Dinner Planner: Week of June 20th

pamela salzman's dinner planner

Oh, how I love summer cooking!  The farmers markets are so full of the most insanely delicious produce right now.  If you are not seeing tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini and peaches in your area, you will be soon!  This is the first week I am not making school lunch, so can I just say WOO HOO to that?!

Here’s a great dinner plan to kick off summer:

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Five Friday Favorites- 6.17.16

Some consider Memorial Day the start of summer, while others like to think of June 21st as the truly official beginning.  I say summer starts on the day after the last day of school.  So for me, summer just started this week and I couldn’t be more excited!  I am winding down my June classes and I have been sharing some fun things and tidbits in class that I am sharing with you for the next edition of Five Friday Favorites.  Happy start of summer!

Fabanaise

Fabanaise vegan mayonnaise

Sir Kensington is a brand that is relatively new to the scene and got its start by selling gourmet ketchup. The company’s popularity grew quickly and so did the brand as they expanded into other condiments such as mustard and mayonnaise. I love their products and think they are delicious and are made with clean ingredients. Recently they came out with a vegan mayo, which they coined “Fabanaise.” They tell the story in a very cute way on their website, but essentially what they did to come up with this product that is so unique is by using a product called aquafaba. Aqua-what?

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Deconstructed Bagel and Lox Salad Recipe

Photos by Sarah Elliott

I accept with gratitude the privilege of growing older, so I don’t want to complain about it.  But.  Every 5 years or so, I get away with less and less with respect to what I can eat.  Sure, I could exercise more.  But I’m kind of busy and I already exercise a healthy amount.  One of those foods that is over for me is the bagel.

Bagels are nothing anyone really needs in his or her life.  They are completely devoid of nutrition and loaded with simple carbohydrates (and I mean loaded) which turn into sugar lickety split (and then the pro-inflammatory hormone insulin surges and fat gets stored.)  Even if I were to exercise like a maniac to burn off so many carbs, there’s the fact that I don’t feel great after eating a bagel.

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Dinner Planner: Week of June 13th

Pamela Salzman's dinner planner

My younger daughter graduated high school this weekend and it was surreal, exciting and bittersweet.  When I had little ones, the days sometimes felt long because I was just exhausted from it all.  And I never believed anyone who said, “Enjoy it.  It goes fast.”  Before you know it, your kids have been promoted from one school to another and earned drivers licenses and then they’re off to college and you look back on the last 18 years dazed and confused.

If it wasn’t enough that my daughter graduated this weekend, Mr. Picky is being promoted from 6th grade to middle school and that does not come without a bit of fanfare.  My parents are visiting for all the events and it is great to have them here, especially my mom who has become my sous chef in the kitchen as I prepare for celebration dinners and recipe testing alike.  Yes, it’s a busy time, but we still have to eat!  Here’s a great dinner planner for this week:

 

Meatless Monday:  Marinated tempeh and tomato kebabs with minty cilantro lime sauce, basmati rice (from bottomofthepot.com) These kebabs are so good and a perfect intro to tempeh.  Use chicken if you’re afraid of tempeh.

Tuesday:  Stuffed zucchini/zucchini pizza boats, (I might add some browned turkey meat to the boats), herbed barley (make barley and then stir chopped fresh herbs in at end and a little oil or butter)

Wednesday:  Chicken Fajitas, tortillas, guacamole

Thursday:  Spiced wild halibut and lime skewers, green beans with sautéed shallots, green salad with avocado and Everyday Salad Dressing #2

Friday:  Baked Parmesan chicken caprese, lemony kale salad

Saturday lunch:  Tuna salad

Sunday:  Farro with feta, cucumber, and golden beets with mint vinaigrette, grilled vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant and carrots

 

What you can do ahead if you need to:

Sunday

Marinate tempeh and make cilantro lime sauce

Wash herbs for the week

Make marinara sauce (or buy it)

Monday

Prep zucchini boats and make filling

Prep vegetables for fajitas

Tuesday

Marinate chicken or steak for fajiats

Prep green beans

Make all salad dressings (green salad, kale salad, farro)

Wash and trim kale and salad greens

Friday

Make tuna salad

Cook beets

Prep vegetables to be grilled

 

Here’s where you can find all previous dinner planners.

