French Onion Soupwiches - Recipe Review

Make this.

Just do it.

I added this recipe from Pinterest to our meal plan this week and it surpassed every expectation I may have had. You can find the original recipe here, at Oh My Veggies!

This sadwich is modified for Vegetarians, but you could very well make it with beef broth if you felt the need. We couldn't find no-beef broth (even at Whole Foods like the original recipe suggests), but a wonderful worker at Whole Foods recommended using Mushroom Broth and that was perfect!

What you'll need: 

2 tbsp olive oil

2 large onions, thinly sliced

salt & pepper to taste

1/2 tsp dried thyme

4 ciabatta rolls, halved (We ended up using six just fine and the small rolls at Trader Joe's were surprisingly filling and just the right size)

1 c. shredded Gruyere cheese

4 c. no-beef broth, heated (you can find meatless beef broth at stores like Whole Foods) (We ended up using Mushroom broth)

What you'll do:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet on low heat. Add sliced onions and cook until caramelized about an hour and fifteen minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in salt and pepper to taste and thyme.

Heat panini press or grill on high. Divide caramelized onions onto bottom of rolls and top each one with 1/4 cup of cheese and top half of roll. Grill for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bread is golden-brown. Serve each sandwich with 1 cup of broth.

Notes:

Caramelizing onions on low for an hour and fifteen minutes didn't work for us. We tried, and they were still just regular, cooked onions, so we cranked that heat up, kept a close eye on them, and browned them up relatively quickly.

A vegetable mandolin did our slicing, and it was perfect.

Extra Note: Keep vegetable mandolins away from toddler fingers... Trust us on this one.

We don't have a panini press, so we just popped the sandwiches in the oven for about 10 minutes until the cheese was melted. We also put our bread in the oven before we made sandwiches because we toss our bread in the freezer after we buy it so it won't go bad (you know, since we buy the fresh kind without all of the preservatives in it). So, we tossed the rolls in to thaw, and then sliced them to make the sandwiches, and then put the bottoms back in the oven just to melt the cheese.

We served these up with a simple salad and a side of mushroom broth (for us, but not the boys). Little tore into his sandwich like it was his last meal. Big ate the salad and the bread off his sandwich, but wasn't as interested in the onions.

Overall, I call it a win. It was delicious and a relatively inexpensive meal. We might sub the cheese with a less expensive variety if  when we make it again considering we usually have a ton of shredded cheese already stocked in our fridge, but still, the Gruyere was less than 6$ for a small block at Trader Joe's.

Just do it. It's yummy. You'll like it. In fact... I would like to eat it again... Like now.

Weekly Meal Plan

As we are getting ready for our weekly grocery shopping trip (shhh... don't tell us it's already Tuesday...), I thought I'd share. Here's our weekly meal plan and grocery list. Recipes are linked when available (they are underlined). Stir Fried Tofu comes from Fast and Fresh Vegetarian Cookbook by Marie Simmons.

French Onion Soup Sandwiches and Tortellini Crock Pot Soup are both new recipes for us this week.

Day	Dinner
M	Black Bean Fajitas with rice
T	French Onion Soup Sandwiches
W	White Bean Salad
R	Tortellini Soup Crock Pot with French Bread
F	Stir Fried Tofu (FF veg P. 104) w/ rice
S	Pasta and Sauce with Simple Salad
S	*New Recipe Night*

Produce Dairy Packaged Goods Spices/Sauces Bread

M

1 {16 oz} can black beans rinsed and drained

1 sweet pepper sliced (or sliced, frozen peppers)

1 onion, sliced

1 zucchini, sliced

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons canola oil

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 dozen tortillas

Rice

T

2 tbsp olive oil

2 large onions, thinly sliced

salt & pepper to taste

1/2 tsp dried thyme

4 ciabatta rolls, halved

1 c. shredded Gruyere cheese

4 c. no-beef broth, heated (you can find meatless beef broth at stores like Whole Foods)

W

• 3 cups cooked no-salt-added cannellini beans, from 2 (15-ounce cans) beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 small red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
• 4 cups tightly packed fresh spinach leaves, tough stems removed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• Crunchy Bread

