Week Five

Seriously...for real, life is crazy. The hubs and I just went over our schedule for the next week and we're becoming masters at trading off kids (we call that who's the PCG [primary care giver] for the day) and single parenting. We both work full time at places with abnormal hours and days of the week (me with call shifts, which is what happened on Friday...I got called in when I was supposed to be grocery shopping and posting this menu!!! Which ultimately meant I had to go on Saturday, with two kids...yes, that's also called Hell on Earth!!!). The hubs also in school so juggling our life requires a seriously colorful calendar!

Sorry again for the delay in getting this out...It won't happen again, at least not this week :-) I'm going to give you the whole week just to keep it consistent

Friday

• Rotisserie Chicken Salad: I just take my trusty plain rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods and tear it all up, dump it in a bowl with some homemade mayo, sliced almonds, halved grapes, a couple shakes of celery seed and a shake or two each of ground mustard and garlic powder.  Save the carcass to use for making broth later. I just have a bag in the freezer that all my bones go in until I need to make some. We ate this with lettuce leaves and it was super tasty!

Saturday

• Wings. We love wings and these are just amazing. The trick is in the parboiling of them at the beginning. I didn't believe it when I read this recipe the first time, but I'll never go back to just baking them. These wings crisp up so nicely in the oven and we just can't get enough of them. We pull some out before tossing them in the sauce for the kids and they LOVE them!!! I use my mayo to make this homemade ranch. It's scrumptious too!

• Carrot and Celery Sticks. Gotta stay with the bar food theme! We throw some almond butter on the kids plate  for them to dip their veggies in and usually eat a couple carrots for show, but we don't waste too much space that could be filled with the delicious wings!

Sunday

• Shrimp, Chicken and Chorizo Spanish Rice. This felt like it had a lot of steps involved..probably because it did, but it was super tasty. I love spicy food and this had just enough kick for me. The hubs added some hot sauce which was tasty too. It reheated as good as anything with shrimp does, I'll probably just eat all the shrimp first and then save the chorizo and chicken for the leftovers!!! I did double this recipe and the ingredients listed below is reflective of that.

Monday

• Stuffed Pork Tenderloin. Simply delicious...for real...and pretty. I'm going to fix this next time I have people over

• Green Beans. Toss them in some butter and throw some lemon zest on top and call it good.

Tuesday

• Buttery Caper Chicken. They had me at "buttery" and I was over the top when "caper" was thrown in the mix!!! This was light and fresh and perfect for a quick dinner on a busy night. I cheated and bought the "thin sliced" chicken breast but I think they could have still been pounded out for an even quicker finish. I doubled the sauce because, well I like sauces...I would suggest doing the same

• Roasted Broccoli. Love it, not sure how I'm going to handle the upcoming warmer months and the reduced oven time due to old house lack of insulation and effective heating and cooling :-(

Wednesday

• Pork Roast.  Not going to lie...this was a pre-marinated one from TJ that I threw in the crockpot for the hubs and kids to eat while I was working. 

• Peas...boiled, slathered with clarified butter... 

Thursday

• Pork Carnitas. Before going Paleo I wasn't a huge fan of pork, now I LOVE it and this is a prime example of a great recipe that makes a super versatile meat that can be used in any meal. This is the second time you've seen this in our menu. Having a large amount of leftover protein is always a good thing and this is perfect for leftovers for a busy weekend ahead! This time we used it as taco meat for giant taco salads (the grocery list has listed what I used to top them)

Staples

• Mayo
• Homemade Ranch
• Sliced Almonds
• Celery Seed
• Ground Mustard
• Garlic Powder
• Clarified Butter (made from Kerrygold)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Sweet Paprika
• Tomato Paste
• Chicken Stock
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Fruit

• Grapes
• Lemons
• Any other ones your family will eat

Veggies

• Romaine Lettuce (I think this works best as "bread")
• Carrots
• Celery
• Cauliflower
• (2) Red Pepper (one diced for carnita taco salad topping)
• Red Chili Pepper (the skinny kind)
• 8 oz Sliced Mushrooms
• 4 C Fresh Spinach
• Green Beans
• Peas
• Grape Tomatoes
• Salad
• Broccoli

Meat 

• Rotisserie Chicken
• Chicken Wings
• 1 lb Shrimp, tail on, deveined and peeled
• 1/2 lb Chicken Breast
• 1 lb Thin Sliced Chicken Breast
• 1/2 lb Chorizo
• 2 2lb Pork Tenderloin
• Bacon (save the grease)
• Pork Roast (a pre-marinated one is pretty quick)
• 4 lb Pork Shoulder Roast

Etc

• Saffron (I didn't use this)
• White Wine
• Fresh Rosemary
• Fresh Thyme
• Fresh Parsley (1 bunch is plenty for two recipes)
• Capers
• Guacamole
• Cilantro
• Black Olives