Fluffy Whole Grain Lemon Poppy Seed Ricotta Pancakes Recipe

Fluffy Whole Grain Lemon Poppy Seed Ricotta Pancakes|Pamela Salzman

Pancakes are made once or twice a week in my house.  My whole family is crazy for them and I am have even taught my kids how to cook their own.  Many a morning I have to leave early for work, so I’ll make pancake batter the night before and pull it out in the morning before I go.  The kids know how to grease the griddle with coconut oil, sprinkle the pancakes with blueberries and flip when ready.

Fluffy Whole Grain Lemon Poppy Seed Ricotta Pancakes|Pamela Salzman

These ricotta pancakes came about when I had extra ricotta after a pizza night.  Being totally honest, I am not a huge fan of pasteurized cow dairy and I do try and limit it with my family.  Dairy is a bit inflammatory, somewhat hard to digest and full of hormones.  So we eat it sparingly.  But I have to admit, ricotta pancakes are delicious.  They’re everything I want a pancake to be — light, fluffy, but still hearty.  These are much higher in protein than a “normal” pancake and I love getting protein into the kids in the morning!  Add some lemon zest and poppy seeds for fun and smother them in fresh blueberry sauce and I am in heaven.

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Spiced Halibut and Lime Skewers Recipe

Photo by Sarah Elliott

I don’t know about you, but to me the perfect recipe is one that is tasty, easy, healthful, and appeals to everyone in my family.  That is a tall order for sure.  Most people that I talk to in my classes struggle with having a wide range of great entree recipes and that’s where I have a hard time, too.  I only like seafood, but my younger daughter doesn’t.  My husband likes everything well done, but I don’t.  My son likes everything plain and simple, but the rest of us like strong flavors.  You know how it goes.

Spiced Halibut Skewers|Pamela Salzman

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Dinner Planner: Week of June 6th

Happy Sunday!  I am preparing this week for one graduation — can you believe my second daughter is graduating from high school?  The big news is that she has decided to go to the same college as her sister, which was sort of a surprise but certainly makes my life easier!  My parents are coming into town for the big event, which is why pasta is on the menu for Thursday and why I am stocking up on espresso and bread from Gjusta.  And my daughter picked out the menu for her graduation dinner.  Next week is my son’s 6th grade promotion, so there will be a lot of celebrating the next couple of weeks!

 

pamela salzman's dinner planner

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Five Friday Favorites- 6.3.16

pamela salzman's five friday favorites

Happy Friday, friends!  And happy June!  I just started teaching a new menu this month and it is fab!  I traditionally teach a breakfast menu in June and it has become one of my most popular classes.  I will definitely be posting one or two of those recipes before Father’s Day, so look out for them.  In other news, I joined Snap Chat.  I don’t know what it is either, but I am playing around.  I think I brought up the average snap chat user age when I joined, but it’s never too late to try something new.  Even if you don’t know what it is you’re trying.  Here are some of my favorite things we’ve been talking about in class this week.

Have a great weekend!

Ecover Dishwasher Tablets

Screen Shot 2016-05-31 at 3.31.39 PM

With all of the cooking that goes on in my house, the dishwasher can be a lifesaver when it is just too much to hand wash all of those dishes.  Believe it or not, running a full dishwasher is more environmentally-friendly than washing them all by hand because you’ll end up using less water. I am also mindful of the types of cleaning products that I use and they impact on the environment.  Common dishwasher detergent brands such as Finish and Cascade actually score an “F” on the EWG website. These contain chemicals and irritants with which I don’t want to be using to clean my coffee mugs and utensils nor do I feel good about putting those harmful compounds into the environment.   Once they do their job they are then flushed out of the house and back into the water system and these toxins can’t be broken down.

The only problem with the safer, more natural cleaners is that they don’t always work as well as the ones loaded with chemicals. However, the dishwasher tabs made by Ecover are a different story. They truly work — my dishes are always clean– and I have been using them with great results for years. They are rated as a “B” on EWG, which I’ll take over an “F” any day. Sure there are several out there that rank as an A, but I have tried a few of those and they just aren’t as effective. Ecover really leaves your dishes perfectly clean without any residue. You can get 25 tabs at Thrive Market for $5.25, or from Amazon for $5.49 with Prime Pantry.  Ecover also makes a powder, but since my kids are often the ones loading the dishwasher with detergent, the tablets ensure that just the right amount is dispensed every single time.

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