Seven Days of Dinner, April 2-8

Normally I write my "Seven Days of Dinner" posts on a Sunday or Monday, so I have a plan in my head for the next seven evening meals. But my mind is on spring break this week, so I'm a day late. Fortunately, I already know I won't be cooking the whole week. Later this week we're going on our final ski trip of the year, and even if we weren't, we'd be going out to a restaurant to celebrate The Pea's 11th birthday this Friday. And since this Sunday is Easter Sunday, I don't have to think too hard about what to eat for dinner (if Alfie and I had our way, it would be chocolate bunnies and Cadbury eggs, but unfortunately we have to set a good example for the kids, so Easter ham it is).

Seven Days of Dinner, March 5-11

Alfie likes to say I'm a control freak, and I do admit that I, um, enjoy planning things out. That's one of the reasons why my Seven Days of Dinner experiment has been such a success. It feels good knowing that our dinners are all planned out for the week. But even though I've gotten lots of inspiration from blogs and websites like BlogHer, CityMama and This Week For Dinner, I've never actually followed any of their meal plans.

Seven Days of Dinner, Feb. 27 - March 4

The weather was so nice this weekend, it got me thinking about spring, and all the fresh, green produce that goes with it. Fortunately, the kids all like salad now, so not all the veggies we consume have to be cooked! Ranch and Blue Cheese dressings are still their favorites, but they've grown to appreciate the taste of olive oil and balsamic vinegar -- especially when the oil is smoked, and the vinegar is red wine vinegar from Napa Valley.

Seven Days of Dinner, Jan. 30 - Feb. 5

Last weekend was a hectic one. We hosted two birthday parties -- one for Jammy on Saturday, and one for 3Po on Sunday. I kind of went a little bit nuts over the preparation (it's the first time we've ever done separate parties for them, so I wanted it to be a big deal), so little details like figuring out what we're going to have for dinner kind of fell by the wayside all of last week and this week.

Seven Days of Dinner, Jan. 8-14

Alfie and I love Indian food, but I can't say that the kids share our passion for aloo gobi, chicken vindaloo, rogan josh and other mouth-watering yummies. 3Po and Jammy do like a curry now and then, but despite numerous attemps, we've only managed limited success with The Pea. She'll eat a bit of most (mild) curries that I prepare, but without much enthusiasm.

Seven Days of Dinner, Jan. 1-7

New year, new menus!

Here's what's on for dinner this week:
* Enchilada bake
* Baked salmon with pesto, beans and roasted potatoes
* Cold sesame noodles
* Scrambled eggs with tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese
* Spinach salad with goat cheese, cranberries and walnuts
* Nan bread pizza with caramelized onions and peppers, goat cheese and olives
* Veggie "meat"balls with rigatoni and tomato sauce

Seven Days of Dinner, Dec. 18-31

Woo-hoo, the holiday break has started! The kids are out of school and Alfie's office has given everyone the whole of next week off, so I've decided to give Seven Days of dinner a holiday break as well.

Happy holidays!

Seven Days of Dinner, Dec. 11-17

I'm atoning for last week's meat extravaganza with a week composed of entirely vegetarian dishes. Not that it's going to be a huge hardship; meat is no longer an indispensible ingredient in our household, and I have a sizeable collection of meatless dishes that the whole family loves. In fact, Alfie insists that he would switch to a 100% vegetarian lifestyle tomorrow; all I have to do is say the word. Of course, he says that knowing full well that I love my In-N-Out burgers and fish and chips and pulled pork sandwiches too much to pull the plug on meat. Personally, given his own passion for fish and chips, I think he's just a teensy bit relieved.

Here's this week's meatless menu:
* Veggie burgers
* Tofu and boy choy stir-fried with Thai basil, over rice
* Spinach and cheese omelet
* Spaghetti with marinara sauce
* Lentil and spinach soup
* Eggs and beans on toast
* Fetuccine with cream sauce and peas

Bon appetit!

Seven Days of Dinner, Dec. 4-10

I've decided to give week's menu has a Hispanic theme. Maybe it's the weather, but I find myself craving hearty dishes with lots of onions and garlic. Filipino cuisine is heavily influenced by Spanish cuisine, and foods with Spanish names like adobo, menudo and empanada are very common. This week I'm breaking my 3 meat dishes per week rule, but these dishes are so yummy, I don't care.

Seven Days of Dinner, Nov. 27- Dec. 3

I don't know if you've noticed, but I've managed to go over 6 weeks (not counting the time my mom did the cooking) without repeating a single dish for dinner! Last week was the first time I repeated a dish (the better-for-you egg salad). The variety is great, but we're starting to miss some of our favorites, so from now on you'll be seeing some repeat dishes along with some new dishes I want to try.

Here's what's on this week's menu:
* Caprese quesadilla
* Curried butternut squash soup
* Grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato-cucumber salad
* Mushroom bhaji over rice
* Chicken curry over rice
* Chicken chow mein
* Veggie burgers

Bon appetit!

