Weekly Cook-up & Banana Bread Muffins

 My weekly cook-up this week wasn't nearly as extensive as last week, but we had several servings of soup left over as well as the spicy pork.  So... on Sunday I cooked the two spaghetti squash that I had in the pantry from the farmers market.  I tossed it all in butter with some garlic powder, salt and pepper and then let it cool and put it in storage containers in the fridge.  I also made a batch of chunky marinara sauce using the recipe I found on Spark Recipes.  Sunday night I sauteed some shrimp and reheated the spaghetti squash by sauteing it in (more) butter with fresh garlic.  

This "shrimp scampi" wasn't as awesome as I thought it would be.  I think I need to do a better job cooking the shrimp next time.   






Monday night I reheated more of the squash using the saute method again and topped it with the chunky marinara.  This has quickly become a favorite dinner for me! 


                                                                                    
 

I also made these banana bread muffins.  I replaced the olive oil with coconut oil and left the walnuts out (because I didn't have enough of them).  I topped one with coconut butter (first time trying coconut butter ever!) and it was really good!  These were a hit!

I've decided to go to CrossFit on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights (and maybe Saturday mornings) for now, so tonight I will cook up the 3lbs of boneless chicken breasts that I have and saute any veggies that are in my fridge.  That should get us through Thursday or Friday.

Recipe Roundup

I've tried 2 new recipes this week and invented a 3rd one!  

I've been wanting to try greens for some time now, but I had a feeling that the traditional southern way of boiling vegetables to death would turn me off.  So, instead I used a great recipe by Whole Life Eating called Pork Loin Chops with Collard Greens.  I actually liked it!  It was best when I took a bite of greens with a bite of the pork.  Husband resisted even trying them and then when he finally did he said they were "disgusting".  I still plan to make them once-a-weekish for myself.  The health benefits are too good to ignore (calcium, folate...etc).

My next new recipe was this Crockpot Ropa Vieja & Cuban Style Rice by PaleOMG.  I left the capers out because I didn't know what they were!  This recipe was good.  Husband wasn't thrilled with the texture of the cauliflower "rice", but overall he liked it.  

Then came my masterpiece!  Strawberry (banana) Ice Cream!  This recipe was inspired by the Banana Ice Cream that we had already been enjoying from time to time.  I simply put frozen sliced bananas, frozen (fresh) strawberries and full-fat canned coconut milk (chilled) in  my new food processor and blended it all together! When I do this again, I will cut the strawberries in half prior to freezing.  Being whole, they required a bit of coaxing with a wooden spoon in between processing.  I left out the cinnamon & nutmeg from the original banana ice cream recipe and I think that was a good decision.  Now I'm dying to try this Cinnamon Sweet Potato Ice Cream from PaleOMG.  We MUST get an ice cream maker!

On my list to make this weekend/next week: 

Meatballs

Marinara Sauce

Spaghetti Squash

Sauteed Shrimp

T-bones

Buffalo Wings

Sweet Tater Fries/Mashed sweet taters

Smoky Country Style Ribs

Crock Pot Lemon Pepper Chicken

Watermelon & Cucumber Salad                                                     

Week 3 Wrap-Up

Well, our 3rd weekend of our first Whole30 went pretty well.  We ate at Red Lobster Friday night and both really enjoyed our meals.  So much so that we were still talking about it Saturday afternoon.  He had NY Strip and Lobster with broccoli.  I had a ribeye with crab legs.  We both had salads with no cheese or croutons and we both skipped the butter with our seafood.  

On Saturday we had a house guest from Wisconsin!  For dinner we enjoyed grilled ribeyes, sauteed-shrimp (mine didn't look anything like that picture!), sweet potato fries, sauteed onions & peppers, tomato/cucumber salad and creamed cucumbers.  Our steaks were a little charred so we smothered them in delicious homemade mayo, which our house guest raved about!  Husband did give in and drink 2 beers on Saturday and he felt like crap after it and the next day (no surprise).

Left: w/blueberries
Right: without blueberries 

Before our guest arrived on Saturday, Husband and I had a little bit of banana ice cream with some blueberries added.  I put the rest in the freezer to see if it would be good after being frozen.  We all had a little of it on Sunday.  It was good, but was frozen too solid, we had to defrost in in the micro for just a few seconds and then it was perfect!  We also had Turkey Pizza Burgers:

1lb of lean ground turkey mixed with:

chopped green bell pepper, chopped onion, 

garlic powder, Italian seasoning, marinara sauce.  

Grilled and then topped with more

 marinara sauce.  Yum!

On Sunday, keeping true to the tradition of the past few weeks, we cooked and cooked and now have a fridge full of meals to eat for the week including:

Pork Roast (with saurkraut)
Beef Stew (Husband made it up as he went, so I have no recipe)
Buffalo Chicken Salad (I really love this stuff!)
Chicken Salad (chicken breasts, mayo, grapes, s&p)

After Week 1, we  just make a list of the meals we want for the next week, buy the ingredients and then cook or pre-cook everything on Sunday.  It's worked out really well!  I only end up cooking one or two nights a week now and there are always healthy meals in the fridge for either of us to grab at any time!

Shrimp Recipe Fail

photo from pinterest.com

I tried this simple shrimp recipe this weekend and didn't like it.  I think I cooked it too long or something.  And it needed garlic or something.

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

We had friends over for dinner Saturday night.  For appetizers we had raw veggies with ranch dip (hidden valley ranch packet & tub of sour cream), deviled eggs & cranberry trail mix.  Dinner consisted of the quartered cabbage recipe from the farmer's market, Grass-fed Top Sirloin Steak and Bacon Wrapped Shrimp (see recipe below)!  It was delicious!


Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

1. You need a pound of uncooked wild caught shrimp, shells removed and deviened.
2. 1 package of uncooked  bacon.
3. Slice raw bacon strip into 3 pieces.
4. Wrap each piece around a piece of shrimp and secure with a long wooden or metal skewer.
5. Repeat. You can place several pieces of bacon wrapped shrimp on a single skewer.
6. Heat up the grill! Lay all of the shrimp and bacon skewers on the grill. A few minutes on each side is all you need for crispy bacon and juicy shrimp.  

This recipe is from Intentional Consumption.  See some of his other ideas for bacon here. I'm thinking of trying the chocolate dipped bacon!


Next time I make this I will keep the grill heat low (to avoid flare ups from the bacon grease) and allow more time.  It took a little longer than I had planned.  

Menu Planning ~ Week 4!

Here it is!

The bacon wrapped shrimp recipe can be found here and the beef roast recipe here.  We're having friends over to grill out on Saturday, so I thought the shrimp would make a great snack and go well with the steaks!  Have a great week everyone!