Food for the Busy Week

Thank goodness, it's the weekend.

I had quite the long work week this week, and was really thankful when Friday night rolled around. I'm basking in the relaxation of a Saturday morning at home, bumming around in sweatpants and enjoying a big old cup of home-brewed Starbucks coffee. Matt has a school fishing club event today, so it's just me and Riker for the day. For breakfast I made us each an organic waffle - Riker's with peanut butter, and mine with plain Greek yogurt, strawberries and Vermont maple syrup.

Yum. It should keep me full for a while before I pack us up and head to the gym.

So as I mentioned, this has been a really crazy week. Lots of meetings, some late nights, you get the idea. I had a meal plan in place, but didn't stick to it 100%. Still, we managed to get some kind of healthy meal on the table every night. A win!

Last Sunday was the only day I really "cooked", and it was to make a seafood gratin by Ina Garten I've had on the list for a while and have really been wanting to try. Matt gave me a jar of saffron in my Christmas stocking this year, and as soon as I pulled it out on Christmas morning I knew I was going to use it to make this gratin.

It.was.amazing. It was filled with seafood, leeks, carrots and a creamy sauce, and made enough for us to have dinner + lunch the next day.

I made some tweaks to the recipe, subbing out heavy cream for organic whole milk and using the homemade crab stock and seafood I had in the freezer - wild caught cod, shrimp and sea scallops.

Will definitely be making this again. Yum!

The rest of the week was not so fancy...

I promise, that tasted better than it looked. I picked up some whole wheat & flax seed pita pockets while grocery shopping, and they've pretty much been the go-to meal maker all week. One night we had wild caught salmon & caesar salad pita pockets one night, using the caesar dressing Matt made on Sunday.

Another night we had pockets filled with hummus, arugula and Cabot cheddar cheese, carrot sticks w/ extra hummus, and cups of Muir Glen organic vegetable soup. I mean, sometimes you just can't deal with cooking a real meal.

And still another night we had the pitas with avocados, black bean burgers, arugula and my new favorite salsa. Served with steamed green beans on the side. That was an interesting combination.

The one night I broke the mold of the pita addiction was to make whole wheat gnocchi with ricotta, parmesan, lemon, steamed broccoli and fresh parsley.

Another one of those "tasted better than it looks" meals. Riker loved this one, and although it only took about 20 minutes to make I at least felt like I was making a real dinner rather than just sandwiches.

Thankfully last night, despite the Friday night fatigue I usually have after a work week, I pulled together a meal that could actually be considered cooking. A much-needed comfort plate of comfort food!

These were similar to my Spicy Stuffed Poblano Peppers, but the nutrition value was much better. After re-reading that recipe, I realized I've learned a lot about grains, GMOs and pesticides in the last two years. These were stuffed with quinoa, zucchini, homemade spicy pickled peppers (made by a family friend), tomatoes, onions and garlic, then topped with Cabot extra sharp cheddar cheese. So good. And just one was plenty filling for both me and Matt, so we have another meal awaiting us in the fridge.

I'm hoping next week will be a little less crazy so I can do some more real cooking - and hopefully that's the case because I ran out of pita pockets. ;)

Enjoy your Saturday!