diary of our weekend foods

Sometimes I find myself struggling to remember a good dish we really enjoyed or the ingredients a particular meal that went over well with the kids. I frequently find myself surfing back through my blogposts in an attempt to refresh my own memory of our food life. This weekend, we used the basic ingredients of our Friday dinner to make 3 additional meals, all of which went over really well, so I thought I'd diary our weekend foods. We only had Finn around this weekend so I'd have to greatly increase quantities in order to accomplish this same feat with all 6 of us in the house.

I've been wanting to experiment more with sprouted foods and grains so I began with sprouted lentils for this meal. I soaked them around 9 am on Thursday and let them soak until around 7 pm when I strained them and put them back in a bowl covered loosely with a dishtowel. This was the sprouting that had occurred at lunchtime on Friday.

I also fancied up my standard sourdough recipe (spelt, this time) into a harvest loaf with extra honey, zested grapefruit rind, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds and a generous spoonful of ground cinnamon.

The lentils were made into a dish from Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven: soft lentils with roasted tomatoes and caramelized onions, which is a very long name that describes almost exactly how to make the meal with the addition of a small amount of salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar.

Friday's meal consisted of the lentils, harvest sourdough bread and steamed broccoli.

Finn was my sous chef during Friday's dinner prep and carefully measured and mixed the ingredients for Peanut Butter Fudge Brownies, also from Vegetable Heaven.

It was his first time going solo on the mixer and he did a great job! He wasn't even sure what brownies were (I think this was his first time eating them.) but he was extremely excited about the process.

Look at that brownie! Maybe Finn will be my pastry chef instead of my sous chef.

On Saturday morning, we had half of the leftover loaf of harvest sourdough bread made into french toast with a bit of powdered sugar on top.

Our Sunday lunch was grilled cheese made with the other half of the leftover harvest sourdough loaf. The sharp cheddar was such a nice contrast to the sweet cranberries and crunchy pumpkin seeds. A great bread for grilled cheese! On the side we had onions, red peppers, yellow squash and red cabbage stir-fried in olive oil and a bit of salt.

For Sunday dinner, we used the leftover lentils, already cooked with the roasted tomatoes and caramelized onions, and I made some roasted garlic mashed potatoes to spread on top of the lentils which I then baked until the lentils were heated through. On the side we had corn quinoa salad, from last month's Vegetarian Times, and banana oatmeal muffins. Recipe for the muffins can be found here, except I used sunbutter this time instead of almond butter.

So there you have it...lentils and sourdough made into 4 meals.

Not to be forgotten, our fresh and local Saturday lunch. Tomato-basil-mozzarella salad, fresh peaches and blueberries, and whole wheat rosemary flatbread.

Finn made his own Saturday lunch, which he wanted me to post, mostly mozzarella slices, crackers and lots of peaches and blueberries. I think he had 4 helpings of the fruit!

Corn Quinoa Salad

~ Vegetarian Times

Salad

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels

1 1/2 cups halved grape or cherry tomatoes

1 cup finely shredded red cabbage

1 cup diced cucumber

Dressing

1/2 cup olive oil (I used a wee bit less)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

3 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp salt

1. Bring quinoa, salt, and 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat to med-low, cover, and simmer 20 min or until water is absorbed. Set aside, covered, for 10 min.

2. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in separate saucepan. Add corn, and cook for 1 min. Drain, and rinse under cold water. Drain again. Stir together corn, tomatoes, cabbage, cucumber and quinoa in bowl.

3. Mix all ingredients for dressing in blender until smooth. Stir into salad.

I hope your weekend was just as delicious!