Last Week’s Eats + What’s on My First Week of Fall Dinner Menu

It’s been a slow Sunday morning for me. I woke up just before 7 and then willed myself back to sleep until 8. I lounged in bed until 9 and then we got up to make breakfast. The rest of the morning has consisted of reading things on the internet, editing blog photos, researching recipes and menu planning. Basically, Sunday perfection!

We are having dinner with Tanner’s family tonight and I volunteered to bring a salad and dessert. The dinner is Mexican-themed so I’m going to do a simple chopped salad with ranch. As for the dessert, these apple pie bars are calling my name! Apple pie might not go hand-in-hand with Mexican but it sure does with the first weekend of fall! 🙂

First, what I ate and cooked this week. Second, my menu plan for the upcoming week!

BREAKFAST

Smoothie bowls, greek yogurt bowls and sweet potato bowls.

LUNCH

This combo was so good that I ate it two days in a row! I made salmon salad with canned wild alaskan salmon + grapes, pecans, mayo, plain yogurt, relish and lemon pepper. I spread it on sourdough and topped it with cheese and then stuck the whole thing under the broiler. I also did two small pieces of sourdough with fig preserves and cheese. YUM.

Then it was back to kale salad. Womp, womp. Here’s what went into this week’s creation.

• 1 head curly kale
• 1 head tuscan kale
• lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt for massaging kale
• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• halved grape tomatoes
• pistachios
• 3 roasted beets
• Tessemae’s green goddess dressing to finish the whole thing off

I also hardboiled some eggs to have on hand for easy salad toppers and snacks.

More kale salad but I had to bring back the sourdough with some avocado toast.

DINNER

Baked chicken thighs, roasted mushrooms and cauliflower and roasted acorn squash. This was a “clean out the fridge” meal when I got home from Florida because we had some stuff on its last leg that I didn’t want to waste.

Sweet and sour bok choy and pork stir fry. I changed the Cooking Light recipe by doubling the sauce and adding fresh ginger and garlic to it. I also decided to do a noodle stir fry instead of serving it over rice.

All plated up. Tanner especially loved this dinner.

I know I already showed you the herb-crusted cauliflower steaks in my Friday post but I have to do it again because they were SO GOOD! Please try this recipe!

Finally, I had an event than ran until 8:45 p.m. on Thursday so I couldn’t make the spiced ground beef and hummus dish I’d planned. Instead I had a hodgepodge of leftovers that turned out great! I sauteed some chicken sausage and then added the leftover white bean/tomato/green bean mixture from the cauliflower steaks to the pan as well as some leftover roasted cauliflower. I finished it all off with grated parmesan.

This Week’s Dinner Menu

Monday: sautéed pork chops with braised red cabbage and jeweled rice

Tuesday: mushroom truffle ravioli (from Trader Joe’s) with autumn harvest pasta sauce (also TJs) and chicken sausage

Wednesday: Indian spiced chicken burgers in pita with side salad

Thursday: some sort of shrimp and grits concoction!

Friday: TBD

Saturday: OUT

Sunday: I’ll plan that next Sunday!

What are you food prepping today? 

Have you made any “fall” recipes yet?