A Week with the Leakes: Dinner and Treats

Here’s the last installment in our “Week with the Leakes” series where we took the time to photograph and record every single thing we ate for a week. In case you missed the first few posts check out what we ate for breakfast, lunch, and snacks…also if you haven’t already be sure to read our disclaimer about the entire series.

Our dinners for the week…

Sunday Family Dinner: Sauteed wild-caught halibut (using whole-wheat flour/butter/lemon/white wine), whole-wheat homemade fettuccine alfredo, salad with local spinach & greens, local strawberries, local goat cheese, toasted almonds and homemade balsamic vinaigrette. The kids had whole milk and the adults had water and white wine.

Monday Family Dinner (family-style): A local pork tenderloin marinated in teriyaki sauce and grilled, quinoa mixed with avocado/toasted almonds/soy sauce/cilantro, and raw local sugar snap peas. The girls had whole milk and the adults had water…oh and the children were not big fans of the peas (hard to chew).

Tuesday Family Dinner: Quesadillas made with cheese, onion, green bell pepper, mashed sweet potato, and leftover diced local pork tenderloin. We topped it with homemade guacamole, homemade pico de gallo, organic sour cream, and fresh cilantro. The kids had whole milk and the adults had water along with some rare weeknight margaritas (pictured below)!

Wednesday Dinner (Lisa and Kids): Leftover fettuccine alfredo with frozen peas (I confess, there were no peas in mine :)) and a salad with local spinach, local goat cheese, toasted almonds, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette. One kid had parmesan cheese instead of goat cheese because she doesn’t like goat cheese. The kids had whole milk with dinner and the adults had water and then red wine later on…for “dessert.”

Wednesday Dinner (Jason): A leftover quesadilla triangle, leftover quinoa, sauteed kale, and a salad with local spinach, pear, toasted almonds, local goat cheese, homegrown sprouts, and balsamic vinaigrette. He went back for an extra serving of kale not pictured here.

Thursday Dinner: Our first attempt at red beans and (brown) rice! We used celery, onion, green bell pepper, and organic bacon to flavor the beans. I thought the kids might hate it, but they actually ate some without complaining. No recipe to share yet…we still need to tweak it a bit :). The kids had whole milk and the adults had water. We probably should have eaten something else that was green aside from the veggies in the beans, but I guess we got a little lazy.

Friday Appetizers (we were invited to a friends’ house for dinner): Jason and I tried a little bit of everything, which included carrots, raw broccoli, hummus, olives, and peppers stuffed with mozzarella/prosciutto. The girls each had one piece of broccoli with hummus (lovingly given to them by their mom :)).

Friday Kids’ Dinner (at our friends’ house): All four kids made their own whole-grain pizza (using Deliciously Organic’s whole-grain pizza crust recipe…FYI – we have a whole-wheat pizza crust recipe as well). The toppings our girls used were sauce, cheese, pineapple, ham, and pepperoni and this picture was obviously taken before they were baked in the oven. I have no idea if any of the meat was organic, but I did not ask or worry about it since we were guests at someone else’s house. The kids had milk to drink.

Friday Adult Dinner (at our friends’ house): The adult pizzas were on the same whole-grain crust as the kids’ pizzas and the first one in the picture was “cheese-less” with a bunch of veggies including caramelized red onions, roasted red bell pepper, mushrooms, and kale (inspired by a Trader Joe’s pizza combo). We topped that pizza with a little fresh Parmesan cheese and it was super yummy! I will have to try that at home. The other pizza was equally as delicious and topped with red sauce, chorizo, manchego cheese, and kale. We had water, wine, and Jason had a couple beers. It was so nice getting a break from our own kitchen especially for a meal as delicious as this!

Saturday Kid Dinner: We were planning to have a family dinner together at home, but my husband was out with the kids later than planned (working on Mother’s Day stuff! :) ) so there was a last minute decision to get them some brown rice sushi from Earth Fare for dinner. This blurry picture was clearly taken near the end, but they each had their own package – one with brown rice veggie sushi and the other with brown rice avocado sushi. Both girls drank whole milk with their dinner. To see how we got our pickier daughter to start eating sushi in the first place check out the story on our homemade sushi recipe.

Saturday Adult Dinner: So as a result my husband and I ended up having an unplanned (and rare!) dinner alone together after the kids were in bed. It was really nice for a change. :) He had picked out a chantrelle mushroom taco recipe from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Everyday Cookbook and while it was a very unique flavor for tacos, it was really good. We had the filling in our own homemade corn tortillas and we were fighting over the leftovers the next day…even the kids! We both had water and wine to drink with dinner.

And these were our treats for the week…

Sunday Treat (the kids only): The girls went to a birthday party together on Sunday afternoon and each had a piece of the birthday cake. They said they also had some other stuff like a handful of goldfish and a little bit of pizza (I was not there the whole time so I am just taking their word for it).

Tuesday Dessert (everyone): Our 7-year-old picked out a “mango ice” recipe she really wanted to make one night, which happened to call for a lot of sugar (when mangoes are already so sweet!). So I modified it to where we basically ended up making our peach sorbet recipe except we substituted mango for the peaches. We topped it with fresh mint leaves from our garden that were lovingly ripped off the plant by our 5-year-old.

Other Weekday Treats (the kids only – no picture): Both my daughters had pieces of cake at school during the week for another child’s birthday (in addition to the cake from the party above). Junk food at school/parties/events is a pretty common thing for us, which is why I don’t give the kids very many treats at home because I feel like they get plenty of it regardless. I also learned this week (since I was asking for our “Week with the Leakes” project!) that my first grader has been sampling other kids’ morning snacks including a bite of a pop tart, a couple Doritos, a curly Cheeto, and some other stuff. More on that later in another post.

Adult Weekday Treats: Okay, so the cat is out of the bag…my husband and I are not scared to have a bite (or two) of 85% dark chocolate paired with a handful of some roasted/salted nuts (or sometimes peanut butter or even a granola chunk) after dinner. We occasionally have this after lunch, too. :) Our kids of course like this combo as well, but Jason and I are usually the only ones that eat it….maybe that’s because I sort of “sneak” into the pantry to get it when the kids aren’t looking. Just telling the full and honest truth here!

Friday Dessert (kids only): Since we were having dinner at a friend’s house on Friday I asked what I could contribute to the dinner, and the hostess said dessert for the kids. Since my kids already had two pieces of birthday cake that week I actually didn’t even want them to have any more dessert so I did my best to think of something I could bring that would be sort of an innocent treat (I didn’t want to be the party pooper and not grant the hostess’s request!). So I settled on the pictured homemade apple juice popsicles, which the kids shared with their friends and enjoyed. :)