Pregnancy is not totally a friend of meal planning, it seems. If you can make it past the first trimester drowsies then you get to contend with the second trimester cravings. There are some wrenches.
But I will say dinner is more likely to get on the table if I meal plan the week [and I’m sure my family appreciates that].
So here’s the week:
Sunday: late lunch and a light meal at church.
Monday: Zucchini Egg Scramble. Trying to maximize my protein. I also made roasted cabbage [sprinkled with turmeric] for the kids and they went NUTS over it.
Tuesday: Spaghetti with kale. A meal with four ingredients from my backyard: it was a proud moment. I made this not-tomato sauce [and added in tomatoes I needed to use up] so we got beets and carrots from that. We had friends over for dinner so I had to add a jar of marinara to it also. We used brown rice penne instead of noodles to make it easier for the kids to eat. I add brown sugar and cinnamon to my sauce [just like my Sitti taught my mom] and I add garbanzo beans and homegrown kale to wrap it up. Yum. We also had some Mountain Bread topped with olive oil and rosemary [also from the backyard]. It was so humid in our house that I had to make the Mountain Bread in my cast iron skillet to keep it from spreading too much.
Wednesday: Roasted Broccoli Quinoa [this is one of my favorite recipes]. I need to start making two heads of broccoli because the kids love it so much.
Thursdays: Landon’s speech therapist comes to our house [which is amazing] but she’s here from 4:30 to 5:30 every Thursday so we either have to eat before she comes or having something in the crock pot that’s ready to go. or, in Landon’s case, both. So tacos are easy to throw together; especially if you do all the prep beforehand.
Friday: Green beans from the backyard and potato wedges covered in olive oil and Dijon mustard on the grill [kind of following this recipe].
Saturday: Broccoli & Hummus Pizza, recipe below! [*Broccoli twice in one week. Craving = broccoli.]
Broccoli & Hummus Pizza
Serves 2 to 4
For the Crust we use this recipe with no changes. I like it because it only rises for 10 minutes but you have dreams of tossing pizza through the air of your kitchen – this is not the recipe for you. I try to put as little flour in as I need to keep it from keeping dense, so I usually spread it onto parchment with wet hands.
1 head broccoli, chopped into florets
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese [I just grate it right over the broccoli and don’t usually measure]
Salt & Pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup hummus
3+ oz. feta cheese
Preheat oven to 425F [No seriously, I know recipes always start off by telling you to preheat but do it right away this time.] Prepare your broccoli by cutting it into florets. Toss it onto a baking sheet with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese. Throw that into the oven as soon as you can [even if it isn’t done preheating] and keep it in there for at least 10 minutes. You want to get the roasting started on the broccoli before you add it to your pizza.
Prepare your dough following the recipe and when it’s ready spread it out on a piece of parchment. Spread your hummus on that like you would a marinara. When the hummus is spread you can pull the broccoli out and arrange it on top of the hummus. Then sprinkle the whole thing with feta [feel free to add another cheese in if you’d like. Cheese it up.].
Bake the pizza for 15-20 minutes. Ours likes 17 minutes every time and enjoy. I love this in the winter with a tomato based soup to round out the meal.
hey, beth baker! 