Wednesday: Spinach Tortellini Salad

Friday: Japanese Style Linguine with Clams – what makes it japanese? The use of sake, shiitake mushrooms, and nori sprinkled on top! I might have to take a shortcut and use canned clams though…hope it’s still tasty!

Wednesday – Bulgur With Mushrooms and Asparagus: I bought some bulgur for one of the salads from the NYTimes 101 salads (which was excellent!!) so now I have a bag of bulgur left over. I’m really hoping boyrobot will eat this…he’s never tried bulgur but he loves asparagus and mushrooms so we’ll see!

Friday – Flank Steak Noodle Stir Fry: Week of Menus is one of my favorite food blogs that I follow. I think she has kids that are picky eaters so a lot of her recipes work for us too (since boyrobot is so picky ha ha).

Onto this weeks recipes:

Monday – Honey Siracha Beef Skewers

Wednesday – The Little Italy Salad . I will probably add some pasta and/or spinach to make this more of a meal. (And yes I am still trying to eat my way through those 101 salads!).

Friday – Spicy Eggplant Noodles

Monday
Chicken Tacos – We like cheese, lettuce, and salsa on ours. and maybe some avocado if I’m feeling fancy!

Wednesday
Chicken, Spinach, and Bow Tie Pasta Salad

Friday
Chicken soup with rice – Will definitely be adding celery and red bell pepper to ours

Here’s this week’s dinners:

Monday:
Supreme Soy Sauce Chow Mein. Gonna add chicken and bell peppers

Wednesday:
Apple Dijon Kale Salad. I love kale!

Friday:
15 Minute Soba Noodle. I’m on a noodle kick this week. Bought some sliced beef and chicken to add to the soup as well.

I rarely cook anything twice so I can’t really tell you if the following recipes are good or anything. They just sound quick, easy, and tasty to me so I’m going to give it a try! Happy cooking!

Monday
Prosciutto, Mozzarella and Roasted Red Peppers on a Bagel (A TJ’s recipe posted on a forum so no link but here’s the “recipe”)
Toast bagel. Top bottom half with sliced prosciutto, a few slices of the presliced mozzarella log and a couple spoonfuls of the sliced tricolor roasted red peppers (in a jar). Drizzle with EVOO and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with freshly ground sea salt. Top with other half of bagel.
Probably add a salad and fruit on the side. If you’re wondering what I do with the rest of the bagels I eat them for breakfast the rest of the week or freeze if I get sick of eating bagels.

Wednesday
Melon and Fig Salad With Prosciutto and Balsamic Drizzle – I don’t think figs are available right now so I might have to leave that out. So sad…I love figs in my salad! And I love that TJ’s sells the melons pre-cut for me so I can just toss them in my salad. We’re trying to eat a salad at least once a week. Hopefully this is filling!

Friday
Mark’s Spaghetti with Brooklyn Clam Sauce – Probably going to make the white version (without tomatoes) and add fresh basil and possibly mushrooms

1. Overnight no-cook refrigerator oatmeal

I use the recipes listed here. In particular, I’ve tried the blueberry and the raspberry one. In this picture, I’m making a non-dairy version with almond milk and soy yogurt….I can’t wait to try it and see how it compares! The original is pretty good. If you like chewy foods this is great because the oatmeal and chia seeds absorbs all of the liquids and gets chewy. I love that you don’t have to cook anything and I can prepare it the night before after Emma goes to bed. Then in the morning I just grab a jar and go! Also love that it’s another way for me to use up my healthy chia seeds!

2. Crockpot oatmeal – Again, another oatmeal recipe that doesn’t require any cooking! This uses steel cut oats (my fave!!). Whenever I eat my oatmeal this way I always prepare it savory with soy sauce, sesame oil, and even sometimes an egg. Reminds me of eating congee!

