Here is a new favorite.  This is from the French Women don’t get fat Cookbook.  It’s great for breakfast/lunch or a filling snack.  It’s called Magical Breakfast Cream.  If you substitute this for your regular breakfast for 3-5 days, you may lose 3-5 lbs.  It weirded me out slightly the first time I ate it, but now I really like it.  Here is my variation.

1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt (or Greek)

1 tsp flax oil (I use coconut oil instead since I hate the taste of flax)

1 Tbls toasted, sliced almonds (any nuts will do)

1 tsp honey

2 Tbls finely ground oats

Juice and pulp of 2 clementines (or Meyer lemon juice is nice)

This is Chicken Stew with bacon (officially, Creamy Chicken Stew).  We passed around a nasty flu for the last couple of weeks and I made this since the boys in the house don’t appreciate broth soups.  It was very good.  I think I also added peas and pearl onions to the recipe because I had them in the freezer and I almost doubled most of the ingredients (because I usually do with most recipes).   It was very good.  The leftovers would have made lovely Chicken Hand Pies (with just a little more flour to thicken), but we ate it too quickly.

I am trying to get back on track with planning menus (menus that involve new recipes) again.  I find I am great at creative menu planning  for a little while and then I get lazy for a while.  But I have found that I enjoy cooking so much more when I am trying new recipes instead of just doing the same old things that don’t require recipes ( ie. American dinner stand-bys like hamburgers and spaghetti).

I started a Pinterest board for food (finally!).  **Look at my side bar to see my latest pins on pinterest!!!**  That made me feel inspired to plan the meals this week.  I printed out all recipes I will need for the week and stuck them on the fridge next to my menu.

Here is what we are eating this week.  I planned one meat dinner (chicken on salad), one fish (shrimp) and the rest are vegetarian.  I usually try to plan at least one or two nights a week where we eat eggs for dinner.   This week is omlettes and Huevvos Rancheros.  Sunday is a busy day for me (laundry and cleaning for the week ahead) so my goal is to do crock pot meals that also provide plenty of leftovers.  The Ratatouille I can have for lunch next week and the leftover brown rice I will use for Monday’s curry spiced veggie burgers.