Meal Planning - A week in the life of the Clouse's!

Alright wish me luck... I'm going to try and post what we eat each day this week! A lot of people want to know how to cook healthy for their families and I thought I would try to share what works for us! It's not perfect and we don't always succeed 100%, but the key is planning ahead, making a grocery list for the week and trying to pick up most of your stuff so you aren't running out all week to get stuff, or running out of things in your pantry/fridge and turning to good old reliable junk food :) So here is our menu planned for the week:

Monday - 

Breakfast - eggs & bacon, 

Lunch - leftover chicken, kale, quinoa soup, and/or chicken salad

Supper -  Balsamic Glazed Steak Rolls & Caramelized Brussels Sprouts (baked potatoes for all the boys)

Tuesday - 

Breakfast - smoothie 

Lunch - leftover chicken, kale, quinoa soup, and/or chicken salad

Supper -  Gyros with slow cooker beef, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, little bit of Feta cheese, and homemade tzatiki sauce; will probably also roast some cabbage steaks as well

Wednesday

Breakfast- either eggs and bacon or breakfast smoothie or Meal Replacement Shake

Lunch - Avocado Egg Salad with tomato and Bacon

Supper - Almond Crusted Tilapia, quinoa/rice, and roasted broccoli

Thursday

Breakfast- either breakfast smoothie or Meal Replacement Shake

Lunch - Leftovers - packing lunch, working in Cbus

Supper - Veggie Stew with Beef

Friday

Breakfast-Eggs & Bacon or SHake

Lunch - Leftover Stew

Supper - Tator Tot Casserole for BOYS, I'm going to try some kind of casserole with sweet potatoes or sweet potatoe fries, maybe healthier version of the tator tot casserole??

Ok - so as you can see - I have a rotation of a few things loaded with protein I like to eat for breakfast, tend to eat leftovers, or use leftovers to make my lunch and then plan new things/meals for supper. So below is my recipe and pictures from dinner on Monday night. Stay tuned for the rest of the week!

  

Balsamic Glazed Steak Rolls

Original Recipe

Ingredients: (makes 8-10 rolls)

* 1 1/2 – 2 lb skirt steak/ 8-10 thin sliced sirloin or Cube Steak (this is what I used last time, it's what was in the freezer!)* Salt & Pepper (according to taste)* 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce* Any steak seasoning you like - I used Montreal!* 1 tbsp olive oil
* 1 carrot
* 1 bell pepper - red and green
* 1/2 a zucchini (depending on size)
* 5-6 green onions
* 2 cloves of garlic
* 1 tsp Italian herb seasoning
* 1/2 - 1 Tablespoon Butter
* 2 tbsp finely chopped shallots
* 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
* 1/2 to 1 Tbsp. Honey
* 1/4 cup beef broth

Prep the Steak:
Start by prepping the steak. I trimmed as much fat as I could and cut the steak into 3 inch wide strips. I managed 8 strips and used the odd shapped ends to taste test my marinade and balsamic glaze. You can then tenderize or pound the meat so it's very thin with a meat hammer.Season the steak pieces generously on both sides with salt, pepper and worcestershire sauce. And let them sit in the marinade for atleast 30 mins if not a couple hours.

Prep the Veggies:
While the steak is marinating you can prep the filling for them. Chop up the carrot, bell peppers and zucchini into matchstick size pieces, little longer than the width of the steak strips. You can use a mandolin slicer to jet thin sliced and hand cut them to make matchsticks. I then cut the green onion in a similar size and sliced them in half length wise. For the garlic, simply peel and crush the cloves with the flat side of your knife, just enough to bruise them.

Make the Sauce:
Now for the sauce, melt the butter in a small sauce pan on medium heat. Add the finely chopped shallot and saute it for a minute or 2 until they turn soft and translucent. Add the balsamic vinegar, honey and beef stock and stir to mix everything well. Allow the sauce to come to a boil and reduce to almost half its volume. You’ll notice it starts becoming thicker and have the consistency of syrup. The butter also starts separating and comes to the top. Turn the heat off and transfer the sauce to a bowl.

Cook the Veggies:
In the same pan (no need to wash it) add a touch of olive oil and toss in the garlic cloves to allow them to flavor the oil for a few minutes. Turn the heat up to high and toss in the carrots, bell pepper and zucchini (there’s no need to cook the green onion) and stir fry the veggies for no longer than 2-3 minutes. Season them with the the Italian herb seasoning and salt and transfer the veggies to a bowl. 

Assemble and Cook the Rolls:
To assemble the steak rolls, simply take a strip of the marinated steak and lay it with the short side towards you. Place the veggies (don't forget the green onion!) in the middle and roll the beef up over the filling, securing it with toothpick. Repeat the same with the other rolls. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add a touch of oil swirling to coat bottom. When hot, add beef rolls, seam side down, not touching and pan fry for a couple minutes.  Baste the steak rolls with some of the sauce while your cooking to caramelize it. Turn the rolls and cook it on all sides in the same way. Cook until you’re desired done-ness. I cooked mine medium well and seasoned it with some montreal steak seasoning.

Remove the toothpick and serve with the balsamic glaze sauce spooned over the top (if you want) of each roll.