January 5th: Sloppy Joes & Slaw

I have been planning meals a month in advance for almost 10 years. I started in 2004, stuck in hospital, mooning over a pretty food spread in Chatelaine and waxing poetic about the food I could be cooking and eating if not knocking on death's door, etc. With some ebbs and flows over the years, ebbs especially in the immediate post-baby timeframes, I have more or less been an avid meal planner ever since. In that 10-year timeframe, I have always used my Milk Calendar as my planning tool. Alas.

Normally I have two Milk Calendars delivered to my door in the fall: one with my Chatelaine subscription, and one with my Ottawa Citizen subscription. Well, either I missed them this past fall, or they weren't sent; I don't know which. What to do? I have switched allegiances. I don't remember where it came from, but I found a Foodland Ontario calendar kicking about my kitchen, so yesterday I made use of it and planned out my meals for January, with a few blanks here and there. Always best to allow for contingencies.

For tonight's meal, I put the Foodland Ontario recipe for January to use:

Turkey Joe with Kaleidoscope Slaw

Ingredients

Joes

2 tsp (10 mL) canola oil

1 lb (500 g) extra-lean ground turkey or chicken

2 cups (500 mL) diced sweet potato

1 onion, chopped

19 oz (540 mL) stewed tomatoes

1/4 cup (50 mL) barbecue sauce

1/2 cup (125 mL) shredded Cheddar cheese

4 onion buns or whole wheat Kaiser buns, toasted

Slaw

1 1/2 tbsp (37 mL) canola oil

2 tbsp (25 mL) cider vinegar

1 tbsp (15 mL) maple syrup

1 1/2 tsp (7 mL) Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp (1 mL) each salt and pepper

2 cups (500 mL) each shredded green and red cabbage

1 cup (250 mL) grated carrot

Preparation

In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add turkey, sweet potato and onion; cook, breaking up meat with wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until browned.

Stir in tomatoes; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, for  7 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender-crisp and half of the liquid has evaporated.

Stir in barbecue sauce; simmer for 1 minute or until heated through. Remove from heat. Stir in half of the cheese. Spoon turkey mixture over buns; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Serve Kaleidoscope Slaw on the side.

Kaleidoscope Slaw: In serving bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, salt and pepper. Add green and red cabbage and carrot; toss to coat. Set aside.

Tips: Omit the buns and serve the turkey mixture over baked potatoes. If the stewed tomatoes are large, crush with a fork. Kick up the heat and add hot sauce or use a spicy barbecue sauce.

I served the sloppy joes with baked potatoes, as suggested. Mine were a bit on the runny side because I used a can of whole tomatoes, which is larger than the can of stewed tomatoes called for. We ate it like chill, with cheese, sour cream and green onions on top. It was yummy; I likely won't make it again. The slaw was pretty and good but unlikely to happen again either.

October 19th: healthy fish and chips + chocolate granola clusters

Verdict:
Try Again: granola
Toss: fish & chips and granola clusters

This is another one of those nights where Greg and I don't totally agree. Okay, we have a lot of those days and nights, and not necessarily as relates to food. Child-rearing, cable bills, work-life balance, oh, the debates we do have. But this is not the forum for that.

Supper tonight came from October 2010's Chatelaine's "Thinner Dinner" feature: Butternut-Squash fries, Thai Red-Curry Tilapia and Napa-Cabbage Coleslaw. I thought this meal had potential for improvement. The squash fries were surprisingly good--not as good as sweet potato fries, mind you--and a nice change of pace for us. I'm always looking to add in a vegetable or two we don't eat regularly. The fish was too spicy for us, but that could be tweaked, and I like tilapia; it holds up well to baking. Greg is a little anti-fish, not counting salmon, but on this topic he just has to suck it up, as fish is too tasty and healthy not to diversify. And finally, I loved the Asian flavours of the coleslaw. The napa cabbage is tender, so this is a coleslaw that can be eaten as soon as it is prepared, whereas when I make a green cabbage coleslaw, I find it tastes better after it has sat for a bit. Of course, my half of the coleslaw had the flavour-enhancing addition of cilantro, so Greg's problem with this is probably based on his missing out on a major flavour contributor. Cilantro tastes like soap, my a**. Sorry, Dad.

Chatelaine actually delivered on the timing on this one: I managed to prepare the meal in about half an hour, not counting the break I had to take to help out O with her potty use, but that's to be expected. In the end though, I will toss the recipe because (a) Greg didn't like it and (b) I didn't LOVE it, and that is the rule. One of us at least must love it.

On the weekend, I made granola from a recipe given me by my friend Carolyn. This is a good granola recipe and I want to share:

Maple Granola

5 cups (1.25 L) oats
1 cup (250 mL) unsweetened coconut
1 cup (250 mL) chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
3/4 cup (175 mL) pumpkin seeds*
1/2 cup (125 mL) vegetable oil
1/4 cup (50 mL) water
2/3 cup (150 mL) maple syrup**
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
3/4 cup (175 mL) dried cranberries
1 cup (250 mL) currants***

Combine the first five ingredients (oats through pumpkin seeds) in a large bowl.

Combine the wet ingredients (oil through vanilla) and pour over the oat mixture, stirring to incorporate.

Bake on a sheet pan at 250°F (120°C) for 35 minutes, stirring twice.

Remove from oven and let cool. Add cranberries and currants.

For longer shelf life, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.

*I used pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), which is, I assume, what they mean. 
**This is why I didn't have enough maple syrup left to make the maple-bacon icing properly.
***I intended to use currants, but found the only ones I had expired in 2009, so I tossed them in the compost and used raisins instead.

I've been eating this granola with yogurt for breakfast at work this week. It's good.

Tonight, after supper, O and I whipped up a treat using the above granola: from October 2010's Today's Parent: No-Bake Chocolate Granola Clusters. I didn't like these though; they were really sugary, and not in an attractive-to-my-tongue manner. Gone with you, recipe!

O, sticking the almonds on the top, sampling and wondering, "when do I get to eat one?!"