First Day of School with a Chance of Meatballs

Sooo, it's been a long few days without a chance to blog, so I will briefly summarize.
Friday: Went to Fair Foods and got TONS of veggies!!! i made 6 quarts of stewed tomatoes that I was able to freeze. That night I made braised chicken thighs in a stew of fennel, potatoes, onion, tomatoes and zucchini. Everyone liked that one.
I also make steamed zucchini, papaya, and eggplant for baby food, and froze it in ice cube trays for easy reheat later. The zucchini and papaya came out great. The eggplant was kinda gross because the eggplant skin was bitter.
Saturday: I made baked eggplant parm. I baked the pieces of eggplant instead of frying to lower the fat. It still had all the cheese, but I used the tomatoes that I had made. The eggplants were small, so they were a little bitter. I thought it was still great, but to quote Joseph. "Last night's dinner was real good, but this is horrible."
Thanks for the feedback man.
I also made an apple crisp for Keith. :)
So to solve the eggplant problem...Jason says that if I salt it and leave it in the colander it should help. I am going to try this since I am going to use the rest of the eggplant to make mousaka tonight.

Sunday was good by BBQ for Emily :,(

Joseph requested meatballs for his first day of school lunch. (what?) So we had whole wheat spaghetti and home-made turkey meatballs for dinner. I grated two carrots and a zucchini and sauted them with onion and garlic to add to the tomato sauce so everyone got some good veggies. We had a salad too. Everyone enjoyed this one, and Joseph ate 6 meatballs for lunch yesterday.

Speaking of lunch. School lunch is a new challenge for me. I am enjoying it so far, but the veggies came back un-eaten yesterday. I need to think of some creative ways to make sure he eats healthy things at school.

Yesterday was taco night. The boys love tacos, and I have found a great way to upgrade. I sauté a red and green pepper with a chili, onion, garlic and diced zucchini, then add lentils, stewed tomatoes, water, and fresh cilantro and spices. All of that cooks for about three hours, then I add canned black beans and we use that in our tacos instead of ground beef with the salt and preservative laden spice packet. We used hard shells, and had lettuce, fresh guacamole and cheese. That went over REALLY well, and it makes me happy to be able to serve a veggie meal that is so packed with good things and have it gobbled up.