Goat Cheese, Onions, Mushrooms, and Spinach Quesadilla Recipe

This quesadilla is yummy yummy and would pair nicely with a side of brown rice.  It is also one of those meals that you start, do something else while the onions are sauteeing, and then return to.  You'll see below...

Prep Time: 20 minutes (active), 35-40 minutes (actual)
Serves: 2

4 whole wheat tortillas (I am still on the hunt for a lower sodium tortilla. Some of them are outrageous.  Please comment below if you have found one.  Also, for those not-in-the-know, tortillas freeze and then thaw like a dream.)
1 pint of sliced baby bella mushrooms
1 clove of crushed garlic
3/4 of a bag of spinach, washed (Always add more spinach than you think you are going to need.  Yup, one more handful.  Okay, two more- that's the ticket!)
3/4 yellow onion, sliced thinly
goat cheese (amount depends on how cheesy you want your quesadilla to be, obvie.)
butter and olive oil

Saute the onions in a pan with a slice of butter and some olive oil LOW and SLOW (lower than medium heat and for about 15-20 minutes).  Put in a load of laundry.  Stir onions.  Sweep the kitchen floor.  Stir onions.  Spray paint a blank canvas with aqua paint for a clever modge-podged reading quote that will be displayed in your classroom.  Stir onions.  Pet 2.5-year-old goldendoodle on his nose where he likes it best.  Stir onions.  Get lost in the land of pinterest, forget about onions, and snap out of it when Husband asks, "Did you forget about these onions?"  "Um, no- of course I didn't."  Oops!  You get the idea - LOW and SLOW :)

Add the mushrooms and continue to cook until they start to "sweat".  Meanwhile, put the spinach in a small sauce pan, cover, and cook until wilted.  Drain the water from the spinach and add it to the onions and sweaty mushrooms (yuck!).  Stir together.  Add the garlic.  Lay two tortillas out and sprinkle goat cheese on them.  Then, spoon your onion, spinach, and mushroom mixture evenly on your two tortillas.  Pop the other two tortillas on top of the loaded ones and cook them separately in a non-stick saute pan on medium-high heat.  You are just trying to toast the tortillas so this will be quick.  2-3 minutes. Flip.  2-3 minutes.  Slice each into quadrants and serve with a smile!
 

Greek Salad Recipe

Who doesn't love a bountiful Greek salad with lots of briny kalamata olives and yummy feta cheese?  Assuming you didn't answer "me" to the aforementioned question, enjoy the recipe below.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Salad
2 chicken breasts, pounded thinly and grilled (pepper and oo first, I skip the salt because of the olives and feta)
2 heads of romaine lettuce, rinsed and chopped
1/2 cup of pitted kalamata olives, halved lengthwise
1 tomato, sliced into large wedges
1/4 cup (okay fine, a 1/2 cup) of crumbled feta cheese
1/2 of an English cucumber, sliced into little chunks (English cucumbers are longer than regular cucumbers and are typically more expensive though they are often on-sale at my local grocery store.  They are not as bitter as regular cucumbers because their seeds are smaller and less plentiful).
2 slices of grilled pita

Dressing 
2 small cloves of crushed fresh garlic
1-2 tablespoons of mayo (this makes it creamy so add based on how you want the consistency to be)
3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (Typically, you can get about 4 tablespoons [which is the same amount as 1/4 cup] of juice from one lemon.  If you haven't squeezed this amount, put it in the microwave for 15 seconds.  The heat will help you squeeze more.)
pepper (I don't add salt because there is plenty in the feta and olives)

You can put all of this in a clean, empty jelly jar and shake it up.  It should be good for a few days if kept in the fridge.

Weekly Menu ~ July 29th - August 4th

First, allow me to give you some background on my weekly meal planning.  Like some of you, many  evenings in our household started off something like this:

T: "What do you want for dinner?"
A: "I don't know.  I'll eat anything."

About an hour later...

T: "Are you hungry?"
A: "I'm pretty hungry.  Are you?"
T: "I can eat."
A: "Well, what do you want?"
T: "Pretty much anything at this point.  I'm starving."
A: "Well, it's getting sort of late.  Should we just go get something?"
T: "Fine."
A: "How about ---"
T: "I am not eating pizza.  How about burritos?"
A: "Not into it."
T: "Barbeque?"
A: "Gross, we just had it last week. Thai food?"
T: "Definitely not.  Should we just go to Whole Foods?"
A: "Fine."

