Oprah & Chef Cora’s 7 day menu challenge: Day 7

Whoo hoo!   It is the last day.   We have made it a whole week cooking FROM SCRATCH 3 meals a day from the Chef Cat Cora 21 meal menu as seen on Oprah. Let’s get going…what’s for breakfast? Berry Fruit Smoothies Everyone participating in this challenge is a FAN of the fruit smoothie so we were pretty excited that we were having it for breakfast.   We followed the recipe exactly and here is our four serving breakfast: Yep, a little on the skimpy side. As I have mentioned almost EVERY MORNING of this challenge,than even a full glass of smoothie would provide.   Luckily, my husband (who is not participating in the challenge), who saw the disappointing breakfast yesterday had a solution: He whipped up hash browns and scrambled eggs with a side of bacon in less than 25 minutes for us to have with our smoothies.   I know it is cheating, but it IS the last day… If you have never tried Simply Potatoes Hash browns you really need to try them.   You find them in the refrigerator section of the grocery store and they are really easy and SUPER yummy. The Verdict? 5/5 LOVED the taste of the berry fruit smoothies. 5/5 appreciated DAD making additional food. The post cooking reality report: I will make this recipe again.       I usually add more than “one spoonful” of yogurt – especially if I am trying to fill up hungry boys. The portion size was wrong.   I think there must have been a misprint on the recipe because it really makes more sense as a recipe for ONE smoothie. Let’s eat lunch! Curried Lentil Stew This recipe was pretty uneventful. The Verdict? 1/5 ate this. 3/5 refused to try it. 1/5 was absent for lunch. The post cooking reality report: I will probably not make this recipe again.   I was the one who ate it.   I thought it was fine.   It was pretty easy to make.   My favorite food in the whole world is Indian cuisine so I was hoping for a little more.   It has curry, but there is not the flavor layers and spices that are normally included in Indian food.   The boys didn’t like the smell which is weird because we make other Indian food dishes that they will try. The portion size is good. What’s for dinner, Mom? Pasta with Red Pepper and Tomato Sauce This recipe took just a few minutes.   The sauce was easily accomplished in the time it takes pasta to cook. The Verdict? 5/5 liked it. The post cooking reality report: I will make this recipe again.   I will add meatballs.   The boys LOVE meatballs and only tolerate spaghetti and sauce as a vehicle for meatballs.   They liked this, but didn’t eat enough not to be crying at my bedside at 6 am the next morning about how hungry they were.   I am NOT a fan of the taste of roasted red peppers, but this tasted fine to me.   I really appreciated how easy it was to make. Whew!   We made it through 7 days. I am planning a re-cap post that will summarize our findings.   If you have missed anything, here is where you can find it: Day one Day two Day three Day four Day five Day six Yeah!   Thanks so much for hanging in there with us…