Meal Planning: April 7th – April 13th

Another week has come and gone. I can’t say I was all that successful at following through on the meals that I planned last week. Between having leftovers from Easter and a few things going on preventing us (well me) from having time to cook, I only made one of the planned meals. Here is how our week ended up turning out:

Monday – the Mr. ended up going to a Mariners event at Safeco field so I was on my own. I ended up cooking myself up a leftover lamb burger from Easter.

Tuesday – I made us the Cauliflower Pizzas. As I was going through the steps of making I was a little nervous on how they would turn out but they ended up turning out AMAZING. Both the Mr. and I loved them. Promise to share recipe soon – this is a MUST TRY!

Wednesday – Absolutely can’t remember 🙂 Probably just something random as I was on my own and the Mr. was at his weekly Wednesday roommate night.

Thursday – I had a Junior League introduction meeting so I didn’t get home until after 8pm. Ended up throwing together a quesadilla.

Friday – We had dinner at the Ingle’s. They made us excellent tacos! It was such a wonderful evening. Had so much fun catching up with them and playing with their son Ben.

Saturday – Went to a birthday party where they had the Skillet food truck – YUM – I had the farro burger and it was delicious.

Hopefully this week will be a little better. Overall, I have super easy meals planned and most items we already had so the grocery shopping was minimal. Trying to use up some stuff we already have!

Weekly Meals: April 7th – April 13th

Sunday: Happy Hour at The Walrus & Carpenter (oysters!!!) with Morgan & Chris

Monday: Spinach, Mushroom & Feta Crust-less Quiche

Tuesday: Sausage & Peppers with salad

Wednesday: Out (the Mr. has his boys night and I have book club)

Thursday: Mexican Polenta Stacks

Friday: Out – Brie’s Birthday Dinner – location TBD

Saturday: Out – friends Bachelorette Party!!!!

Turkish Eggplant and Farro Gratin

This recipe totally took me by surprise! I mean, based on the picture in Fitness magazine it looked good and all, however, I wasn’t prepared for exactly how delicious it was! Even if you are not an eggplant fan, please give this recipe a try…it won’t disappoint!

Turkish Eggplant and Farro Gratin (slightly adapted from Fitness Magazine)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup farro
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium eggplant, diced
• 1/2 pound lean ground chicken
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and coat baking dish with cooking spray. Cook farro according to package instructions (mine said to rinse farro then bring water & farro to a boil and let cook for approx. 20 minutes) then set aside in large bowl. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and eggplant; saute for 12 minutes. Stir mixture into farro.

Add chicken to skillet and cook over medium-low heat, stirring to break up meat. Stir in tomatoes, raisins, garlic, cinnamon and oregano. Cook approximately 3 minutes over medium heat. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Whisk egg and egg white in a small bowl. Stir into farro mixture, then stir in chicken & tomato mixture. Spoon into prepared dish. Sprinkle top with feta. Bake 20 minutes then let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Note: The original recipe called for brown rice instead of farro. I didn’t have any on hand so I went with the farro instead.

With this meal I served a simple salad of arugula, beets and feta. I drizzled a little olive oil on it and a touch of salt and pepper and called it good 🙂

Enjoy!