July 7- July 12 Menu

Wednesday is Produce Box delivery and therefore begins my week's worth of menus.

Wednesday was Ratatouille Pasta with sausage. I added pan fried cut up Italian sausage to this meal for my husband, who enjoys having some kind of meat in his dishes. A loaf of bread and a bottle of red accompanied this delicious meal.

Thursday's meal consisted of Zucchini & Corn Cakes made with fresh corn from my Produce Box. Honey Mustard Seasoned Chicken (4 chicken breasts pounded, placed in my Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker with Honey Mustard Dressing spread over them & microwaved for 12 minutes) and home-made Peach Cobbler (recipe to post later) for dessert rounded out our meal.

The chef was off Friday as we celebrated my daughter's first day of school with dinner out.

Saturday was the first time I cooked or for that matter ever tasted spaghetti squash. I used the spaghetti squash from my Produce Box and cooked up Spicy Spaghetti Squash with a few alterations. I used chop meat in place of the ground turkey and I omitted the capers since I did not have any on hand. I also roasted the squash first instead of microwaving it. (Halved the squash, spoon out the seeds, a TBSP of butter in each, sprinkled some oregano and garlic powder over each half and roasted for about 1 hour) Again some artisan bread from my local supermarket and a bottle of red paired well with this first time meal. The squash had a slightly crunchy texture but was delicious and mimicked spaghetti noodles rather well.

Sunday my darling husband gave me the night off and prepared a Southwestern inspired menu of Corn and Black Bean Salad, again using a few ears of corn from our Produce Box. We enjoyed trying a cold salad like this however we felt the balsamic vinegar was too strong flavored for us. We also had steak fajitas which had been marinated. These were WONDERFFUL! My husband also grilled up some onion and peppers, of course using one of the red bell peppers from our Produce Box.

Monday I used the last of the corn and blueberries from our Produce Box. I baked Blueberry Pie, I think this may have been the first time I baked a blueberry pie. I altered the recipe based on other reviewers comments and used 1 cup of sugar and 5 TBSP of cornstarch. This is very good warmed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Dinner I prepared Corn Pudding using a fellow Produce Box's recipe which was served with fried chicken and gravy.

Tuesday I treated myself and my daughters to some take out. Hey we've been eating healthy and at home, we deserve a treat (and a night off)!