January Menu

Don't you just love January? I do. It offers a clean start, a fresh look at my life. I love the holidays, but I really love clearing away all the decorations, which by January 1st just look like clutter, and brushing away the cobwebs of neglected habits and duties in my life. I love the feeling that this can be the year that I accomplish something I have always wanted to do.

My goals each new year generally include weight loss. As someone who loves making and eating good food, I also struggle to maintain a healthy weight. This year, my outlook is a little different. Although I hope to lose weight, my goal this year is to focus more on being healthy and to develop a healthier relationship with food, especially sweets. I want to help my family eat more vegetables and whole grains and less sugar and meat. I want us all to move our bodies more, to make them stronger, leaner, and more powerful. I want to take better care of this gift that God has given me, rather than resent my imperfect body.

With that in mind, I planned a menu yesterday for the first week or two of the year. Creating menus before I do my grocery shopping is one of those habits that I used to have before the holidays--one that needed to be dusted off before it was completely shelved.:) When I mentioned on facebook that I was headed out for the ingredients for my new, healthy menu, I had several requests that I share.

So, in planning my family's meals, I tried to keep in mind our family's goals of increasing whole grain and vegetables while reducing sugar and meat. I'll also count my cal0ries and avoid overeating (most days) on thedailyplate.com. Your family's goals for eating may be different; if your goal is high protein or gluten-free or as low fat as possible, this may not be the menu for you. But if you just need a menu to help you kick start cooking meals for your family again, check out mine.

Instead of assigning these meals to a specific day, I planned seven complete meals, which I plan to serve over the next 10 days before we head out of town for my brother's wedding. Some days we'll just eat leftovers or throw together a salad. Each morning, I'll choose the meal that meets my needs in terms of time commitment for that day.

• Meal #1: Potato Leek Soup with grilled cheese sandwiches and fresh fruit (Recipe comes from one of my Weight Watcher's cookbooks, but I found a blogger who had posted it here.)
• Meal #2: Southwest Brown Rice & Black Bean Burgers (from Prudence Pennywise), served with fresh pineapple, guacamole, sweet potato baked fries, and cibatta rolls
• Meal #3: Garlic Chive Fettucine w/ Sauteed Chickpeas & Parmesan (also Prudence Pennywise). I'll use whole wheat pasta and serve this with crusty, whole grain bread and a small salad. I've made this recipe before and it is DIVINE.
• Meal #4: Bean & Barley Soup (Cooking Light) with crusty, whole grain bread.
• Meal #5: Citrus Glazed Chicken Thighs (Cooking Light), served with brown rice, mandarin oranges, and roasted green beans.
• Meal #6: Butternut Squash Lasagne (Prudence Pennywise, what would I do without you?), green salad, sauteed zucchini, and crusty bread. (Do you see how much we love crusty bread? I will either make my own or pick up a whole grain loaf at Costco or Trader Joe's that day.)
• Meal #7: Midwestern Corn Chowder (see my recipe below) with fresh whole wheat bread.

Midwestern Corn Chowder

• 3 cups diced potatoes
• 1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup celery, diced
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 T. to 4 T. butter
• 1/4 c. flour
• 2 cups whole milk, fat free half-and-half, or half and half
• 2-3 pieces of cooked bacon, crumbled
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (the sharper the better)
• 1 can creamed corn
• salt and fresh ground pepper
• fresh cilantro for serving
  

Place the broth in a large saucepan or stock pot. Simmer the vegetables in the chicken broth, with the pan covered, until tender, about 30 minutes. Mix the roux over medium heat in separate medium saucepan, combining butter and flour, then whisking in milk until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, until bubbly and thickening, then add to the broth and vegetables. Add the creamed corn, then salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish each bowl with 1/4 cup shredded cheese, 1 T bacon, and 1-2 T fresh cilantro.

What are your favorite meals in January? Share!!!

Roast chicken noodle soup

These chickens are still alive, they were not cooked for this story!

Photo: C. Mercado

I think it comes naturally to mothers to try and find ways to prepare left over food, so that our children eat it again. My culinary talents are reasonably okay, but it always is a challenge to convert something that was left from last night's dinner into another culinary delight.

This happened very recently after we had some leftover roast chicken in the fridge. I was looking to make something speedy for my hungry teen aged daughter, and thought I would make the chicken into a soup. Kara was very skeptical, having had the experience of a disastrous left over leg of ham that I tired a soup recipe for after Christmas, so she was not very enthusiastic about it.

Well, to be perfectly honest, I was a bit in a tizzy as well since I felt that Kara had already judged the meal before tasting it, so it was a real challenge for me since I needed to prove that this would be a very tasty dish. I was at least selling it as such.

So, I started chopping tomatoes, onions and garlic and sauteed them in a wok, added the chicken and some chicken flavoured broth cubes, water and left it to simmer. I was at first thinking of putting potatoes and carrots, but decided on noodles instead since Kara is a pasta freak. I rummaged through the pantry and all I could find was spaghettini. Hmm.. I decided to cut these into three pieces and added these to the soup. Seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper, and I just left it there for a few minutes, hoping that the flavour will come out, and of course I needed to wait for the pasta to be al dente. It was smelling beautifully as well, so I had high hopes.

After ten minutes, I called out to my daughter who was studying in the basement and she asked whether we could have dinner down there. After Kara came to help carry dishes and all, I took a tray with the soup which was looking quite delectable, and asked her to take the first taste.

She tried it, and a big smile broke out on her face, it was delicious! She told me it has this had a familiar, homemade chicken taste, the kind of soup that would be very good on a really cold evening, or when one has a cold. She also said that the flavour of the roast chicken was in there somehow, and it make it a bit different from the normal chicken soup I make. Oh, we had a really nice dinner that night. There was a bit of it left and she had it for breakfast the next day!

This was a one dish that definitely did not have left overs! Now Kara thinks I can whip this up all the time. I can always try...