Seven Days of Dinner, Nov. 20-26

Now that my parents have left, I'm back in the kitchen and back to planning our weekly dinner menus. It has been a delicious two weeks, but I must admit, it will be nice to lay off the meat for a bit! Of course, that's a funny thing to say given that this is Thanksgiving week. No way I'm substituting veggie turkey slices for the real thing.

Seven Days of Dinner, Oct. 30-Nov. 5

My parents have come to visit, which is a real treat for the whole family. The kids get doting grandparents, Alfie and I get trusted (and free) babysitters -- and I get a cook. While she's here, my mother usually takes over kitchen duty, which I love, because her food is awesome, and which she loves, because she's usually too busy to cook in the Philippines, and she likes to cook. So my Seven Days for Dinner posts will be taking a temporary hiatus while my mom plans the meals. I may decide to do some posts listing the dishes she actually prepared, but for now, I'll leave you with several mouthwatering dishes I'm hoping she will prepare:

* Arroz a la Cubana with rice (actually, we'll probably have rice with every meal since that's how people do it in the Philippines!)
* Roast chicken
* Paella Valenciana
* Sauteed cabbage and mushrooms with garlic
* Salmon Teriyaki
* Chicken adobo
* Chicken fetuccine
* Chicken chuletas
* Chicken chow mein
* Chicken croquettes
* Pork fried rice
* Pork chorizo and garlic fried rice
* Spanish omelette
* Menudo
* Pork lumpia
* Spaghetti bolognese

Ahhh... my happiness levels (and cholesterol levels) are rising already. This is bonggamom, signing off kitchen duty for the next few weeks. See you soon!

Seven Days of Dinner, Oct. 23-29

When you're planning the week's dinner menu, it really helps if you're not sick with a cold and the thought of slaving away over a hot stove is enough to make your heart palpitate even more than it's palpitating already. This week I think I'm going to take it easy, get some takeout, and rely on simmering pots of soup to get me through. No doubt my kids will be excited at the prospect of school pizza, PBJ and cereal for lunch this week! I've deliberately left off three nights this week because my parents are arriving for a visit this Friday, and I look forward to relinquishing control of the kitchen and letting my mom take over.

Seven Days of Dinner, Oct. 16-22

For the past several weeks, most of the dishes I've cooked have been from a cookbook. I don't have much patience with following recipes, and I'm usually a throw-everything-together-and-see-how-it-turns-out kind of cook, so I've probably used recipes more in these past three weeks than I have all year. But this week, I'm going back to my usual modus operandi and using some of my tried-and-true "recipes". I've loved everything I've tried, but my cookbooks need a rest.

Seven Days of Dinner, Oct. 9-15

I've broken one of my Seven Days of Dinner rules this week. I said vegetables have to be part of each and every meal, yet here I am, putting pancakes on the menu. It is October, so I guess I could make pumpkin pancakes. Or I could sneak some beets into the pancake batter like Jessica Seinfeld does in her Deceptively Delicious cookbook. Or I could just serve the pancakes with blueberries and change the rule to Veggies or Fruit must be part of every meal. Yeah, I like the last option better.

Seven Days of Dinner, Oct. 2-8

We've got eggs on the menu two times this week. No, make that three: Filipinos traditionally eat arroz a la cubana with a fried egg on top. We love eggs -- scrambled, fried, boiled, poached, baked, whatever. Without eggs, I doubt if I could maintain our resolution to limit meat-based meals to three days a week. In fact, eggs and cheese are really the only things that stop us from adopting a vegan-based diet. Here's to the incredible, edible egg!

Seven Days of Dinner, Sept. 25-Oct. 1

This is actually Brie, not Camembert.

When I get started with an idea, I really like to flesh it out. Take this Seven Days of Dinner thing, for instance. I'm happy with it. It's working for me. It's working so well, I've already listed down about 3 weeks' worth of dishes that I want to try. But in typical Type-A personality style, I've decided to set some criteria for the dishes I pick:

Seven Days of Dinner

Here's some of the bounty from our local farmer's market that I plan to use to cook our dinners this week. Needless to say, the flowers are for decoration only.

Several years ago, drawing inspiration from two of my favorite foodie blogs, CityMama and This Week for Dinner, I did a month-long, weekly series of posts about what I was planning to cook for the week. I stopped writing the meal-planning posts, but I haven't stopped cooking. In fact, I've been cooking more than ever.

This year, I've made three food-related goals that I want to accomplish this year: to eat less processed foods, to get my kids to like Indian food, and to get my kids to like eggplant. Since all three goals involve a lot more cooking, and since I have less time than ever to cook (thanks to the kids' late afternoon schedules), I've had to spend more time planning our meals in advance. Last week I planned dinner for all 7 days:

How to make a Peanut BETTER Sandwich

I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I don't care much for the taste of them myself, but I love them because my kids love them. Thanks to PBJ's, I have a Go To school lunch that my kids will eat any day of the year.

When school mornings get extra crazy, it's practically a given that the kids will be getting PBJ's for lunch. Because what could be easier to prepare than PBJ? Umm.... how about a pre-made PBJ? For extra lazy busy parents (like me), here's a tip: you can make the sandwiches the night before and freeze them! In the morning, you can throw them in the kids' lunchboxes and cut down on your morning rush. The sandwiches thaw just in time for recess or lunch.



