Day Three hundred and eighty-seven: Christmas morning

A Christmas morning tradition: Monkey bread.  Being this is our first gluten-free year, I did some research and found this to be the best recipe. Since we like ours in a round, I doubled the brown rice flour recipe from You Won't Believe it's Gluten-Free, adjusted the baking time, and used an angel-food pan. It came out perfectly, and we had plenty leftover.

Monkey bread: An aerial view.

Mmm, crunchy and goeey, all at once.

Breakfast: Monkey bread, scrambled spinach cheese eggs, and blueberries.

Christmas dinner: Lasagna.  My grandma always makes the lasagna, but since we needed a gluten-free version, we made it ourselves.  I'm proud to say my daughter actually made this.  I showed her how with the first layer, and she took it from there. She was so excited to say that she made the lasagna.  It's layered with spinach instead of meat.

Day Three hundred and eighty-two

Dinner: "Lazy Chicken" (crockpot; Chicken and marinara sauce over brown rice fusilli) with edamame and frozen blueberries.

School lunch: Chinks of grilled chicken, gluten free crackers, spinach with dip, and apple slices.

Day Three hundred and seventy-five

I did a tiny bit of cooking ahead this morning.  Since I tend to plan out meals in advance, I've been trying to get into the habit of baking ahead as well.  Once I'm already baking, and have the ingredients out, flour all over the place, I figure I may as well make at least one or two things I'll need next. In this instance, I made rolls for tomorrow's breakfast while I was baking this morning's breakfast. Tomorrow, I can skip a step, and don't have to bake and clean-up.

Breakfast: Pumpkin bread (You Won't Believe its Gluten Free) with almonds and blueberries.

English muffins, for tomorrow's breakfast (recipe: You Won't Believe it's Gluten Free).

Lunch: Turkey and cheese in a brown rice wrap (with pumpkin puree melted into the cheese), celery, and apple slices.

Dinner: Gluten-free chicken nuggets, white rice (with cauliflower puree, ala Double Delicious), applesauce, and broccoli. Can you tell my husband planned this meal? I can.  ;)  But after having made breakfast and lunch, I was happy to let him handle dinner.

Day Two hundred and sixty-four

Dinner: Brown rice penne mac and cheese (crockpot; Make it Fast, Cook it Slow), chicken spinach sausage, mixed vegetables, and blueberries.

Day Three hundred and sixty-two

Dinner: Brown rice penne mac and cheese (crockpot; recipe: Make it Fast, Cook it Slow), chicken sausage, steamed veggies, and blueberries.  Not a dinner of champions, but it was a crazy afternoon, so this'll do.

Day Three hundred and thirty-one

Lunch for tomorrow: Homemade yogurt with blueberries, gf pretzel sticks, cucumber with dip, and two mini PB cups.  My husband made this lunch, which is why I can't figure out how he arrived on these combinations.  ;)

Day Three hundred and twenty-five

School lunch for tomorrow: Homemade yogurt with blueberries, cucumber slices with dip, almonds with sunflower seeds, gluten-free cereal, and two gluten-free oreos.  I'm not of the "junk in the lunch box" mentality, but occasionally I'll toss a treat into my daughter's lunch.  Especially now that she has to be gluten-free and misses out on so much of what the "other" kids have, I sometimes toss in something special so she doesn't feel left out.

Day Two hundred and forty-six

Dinner: Whole grain mac and cheese (crockpot; recipe: Make it Fast, Cook it Slow) with pureed cauliflower (ala Sneaky Chef); salad; turkey hot dogs; fresh blueberries, raspberries, and watermelon.

Day Two hundred and fourteen

Dinner: Chicken stroganoff (crockpot) over egg noodles, steamed vegetables, and blueberries.

Dinner #2: For some reason my husband decided to BBQ for himself even though I'd already put dinner in the crockpot. A burger with onion and colby jack.

Day Two hundred and seven

Cauliflower puree (three heads of cauliflower, which are now in the freezer. Once they're solid I'll pop these out of the tins and into a ziploc freezer bag. They'll go into rice, sauces, tacos, etc). The funniest part was when my younger daughter saw the puree in the colorful silicon muffin cups- she actually ate one with a spoon, as it apparently gave off a cupcake vibe.

Tilapia with asparagus, carrots, and orange slices (recipe: Parents mag). Each portion cooks in its own package of own parchment paper- it was cute enough to get the girls to the table so they could see what dinner was inside their "presents."

