A Week of Dinners

Ola!  How was everyone’s week?  I was sidelined with a head cold, but tis the season, right?  I blame it on the office.  Something is wrong with the heating system and the temp didn’t go above 68* all week.  One day when we got in it was 63*!!!  My hands and feet were pretty much ice cubes all week long.  Not fun.  Have you caught “the dreaded” fall cold/flu yet?  At least I found some pumpkin spice coffee to keep me warm!  
The Redbrick Cafe is a family favourite around here.  I went in one day last week looking to buy this coffee and they were sold out!  They did tell me that I could purchase it at a store just around the corner so I hightailed it over there for a bag.  Earlier in the week I made a delicious GF pumpkin muffin recipe.
I find life much easier if I am sure to keep GF “treats’ around the house that I can just grab and run with.  It’s easy to get cranky if I need a little something something and there’s nothing that I’m able to grab a handful of.  These muffins fit the bill perfectly.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) the fam loved them, too so the batch didn’t last very long!  I should note that the only 2 changes I made was to use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin PIE puree and I used almond breeze instead of water. 
My weekly menu plan was successful yet again.  Wednesday was they only night that things were switched up.     Let’s take a look, shall we?  Monday night was Pork tenderloin chilli served over cheesy buckwheat waffles: Waffles can be such a fun base to savoury meals.  Bonus if you have kids because waffles just make dinner that much better!  We topped our waffles off with some avocado hummus:   Tuesday was chicken night.  I didn’t want to BBQ the breasts because we ate our chicken that way all summer.  I garnered my creative juices and decided to stuff’em!  I cut a pocket into the thickest part of the breast and filled it with basil pesto, roasted red pepper strips and cassata cheese, which is an Italian cheese comparable to mozzarella with a bit sharper of a flavour.  I made steamed green beans and red quinoa as sides: This was my favourite meal of the week by far!  Wednesday was suppose to be pasta with sausage Bolognese sauce night, but nobody was feeling like pasta so I made breakfast for dinner.  I toasted the last of the cheesy waffles, scrambled 8 eggs and used the sausage meat to make patties.  These were pretty easy; I just added some spices to the meat and formed small burger shaped patties.  I baked them in a 350* oven for a 1/2 hour.  The kids loved them!  My plate consisted of eggs, GF bread and leftover chicken and green beans: Thursday saw a beef roast in the crock pot.  I added about 1 cup of water and seasoned the roast with garlic and seasoning salt and let it alone for 10 hours on low.  I should mention that the meat was still a bit frozen when I put in or I would’ve only let it go 8  hours.  I steamed some broccoli and made a pot of mac n’ cheese for the fam.  I finished off Tuesday’s quinoa: Noah had an out of town hockey game Friday night so dinner had to be QUICK and on the road.  I baked off 2 Ristorante pizza’s for the fam: And made myself an egg sandwich on rice bread with avocado hummus and cassata cheese: Meal of champions, right there!  Haha!  Another perk to meal planning is that there are leftovers for lunch everyday of the week.  And sometimes for breakfast, too!  I had 2 lonely (sweet) waffles left in the freezer from last Sunday so I toasted them this morning and topped them with some peach preserves and slivered almonds: YUM!  Here’s a shot of the peach preserves, which I bought yesterday on a whim.
 
Summer in my mouth, right there folks!  I’ll leave you with a photo I took of Pepper yesterday.  I seem to be a pro a getting him mid yawn which makes him look SO mean!
I die!  Remember, you can see what’s on the menu this coming week over at my facebook page!
Bye for now!