3. Egg sandwich – I just recently learned (like this past year) that you can make an egg in the microwave. Whaaaaat? When I discovered this it literally changed my life. Or mornings at least. All you do is spray a bowl with non-stick, crack an egg and whisk it, and microwave for like 1 minute (maybe even less if your microwave is super strong). You get something like this:

(Picture from thekitchn.com since I didn’t have a chance to take a picture myself)

So it’s not the best scrambled eggs ever but the time and ease it takes to prepare this can’t be beat. I usually toast some bread (which I save in the freezer so I always have some on hand), spread some mayo on the toast, and add cheese with the egg. Totally easy egg sandwich!

Do you guys eat breakfast? What do you usually eat?

PS. This has nothing to do with breakfast but if you go to Trader Joe’s you must try their Creamy Toscana Cheese with Cinnamon. They were giving out samples today and at first I thought EW but was quickly swayed. This cheese is so yummy!! I gave some for my coworkers to try and we all agreed it was like eating Christmas Cheese. Highly recommend!

In honor of my new age…I’ve come up with 3 goals. (because there’s no way I could accomplish 33 goals!)

1. Eat 101 salads. I love Mark Bittman and I’m so inspired by this list of salads. Each salad takes 20 minutes or less and offers enough variety that I won’t get bored. It will help me to eat healthier, bring my lunch to work more, and sort of cook since I’ve pretty much stopped cooking since having Emma. I also want to try buying the ingredients for my salad at the local farmer’s market each week.

tomato, watermelon, basil, goat cheese, and vinaigrette

2. Start a Project Life scrapbook. Watching the video is probably easier than having me explain it. I’ve been reading a lot of bloggers who do Project Life and love it and it really got me excited. Especially this blogger. Her PL spreads are so amazing! I really wanted a way to capture photos for Emma. I remember flipping through my family’s photo albums and how fun it is to reminisce. So much better than looking at photos on the computer! And this method of scrapbooking seems very straightforward and not as time consuming as a typical scrapbook. I’ve already ordered my binder and pocket protectors. I’m actually going to do one focused on Emma’s first year and if I like it a lot I may start another one in January focused more on our whole family. I would love to do an album for every year but that may be too ambitious. Anyways, I can’t wait to start!

3. Open an etsy store. I’ve had a lot of ideas of what to sell but I’ve never actually gone and tried to sell anything. Even if it’s just one product and nobody buys it, I would like to open up an Etsy shop before I turn 34.

Aside from these physical goals…I also want to remind myself to try to better myself always. I need to be more patient. To enjoy each moment in the present. To love and cherish boyrobot and babybot to the fullest. To appreciate my parents who are aging way too fast. To become braver and make new friends. And to be more genuine and thoughtful towards all relationships in my life.

And because these pics made my day…random photos of Emma!

If I were to randomly bake you some cookies, which one would you like??

Brown Sugar Blueberry Cookies by howsweeteats

White Chocolate Strawberry Cookies by recipe shoebox

Cookies and Cream Cookies by Recipe Shoebox

Blueberry and Cream Cookies by modern girl

Puffy Peanut Butter Cookies With Chocolate Chips by How Sweet Eats

David Lebovitz’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

I started on this because I read about Bon Apetit’s “foodie detox” through notmartha. Detoxes are all the rage right now…all of the movie stars do it! hehe. But after reading the reviews about it, I decided not to do it (the food took too long to make and was actually really bad, I could stand one or the other but not both!). Doing more research led me to Martha Stewart’s 28 Day Challenge! They provide day by day steps for “changing your life” and also recipes to help you detox. Most of the food just cuts out all of the bad stuff and common allergens. I haven’t checked out all of the exercises but week 1 is mostly yoga poses and walking (I can def handle that!). I am interested in trying the recipes…I even found some that boyrobot wouldn’t mind eating.

Another part of the 28 day challenge is to give up “media”. I decided to not go on the internet when I get home from work and instead work on a lot of projects that I have on my to do list. Some for fun and some for the house. And actually I’d like to do some deep cleaning around the house! It will be really interesting to try this because for as long as I remember, I have been an internet addict when I am at home and it’s sucked up a lot of my time. I am just going to try this for the first week and see how it goes. I will miss you internet!

If you’re interested check out their website and sign up for their newsletter.

Anyways, I will check in next week and tell you how week 1 went!