Boo. My dear husband left today. He’s leading his youth group’s mission trip to Kentucky, and he won’t return until next Saturday evening. I am sad and a bit overwhelmed. While Jude and I had a lovely day together, I know it would have been even more lovely to have enjoyed it alongside my partner in crime.

This week, I’m eating simply. Some leftovers, lots of sandwiches, and a surprise dinner of enchiladas from my friend upstairs, Tracie! I have great friends, and I’m very, very grateful for them. Here’s what cooking (or reheating!) this week:

Breakfast:
Raw soaked oatmeal with hemp protein, chia seeds, hemp seeds, frozen fruit, and honey
Hot oatmeal with frozen fruit, cinnamon, flaxseed meal, and honey
Eggs and toast
Green smoothies

Lunch/Dinner:
Split-pea soup
Lentil soup
Enchiladas (thanks to our upstairs neighbor, Tracie!)
Avocado, lettuce, tomato, and cheese sandwiches (ALTs)
Peanut butter, honey, and banana sandwiches
Breakfast for dinner! Eggs and toast and smoothies
Pasta with fresh basil pesto
Refried bean quesadillas on homemade flour tortillas
Homemade pizza

Need more dinner ideas? Check out Jenna’s Mindful Menus Blog Roll or I’m an Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday Blog Roll.

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I had a hard time planning this week’s menu. I don’t want to be stuck inside cooking everyday, but I also don’t want to eat sandwiches day after day. The two soups on my menu should come together pretty quickly, as long as I get the chopping/bean cooking done before hand. Any suggestions for yummy, quick, and nutritious vegetarian meals for these hot summer months?

Breakfast
Oatmeal with flax seed meal, cinnamon, frozen fruit, and honey
Eggs and fresh fruit/green smoothies
Cereal with fruit

Lunch/Dinner
Black bean and rice burritos on homemade flour tortillas
ALT (avocado, lettuce, and tomato) sandwiches
Breakfast for dinner:  Scrambled eggs, bagels, and fresh fruit
White bean soup with kale/cooking greens
Potato and mustard greens soup
Spinach Pesto Pasta

Need more dinner ideas? Check out Jenna’s Mindful Menus Blog Roll or I’m an Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday Blog Roll.

Want more? Check out the Weekly Menus archive.

You can subscribe to them by RSS or by e-mail!

Sorry for the lack of posting as of late. The past week and a half has been super busy with getting the house ready for company, hosting my mom and pop for a few days, having Josh’s mom and dad visit, and then finally, recuperating.

Josh, Jude, and I spent Friday night in the suburbs at our friend’s house visiting. We came home early Saturday morning, but because Jude refused to sleep all of Friday night, we took a nap during co-op/farmers’ market hours and missed shopping at either place. Luckily, I have a bag full of CSA goodies to help us get through the week. Here’s what on our menu:

Breakfast:
Cereal with milk and fresh fruit
Oatmeal with flaxseed meal, frozen fruit, cinnamon, and honey
Cottage cheese with green smoothies

Lunch/Dinner:
Leftover minestrone soup
Black bean and rice burritos on homemade flour tortillas
Pasta w/fresh basil pesto
Homemade veggie pizza (peppers, onions)
Black bean burgers w/baked potatoes and braised turnips w/ greens
Home made mac & cheese w/frozen peas and corn on the cob
Eggs and bagels w/fresh fruit and a green smoothies
Cheese and basil polenta with tomato basil sauce and a salad
Brown rice with red lentils, barley, almonds, and cranberries
ALTs (avocado, lettuce, and tomato sandwhiches)

Snacks
Salads
Baba ghanous
Green smoothies
White bean, asparagus and basil hummus with chopped veggies

Need more dinner ideas? Check out Jenna’s Mindful Menus Blog Roll or I’m an Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday Blog Roll.

Want more? Check out the Weekly Menus archive.

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I love the warm weather that accompanies Spring and Summer. Playing outside with Jude for hours on end is a fun and relaxing and easy! way to spend our days. The hard thing about nice-weather days (for me at least) is trying to find the time to cook. Too often I end up relying on sandwiches or cut up pieces of cheese and fruit and veggies to make up our meals. I haven’t been able to find a big chunk of time to do a lot of cooking at once, and I can’t seem to make myself be productive while Jude is napping. Sooner or later, I’m going to need to figure something out.

