Monday: Tonight, the kids and I are on our own for dinner. They are going to be treated to some roasted vegetable risotto, and they better eat it. ;-)
Tuesday: Pasta and Meatballs
Wednesday: Chicken Thighs (maybe in the crockpot?)
Thursday: Pizza Night
Friday: Out to dinner
Saturday: Date Night
What are you guys making? Post a link or post the menu in my comments if you don't have a blog (the horror!)
Yesterday morning, while I nursed my headache (two Tripel Karmeliets at my local pub, instead of one), Michael and Dylan headed out to the supermarket. I gave them the lamest shopping list of all time, so they went nuts, buying all of the snack food that I never let in the house when I'm handling those things.
That said, between the boxes of Lucky Charms and Spongebob fruit snacks, they also managed to grab some great stuff for our dinners this week. Here's the plan:
Sunday (last night): Roasted organic chicken, roasted baby yukon golds, homemade stuffing made with lots of celery and onion to make up for the lack of a vegetable
Monday: Chuck roast chili (made yesterday)
Tuesday: Chicken soup with stuffing dumplings
Wednesday: Spaghetti and Meatballs
Thursday: Pizza night
Friday: Out to eat
Saturday: Date night
Wow, that was one heck of a weekend. Saturday morning was the commencement of "potty boot camp" at my house, and I spent most of the weekend sitting on the floor of the bathroom. Fun times. The good news is that Max is doing really well. Before Saturday, he had not once gone in the potty. He is now using it, and yesterday we had only 4 accidents all day. This sounds bad, but it's not. Really. :-) We are doing undies all day, and pull-ups just for napping and bedtime.
So, anyway, enough with the potty talk. Let's talk menus. I wrote up a weekly menu yesterday, but then Peapod had no delivery times available until tomorrow morning, so I had to change tonight's dinner to accommodate my existing pantry/freezer stash. A few of these meals are from the Nigella Express cookbook. My boss got a copy for Christmas and was pretty pleased with the recipes she tried, so I ordered a copy for myself. It seems very promising (just from my initial read-through).
Here's the plan:
Monday: Pan-fried burgers (no bun), French fries, peas
Tuesday: Pollo alla Cacciatora (from Nigella Express) over brown rice
Wednesday: Mustard Pork Chops (Nigella) with Mustard Potatoes (as seen on Finslippy) and salad (with no mustard, because that would just be crazy)
Thursday: Shrimp with Mango Red Curry (Nigella) and Sushi Rice
Also, Dylan is driving me bonkers with her lunch demands. She is sick of everything I give her, but won't make suggestions for alternatives. She wants me to "surprise her." (But when I do, she complains about it.)
Today she got five mini bagel dogs, a small container of mustard, water, a pear and 2 Hershey Kisses.
There is a lot of pressure inherent in ordering produce from a CSA, or having produce delivered from a business like Fresh Picks. I have no philosophical problem spending more money than usual on my produce. Because the offerings were (mostly) local and all organic, I am glad to pony up a few extra bucks. But, when you get a box of produce totaling $46 delivered to your kitchen, there is a lot of pressure to actually use it all.
It's also a little awkward that Fresh Picks will only deliver to my neighborhood on Thursdays. We don't cook on Fridays and Saturdays, so the produce just sits there, taunting me. I made myself feel better this morning by making up a menu that used nearly everything that was brought. And dinner tonight was a great start. We had grilled organic pork chops (from Peapod, not from Fresh Picks), roasted red skins (from Igl Farm), and a salad made with mache (from City Farm), French breakfast radish (from JenEhr) and cucumber. The kids and Michael also had some corn (from Nature Blessed).
It was a delicious way to start diving into our box of produce. The potatoes were especially fabulous. I was amazed by how sweet they were. To prepare, I scrubbed them and cut them into wedges. I then tossed them in a ziploc with a few glugs of extra virgin olive oil, some kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, smoked paprika and garlic powder. I put the bag in the fridge for about an hour to let the flavors meld. When I was ready to cook, I put them on a baking sheet and into a 400 degree oven until they were crispy and the skin had blistered. It was probably a good 45 minutes.
Tomorrow night (if I'm home in time from my one-day business trip) is eggplant casserole and brown rice.
This week is starting off on a chaotic note. I was at the vet's office with the dog and BOTH KIDS until 7:15 tonight. It's times like those that I wish I were a more relaxed person. I was so stressed out the entire time we were there. Max was opening and closing every drawer in the room, crawling around on the dirty floor on his stomach, taking off his shoes and socks, just being a nut. Dylan was whining most of the time. And Friday? She was crying almost non-stop. This awful, piercing whine. I really wish I could have handled it better, but honestly, by the time we left (after hearing that Friday needs a FIFTH ear surgery tomorrow), I was just a ball of nerves.
Hopefully the week will calm down a bit. Here's what's on tap, food-wise:
Monday: Dylan ate at her friend's house (she goes there every day after school, and will be doing so until June. She is insisting on eating there every day, which is kind of bothering me, but she is adamant.) By the time we got home, Max was exhausted (it was 1/2 hour past his bedtime), so he just had a couple of slices of bologna, some string cheese, and a cup of milk. I had a Marie Callendar's Pot Pie. It was a decidedly NON-gourmet night.
