Meals in March

Just cause its pretty... and tasty... Avocado Toast!

I will just come straight out and say it... we were HORRIBLE with wasted produce this month. I literally couldn't keep track of how much we actually tossed... so much in fact that I now have a pad and paper near the trash can so I can make a point of either keeping track of everything we toss or to use as a reminder to eat what we have.

We seriously need to get on the ban wagon again... I don't know if it was the planning to leave for Utah that threw us off, or just us being lazy and embracing the going out for dinner route, but the first half of the month was horrible for food waste. It wasn't until we got back to Utah that I found a second wind and tried to keep together what I could. I was also really bad with taking pictures of things since we ate out... a lot... and then when we did cook, it was frozen foods... literally the first three meals we made came from our freezer...

Spinach and Cheese Ravioli 
A freezer staple because its cheap and tasty. It's also SCB's back up meal for when I'm working and he needs to fend for himself. We get a huge bag (3 lbs 8 oz) of it at Costco for $9.99... and if we are both having dinner, we generally get 3 meals out of it since we don't really do side dishes with it..basically it's dinner for under $5 bucks.

I know I'm a little debbie downer right now about the freezer meals, but I owe this meal a lot. This meal was the first time I was able to get South County Boy to eat pasta and Olive Oil together. He literally would refuse to eat anything coated in Olive Oil when we first got married. After he sampled it in the store and said it was good, we got the bag and I made it for dinner that night, with olive oil and he fell in love by the end of the bowl... when he went for seconds I told him it was tossed in olive oil... and he no longer cared.

This pasta was how I was able to get SCB "okay" with one meatless meal a week and now we eat multiple meatless meals a week just cause they taste good by his standards.

Saute'd Veggies and Chicken Broccoli Bake
So this meal too started in our Freezer at the beginning of the month when we were really busy. It's a breaded chicken breast that is stuffed with broccoli and sauce inside. I used to like these a whole lot more, but since we have generally been eating more fresh and home made meals it has lost its appeal. It just doesn't taste as good as it used to.

I included it in the blog because we aren't perfect people and the veggies were just plain awesome. That's Zucchini, mushrooms and onions that were sauteed in oil oil and topped with a little Parmesan cheese.

Frozen Wild Caught Fish (and an Omaha steak fish), baked potatoes and steamed broccoli
One thing we have started doing right is abandoning the frozen veggie and starting to use fresh ones that we steam in the microwave. It just tastes so much better.... and look at that color... it's just soooo green... It blows my mind how green fresh veggies are compared to the frozen ones...

and speaking of color, I walked by the normal produce at Sprouts when I was shopping on my way to get Milk and saw the "tomatoes" ...  They sure didn't look red to me... which kind of makes me okay with paying twice as much for ones that actually are in fact Red...

But back to the meal in question... we generally have fish once a week and just add a different side dish... This month we only really ate fish one or twice with all our traveling and vacation.

Stuffed Pork and Cabbage/Carrot salad/Slaw
Post vacation I wanted to try something new, and while I've yet to find organic pork, sprouts had stuffed pork chops on sale and SCB loves pork so I picked a pair of them up.

Sadly, after cooking them we ended up needing to have apple sauce and BBQ to dip the meat in because it wasn't seasoned or flavored... it was just plain meat with a little awesome broccoli and cheese poking out from the top... But they didn't season or marinate the meat so it was such a disappointment.

The "cole slaw salad" was a recipe save. You see I picked up a head of cabbage because it was on sale for Saint Patrick's Day and dirt cheap... even for organic. I wanted to make this recipe I found on-line for a healthy coleslaw carrot salad.... All it required was Fat Free Greek Yogurt, Salt, and just carrots, cabbage and crasins...

So I made a small batch... and while it was edible, it was not flavorful and I ended up tossing it out and calling it a fail. The rest of the cabbage and carrots I shredded I just made into a impromptu salad and tossed it with some salad dressing. 

Korean "Beef"
I adapted this recipe from one of my co-workers because my husband doesn't like Asian sauces very much because they are too "potent" for him.

I cooked some Organic Ground Turkey and drained the fat.
Then I added some Soy Sauce, Brown Sugar, Ginger, and Sesame Seed Oil to the meat...

then I chopped up a can of water chestnuts, cut and steamed some broccoli... and added some salt and pepper.

Served it on rice.... and now i'm allowed to make it when I get a hankering for Asian.