What we ate, week ending 7 March 2020

Can you believe we're already in our third week of What We Ate? I can't. Time seems to be flying by at an ever-increasing rate. Up until now, I've simply been sharing our breakfasts, lunches and dinners, but this week I decided to add snacks into the roundup as well.

Sunday

Breakfast - Paul made the kids pancakes; I had spent the night at my sister-in-law's house, where I was helping her paint her dining room, so she cooked me fried eggs on toast. So yummy.

Lunch - Sandwiches (peanut butter or Nuttvia) and a fruit platter. I bought several bags of fresh fruit from a local orchard - pears, apples and plums - so we've been eating those as snacks or cut up with our meals.

Snack - The kids just munched on orchard fruit from the fruit bowl. They're allowed to help themselves to fruit whenever they want it.

Dinner - Leftover Pumpkin and Bacon Macaroni and Cheese (pictured above). We still had half a dish from the previous night's dinner (which I shared in last week's What We Ate), so Paul just threw that in the oven to reheat and it made for a really simple dinner. I was recovering from a small outpatient surgery earlier in the day, so it was nice not having to prepare anything.

Monday 

Breakfast - Cereal for the kids; Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding for me (pictured above). I made it the night before, so breakfast prep was as simple as pulling it out of the fridge and sprinkling it with frozen berries.

Lunch - Sandwiches and a fruit platter. (There's that delicious orchard fruit making an appearance again.)

Snack - I baked chocolate oatmeal cookies to have as an afternoon snack. (Whenever I bake, I set a few aside in a container in the freezer to use for future lunchbox fillers. It helps me feel prepared.)

Dinner - Honey Soy Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs served on rice cooked in homemade chicken stock and with a side of green beans from our garden as well as store-bought broccoli. This was another easy dinner for me while I recovered, as the slow cooker and the rice cooker did all the hard work. I basically just had to serve it up.

Tuesday

Breakfast -  Cereal or homemade yoghurt and frozen bananas and blueberries for the kids; Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding for me.

Lunch - Sausage rolls, Chicken Chipees and a vegetable platter (pictured above). I like to keep a stash of easy protein-based heat-and-go foods in the freezer so I can just pop them in the oven and keep working with the kids on their homeschool while lunch cooks. When it's done cooking, we get to sit down together to eat and it makes for a lovely pause from our work during our day.

Snack - Chocolate Zucchini Muffins. I defrosted a big bag of shredded zucchini from the freezer, which I had harvested from our garden earlier this summer. I set aside half for dinner that night, and used the other half in these muffins. I love sneaking vegetables into things, especially when those vegetables are my own homegrown, organic produce. The kids never know it's there, but I know it's there and get to pat myself on the back.

Dinner - Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas (pictured top). Zucchini wasn't called for in this recipe, but I added in the rest of the bag leftover from that afternoon's muffins, again, sneaking in extra greens. I hadn't made this particular recipe before, but it was really good. Everyone enjoyed it, so I'll definitely be making it again.

Wednesday 

Breakfast - Cereal for the kids; Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding for me. Since I have to open a can of coconut cream to make my chia seed pudding, I usually end up making it for a few days in a row, until the can is used up.

Lunch - Boiled eggs (from our chooks) and a vegetable platter.

Snack - Fruit platter, stove-popped popcorn, Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (leftover from the previous day) and Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies (pictured above). We had friends come over for afternoon tea, so I baked the cookies specially to share with them.

Dinner - Sausage crumble tacos topped with a One Night in Mexico chipotle sauce and featuring lettuce and tomatoes from the garden, as well as grated carrot and cheese. We ate this with a side of homegrown sweetcorn smeared in butter.

Thursday

Breakfast - Cereal for two of the kids; a cheese toastie sandwich for the other kid; Green smoothie for me. (My green smoothie was a mixture of fresh cucumber, frozen spinach, frozen strawberries, milk kefir, greek yoghurt, chia seeds soaked in water, boabab powder, vanilla collagen and protein powder, Natvia, cinnamon and spirulina powder.)

Lunch and snacks - This was a lunchbox day, so the kids packed various sandwiches, cheese toastie sandwiches, crackers, mini salamis, cherry tomatoes, homemade Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies, raisins and apple slices with peanut butter to dip them in.

Dinner - Spaghetti and Venison Meatballs (pictured above) served with a side of buttery peas and broccoli, as well as a raw vegetable platter. (My kids really like raw vegetables, so I serve them with a lot of our meals.)

Friday

Breakfast - Cereal for the kids; Fried eggs and tomatoes on low-carb toast for me.

Lunch - This was a leftovers meal for us. I finished off the last couple of enchiladas from Tuesday, and the kids ate the leftover spaghetti and peas from Thursday (pictured above). I added a little bit of diced salami to their spaghetti, since all the meatballs had been eaten at dinner-time. As usual, I also served up a raw vegetable platter to accompany our meal.

Dinner - Chicken barley soup and toasty soldiers. I pulled the soup out of the freezer, so all I had to do was reheat it and toast some bread for an easy dinner.

Snack - Stove-popped popcorn, lollies and ice cream spiders. (Paul and the kids have a family movie night every Friday while I get some "me" time, so he makes them a small pile of treats for during the movie.)

Saturday
Breakfast - Homemade banana yoghurt

Lunch - Chicken barley soup (the other half of the soup from Friday) and homemade dinner rolls.

Snack - Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. (We had friends and family over so the tray of cookies got eaten in about 10 seconds flat.)

Dinner - Lasagne served with homegrown salad and sweetcorn. It was a big lasagne because we had friends and family over for dinner (which I completely failed to get any photos of. Sorry!).


So that wraps up another week of meals around here. As mentioned, I've added in our snacks this week, but is there anything else you'd like to see? Any recipes you definitely think I should try?