Meal Planning Monday: March 14-20, 2011

This week I'm trying a couple of new recipes, as well as some of our favorites.

Monday
Breakfast - Power Breakfast (from The Eat-Clean Diet for Men
Dinner - Mexican Pinto Beans with brown rice, broccoli (from The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged

Tuesday
Breakfast - Cereal, milk, fruit
Dinner - Pork Roast, roasted root vegetables, green salad

Wednesday
Breakfast - Mixed Berry Bars
Dinner - Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce with spinach salad

Thursday
Breakfast - Cereal, milk, fruit
Dinner - Chicken with Quinoa and Asparagus
** note: quinoa is pronounced keen-wah and it is not as scary as you think it might be!**

Photo Credit

Friday
Breakfast - Berry & Spinach Smoothie (and trust me - the kids don't even know about the spinach!)
Dinner - Beef & Bean Casserole, Rice or Fresh Buns, Carrots (even though the casserole is so good that the veggies never get eaten!)
**note: Beef & Bean Casserole must be eaten on a Friday - that leaves 2 days for ah... ya know... Oh, I'll just say it. The beans need time to leave your system...cough. Ya. And you don't want to take leftovers to work on Monday either. :D

Happy eating!

Pancake Perfection

Today's finds are coming to you from the kitchen, and just in time for the weekend!

We have never been big fans of pancakes - at all. Sure, we'd have them when we were camping and maybe twice throughout the year (usually when the kids begged for them). I'd take the box out of the pantry, add the water, and voila! Or not - they turned out fine, but never really tasted very good, and I've tried plenty of recipes from scratch, with poor results. I had all but given up on them...

But things are lookin' up!! I have found the 2 most amazing pancake recipes on earth. Yes-siree! We now have pancakes nearly every weekend and we never get tired of them. I even keep them in the freezer and the kids have them during the week. Between these and steel cut oats, we have it made in the shade!

I have adapted (slightly) the first recipe from Smitten Kitchen and they deserve a standing ovation. And that's before adding the butter and maple syrup!

Oatmeal Pancakes
3/4 cup oat flour (put 1 c oats in a blender and whiz it until it's ground up)
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup cooked oatmeal (I use steel cut oats)
1 tablespoon honey
2 eggs

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.
Cook.
Add a dallop of butter and drizzle with maple syrup.

Photo Credit

I adapted the second recipe from The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook and these pancakes are awesome!

Cottage Cheese Pancakes
Combine in bowl 1:
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Combine in bowl 2:
8 egg whites
1 c cottage cheese
1 c plain yogurt

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and combine.
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.
Cook.
Top with whipped cream (real cream, do NOT use the spray stuff!) and strawberries.

Give them a try! Oh, and don't forget to share your favorite recipes with us! :)