We would inevitably end up in the prepared food section of our local Whole Foods which is cool the first few times, but quickly gets monotonous and expensive.

Enter my weekly menu planning.  Each Sunday, I plan meals for the week and write them with my daily to -do lists.

Though not completely perfect, my Sunday planning helps to ensure a few things:


First, it mostly eliminates that feeling of dread at the end of a workday when you have to figure out what to make for dinner.  I am not sure about many of you, but after teaching 7th graders all day, usually the last thing I want to do is figure out what to make and then visit my local grocery store before getting home.


Second, planning on Sundays helps us to save money because I can sometimes reuse ingredients and plan according to local sales.  (I say sometimes because Husband doesn't like too much repetition and I can get a little hostile when I hear sarcastic comments like, "Great, black beans again.  Yummy.")


Third, I can make sure that we are eating a variety of balanced, healthy foods though out our week.  Pasta on Monday?  Great.  Pasta on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday?  Not going to do it.


Fourth, our weekly meals are based on our schedule.  If I have class on Wednesday night (I am currently working towards a Masters in Educational Leadership) then I will plan a quick and easy meal.  If Thursday is going to be hot and humid, we are going to grill baby grill.


Fifth and finally, my evening cooking becomes a welcome (most of the time) respite at the end of a long and busy day.  It allows me to enjoy the experience of preparing a meal for my husband and I rather than resenting a necessary, daily chore.  Though he will probably laugh when he reads this, I sincerely mean it.  Cooking by myself after a long day of teaching, errands, and other tasks can be a welcomed solitary experience in which I am creating a delicious (hopefully) and healthy (usually) meal that my little family can enjoy.  I feel a sense of pride when I am able to put a dish in front of my husband and find myself crossing my fingers less and less as I get better at the cooking process.

As far as Pink Notebook Planning (PNP) is concerned, I will share these weekly menus with you each week.  I will also provide either a link to another website or my own recipe.  (These will be written as short hand recipes.  You will need a general sense of cooking in order to follow them.  For example, if spaghetti is a part of the recipe, you need to know how to make it.  If you don't, figure it out.  I am sure there are some great youtube vids you can watch.  If you still can't figure it out, step AWAY from the stove and order a pizza pie.)

I obtain most of my recipes from sites like www.epicurious.com, www.eatingwell.com, or www.cookinglight.com.  Sometimes I have an idea for a meal and then I google it to see if it "exists".  If I am able to locate it, I find this as a sign that it is an acceptable recipe as long as it wasn't posted on www.disgustingrecipes.com.  Does that site exist?  (In a separate post, I will describe my cooking journal with you.  Yippee!)

Anyhow, feel free to copy, use, or adapt these menus to suit your own dietary wants and needs!

Sunday, July 29th: Goat cheese, onion, mushroom, and spinach quesadilla {pnp link}

Monday, July 30th: Greek salad with grilled chicken and creamy dressing {pnp link}

Tuesday, July 31st: Parmesan chicken {external link} with roasted corn {external link} and sauteed spinach

Wednesday, August 1st: Salmon burgers (on sale for $5.99/lb at Whole Foods this week.  Dress them up like regular burgers- yum!) and sweet potato fries

Thursday, August 2nd: Creamy garlic pasta with shrimp {external link}

Welcome.

My husband often remarks on the fact that I love a good plan.  He is right.  I love a good plan.  Whether it be planning our honeymoon, planning a vintage dish rental company (which never came to fruition), planning the layout of my classroom (I am a middle school teacher and yes, I love my summers off), or planning our weekly meals, I love to plan.  I like considering the "big picture", determining what tasks need to be accomplished towards that end, figuring out a logical order for such tasks, and making lists to ensure they get done.  I know this makes me sound like a type-A control freak, but I am not.  Well, at least that's not all I am.  Because I am a concrete sequential and abstract sequential blend, I am drawn to ordered, sequential, linear ideas while also appreciating the role of feelings, emotions, and intuition in the planning process.

This blog is a way for me to share my plans, for better or for worse.  My shared plans will include those about sewing, crafting, cooking, and teaching. 99% of these plans are first written into a little pink notebook that I have with me 99% of the time.  (The other 1% of my plans are developed in my head and are therefore, rarely successful.  The other 1% of the time I do not have my notebook with me, the plans get forgotten.  I need to write my ideas out to help them along.)  Each post will represent a different page in this notebook.  I hope you enjoy your glimpses into my pink notebook planning!