Day Two hundred and ninety-three

Summer pasta salad (which we brought on a picnic; based loosely on Karmel's recipe): Whole wheat pasta, shredded carrot, baby spinach, corn, and chunks of grilled chicken.

Day One hundred and eighty-four

Dinner: Oriental express (chicken and veggie stir-fry over chow mein noodles; recipe: Annabel Karmel) and peaches. I made a double batch of this dish last week and froze one. Usually we don't eat the frozen meal so soon, but it was a perfect no-cook dinner for tonight.

Day One hundred and seventy-nine

Lunch: Pizza (fresh water mozzarella, spinach, and marinara on a whole wheat sandwich thin), baby carrots, cut-up apples and grapes.

Dinner: Orient express (chicken and veggie stir-fry; recipe: Annabel Karmel), and fresh strawberries.

Day One hundred and fifty-eight

Vanilla yogurt, ala Frugal girl (cooler method).

Kale, sprinkled with olive oil and kosher salt, ready to go into the oven.


Kale chips, fresh out of the oven.

Dinner: Chicken balls (with grated carrot and apple; Recipe: Annabel Karmel), kale chips, brown rice pilaf (with pureed cauliflower; Recipe: Double Delicious), and cantaloupe.

Day One hundred and thirty

Breakfast: Whole wheat carrot apple muffins (recipe: Annabel Karmel), with fresh cantaloupe. My little daughter made these with me, she loves feeding carrots and apples into the food processor to be shredded. They were SO good!

Dinner: Leftovers- ended up using that turkey tetrazzini from the other night sooner than planned!

Day One hundred and seven

Broccoli and cheese omelet muffins. My friend Kristi turned me on to these-- they are cool b/c they are carb free, which doesn't matter to us too much, but it's nice for an occasional change. There are tons of recipes online-- they're very easy to make.

Kids' cooking project: Oatmeal raisin cookies (recipe: Annabel Karmel). I made these w/my younger daughter and a friend of hers, and they had such fun baking together.


Dinner: Nachos (turkey taco meat with pureed sweet potato, salsa from our favorite Mexican restaurant, refried beans, mashed avocado, cheese sauce, sour cream, and green beans). Don't ask where the chips are- somehow they didn't make it into the picture.

Day Seventy-eight

Breakfast: Whole grain blueberry pancakes (recipe: Annabel Karmel)

Dinner was leftover quesadillas, so my kitchen stayed clean! :)

Day Thirty-eight

Dinner: Chicken souvlaki (chicken and zucchini; recipe: Cooking Light), whole wheat parmesan couscous, and sliced pears.

Baking project with my younger daughter: Munchy oat bars (recipe: Annabel Karmel, from one of her kids' cooking books). These were supposed to come out as "bars," but we found them to be really sticky, so it was more like clumpy trail mix. But, really yummy. Next time we'll use a little less butter and sugar, and see how they do.

Day Fifteen

Breakfast: Whole wheat banana sweet potato waffles (recipe: Sneaky Chef) and fruit salad.

Dinner: Pizza (from Sam's Club) enhanced with fresh broccoli and mushrooms, a side salad (thanks to Karen S. for the cucumber from her garden!!), and sliced apples.

Dessert: White chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies (recipe: Annabel Karmel). My daughter wanted to have a "birthday party" for her hedgehog puppet.

Day Six

I did not take into account that when my younger daughter looked at her teddy bear burger, her first reaction would be, "don't cut off his ears!!!" Oops. But, she went on to finish the whole burger, which is quite unusual for her.

Dinner: Chicken apple teddy bear burgers, homemade whole wheat mac & cheese (with pureed cauliflower), steamed mini broccoli and carrots, sliced strawberries.

Teddy bear burger recipe from Family Favorite Meals (Annabel Karmel)

Mac & cheese recipe from Sneaky Chef to the Rescue (Missy Chase Lapin)