It’s time to look at a bunch of meals again!  I’ve realized that Andrew and I love our corn products…creamy polenta and thick slices of cornbread were the highlights of our menu last week. 

sunday: Chicken, broccoli, sugar snap pea, red bell pepper stir-fry with brown rice.  Tossed in a random stir-fry sauce.  Topped with chives and sesame seeds.

monday: Salmon pinwheels from HEB (loved them) with a wedge salad topped with tomatoes and homemade blue cheese dressing.  On the side was sweet potato buttermilk biscuits (sharing recipe soon-ish).

Homemade blue cheese dressing: 1/2 cup greek yogurt, plain + 3 tablespoons low-fat buttermilk + 1/3 cup blue cheese, crumbled + dash Worcestershire sauce + salt/pepper

tuesday: BBQ Cheddar Burger + avocado (minus fried onions) from Smashburger.  Served with sweet potato fries.

wednesday: Polenta topped with pesto, oven-roasted tomatoes, and a version of Jessica’s Creamy Parmesan White Bean Stew (I halved the recipe and left out the bacon).  We loved this meal (well, I loved this meal).  I’m excited to build other recipes around the creamy polenta base.

thursday: I went to a cooking class at Central Market taught by Robin Plotkin.  It was sponsored by Dairy Max and the Houston Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics.  The cooking class discussed how to address patients who have self-diagnosed themselves with lactose intolerance and how we can all incorporate lactose-containing products into our diet.  I’m actually switching from almond milk to lactose-free milk this week.  We’ll see how it goes.

The menu for the evening was: cottage cheese guacamole (my favorite recipe of the night), arugula salad with yogurt-cilantro dressing, turkey meatballs with yogurt salsa, grilled veggies and kale mashed potatoes.  And there was dessert.

friday: leftover pizza from Star Pizza that Andrew brought me + wedge salad with more of that homemade blue cheese dressing.  I’ve never been to Star Pizza, but after tasting the pizza I cannot wait to go there in person!  I had half a slice of Marilyn’s and half a slice of Joe’s.  Both were served on a whole-wheat, Chicago-style crust.  So very good.  And cheesy.

saturday: out to eat BBQ at Gabby’s.  I got the BBQ Chef Salad with Smoked Turkey.

Leftover salmon pinwheel on a salad with spinach, carrots, blueberries, strawberries and cherry tomatoes.  With an apple on the side.

Other lunches included lots of leftover chili (from Andrew’s chili cook-off at work) and leftover white bean soup.  Always served with a side of this cornbread. 

Kale smoothie: 1 banana, frozen + 1-2 cups kale, leaves pulled from stem + 1 date, pitted + scant 1/4 tsp cinnamon + 1 cup almond milk + 4-5 ice cubes

Paired with a sweet potato buttermilk biscuit (recipe soon-ish) with cherry jelly and a scrambled egg.

No-bake Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookies: 1/3 cup oats + 1 tbsp almond butter + 2 tbsp sweet potato puree + 1 tsp honey + 1 tbsp raisins + 1/8 tsp cinnamon + dash salt + 1 Dove dark chocolate square, chopped.  Mix everything together and roll into 4 balls.  Allow to sit for at least 1 hour in the fridge.

Katie’s Brownies.  So fudgy.  Don’t eat without a glass of ice cold almond/cow/soy milk nearby.  That is the mark of a good brownie…so chocolatey.

The 99 Workout.  It was a long one (for me at least).  Took me over an hour to complete.