Early-ish this morning, Jude and I took a bike ride to The Harvest, our local food co-op, and to Downtown Evanston’s Farmers’s Market. I was really disappointed by the end of our shopping trip: the co-op was out of dried cranberries and bread, and the stand at the farmers’ market that we got our eggs from last week was sold out. The woman working the stand said all their eggs were gone by 9am. I could have gotten eggs from a different stand, but the only place that still had them for sale didn’t designate the eggs as being free-range or organic or pastured, so I didn’t want to buy them. I ended up buying two bags of spinach, some basil, cilantro, and cheese made from raw milk. I’m happy with what I bought, but I just didn’t leave with the sense of excitement that I left with last week. Anyway! Here’s what cooking this week.

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with ground flax seeds and frozen berries
Cold cereal with milk and fruit
Green smoothies

Lunch/Dinner
Falafel w/tzatziki sauce
Pasta w/fresh basil, tomatoes, and Mozzarella cheese
Veggie burgers w/baked pots
Homemade refried bean quesadillas on homemade flour tortillas
Eggs and bagels and fruit
Homemade pizza
Minestrone soup
ALTS

Snacks
Fruit
Green smoothies
Salads

Need more dinner ideas? Check out Jenna’s Mindful Menus Blog Roll or I’m an Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday Blog Roll.

Want more? Check out the Weekly Menus archive.

Dear readers. Yesterday I made an important discovery: I like mushrooms.

Crazy, right? Early-ish yesterday morning, Josh, Jude, and I went to Downtown Evanston’s Farmers’ Market. As we perused the different farm stands, I lamented the fact that neither Josh nor I like mushrooms; they all looked so lovely in their little wooden display boxes, waiting patiently to be purchased. Josh suggested we give ‘em another try and quickly brainstormed a few different ways we could use them this week. After agreeing to take the plunge with him and after talking to one of the stand workers, we settled on a bag of assorted mushrooms. I’ve only tried on variety of the mushrooms so far, but since I like that variety, I’m going to consider this purchase a SUCCESS.

In addition to mushrooms, our farmers’ market bounty included
Spinach
Not-arugula salad greens that I can’t remember the name of
Basil
Parsley
Green garlic
Rhubarb
Eggs
Raw milk cheddar cheese
Popcorn on the cob!

I still have to do a bit more shopping at a grocery store (or two or three) before I’m set for the week, but I’m hoping to have that completed by the end of the day today. So, without further adieu, here’s what’s cooking this week:

Breakfast:
Pumpkin french toast sticks
Oatmeal with ground flaxseed and frozen berries
Eggs and bagels

Lunch/Dinner:
Pasta with fresh basil and parsley pesto
Veggie curry over basmati rice
Corn chowder
Homemade veggie pizza
Quesadilla on homemade flour tortillas with homemade refried beans
Veggie stir fry over basmati rice
Ginormous salads
ALTs
Pitas with hummus and raw, chopped veggies

Snacks:
Fresh rhubarb dipped in a bit of sugar
Green smoothies

Need more dinner ideas? Check out Jenna’s Mindful Menus Blog Roll!

Want more? Check out the Weekly Menus archive.

Dear Lord. Check me out, posting my menu two weeks in a row. Next thing you know I’ll actually be updating this thing with info about Jude. Huzzah.

I’m super pooped after a week of cleaning, cooking, and playing. I’m looking forward to the weather warming back up (it was about 70 degrees in Chicago today!) and getting outside with the boy. Here’s what we’re putting in our bellies this week:

Breakfast
Slow cooker cereal
Pumpkin french toast sticks

Lunch/Dinner
Grilled cheese w/ black bean soup
Veggie burgers w/corn, green beans, and mashed/baked potatoes
Peanut butter, honey, and banana sandwiches w/salad and red peppers and hummus
ALT sandwiches w/ red pepper and hummus
Home made pizza w/peppers
Spinach salad w/blueberries, blackberries, feta, and almonds
Fajitas w/lime rice salad
Quesadillas/burritos w/refried beans (leftovers)
Eggs and bagels
Potato soup/chili (from the freezer)

Need more dinner ideas? Check out Jenna’s Mindful Menus Blog Roll!

Want more? Check out the Weekly Menus archive.