R

• 1 (19oz) bag of frozen cheese tortellini
• 1 small bag of fresh spinach (I used about half of a 5 oz package, but more is better!)
• 2 (14.5 oz) cans of Italian style diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 block (8 oz) of cream cheese** (softened in microwave)
• 1 lb. of ground sausage or chicken/turkey sausage (optional)
• 3-4 cups of vegetable broth
• French Bread

F

• 1 block tofu
• ¼ Orange Juice
• 2TBS soy sauce or Tamari
  2 TBS Japanese rice vinegar
  1 TBS Honey/Maple Syrup/Agave
• 1 TSP toasted sesame oil
  1 ½ TBS cornstarch
• ½ tsp coarse salt
• Pinch crushed red pepper
• 3tbs peanut oil
• 8 ounces mini bell peppers or 1 large red bell pepper
• 8 ounces oyster mushrooms
• 1 tbs fresh ginger
• 2 tsp orange zest
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 bag baby spinach

S

Bag of Salad
Cucumber
Tomato
Croutons
Dressing
Bag of Pasta
Sauce

Broccoli Mac and Cheese - Review

Broccoli Mac and Cheese was our "new" recipe of the week. It was slightly over rated. You can find the full recipe here.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it was good, but it was Mac and Cheese with broccoli in it.

This is how you make the sauce:

In a large, heavy skillet, melt butter. Add onion and cook over low heat about 2 minutes, add flour and cook another minute, or until the flour is golden and well combined. Add milk and chicken broth and whisk, raising heat to medium-high until it comes to a boil; cook about 5 minutes or until the sauce becomes smooth and thick.Season with salt and pepper.

Something about making my own sauce made me feel like a badass, but it also made me feel like I would have A LOT of dishes left over. And I'd rather feel mediocre with a one pot to clean than feel like Martha Stewart with a ton of dishes left over. Call me crazy.

I'm usually pretty harsh on pasta dishes though. I mean, I literally could have just taken a bag of pasta, dumped some sauce on it, thrown some veggies in, and called it dinner. That would take 15 mins, top. Instead I was boiling water, making rue, chopping veggies, simmering sauce, and then BAKING the entire dish...

I hate cooking things more than once. Why... Just why?

So, while it was good, we probably won't be making this again. If it's your thing, go for it. But I have two kids tugging at my legs begging for food... Rue making isn't for me.

Meal Planning 101

It wasn't easy for us to start meal planning, but it had to happen. It actually happened more by accident. We found a Whole Foods Meal Plan online and followed that for four weeks and then adapted the meal planning process to meet our needs.

We went from planning breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the Whole Food plan to just planning out lunch and dinner. Now we just plan out dinners.

I like to plan all our meals in a Google Doc so Mr. M or I can access it at any time from anywhere (like at work, or at the grocery store!). I link all of the recipes that I find online and list ingredients out by day. I then color code the ingredients so it's easier to find when grocery shopping. This is an adaptation that we made to better suit our needs. I use to list out all the ingredients, then spend SO much time reorganizing them into categories. It just was taking too long so I decided to just color code them and whoever is shopping can just look at all the green things and grab them quickly in the produce isle. This also works because if we decide to cut out or replace a meal, all the ingredients are listed together and we'll know what we no longer need.

I usually scan our cabinets (or ask Mr. M) what we still have from last week. This week we have a whole pack of tortillas, pesto, and soba noodles hanging out in our cabinets as well as everything we need for the Kale Avocado Salad since we didn't get around to making it last week, so on the meal plan it goes!

I don't really worry about 'days' anymore. I just want to make sure that we have six meals for the week. For instance, Sesame Peanut Noodles is on the meal plan for Monday, but in reality, we will probably have Kale Avocado Salad since we need to use up the kale before it goes bad.

I prefer to print out our plans and then write anything extra we may need on the bottom, like we need butter this week. There are some snack staples that we know we'll need too, like cheese sticks for the boys, bread, and things to make quick lunches during the week (grilled cheese, mac and cheese, etc.) Usually dinners make enough to roll into lunches for Mr. M and me, but the boys will only eat so much Quinoa before they're over it.

