I threw together one of my favorite crock-pot meals: roast BBQ chicken. I combine barbecue sauce and whatever citrusy jam is available (this week it was orange marmalade, courtesy of an older British lady from our church), and poured it over skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs. Turn the crock-pot on Low, and voila! Delicious. However, Dan ended up getting wrapped up in something at his parent's house, so at the last minute I drove over there and we ended up having soup with them. Whomp whomp. I had planned to roast potatoes and broccoli to go with this meal, so I just saved them for next week. 

Friday- We had a potluck dinner with a college and career aged group meets one or twice a month for topical discussions. I shredded and reheated the chicken from yesterday to make BBQ sliders, and brought a tub of Trader Joe's spinach dip and a bag of pita chips. 

This week I also had prepped ahead of time homemade granola, whole-wheat pumpkin muffins, and a half dozen hardboiled eggs. This gave us breakfasts for the week, and for lunches we usually do leftovers, salads, or yogurt. 

As I said, I am lucky enough to love cooking, and the process of unwinding in the kitchen while a pot of tomato sauce simmers on the stove or garlic sautes in a pan is truly relaxing to me. Thankfully, it's a hobby/therapy that keeps us well-fed and happy!

How fun! Thanks so much, Bec! 

Family meals 2: guest blogger Laurel

Please welcome our first guest blogger... my friend, Laurel!

Here's her intro and a list of meals her family ate last week. ENJOY!

My husband Josh and I have four children, ages 1 to 8 years old. We live the suburban life outside of Philadelphia. My husband loves football, basketball, and baseball, and I love reading, music and more reading.  We both love the outdoors though.  We have had many dates hiking in state parks, ice skating, skiing and swimming.

I stopped working at a pharmaceutical company after our first baby came along.  I can remember when my husband and I were newlyweds and thought "Hamburger Helper" was serious cooking. Once I stopped working I was able to slowly gain confidence and experience with ingredients and recipes. Now that we have at least three pretty good eaters, meal planning has become necessary... especially when they are always asking "what's for dinner?"!

We have a whiteboard in our kitchen with the week's activities and schedule, and I began adding the menu two years ago as our first kindergartner learned to read.

My husband is a big salad eater, and no one in the family enjoys cooked vegetables too much, so we have salad or raw veggies with dinner almost every night. In the summer we grill almost every night.  Josh does the grilling and I do everything else.  In the winter I typically cook all of the meals. Sometimes I prep the dinner in the morning, but I usually don't have my act together to do this! I can barely get the morning breakfast dishes cleaned up!

I love reading recipes and cookbooks.  I try to make most things from scratch, although my bread machine died a few years ago and I never replaced it, so supermarket bakery bread is usually on the table.  We also keep the freezer stocked with Trader Joe's meatballs! No shame there.

I typically plan the meals sometime Sunday or Monday.  I keep our pantry and freezer stocked with standby ingredients for the days that I don't have a plan going.  On Tuesdays I usually head to Giant Supermarket, but often go out again Thursday or Friday to a different type of store like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.  About every six weeks I try to hit Costco and stock up on our favorite items (salsa, salmon, berries, kielbasa...).

Last week's meals were not planned very well, as the baby was getting over an ear infection and boycotting naps.  I only had two nights planned out by Monday morning.  But this is real life, so here's what ended up getting on the table!

Monday: (a hard day!) baked ham, cheese and spinach wraps (honey mustard on ours; the kids eat them dry), baked sweet potato wedges, raw veggies.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday! Tuesday is piano lesson afternoon, and my mom babysits for the littles and then stays for supper.  She loves tacos! We all do actually! I typically have both crunchy and soft shell tacos.  We do ground turkey or chicken.  I fried up peppers and onions and also put out lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and some pineapple salsa and guacamole from Whole Foods.  Sometimes I have rice and beans.  I did have the beans, but no rice that day.

Wednesday: a CRAZY day. Six kids by 3:30 pm. Baby did not nap. Two cousins were over for the afternoon, and I drove one of them home at 5pm (round trip is about 35 minutes).  This put me up against dinnertime on Kids' Club night at church (Josh drives them and stays for boy's club).  Before I left to take my niece home, I put two Trader Joe's chicken pot pies in the oven, and when I got home Josh was serving the kids leftover tacos.  I thanked God for freezer meals, and gratefully sat down and ate that pot pie!

Thursday: A quieter day...only one outing.  By the afternoon I was craving soup since it was so cold outside.  This was a day that I had not planned dinner, so I made a soup with San Marzano tomatoes, veggies and orzo, and served rolls from the freezer, plus salad with lots of seeds and nuts since the soup had no meat (and Josh prefers meals with meat!).  I made homemade ranch dressing -- it makes soup and salad more special!

Friday: the favorite meal of the entire family: salmon.  We almost always bake it with a rub made of dijon, garlic, brown sugar, coriander, ginger and s&p. I made orzo with chicken broth and stirred in 1/2 cup of fresh Parmesan before serving.  It was serious comfort food.  Vegetable was salad.

