Quinoa with Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella

Tonight I made the Pioneer Woman's Quinoa with Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella, pretty much for myself. The kids and Steve (still Atkins-y) had hot dogs and brats.

I liked it -- and plan to be eating it for the next 4 days because that isn't a bowl, it's a trough!

Felafel FAIL

Let's just say it's a good thing that last night's rosemary lamb turned out so good because it meant we had something to eat for dinner tonight. Thank you, repurposed leftovers.

So I mentioned that in preparation for tonight, I had already made tzatziki sauce:

That turned out really good actually. Steve didn't love-love it but I thought it was great.

Then this morning, Camden helped me make homemade hummus (why go to all the trouble for homemade versions of these things? I can't find any premade in stores that is low enough in sodium, unfortunately). Here was the hummus, before blending:

And my happy helper, who decided that hummus is the best thing ever:

The hummus, unlike the falafel (foreshadowing) was awesome -- smooth and silky as whipped butter and full of flavor. We made a huge amount accidentally, so it was a great lunch with cucumbers.

Then, dinner. I attempted this felafel recipe and I don't understand what went wrong -- I followed her recipe to a "T". What's even more surprising is, I love that blogger, she's a great low sodium guru, and I've used many of her other recipes with great success. Something did not go well this time. Here were my sad little felafels halfway through baking, as I attempted to flip them:

And it only got worse, after they were done baking:

It's like they just... melted.

So getting back to the lamb leftovers... it was quite fortuitous that we had so many lamb leftovers from last night, because I sliced it thinly, and swapped it in place of the felafels, making some really good lettuce wraps along with the hummus and tzatziki sauce:

Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary

I decided to use the rest of the Costco boneless leg of lamb that we had sitting in the freezer and made Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary:

Not the most appetizing photo, but it was really good! I marinated it overnight which I think was key in getting it really flavorful. Both big kids ate it (!) and said they thought it "wasn't bad" -- "tastes like butter noodles" (whatever! I'll take it.)

While the lamb was busy roasting, I got a head start on tomorrow night's dinner, making Tzatziki Sauce. It ended up being a great dipping sauce for the lamb too, as I have way more than I need for tomorrow.

Homemade Sloppy Joe's and the Corn on the Cobb trick

I don't think I've had Sloppy Joe's in over 15 years. And certainly never made it "from scratch". It was always with the canned sauce, back in the day. I can't eat that canned stuff anymore due to the sodium. I saw some recipes for it floating around on Pinterest and got a hankering for it... so I tried this one:

Bottom line... Steve and I really liked it. Even better than the canned junk! (And that was with him eating his in a low-carb wrap instead of a bun, which takes some of the fun out of the sloppy but with some melted cheese he enjoyed it). We struck out with all three kids, though. Genevieve was disgusted by the sight of the diced green pepper -- which I went light on. Owen stayed true to form -- he of the anti-condiment attitude -- and since ketchup is the sauce base (which he didn't even know) he was really grossed out by it. Camden once again ate half the fridge at lunch but was not a big dinner eater, even with his sloppy joe "deconstructed" with a spoon for the meat.

Oh and the corn -- I tried the Pinterest corn trick for the first time. Definitely interesting. Much easier than hand buttering it. A whole stick in the pot seemed excessive though, especially since the finished corn barely had a butter flavor (maybe I used too much water? Might try again with less water.)

Creamy Tomato & Spinach Pasta

Last night for dinner, I made chili. Steve got hung up at work and didn't get home in time before we had to go to a performance at the kids' school, so I gave him the pot of leftovers for tonight's dinner. Since Mr. Atkins was set with chili then, I made a big pot of Creamy Tomato & Spinach Pasta for the kids and me:

I had made this once before; I thought it was on the blog but it's not coming up... so here it is from tonight! I went a little easier on the red pepper flakes than I did last time and all three kids ate a ton (though there was a suspicious amount of wilted spinach on some of their plates afterward... after having seconds/thirds...)

Definitely a hit (and a mess for the youngest):