Menu Monday: Nourishing Body and Soul

 

Last week was a master class in culinary improvisation at our house! We came home from the marriage conference and did not realize we were going to be subject to the winter storm for days and days on end. We also did not know we were going to have a boil advisory for most of the week, making it a real pain to cook or wash dishes. So the name of the game was…use leftovers, cobble together dishes using what we had in the pantry, and try to use up every last little thing so it wouldn’t go to waste. So, I present to you…our week of weird meals.

Monday: Leftover Pita Pizza Bar with Homemade Sauce + Chopped Salad

What I Loved: Because I had all the toppings prepped for when I made this the day before, it was one of the fastest, freshest leftovers ever. I just threw together new pizzas and baked them quickly. It was such a yummy leftover that felt like fresh food.

Tuesday: Cobbled Together Salad with Air Fried Chicken

What I Loved: Well, clearly I didn’t love taking a picture of it! Ha! Ryan and I spent the hour after he got home from work feverishly shoveling the driveway, and by the time we came inside, we were HUNGRY! I threw a couple of chicken breasts in the air fryer and cooked them. Meanwhile, I cobbled together mixed greens, diced bell pepper, diced cucumber, sliced cherry tomatoes, and feta to make a salad. We used our G Hughs Sugar Free dressing on top and it was a mighty yummy meal. Imagine it, will you?

Wednesday: Mexican White Bean Chicken Chili

What I Loved: After all the cold of the last few days, soup sounded really good. I scrounged around to see what I could make with what I had, and I had almost everything for this recipe. I lacked the corn, but I just omitted it and life went on. While I had enough Greek yogurt to put in what it called for, that would have meant I didn’t have enough for snacking the rest of the week, so I got creative and put some cottage cheese in the blender, whipped it, and used that instead. You know what? I think I liked it better! I learned from Dashing Dish that Greek yogurt and cottage cheese can be used interchangeably as thickening proteins in shakes, so I saw no reason why that wouldn’t also work for this soup. We liked it so much, I think we’ll keep it on the menu! (Here is a somewhat similar, free recipe.)

Thursday: Leftover Mexican White Bean Chicken Chili + Pita Bread Grilled Cheese

What I Loved: See above about what I loved regarding the chili. It was all still true on the second day. We had one piece of pita bread left from our pizzas last week and this week so I used it to make a grilled cheese which I split between the two of us. Ryan said he liked it even better than grilled cheese on bread! I call that a win.

Friday: Grilled Chicken Sandwich + Steamed Green Beans

What I Loved: We were originally planning to have a date night on Friday, but our plans changed, so I wanted to try to create a date-night feel at home. I was hoping this would sort of feel like Chick-fil-A? I air-fried the chicken breasts and we used the multi-grain thin buns. I had some bags of green beans in the freezer, so we had that for a side dish. It was easy to make and tasted delicious.

Saturday: Date Day at IHOP

What I Loved: Ryan and I haven’t been to IHOP in a really long time! He enjoyed one of the specials, and I had the veggie egg white omelet with fresh fruit. It was delicious, and I was excited that the fresh fruit had flavor and variety. (I feel like fruit bowls in Indiana in the winter are sort of lackluster.) I would get this again!

Sunday: Greek Chicken Bowls    (very similar recipe here)

What I Loved: The flavor! This was so good. For the chicken, there are three cooking methods offered in the recipe: slow cooker, stovetop, and oven. We went with oven (only because the slow cooker was in the refrigerator with food in it) and it was good. I did put together the marinade early Sunday morning and let it rest all day until dinnertime. I made regular rice for Ryan and cauliflower rice for me!

What I Didn’t Love: The “Greek salsa” does take a little time to chop and assemble. It’s really not a big deal, but we were just so tired from an almost 12 hour day, and I wanted to EAT, not cook. Next time I would work to be sure I had a little more lead time to cook.