Saturday: Valentine's Day! My sister was babysitting for us so that we could go out to dinner at 8pm. I baked the rest of the salmon for her and the kids, with sweet potato wedges and sugar snap peas.  Then we gave lots of kisses, walked out the door and drove through the snow to our favorite restaurant!! :) Bliss.

Sunday: Takeout!

Thanks so much, Laurel! I am so inspired by your honest, flexible approach to meal planning! 

If you are interested in sharing what your family ate as part of our family meals series, let me know! I'd love to have your perspective. 

Family meals: 1

Within hours of posting the link to last week's post about a family meal series, I had multiple guest contributors volunteer to share! I am really excited to get a glimpse into their minds and their kitchens...

I sent them off a list of questions and will be sharing family meals from a few great ladies in the coming week!

Today, though, I'll share my family's meals from last week. Sunday through Wednesday were meals for three adults and one child. We have an international student living with us who is 18; he eats like a grown man (because he is a grown man) and I've had to adjust my portions accordingly for the last month. Because we had family in town for Charlotte's birthday party, a few of the meals were for a bigger crowd. 

Sunday- whole wheat pizza and salad. I purchased two balls of dough from my local grocery store and topped the pizzas with jarred sauce, shredded mozzarella, and sliced pepperoni from the deli counter. This was an easy dinner, which I specifically planned for the evening after I got home from a 48 hour retreat. 

Monday- eggplant and zucchini risotto with frozen corn and fresh bread. My neighbor miraculously dropped off a loaf of warm bread around 3 pm this day, which was amazing! The risotto recipe I used was from the Baby Led Weaning cookbook, and while it was delicious, didn't really make enough for all four of us. We were really glad to have the bread to fill us up!

Tuesday- chicken tacos. Last week I had two extra chicken breasts that were about to expire in the fridge. I put them in the crock-pot with salsa, chicken broth, and homemade taco seasoning. Then, when the chicken was cooked, I froze it to use this week for tacos. There wasn't a ton of chicken, so I supplemented the tacos with canned black beans, shredded cheddar cheese, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, sour cream, and a tiny bit of homemade guacamole.

Wednesday- spaghetti with turkey meatballs (above image from skinnytaste) and salad. I used whole grain spaghetti and jarred sauce. The recipe for meatballs calls for a crock pot, which I LOVE! So easy and quick to toss together during nap time!

Thursday- out to eat with my parents

Friday-  roasted chicken drumsticks, homemade buttermilk biscuits, steamed broccoli. For the drumsticks, I simply peeled back the skin and cut it off using kitchen shears. Then I put some olive oil in a 9 x 13 pan and sprinkled the drumsticks with paprika, garlic, and black pepper. I roasted them on 425 for about 35-40 minutes. 

Saturday- chili with cornbread (I use my mom's chili recipe which is very basic but very delicious. This time I subbed the ground beef for ground turkey breast, since I had some in my fridge.)

Family meals: the start of a series?

One thing I've been really happy to have more time for since quitting my full-time teaching job is making dinners for our family. While working, I still enjoyed cooking and meal planning, but most nights were stressful because I had to rush home from work, feed Charlotte, and immediately begin the whole dinner process. Everything felt rushed and it was hard to enjoy the preparation and the meal time itself.

Now I often get dinner started (or at least do some of the vegetable chopping!) while Charlotte takes her afternoon nap. Once Joel gets home, he usually plays with Charlotte so I can get dinner finished, set the table, etc. It's a really good system and I'm finding a lot of joy in planning and preparing our dinners. I got re-inspired by the book "French Kids Eat Everything" which talked about slow, leisurely meals where conversation and connection go hand in hand with good food. Since we have a baby, our meals aren't always leisurely, but they are pretty pleasant and I'm very grateful. (Also- I highly recommend the book. Lots of wise words!) 

Despite loving to cook and meal plan, sometimes I get into a rut. I need inspiration and I need recipes and meal ideas that fit our family's time frame and lifestyle. I'm interested in starting a family meals series on the blog, inspired by this one: http://mycakies.com/2015/01/family-meals-week-95/ 

Here are my thoughts: for a couple of weeks, once a week, I'll share what our family had for dinner the previous week. Whenever possible, I will link to the actual recipes we use. Most of the things I try are from Pinterest, or have been found on blogs I read. 

After a few weeks, I would love to have some "guest bloggers" who will share a week of recipes that their family tried. My goal is to get a few different friends who will provide a well-rounded, interesting perspective on the joys and challenges of family meals. 

If you would like to be a guest blogger and share your meal ideas, recipes, etc. PLEASE let me know. In addition to hearing from others in similar situations who can relate to me, I'm curious to hear from some folks who eat a specific type of diet (such as gluten-free, vegetarian, paleo, etc.) as well as people whose life circumstances are different from mine (maybe you work until 6 pm and use a crock pot for most of your meals or maybe you don't eat dinner as a family but you eat a big breakfast together every morning; things like that). 

I would ask you to give a short introduction to yourself and your family, then share what you made the previous week with my readers. Even if you don't volunteer, I might ask you anyway. So maybe you better just volunteer. ;)