Menu Plan Monday: March 28, 2016

Catch up on what’s happening at Small Bites by Jessica online and off! Plus this week’s Link Love and Menu Plan Monday.

Hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Easter! It feels like a long time since last week’s Menu Plan Monday – a lot happened last week, both on the blog and off. Here at Small Bites by Jessica we had our monthly Recipe ReDux reveal and I shared my recipe for Quick & Easy Creamy Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Pasta, I filled you in on my colleague Michelle Dudash’s Clean Eating Cooking School (which is perfect for those of you working hard to get healthy meals on the table), and in honor of National Nutrition Month, which ends this week, we talked about 5 Easy Ways to Eat More Mindfully.

Offline my family celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim with lots of treats (especially Hamantaschen) and my girls performed in their nursery school’s annual Purim play. They were little bakers as you can see in the pic below! The treats continued all weekend long with a birthday party Saturday and brunch with friends Sunday. In fact on the way home from the city yesterday one of my girls complained her tummy and teeth were hurting! Too much candy and sweets, you think?! LOL! Everything in moderation – that’s what I’m trying to teach my girls and always work on myself.

This week’s Link Love has a lot more recipes than articles, some of which are from The Recipe ReDux and have 7 ingredients or less. Be sure to scroll all the way down for this week’s Menu Plan Monday – it’s filled with spring ingredients like peas, snap peas, artichokes, and asparagus!

Articles:

12 Ways to Improve Your Cooking Skills @ Zen & Spice

⇒Emily started a Cooking School feature on her blog and this first post in it has great tips to get comfortable in the kitchen. Even if you cook a lot like I do, these tips are great refreshers (like reading the whole recipe before you start cooking – that’s one I need to remember!)

Matcha Madness! 10 Must-Make Matcha Recipes + The Health Benefits of Matcha @ The Spicy RD

⇒ EA does a great job explaining why you should join the matcha bandwagon!

Recipes: 

Chocolate Mousse Filled Strawberries @ Nutrition Starring You

⇒These look so delicious and easy to make. Plus, four filled strawberries for 70 calories?! Yes, please!

Cheesy Cauliflower Tots @ RDelicious Kitchen

⇒How adorable are these? I couldn’t wait to make them – they’re on this week’s menu!

Strawberry Jalapeno Pico De Gallo @ Rhubarbarians

⇒This would go great on fish tacos!

25 Healthy Muffin Tin Meals @ Mom’s Kitchen Handbook

⇒Anything in the shape of a muffin goes over well with my kids! (Thanks to Katie for including my Ricotta Berry Oatmeal Cups!)

Skillet Spaghetti and Meatballs @ The Lean Green Bean

⇒I’ve never tried making spaghetti in the same pan as the sauce, but I love the idea of it for less clean up!

Week of March 28, 2016

Monday: Creamy Farro with Pesto Asparagus and Peas + Roasted Artichokes with Black Truffle Aioli

Tuesday: Red Pepper Chickpea Curry over quinoa + Cheesy Cauliflower Tots {Making extra quinoa for Wednesday night’s dinner}

Wednesday: Spicy Asian Meatballs with Veggie Fried Quinoa {Using leftover quinoa from Tuesday in place of brown rice}

Thursday: Off Duty!

Friday: Roasted Chicken with Artichokes, Peppers, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

What’s on your menu this week?

Tweet me @JLevinsonRD with #DinnerTonight