Overall, it takes less than an hour to plan the meals for the week. I'll start by adding the recipeis that we know are going to roll over from the week before and just copy and paste the ingredient list (so they are already color coded - win!). Then I'll pull out a family favorite or two and again, copy and paste the ingredient list since it's already color coded. Then I'll scroll my pinterest or ask Mr. M and we'll pick something new to try for the week. This week, it's the Broccoli Mac and Cheese recipe I found on pinterest. Then I only have to color code this new recipe and we're ready for print! I don't worry about formatting. A lot of times ingredients copy and paste funny from blogs. I'll try to single space it and make it a smaller font, but other than that, I don't care if it's indented. Ain't nobody got time for that. Saturdays I usually leave blank. Either we will pick out another fancy recipe and Mr. M will grab what we need during or grocery run, we'll eat leftovers. It also allows for a night when we might not be eating at home, have a party to attend (or throw!), or just get caught up in life and (gasp) order a pizza or pick something up (which rarely happens, but life is life).

After I make the list, I hand it over to Mr. M. Since he does most all the cooking, he knows what we have in the house. He'll cross off anything we don't need or anything that repeats in the list and will compile some items together. For instance, this week he made sure we knew we'd need 2 red peppers by changing the red bell pepper in the first recipe to 'two' peppers and then crossing out the red pepper needed in the quesadilla  recipe.

Make that, three red peppers...

Sometime we are short on time and we'll just pull a meal plan we already made. I have almost 20 vegetarian meal plans saved on our Google Drive!

Happy Eating!

-A.






This is what our meal plan looks like for this week:

Day	Dinner
M	Sesame Peanut Noodles or Asian Stir Fry w/ Rice
T	Pasta with Tomato Sauce with Salad
W	Kale Avocado Salad
R	Fennel, Roasted Red Pepper, and Goat Cheese Quiche with breakfast potatoes
F	Grilled Vegetable Quesadilla with pesto and goat cheese
S	Broccoli Mac and Cheese
S	*New Recipe Night*

Produce Dairy Packaged Goods Spices/Sauces Bread

M

• 1 (8-ounce) 100% whole grain so ba noodles
• 2 cups snow peas, strings removed
• 2 tablespoons roasted, unsalted, unsweetened smooth peanut butter or almond butter
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon reduced sodium tamari
• 1 tablespoon sesame tahini
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red chile flakes
• 1 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 cup sliced green onions
• 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• Rice

T

Box of Pasta
Pasta Sauce
Bread
Salad:
1 bag lettuce
Tomato
Cucumber
Croutons
Dressing

W

• 1 bunch kale, stemmed and finely chopped
• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 avocado, peeled and pitted
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
• 1/2 teaspoon reduced sodium soy sauce

R

• 1 medium fennel bulb, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup jarred roasted red peppers (2 large peppers), drained and chopped
• 6 large eggs
• 8 oz. low-fat cottage cheese
• 2 oz. fresh goat cheese, crumbled
• 2 tsp chopped parsley
• breakfast potatoes

F

1 small zucchini, diagonally sliced into ¼ inch pieces

1 small summer squash, diagonally sliced into ¼ inch pieces

1 red bell pepper, stem and seeds removed

1 small red onion, sliced into ¼ inch rounds

1 large Portobello mushroom, cleaned and sliced into ½ inch pieces

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt

white pepper

4 whole grain tortillas

4 tablespoon pesto, divided

2 cups part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

4 oz goat cheese, divided

S

12 oz high fiber elbows like Ronzoni Smart Taste

1 1/2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup minced onion

1/4 cup flour

2 cups skim milk

1 cup fat free chicken broth (vegetarians use vegetable broth)

8 oz (2 cups) reduced-fat sharp cheddar (Cabot 50%)

salt and fresh pepper to taste

12 oz fresh broccoli florets (I used pre-cut bag)

2 tbsp grated parmesan

1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

cooking spray