Happy Wednesday, everyone. Sorry I’m so late to the menu-posting game, but this week, like nearly all other weeks, has been super busy. I had this menu planned out on Saturday and did all my shopping that day (actually, Josh did. Jude was sick and had a fever, and he refused to let me leave his side.), but I just haven’t had time to sit down and type it all up until now.

I have to say–I was *thrilled* with how well my marinara sauce (and in turn, my lasagna) came out this time around. Additionally, I’m really excited to have made my refried beans this week, and I really do love the flour tortilla recipe I’ve been using. One of my goals in life is to really and truly cook from scratch. I would like to go as far as grinding my own grains for bread and the like, but I know that I won’t have the necessary time available until Jude is a bit older. For now, I’m taking baby steps.

Here’s what’s cooking this week:

Breakfast
Eggs and bagels/toast with a side of fruit
Oatmeal
Cold cereal with cow’s milk

Lunch/Dinner:
Burritos and/or quesadillas with home made refried beans on home made flour tortillas
Veggie lasagna (Easter leftovers!)
Avocado, cheese, spinach, and tomato sandwiches
Peanut butter, honey, and banana sandwiches
Pasta with marinara and/or Alfredo sauce
Grilled cheese sandwiches with black bean soup
Veggie burgers with mashed potatoes and corn
Potato soup, salad, and bread

Need more dinner ideas? Check out Jenna’s Mindful Menus Blog Roll!

Want more? Check out the Weekly Menus archive.

As an Easter treat for my family and for our neighbor-friends, last night, I started making cinnamon buns. Early this morning, after letting them rise overnight in the refrigerator, I popped them in the oven. As soon and Jude and I got word that our friends were awake, we gathered up the buns and a took a pot of coffee to each of them! It was a lot of fun. The friends we’ve made in our building are so very fantastic. It really makes my heart happy to be able to share a special treat with them on Easter–that is, on Zombie Jesus Day.

This afternoon, we’re heading upstairs to celebrate our neighbor’s son Baptism and to have dinner and celebrate Easter. I’m making veggie lasagna and a couple loaves of bread. I’m excited about the lasagna for the simple fact that I got all the necessary prep work for it done yesterday. All I need to do this afternoon is throw it together and pop it in the oven for a bit.

I hope you all have a great day; that you get to spend time with loved ones and eat a lot of good food.

Cheers!

Hello, friends. I have to take a minute here to brag, if that’s okay with you. Normally, even if I don’t get around to posting it here, I menu plan each week. Most of the time, even though I have a plan in place, I stray from that plan, and it’s never for the better. When that happens, we spend money we don’t need to and end up eating less nutritious and less tasty food than we would have if I had just stuck to the plan. This past week was different. We ate exactly what I had planned and left little to go to waste in our fridge. Our meals, for the most part, were healthy and well-rounded. They tasted great. I feel really good about all of this, so I hope you’ll excuse me giving myself a virtual pat on the back here.

Now, onto the upcoming week. Here’s what I have in mind:

Lunch/Dinner
(Leftover) Veggie chili with homemade bread
Dal over rice (inspired by my friend Aimee’s comment on this old post)
Rice and bean burritos on homemade flour tortillas
Curried channa, potatoes, and tomatoes over basmati rice
Lentil soup with homemade bread
Homemade pizza
Breakfast for dinner: Scrambled eggs and cheese with a bagel and a side of fruit
ALTs

Snacks
Green smoothies!
Ginormous salads-yum!

Need more dinner ideas? Check out Jenna’s Mindful Menus Blog Roll!

Want more? Check out the Weekly Menus archive.

It’s another crazy week here in the Frank household. Josh is working a ton this week, so Jude and I will be roughing it on our own quite a bit. If you feel like hanging out, give us a call!

Here’s what’s cookin’ (or being reheated) this week:

Breakfast
Oatmeal with ground flaxseed and frozen fruit

Lunch/Dinner
Refried bean burritos
Veggie burgers with sweet potato fries and broccoli
Penne pasta with sun-dried tomato and pumpkin seed pesto and green beans
Curried channa and potatoes withe basmati rice
Veggie Chili
Breakfast sandwiches
Homemade pizza
ALTs
PB&H w/red peppers and hummus
Grilled cheese and tomato w/baby carrots and broccoli dipped in hummus

Snacks
Green smoothies
Ginormous salads

Need more dinner ideas? Check out Jenna’s Mindful Menus Blog Roll!

Want more? Check out the Weekly Menus archive.