Day Three hundred and twenty-three

Breakfast: Pumpkin granola breakfast cookies (recipe: Gluten free on a shoestring), scrambled eggs, and tangerine slices.

Dinner: Brown rice spaghetti, turkey meatballs (with green puree, ala Sneaky Chef), baby spinach, and grapes.

We went to a pumpkin festival in the afternoon, and my daughter was really bummed that we could't buy any of the baked goods for sale there, as the pumpkin pie looked great.  I promised  to make her one when we got home, and I always keep my promises.  This is my grandma's pumpkin pie recipe, and I just subbed gluten-free flour in the crust recipe.  It worked.

Day Two hundred and thirty-six

Breakfast: PB banana flax seed smoothies (recipe: Cooking Light).

Lunch: Grilled cheese and apples on whole wheat, steamed broccoli, and fresh blueberries.

Dinner: Turkey meatballs (with green puree ala Sneaky Chef), brown rice pilaf (with cauliflower puree, ala Double Delicious), steamed veggies, and fresh fruit. I had two bags of these meatballs in the freezer that I'd made as extras while back, and frozen. When my afternoon went awry due to a sick child, I was more than thrilled to be able to pull these out of the freezer and put together a quick dinner.

Day One hundred and fifty-three

Lunch: Garden vegetable soup

Dinner: Garden vegetable soup, with turkey meatballs (I thawed a bag I had made a while back-- these are the Sneaky Chef meatballs with pureed green vegetables), and leftover whole wheat penne from a few nights ago. A lovely way to use up leftovers yet have a "new" dinner, without too much cooking.

Day One hundred and thirty-one

Purees for the freezer: Green puree (which is a blend of spinach, broccoli, and peas; Recipe: Sneaky Chef).

Mini drop-meatballs (turkey). Meatballs take me forever to make, so I decided to make seven lbs. worth and freeze for future use. Given the giant bowl of turkey I had in front of me, I decided to make them drop meatballs, and save myself some time. I bake them to save myself the extra time of frying, and also they're so much healthier.


Dinner: Magic wontons (which are just the turkey meatballs from above, wrapped in wonton wrappers and lightly pan-fried; Recipe: Sneaky Chef), steamed veggies, and oranges.

Day Sixty-eight

Birthday breakfast: My daughter requested scrambled cheese eggs, which we had with whole grain english muffins, and mangoes.

Birthday dinner: Another request- whole grain spaghetti, turkey meatballs, and sugar snap peas.

Day Forty-one

Dinner: Movie night, which means Pizza (from Sam's club- I cheated!) but we topped it with broccoli and turkey meatballs. This was supposed to be a vegetarian night, but someone (ahem, husband) "needed" meat.

Day Thirty-seven

Diner: Mushroom linguine (my mom got this for me somewhere) with alfredo sauce, turkey meatballs, green beans, and sliced pears.

Dessert: Chocolate pasta (also provided by my mom) with a white chocolate sauce that my husband made. This one was definitely an indulgence!!