Awesome whole wheat crepes, greek pitas, meal prep, grocery shopping, and more!

Last week, my whole meal plan was one I got from 100daysofrealfood.com.  I liked it because it included meal ideas for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner!  Here are a couple of the highlights:

Whole wheat crepes (great for breakfast and lunch - according to my 4 y.o.)

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted + extra for cooking

1. Put all ingredients in blender and mix well. Let stand about 15 minutes.
2. Melt and swirl around a small pat of butter in an 8 or 10-inch frying pan over medium heat.
3. Angle pan and pour enough batter on one side to thinly and evenly cover the pan. Very quickly swirl the batter around to cover the pan in one thin layer.
4. Immediately use your cooking spatula to push down the thin edges of the crepe around the perimeter.
5. After about 1 minute (and once it is golden brown on the bottom) carefully flip it over without tearing the crepe.
6. Fry for 1 more minute on the other side (until it is golden brown as well) and then roll up each crepe.
7. Serve with 100% pure maple syrup and chopped organic strawberries.

It takes a little getting the hang of this.  Here is how my first crepe turned out:

 But it still tasted delicious!  I doubled this recipe and had lots for breakfasts for the week. 

Maple Breakfast Cookies (adapted from 100 Days of Real Food)

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• ¾ cup rolled oats
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup applesauce
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened but not melted
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and grease a cookie sheet.
2. Whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl using an electric mixer beat the applesauce, maple syrup, butter, egg, and vanilla.
4. While beating the mixture on a low speed add the dry ingredients until well blended.
5. Drop onto prepared cookie sheet with a spoon. Bake for 8 – 9 minutes or until they start to brown.

Greek Pitas (adapted from 100 Days of Real Food)

•  1/2 lb roasted shredded chicken (I slow roasted a whole chicken for 4.5 hours and shredded the chicken.  I used 1/2 of that for this recipe)
• sliced or diced cucumbers
• diced tomatoes
• feta cheese
• lightened up goddess dressing (see recipe here on my FB page .  Find the pic of the dressing and the recipe is the 1st comment under it) or organic ranch dressing.
• Whole wheat pitas

Toast pitas in toaster oven for a couple minutes and stuff with all ingredients.

My kids LOVED this!

 Here is my picky eater enjoying his pita.  Oh but he wanted his cucumbers on the side.  What are you gonna do? 

And on Sunday night, I had some random things left over in my fridge I needed to use up before grocery day Monday:

1 bunch farmer's market asparagus, 2 local tomatoes, 4 leftover homemade chicken nuggets, 2 leftover greek pitas, bad farmer's market spinach, and leftover pasta from a rehearsal dinner.  Here is what I scrounged up for Mike & I:

• Roasted asparagus (on 425 for 18 minutes with olive oil spray, garlic powder, fresh cracked pepper, kosher salt, and a little bit of grated parmesan cheese).
• Spinach lentil "salad" (heat 2 t olive oil in skillet over med, throw in bag raw spinach and 1.5 c cooked lentils.  Cook until spinach is wilted, stir in diced tomatoes and sprinkle with garlic powder and kosher salt)

And for the kiddos?

•  chicken nuggets (reheated in toaster oven, sprayed with olive oil @ 400 for 8 min)
• Leftover brown rice reheated
• Sliced organic strawberries
• Leftover greek pitas sprayed with olive oil and toasted in toaster oven for 4 min

Monday was grocery day and I got enough food for 5 dinners, snacks, and breakfasts for the week.  I spent total $138 between walmart and Akins.  Here is what is on the meal plan for the week:

Breakfast

• Oatmeal with agave and organic PB
• Plain Greek Yogurt with agave and chopped organic strawberries
• Homemade whole wheat banana bread (See recipe here)
• Mom's Best Naturals cereals
• Homemade Honey Rice Cereal (See recipe here)
•  Organic cage free scrambled eggs with organic cheddar

Lunch

• Organic turkey and cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread
• uncured nitrite/nitrate free hot dogs on whole wheat bun
• Hard boiled eggs
• Organic grilled cheese on whole wheat bread

 Snacks

• Hummus (see recipe here) 
• Whole wheat crackers (see recipe here)
• Banana bread (see recipe link above)
• Grapes, organic strawberries, and organic apples
• Organic cheese sticks 
• PB &J Smoothie (see recipe here) 
• Organic raw unsalted pepitas (my daughter's request) 

Dinner

• Black bean burgers with corn and asparagus salad
• Roasted caprese pasta with basil chicken
• Tomato goat cheese frittata with spinach avocado salad
• Lentil Salad with organic chicken sausage
• Lemon herb grilled chicken with quinoa spinach salad

Here is what it looked like when I was checking out at Walmart:

 Mostly produce and dairy.  As a matter of fact, there were only a couple things on my list that were from the inner aisles of the grocery store:  whole wheat spaghetti, pkg lentils, whole wheat hot dog buns, box quinoa, and some mom's best naturals cereal! 

If you still think you have to shop at Whole Foods or other high priced "natural" food store to get all your healthy foods, think again!  Yes, there are things I HAVE to get at Whole Foods, but a majority of my shopping is done at Walmart because their prices just can't be beat, bottom line.  I spent $100 at Walmart and $38 at Akins.  Here is what I got at Akins:  organic cheddar cheese, organic turkey (nitrite/nitrate free), organic quinoa, organic chicken sausage, pepitas, and organic whole wheat baguette.

And after I got home from the stores, I did a ton of meal prep since it was baby nap time.

Made a batch of protein bars (see recipe here) and I used 1/2 c almond butter, 1/2 c organic PB because that's all I had and it turned out AWESOME.

 3 batches whole wheat crackers.  Sprinkled with a little garlic powder and fresh cracked pepper! See recipe link above under snacks.

 Banana bread

 Also made a batch of hummus, and cooked a bag of dry chick peas.  I LOVE chick peas.  I use them to make hummus and eat them on top of my veggie salad. 

Here is what my kitchen looked like after all the cooking:

A baking explosion.  My husband says I'm a messy cook because I don't clean as I go.  I wait to clean up when all the baking and cooking is done!

Well that's about it for now, thanks for reading!!