This recipe from Our Family Eats was a great, fast, weeknight meal. We added a bag of french cut green beans to add some veggies. Just like Our Family Eats’ kids, ours ate this up! The recipe made a lot, so the kids were happy to take it for lunch the next day.
Grilled Chicken and Summer Squash Salad
This recipe from Fine Cooking was a great refreshing summer salad. We left off the jalapeños, but otherwise followed the recipe.
Stuffed Poblano Peppers
I wasn’t expecting the kids to like these too much since the tend not to like green bell peppers, but they really liked these Stuffed Poblano Peppers! They aren’t spicy, but do have more flavor than a bell pepper. Too bad there weren’t any leftovers!
Papaya Chicken and Rice
Papaya was on sale, and I wanted to try to include it in a main dish, so I Googled around and found this recipe for Papaya Chicken Casserole. It was close to what I wanted, but not quite, so I stole the sauce, grilled up some chicken and served it over rice. The kids loved the sweetness of the sauce (OK, I thought it was pretty good too!).
Papaya Chicken and Rice
For the Sauce:
- Juice of 1 orange, plus water to make 1 cup
- 2 Tbs Lemon juice
- 1/4 brown sugar
- 1 Tbs Corn starch
- 1 Tbs Soya sauce
- 2 cups Diced papaya
For the Chicken:
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded to even out thickness, and grilled–add some salt and pepper or other spices if you want
Rice: 1 cup rice cooked as directed.
Bring all the sauce ingredients, except the papaya to a boil. Add the papaya and simmer for a few minutes while it thickens. Place a serving of rice on each plate, add a chicken breast and top with sauce.
Meals for Aug 13-19
- Zucchini Carbonara
- Chicken Crepes with Asparagus and Mushrooms
- Blueberry Chicken Salad
- Pulled pork sandwiches and sweet potato wedges
- Sausage and peppers with rice, along the lines of this.
- Pizza
Meals for Aug 6th -12th
- A modification of this Chicken and Broccoli Braid
- Polynesian pork, using pork chops
- Cheesy hamburger skillet
- Wheat Berries with Zucchini and mozzarella (also in TFMCB).
- Baked falafel
- Sweet-potato chicken quesadillas
Peach, Pancetta, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches
This recipe from Fine cooking was a great way to incorporate the summer’s tasty peaches into a main dish. The sweetness of the peaches and the saltiness of the Pancetta were a nice compliment for each other. With the home made bread, this was a great combination!
Meals for July 24-29
- Slow cooker Sloppy Joes
- Mushroom, thyme, and sun dried tomato pasta
- Chicken, bean and avocado soft tacos.
- The sauce from this Papaya chicken recipe served with grilled chicken breasts over rice.
- Chicken fried rice
Pear bismarck
I’ve seen lots of names for these oven baked pancakes–bismarck, flapjack, popover…Some recipes cook the pancake and put the fruit on top after cooking (usually berries of various sorts), others put the fruit in the pan and cook with the batter (mostly apples). A neighbor has a pear tree that produced a super-sized crop this year and the kids picked a bunch of pears. I combined a few recipes to come up with this. I think most recipes are geared for a smaller (9in) pie pan sized dish, so this is doubled for a larger 12in pan.
Pear Bismarck
- 2 pears, sliced
- 2 T butter
- 2 T brown sugar
- 1-2 tsp cinnamon
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
Preheat the oven to 450F. Slice the pear. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, add milk and flour and mix. Heat an oven proof 12in pan on medium high heat and melt the butter. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon in the pan. Spread the pear slices on the bottom of the pan. Top with the batter and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Loosen the edges and turn upside down onto a plate or cutting board. Slice and serve.
Some recipes call for sprinkling with powdered sugar and/or adding maple syrup, but neither is needed really.
Meals for July 16-22
- Peach, pancetta, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, Fine Cooking 112, p.47
- Grilled chicken and summer squash salad, Fine Cooking 111, p.73
- Velvety Broccoli and Feta pasta
- Lemon braised chicken with mint–probably just using chopped mint rather than the full on mint pesto described.
- Stuffed poblano peppers
- Something on the grill TBD at the grocery store…