The weekly spread: Cabbage Patch

I grow a lot of cabbage. It's getting big enough to harvest, so we will be eating a lot of cabbage the next few weeks. If you don't grow your own, cabbage is still a BUDGET FRIENDLY food. At my local smiths, you can pick up a bag of chopped cabbage for $1.50, that's a steal!

Cabbage is a nutrition powerhouse. It has as much vitamin C as an orange, and is also a good source of vitamin K, potassium (which is good for your heart) and antioxidants (which protect against diseases like cancer).

Here's my menu this week, a tribute to my cabbage patch!

Monday: Cabbage soup + breadsticks (I made a double batch of soup so I could bring some camping this weekend)

Tuesday: Beef and Cabbage stir fry with ramen noodles on the side

image source: Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry - with VIDEO - Budget Bytes

Wednesday: Lettuce wraps with tropical cabbage salad

image source: Honey Beef Lettuce Wraps - Creme De La Crumb (lecremedelacrumb.com)

Thursday: BBQ meatloaf sheetpan dinner (using cabbage instead of the veggies she shows)

image source: Sheet Pan BBQ Meatloaf Dinner - Instructional VIDEO - Budget Bytes

Friday: leftover tacos from Sunday night

Saturday: leftover soup from monday

Last week's menu: quesadillas standing around the kitchen counter. This week's menu will be better.

I'm sorry I missed last week. I am selling my house and last week was over-the-top stressful. I think we mostly ate cheese quesadillas standing at the kitchen counter. Some weeks are like that. But the thing about healthy eating is that we can always try tomorrow, because we have to eat every day. I resolve to do a better job feeding my family this week and that starts with planning a menu. Here's my meal plan:

Monday: cabbage and ramen salad with pan fried tofu (just cook it until it's brown) and watermelon (using homegrown cabbage shown below)

Tuesday: meat tacos with lettuce, bell peppers and mangos

Wednesday: whole wheat noodles topped with peanut sauce, garden peas and chunks of broccoli and cauliflower (from my garden!), apples

photo from realmomnutrition.com

Thursday: noodles topped with pesto sauce and chopped greens from the garden, grapes

(click link for a video and photos!)

Friday: pizza party with a friend!

Saturday: Pizza at another friends party!

Weekly Spread: Simple Summer Meals

I love cooking in the winter: it's warm, it's cozy, it gives me something to do when I'm trapped inside, hiding from the wind and snow. Summer is another story.

Cooking in the summer feels so inconvenient. My AC doesn't work well, my house is hot, and I want to be out playing, not inside melting by the oven or stove. The kids are home and need to be fed 4 times a day. It can feel burdensome.

To save myself from serving little Cesar's pizza every night, I batch cook in the summer. I double and triple recipes so we eat at least 3 times from the one meal I cook. I also make food that requires little actual cooking: like salads, pastas and dips. Here's an example of that below!

Monday: Hummus and tzatziki with store bought naan bread, frozen mangoes and salad greens

Tuesday: tortellini salad (cook tortellini noodles and put on top of salad greens with dressing, cheese, canned kidney beans and chopped apples - it's like the photo below, but instead of croutons I use cheese tortellini noodles)

Wednesday: Cold peanut sauce noodles with frozen broccoli, cabbage ramen salad, cut apples

image from Real Mom Nutrition

Thursday: Kid's last day: little cesars pizza + green salad (I have a lot of salad in the garden right now)

Photo is of the lettuce in my garden!

Friday: left over hummus and tzatziki inside tortillas with salad greens

Saturday: tortellini salad leftovers

Sunday: Peanut noodles leftovers, make a second batch of cabbage ramen salad

Happy cooking (or minimal cooking anyway)!