If you're super super super super lazy busy, you can buy Smuckers Uncrustables, which are pre-made, frozen PBJ's with the crusts cut off. My kids love these, but the guilt of buying these became too much, and I decided to make my own frozen PBJs. Now I make a whole bunch of these in advance (about 2 loaves of sandwich bread's worth), use Press N Seal wrap to keep them airtight, and just pull them out of the freezer whenever I need them!

As I mentioned, the kids would eat PBJ's every day -- but I haven't dared test that theory, because they might get sick of PBJ's, and where would I be? So I try to limit PBJ's to once (okay, maybe twice) a week. And I try to vary the sandwich itself to make things more novel and appealing:

* I use medium-sized tortillas to make peanut butter and jelly burritos.
* I spread peanut butter and jelly on lavash bread, roll it up and cut into pinwheels.
* I use cookie cutters (Williams-Sonoma sandwich cutters rock) to cut the sandwiches into cute shapes.

Finally, I do realize that while peanut butter is a great source of protein, the jelly and white bread aren't exactly nutritious foods. So I make healthier substitutions:

* I use whole-wheat bread (or whole-wheat tortillas or bagels or lavash) instead of white.
* I use low-sugar versions of strawberry or grape jelly.
* I sometimes use fruit instead of strawberry or grape jelly. I've used raisins, sliced bananas and smashed-up blueberries, and the kids love all three.
* I sometimes cut out the bread entirely and make Ants On A Log (i.e. spread the peanut butter on celery sticks instead of bread, and put raisins on top instead of jam).


Now and then I do buy a box of white-bread, full sugar Uncrustables, and sometimes I'll even pair the peanut butter with Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread), which pretty much turns a PBJ into dessert. But those occasions are getting rarer and rarer, and I always make sure I pack carrots or tomatoes or pepper strips or fresh fruit along with it, so the overall lunch is a healthy one. I feel good about packing better peanut butter lunches -- they work for my kids and they work for me!



This post was inspired by the Yahoo Motherboard's Topic of the Month for September: Teaching Kids Healthy Eating Habits. I am not compensated for my participation in this group but I get to belong to a group of smart, savvy moms -- which is compensation enough!

Maybe Andrew Zimmern ought to go into politics

I love Andrew Zimmern. Who else would say clotted tissue tastes like nuts? I heard that he's got new episodes of Andrew Zimmern: Bizarre Foods coming up on the Travel Channel this week, so I went and watched this teaser video. It's just two minutes long and already he's drinking fresh, WARM cow blood.....ulp. Be still, my stomach.

The guy will eat anything. Any part of any plant or animal, in any state. Anything. Even though I'm Filipino, and we do put a lot of things in our mouths that other cultures would throw in the trash, I am a culinary wuss. I don't like eating kidneys and liver and oxtongue (yes, I have tried these time and time again, I don't care for the texture) -- so I really admire his sense of adventure. I want to be like him and eat without regard for preconceptions and prejudice. Maybe it's not even possible. You know how Lance Armstrong is a superhuman freak when it comes to athletic abilities? Well, Andrew Zimmern might be one of those statistical outliers when it comes to digestive capabilities. Sometimes after he's eaten something particularly slimy and squiggly (live worms, anyone?) I expect to see some kind of gag reflex from him, but all he'll give is a thoughtful foodie analysis like "gamey" or "gelatinous".

But what I really love is how Zimmern respects other cultures and shows no hint of surprise or distaste or any hint of condescension towards the friendly people who are offering him a taste of their local cuisine. No wrinkling of the nose or involuntary shudder. No attitude of, "I'm an important American chef and I'm here to try your weird foods so I can show my viewers that I can eat anything". Just interest, and a desire to try new things.

Time and time again I hear people say "Do you know that people in China eat dogs? Ewwww!" or "Oh, I could never eat fish with the head still on it". Even, "Sushi, raw fish, yuck!" and "Rice for breakfast, how weird". I find comments like this a bit ignorant in this day and age, as though these people think that chicken and fish should only come in hygenic shrinkwrapped packages in the supermarket. Shows like Bizarre Foods are great because they show mainstream Americans how the rest of the world eats (albeit in a sensationalized way). You don't have to like everything people eat, but you have to make the shift from labeling things as "weird" (or "Bizarre", for that matter), to "different". Because different is okay.

It might seem like a big leap to go from food to politics, but this makes me think of Sarah Palin and the number of blank pages on her passport -- and more significantly, the number of people in this country who think it's no big deal for a potential vice president to have such a passport. I think that being open to new cuisines is a great first step towards becoming more open to new cultures and new ideas. In politics, like food, wouldn't it be great if we tried different things from different countries (Would you like to try some live worms? Or how about a nationalized health system?) Maybe we could learn a thing or two, and maybe get rid of some misconceptions and prejudices. And maybe even find something we could use back home. So all you potential politicians, take a page from Andrew Zimmern's book and go on your own journey of travel, discovery and learning!