Tuesday: I'm thinking Stefania's spaghetti with salad and garlic bread.
Wednesday: I'm going to marinate some chicken thighs in an Asian-inspired marinade and put brown rice in the rice cooker. We'll eat with broccoli.
Thursday: Pizza night - definitely Homemade Pizza Co.
Friday: TBD
Saturday: Date night
I did pretty well this week!
Here was the plan:
Sunday: Boneless ribeye, oven roasted potatoes, and roasted asparagus. (Success!)
Monday: Greek Salad with Greek grilled chicken breast (Dylan ate at her friend's house. Max had some leftover stuff from the fridge and I made myself a Greek Salad. Close.)
Tuesday: Michael will be returning a bit late, and I'm out for dinner (as I mentioned). Probably a mac and cheese night. Michael can have some leftover grilled chicken if he's hungry. (Michael's flight didn't land until 1am. Dylan ate at her friend's house again and Max had chicken nuggets, with leftover potatoes and asparagus.)
Wednesday: Moroccan Tempeh with honey roasted carrots and couscous. (We were VERY close here! The only difference was that we did quinoa instead of couscous. I really liked the carrots, but Michael didn't. If you want to try them yourselves, the recipe is here.
I made them in the toaster oven, which worked pretty well.)
Thursday: Pizza Night (Right on target here. We did Homemade Pizza Co. again. Carmelized onion and sausage pizza and a spinach, goat cheese and pine nut salad for the adults, cutie pie pizza with black olives for the kids.)
Tomorrow morning we leave for Toledo for the weekend. We're going to try to keep Max entertained during the drive with Dylan's old Wiggles movies. Wish us luck! (Dylan can play Webkinz the whole way using Michael's laptop with his wireless broadband - how cool is that??)
Enough with the drama, let's talk about food, shall we?
I had a Peapod order delivered yesterday, but it was a bit smaller than usual. Michael is out of the town tomorrow night, I have a work dinner Tuesday night, and we leave for Toledo on Friday for Easter weekend. On top of that, Dylan will be spending each day at her friend's house (spring break), and Max starts at daycare tomorrow, so we just don't need as much food.
Here's what we'll be eating:
Sunday: Tonight we had boneless ribeye, oven roasted potatoes, and roasted asparagus.
Monday: It's just me and the kids. I'm planning on Greek Salad with Greek grilled chicken breast (lemon juice, dijon and dill)
Tuesday: Michael will be returning a bit late, and I'm out for dinner (as I mentioned). Probably a mac and cheese night. Michael can have some leftover grilled chicken if he's hungry.
Wednesday: Moroccan Tempeh with honey roasted carrots and couscous.
Thursday: Pizza Night
Sunday: Corned Beef and Cabbage (yum! If you have never done this, I'd highly recommend corning your own beef sometime. so easy and so delicious)
Monday: Teriyaki Chicken Breasts with Brown Rice and Salad (I have a new rice cooker with a timer. I set it to have the brown rice ready at 6:20. The chicken needs to marinate for just 30 minutes. When I get home, I will marinate the chicken and make the salad. The chicken will grill for a few minutes on each side and dinner will be ready.)
Tuesday: Some kind of baked penne dish - ideas anyone?
Wednesday: Michael is out of town. Leftover night!
Thursday: Pizza night
Friday: Out as a family
Saturday: date night, if I can find a sitter
OK, I promise to write more. I am just so overwhelmed with work. Here's what we ate last week:
Sunday: Homemade vegetarian lasagna (This was great, and I will share the recipe soon.)
Monday: Leftover lasagna
Tuesday: I pulled pork off of our leftovers from the German restaurant, and
cooked it in Trader Joe's Green Curry Simmer Sauce. Dylie and I ate it
with Naan (also from Trader Joe's).
Wednesday: I was in NY and gone from my house for 17 hours. I had a salad at the airport and then a toasted English muffin with peanut butter when I got home.
Thursday: Michael's birthday! We went out to our local pizza/wine bar.
Friday: Michael and I had hot dogs at work - they had a tailgate party to celebrate the Bears.
Saturday: Michael's dad is in town, so we'll go out.
Tomorrow night is the Super Bowl. I'm making chili.
I miss cooking and writing about it.
This is a crazy week. We leave for New Orleans on Sunday, and we have plans nearly every day leading up to that. I don't want to do any major food shopping, so I'm predicting lots of take out.
Last night we attended the wedding of our old babysitter. It was so sweet. They are very young, and very much in love.
Tonight we are having our traditional Hanukkah dinner. We were going to eat it on Saturday, but then we went out for a late, last-minute lunch of Korean BBQ, and after all of that beef, we were in no mood for brisket and latkes.
So, tonight is Braised Brisket, Potato Latkes and Salad
Tomorrow I have a meeting at Dylan's school at 6, so I'm thinking Michael will order something in for himself and the kids.
Wednesday I'm taking another class at that cooking school, so it's Michael and the kids fending for themselves once again. Pizza maybe?
Thursday we have a bunch of holiday parties, but I will try to make some bolognese with the leftover brisket.
Friday no clue.
Saturday no clue.
Sunday, N'Awlins baby!
