2nd Weekly Menu

Welcome to Weekly Menu #2! 

Original Menu for the week! 

Monday: 

Post-Call Day! I never really recovered from my Thursday night shift, so working another 24 hour shift so close together, and I was POOPED.  Even though I took a 5 hour nap when I got home from work, I still wasn't feeling very well, so soup was on the menu (as you can see above, I had already anticipated the crappy, yucky feeling!)    So, I threw together some ingredients, and made some Pasta Fagioli instead... Wedding soup seemed like too much energy! I made this soup using the Cake Boss' recipe, but this is another one of those dishes that I plan to veganize and perfect in the future! 

Tuesday: 

Fully recovered, and ready to go!  I had to go back to the hospital today for a training class (we're going totally computer based next week... yikesssssss), and another meeting, so dinner tonight got thrown together.  I made homemade baked beans and savory waffles, from Happy Healthy Life.  Not bad, but not great.  I can't say I'll be making either of these recipes again.  I don't know why I keep trying Daiya cheese, because every time I end up disappointed!

Wednesday:

Greek night! By far the most successful meal of the week... so far ;) 

Thursday:

I had been wanting to try vegetarian tuna for while, and when I stumbled upon this recipe from Whole Foods, I knew it was time.  I made this recipe for me, and I made regular tuna for Tom ;)  I'll admit, I was pretty skeptical... to the point where I had the leftover spanikopita on a plate, ready to go for when I hated the "tuna."  AND GUESS WHAT?!?!?! The tuna was REALLY good!!! The flavor was right on... the fresh dill, pickles, onion and celery made it just like the tuna I used to know and love!  The texture was a little firmer then usual tuna, but not enough to totally throw off the dish.  And as an aside, the loaf of bread was moldy, so I ate Tuna on Wheat Thins ;) 

Friday:

Tom and I kind of looked at each other, and said, "Um, let's go out!"  We had a gift card and a coupon to TGIFriday's, so we picked there, especially because it is right down the street.  We love to get a bunch of appetizers and split them, and then I had a salad (no chicken of course!) 

We shared the Green Bean Fries and the Hummus,
and Tom had a Chicken Quesadilla! 

Saturday:

NYC!  Delicious Eggplant Parmesan with Papparadelle from Bond45!

Sunday:

Tom and I were running errands all day.  We stopped at Ruby Tuesday's for lunch, since they have a pretty decent salad bar, so we weren't into anything crazy for dinner.  Which led us to pick frozen pizza... not good cuisine by any means but for whatever reason, that is what Tom and my exhausted stomach wanted.  

SOOOOO, I guess what I learned from this week is that some weeks are definatelyyyyy better then others.  I have to be honest, come Monday, I am in total need of a dairy detox.  I know sometimes you can only do the best that you can, but I know I could have done better.  For me, I've noticed that I feel so much lighter and more healthy on the days that I don't eat dairy that I'm really starting to feel it more and more when I eat cheese.  I guess that's just where I'm coming up to on this journey... cutting out meat-no problem, cutting out milk-not really a problem, cutting out eggs- mostly there, but that cheese... that's really where I've been stuck for a few months now.

I've made mention before that I eat more vegetarian (eggs and dairy) when eating out in a restaurant.  But, after this weekend, I realize more and more that I need to have a better plan for when I go out to eat.  I need to start getting over myself and not be so embarrassed to call the restaurant beforehand, or to ask the server for vegan options.  Especially on fun weekends like this one, where we were busy, and out and about, being more flexible when you go out to eat once a week is a lot different then when you go out to eat 3 times in a weekend!

Soooo now the next part of the journey begins!!! :)


**Also Craftfullycooking this week: That Taco Bell re-make I've been promising for a week now, and a recipe from Dreena Burton's new book! :)