Weekly Menu Ideas: 24-02

This week is an unusual week, the kids are on vacation and it is the beginning of Ramadaan.

Snacking

During the week, I love to snack especially while working and it's difficult especially when working from home. I am always up and down to the snack cupboard. In an effort to eat healthier, I started a new snack jar. The popcorn jar. It is relatively low maintenance, just add a little salt and leave it on my desk. Popcorn is low calorie and one of my favorites.

I always thought about popcorn as a movie food. I barely thought about it as a healthy food. Turns out it has significant benefits , especially when prepared the traditional way.

I did some research on the benefits of popcorn, and turns out that it is high in fibre and antioxidants. Do not get me wrong, I do not air pop my popcorn, but sometimes I feel that if you add a conservative amount of oil and some salt you have a delicious easy to make snack without shoving down an entire bag of chips.

The beginning of Ramadaan

Ramadaan is one of those times where for as long as I can remember you are always in two minds. On the one hand you do not want the pressure that you face each year, so you outsource some of the tasks like the samoosa making, but on the other hand you want it to feel and smell like a happy time in the house. You want the joy of the togetherness and the memories of having homemade delicacies to break your fast.

In the Netherlands, I usually feel even more pressure because we lack the full family experience. I try to remake the classics with my kids but this is usually much more difficult because we do not have the same resources. We do not have the well knowns aunties who are making samoosa pastry, so as you can imagine we had to resort to new methods. In the Netherlands, it is common amongst people to use the spring-roll pastry for both our samoosas and our spring-rolls.

The most ironic part of my new journey is that I buy spring-rolls because it is incredibly cheap and use the pastry to make samoosas. This new adventure is not all bad, we have picked up some new tricks on the way. We now include a fruit bowl while breaking our fast and have added some traditional Dutch snacks such as the kaassouffle and the traditional bitterballen along with our usual classics.

Sometimes you realize that when trying hopelessly to save old traditions, the current way you are doing things will be your kids traditions and sometimes that is more than enough no matter how much you decide to do.

Weekly Menu - 17 February

Monday

School Lunch: Toasted Chicken Mayo

Dinner: Gyros

Tips for this idea:

Gyros are a traditional greek wrap, and can be filled with chicken, red meat or even falafel. It usually it is paired with tzaziki and fresh vegetables which is enough on its own but adding the meat is also good if you love the flavor.

Tuesday:

School Lunch: Pizza Rolls

Dinner: Lentil Turkish Vegan Pasta

Tips for this idea:

My husband has been very intrested in traditional Turkish food lately. We try to incorporate more vegan meals into our diet, this recipe requires you to cook the brown lentils until they are soft and then adding spice. Boil pasta and add the lentils with a yoghurt sauce (mix of greek yoghurt and mint with garlic).

Wednesday:

School Lunch: Cinnamon Rolls

Dinner: Pumpkin Soup

Tips for this idea:

I recently added a post on a quick and easy pumpkin soup recipe. This is super simple and does not take a lot of time to make. Coupled with some delicious bread, this a great family meal.

Thursday:

School Lunch: Polony/Salami and Cheese Sub Rolls

Dinner: Classic Shrimp Stir Fry

Tips for this idea:

Stir fry is an amazing meal, it can be suited to any diet as the core is vegetables and stir fry noodles. You can include eggs, you can add meat and even only have the traditional stir fry vegetables.

Friday:

School Lunch: Chicken Wings

Dinner: Kellogs Crumbed Chicken Burgers

Tips for this idea:

Crumbed chicken burgers are a family favorite, these were requested by my son so I added them to the menu this week. You can substitute mushrooms for the chicken and if you are feeling particularly adventurous you could even try to make a red lentil burger , which has crispy edges as well. It is also a light easy to make meal after a long day of fasting.

Saturday:

Lunch: Hot Dogs & Chip Rolls

Dinner: Buffalo Steak Quesadilla

Tips for this idea:

A new found sauce in our household is Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce, it has a similar flavour to Tabasco for me, so feel free to substitute it out. Mixed with mayo and buffalo sauce is a great way to flavour chicken.

Sunday:

Supper: Butter Chicken

Tips for this idea:

Butter chicken is a quick and easy meal to make, it does not require much ingredients. I will add a recipe for butter chicken later in the week so look out for my post!

I hope this makes this week easier for you. If you feel like you this is something you need for the weeks ahead, please subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas for next week. ♥️