Looking Ahead...

Looking ahead to next week, I’m going to be back to my veggie attempts. This week was pretty much shot due to me being sick all Easter weekend, but I’ll be back with a vengeance the next two weeks.

It’s pretty much a given that I will always cook on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The following week, however, hubby will be out of town a few days so I’m planning on going all-out in veggie goodness. I might also add that as of May 7, I’m on break from grad school until June 1 so I’ll have more time to really plan some meals!

Tentative meal plan for the next few weeks:

Monday (May 2):

3 Cheese Chicken Penne (using whole grain wheat pasta and low fat skim milk cheese)

Glazed Dijon Carrots (yes, this was already on the menu for this past week but like I said, being sick interfered)

Rolls

Mixed salad

Tuesday (May 3):

Pizza Casserole (as healthy as it can possibly be: ground turkey, turkey pepperoni, low fat skim milk cheese, whole wheat pasta)

Green Bean & Mushroom Medley

Bread

Mixed salad

Wednesday (May 4):

Tuna & Pasta Cheddar Melt (a new recipe, haven’t tried it yet)

Carrot Souffle

Bread

Mixed Salad

Monday (May 9):

Grilled Salmon

Sugar Snap Peas

Bread

Mixed Salad

Tuesday (May 10):

Grilled Steak

Mashed Potatoes

Rolls

Wednesday (May 11):

Stuffed Peppers (this is a biggie – I hate peppers, but I found a recipe I felt like I could tentatively live with. It sounds like it’s basically pizza in a pepper!)

Thursday (May 12):

Chicken Breasts with Balsamic Vinegar

Creamed Corn

Friday (May 13):

Spinach noodles – that’s right, I’m going to attempt to make my own noodles! We shall see how this turns out!

Homemade tomato sauce

Salad with homemade Garlic Croutons

Looking Ahead...

Next week's goal: broccoli. I have yet to find any humanly (or inhumanly for that matter) way to eat broccoli and actually enjoy it. I've tried dumping as much cheese/ranch/you name it on the stuff and I still gag every time. It's too good for me to not give it a shot though! The problem is, all the stuff that sounds good is ridiculously high in fats and calories. I'm not willing to scarf down 600 calories on a side dish just to eat broccoli. Sorry 'bout your luck.

The veggie recipes I'm looking forward to trying next week -

- Roasted Garlic Lemon Broccoli (49 calories per serving)
It's an awful lot like the asparagus recipe I tried on Tuesday. But, I really liked that recipe so if it gets me eating broccoli, I could consider it a double win.

- Brilliant Sauteed Broccoli (81 calories per serving)
This one intriguies me: brown sugar, Parmesan cheese, red pepper and olive oil, to name a couple ingredients. I'm willing to try it!

After two days I'll probably be sick of broccoli so I'll have a day of carrots since it's the one veggie we always have in the house (hubby loves it raw and so do the pups)

- Glazed Dijon Carrots
Unfortunately, there's no calorie count listed on this one. But the only ingredients are carrots, water, margarine (which I'll probably use less of), brown sugar, Dijon mustard, ground ginger and salt.  I've definitely seen worse.

And of course, there's my everyday salad of mixed greens. I am, however, trying to get the Romaine mix - so there's greens with a little bit of carrots and red cabbage involved. Every little bit. Every little bit!