I haven’t shared our family meals in a LONG time! I had this plan, was on a roll, then a monkey wrench was thrown into our eating habits and I was all confused. I wrote a bit about it in an On my Mind: Food Edition post. I’d been doing a lot of research and having conversations and my husband trying to cure an ailment that led us to be mostly grain free for a few months. I still feel confused, but also frustrated with EATING, let alone cooking! I’ve decided to do 50/50 for now. Well, maybe more like 50% grain free, 40% whole grains and 10% whatever, because I don’t have the brain power to care. That’s just the carbs/pasta/rice/bread portion of our life. We still have treats, but we are more conscious and deliberate about them. I’m really just trying to focus hard on providing more vegetables, and more regular fruits. That’s all I can do. So here is what we had in the last week and my thoughts on how the kids ate it.
Here are the meals we had in the past week.
1. Cilantro Lime Baked Shrimp.
This was amazing and I will be making it again! I’m so excited that my kids are warming to the idea of seafood, since I’ve started making it more in the last 6 months. I’ve done shrimp, salmon, and tilapia, and they boys love it, while the girls will eat some. I’ll take it! I served this with roasted asparagus as well as fresh cut up apples.
2. Apple Sausage with peppers. Side of snap peas and fresh pineapple.
My friend Jaime told me about this quick and easy meal, and I don’t have a picture of the meal, or a link. Â You can get this specific sausage (at Target) or any other kind and cut it in the quarter sized pieces. I then cut up bell peppers (often red, orange, and yellow but any combo), and cook them in a skillet together. The meal is ready in 5-7 minutes! I keep these on hand for a quick and easy meal for the family. I provide easy fridge greens and fresh fruit to fill up on, too. The apple sausage is sweeter, there are also other flavors of the sausage. Some of my kids don’t prefer the sweet, but they will eat it if I make it. We eat this without grains, but you can always serve it with rice, noodles, or quinoa.
3. Orange Chicken served over brown rice. {recipe here} Side of roasted green beans, and sliced fresh peaches. I actually had everything on hand for this. I had a random small bottle of orange juice, so I didn’t use concentrate. It might have been tangier if I did. My friend Becca used to make this for me, and I loved it! Need to see her recipe, now, too.
4. Biscuits with Country Sausage Gravy. My friend Nikki and Chef in Training has lots of great recipes, and this one jumped out at me! I think because I had some amazing biscuits and sausage gravy on my trip to Nashville recently, and wanted to re-create that delicious-ness! Â I just made biscuits from a can, and the gravy was so quick, the process was easy! I served fresh berry smoothies with kale and jicama inside (not super delish, but my kids gulped it down) and my boys LOVED this meal. I thought they’d scoff at it, because they’ve never been into gravy. My girls, just ate the biscuits. When I make a meal for my family, I like to at least provide options for ways each person can adapt the meal, while not completely giving into the childhood pickiness syndrome.
5. Parmesan Lemon Chicken. Â Served with roasted broccoli and fresh cantaloupe. Picture below has quinoa, or rice served.
This is a family favorite meal. I decided to omit the juice concentrate that is in the recipe and just squeeze some extra lemon into the sauce. I didn’t even notice a difference! It has extra sugar and always hard for me to remember, so I may continue to omit it. Whole family loves this recipe!
6. True Belgian (Leige) Waffles. Served with bacon, homemade whipped cream, strawberries, and blueberries
Who doesn’t love a little breakfast for dinner???? It’s one of my faves! I love this yeast  based recipe, and I got a fresh batch of the pearl sugar on Amazon, so we whipped some up. I doubled the recipe, and the kids munched on them for a few days.
7. Husband and I made a fresh green salad with eggs, sunflower seeds, carrots, avocado, celery, peppers while the kids had pieces of that with corn dogs. Can’t win ’em all!
And if you’d like to try a dessert, check out one of the kids very favorites: Andes Mint Cookies
To see other Family Meals Plans I’ve shared in the past, click on that link.
To see other recipes that I hope to try soon, follow my FOOD—Dinner Ideas Pinterest board or FOOD–Healthy Eating or FOOD–Fish for dinner as I try to incorporate more seafood into our eating habits!