Dinner: Tilapia with asparagus, carrots, and orange slices; wild rice pilaf with cauliflower puree; cauliflower; and sliced apples and blueberries.

Day One hundred and eighty-one

Breakfast: Yogurt parfaits- vanilla yogurt, blueberries and strawberries, and granola.

Lunch: Spinach pizza bagels on whole grain bagel thins, steamed broccoli, and sliced pears.

Day One hundred and eighty

Heath chocolate chip cookies (whole grain)

Ground chicken breast, with pureed butternut squash, seasoned to be used in tacos/burritos. After this was cooked, I split it into two packages and froze both for future dinners. This wasn't for tonight's dinner, but since I was already browning ground chicken, I figured I'd cook it all and save myself some steps next time.

Baked ziti, with ground chicken breast, pureed yellow squash, and low-fat ricotta and mozzarella. One was for that night's dinner, and I froze the other.

Dinner: Baked ziti, steamed broccoli, blueberries, and bananas.

Day One hundred and forty-nine

Breakfast: Banana blueberry strawberry oatmeal with a drizzle of maple syrup and cinnamon.

Lunch: Garden vegetable soup, baked grilled cheese, and pineapple. I realize this is an awful picture, but I was in a rush and didn't get to take a better one.

Dinner: Rotisserie chicken, whole grain penne with sun-dried tomato alfredo sauce, salad, and grapes.

Day One hundred and thirty-three

Snow day project: Cotton ball snowmen and gingerbread men (Recipe: Kid Concoctions. We didn't eat these, but the dough did need to be cooked on the stove, so it's fair that they get to share the spotlight w/our other food of the day.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with strawberries and blueberries (frozen), drizzled with a little maple syrup and cinnamon.

Dinner: Alien green ravioli (homemade ravioli with edamame and light cream filling; Recipe: Rachel Ray) with broccoli, and bananas.

Day Eighty

Breakfast: Peanut butter flax smoothies (recipe: Cooking Light). Somehow these tasted chocolately even though there wasn't any chocolate in them. Perhaps my taste buds just assume that all peanut butter is accompanied by chocolate.

Lunch: Bean quesadillas (pureed pinto beans and cheese) with frozen blueberries


Vanilla yogurt


Dinner: Leftovers from last night. Clean kitchen! :)

Day Seventy-two

Mashed potatoes. This was for my daughter's school Thanksgiving feast. The recipe made such a large bowl that I kept some extra at home for dinner. (Score!)

Dinner: Leftover mish-mosh. Spaghetti from the other night, mashed potatoes from earlier, turkey hot dogs, and steamed broccoli.


Blueberry sorbet (recipe: Sneaky Chef). This really counts as fruit, as it is blueberries, cranberry pomegranate juice, and a splash of honey, pureed in the food processor. I love that my kids call it "dessert," though.

Day Seventy-one

Dinner: Turkey and black bean tacos (with butternut squash puree), served with baby spinach, cheddar, sour cream, and salsa. Mangoes, blueberries, and sliced apples followed dinner. To be fair, I should mention that my husband made the turkey and assembled everything (except this taco).

Day Seventy

Baking: Braided mozzarella cheese bread. My girls helped make the dough and knead this, and we had a blast doing so. (Recipe: Frugal girl, although she uses cheddar. Mozzarella went better with our dinner).

Breakfast: Blueberry maple oatmeal

Dinner: Vegetable minestrone soup. Recipe: Make it Fast, Cook it Slow. I loved how this looked in the crockpot before it was cooked.


Dinner: Vegetable minestrone soup with parmesan cheese and whole-grain noodles


Dinner sides: cheese bread, and frozen strawberries

Day Sixty-four

Breakfast: Maple french toast sticks (with sweet potato puree; Recipe: Sneaky Chef)

Breakfast: French toast sticks, turkey bacon, pineapple, and grapes


Dinner: Fondue night. Cheese and white wine fondue


Grilled chicken and steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots


Cheddar biscuits (think Red Lobster biscuits, but these are half whole wheat and all natural; recipe: Fix, Freeze, Feast)

Dinner: Cheese fondue, grilled chicken, steamed veggies, and cheddar biscuits

Last but not least, fruit salad. My husband made this- mangos, strawberries, and blueberries