Category Archives: menu plan Monday

A blizzard is not in my plan for this week

03/12/2018 Nichole

I was 14 and my brother was 10 when The Great Blizzard of ’93 hit. We woke up to almost two feet of snow, which is certainly enough to shut down a small town in Western North Carolina.

We didn’t have power or water for two weeks, and we couldn’t get to town for about six days. My brother and I got a little stir crazy and went for a long walk on the empty highway after the first few days, but we didn’t have the wherewithal to hike 7 miles into town. I think we just kicked snow around in the elementary school playground and then headed back home.

We did have a wood stove in the living room, though, and my mom kept it blazing constantly. She used it to melt snow so we’d have water to drink, and she cooked a lot of fried potatoes and eggs in a skillet. I think she tried to make biscuits in it, too, but I don’t remember if it worked.

We also had visitors for a couple of days. My Granny had been calling to check in on some of her friends who lived on our road, and she hadn’t been able to reach one couple. So she called my mom and asked her to check in on them. Mom bundled up and trudged a few miles down the road. She found them huddled up under every blanket they owned. Their electricity was out, too, and they didn’t have a wood stove. They did have a couple of bottles of Wild Turkey, though, and that’s what the lady had been using to keep warm. Mom bundled them up and brought them back to our house to stay for a few days until things thawed out.

That storm was 25 years ago this week, and we have snow in the forecast again today. We’re just expecting a few inches, though, which is good because I don’t think I have any potatoes in the pantry and I know I don’t have a wood stove.

Monday: Breakfast for dinner: Forecast calls for toast and veggie sausages, with a 95 percent chance of soft-boiled eggs.

Tuesday: Chicken piccata: Rockford originally made this week’s menu plan, but it was pretty heavy on eating out and heating things in the microwave. I figured I could cook a real meal at least one night.

Wednesday: Frozen pizza: But not every night, obviously.

Thursday: Tacos: I don’t think I ever really thought about what I’d eat as a grownup, but I think YoungNichole would be surprised at how often OldNichole eats tacos.

Friday: Ordering in: I’m going to pick up dinner from a nearby foodery, and I might not leave the house again until Sunday.

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.

menu plan Monday, Shopping

In which Nichole may or may not have stolen a salad

02/26/2018 Nichole

This is the third or fourth or fifth week that I’ve planned to have a rotisserie chicken and a salad for dinner one night, and after many hours of ferrying the children hither and yon, today I finally took my free-chicken-and-a-family-salad coupon over to Whole Foods.

The chicken part was pretty straightforward. I picked up a rotisserie chicken, and I put it in the cart. Done and done. The salad, though, I wasn’t sure about. Whole Foods has a vast array of salads and salad bars, and I wasn’t entirely sure what the coupon meant when it said “a free family salad.” So I asked one of the cute millennial people on staff.

“Hi,” I said. “When this coupon says ‘family salad,’ what exactly does it mean?”

“One of those in the cooler under the ‘Good Stuff to Eat’ sign,” the Cute Millennial Gelato Girl said, gesturing in the general direction of the coolers. She didn’t say “Good Stuff to Eat,” exactly, because that isn’t what the sign said. But when I was there I remembered what she said and I found it.

Pixabay didn’t give me any results when I asked it for a free stock photo of a cute millennial, but it did give me this when I asked for a picture of gelato. // photo by Daria Yakovleva

So those directions narrowed it down from the 16,870 salads available at Whole Foods to about 3,457 salads. And I still wasn’t sure exactly which one the coupon was talking about. But I figured the Cute Millennial Gelato Girl wouldn’t steer me wrong, so I grabbed a pasta salad in a larger box instead of a pasta salad in a smaller box — because the “family salad” oughta be the bigger one, right? — and I went to the checkout.

“Are these vegan brownies good?” I asked the Cute Millennial Checkout Girl.

“They are so good,” said the Cute Millennial Vegan Checkout Girl. “That’ll be $10.79.”

I did have a box of 99-cent macaroni and cheese and, suddenly, a vegan brownie, so I wasn’t surprised that the whole order wasn’t free. But I was surprised that a vegan brownie and a 99-cent box of macaroni and cheese came to $10.79.

“Didn’t the coupon cover the chicken and the salad?” I asked.

“Oh no, not that salad,” she said. “It has to be a green salad. You can go ahead and check out and then just grab one of the green salads.”

This is what Pixabay offers up when you ask it for “vegan.” I’m going to go ahead and assume she doesn’t know much about brownies, either. // photo by Croisy.

A green salad. OK. I finished checking out with my free chicken, my 99-cent macaroni and cheese and my vegan brownie, and I went back to the Good Stuff to Eat cooler. Armed with the new knowledge the Cute Millennial Vegan Checkout Girl had imparted unto me, I discovered that I now had only 145 salads from which to choose.

So I chose one, and I went to the express line.

“Hello,” I said to the Cute Millennial Checkout Guy. “I’ve already checked out, but I got the wrong salad for my coupon and I want to make sure I have the right salad because I don’t want to accidentally steal a salad.”

“Oh no,” he said, “not that salad. The one you want is about the same size, but it’s not round.”

Downtrodden but not yet defeated, I went back to the Good Things to Eat cooler. I was now faced with only two options: A green salad in a square container, and a green salad in a rectangular container.

And I — I took the one in the square plastic, and I don’t know if it made all the difference or any difference because I did not stop to ask.

But there are two things I do know:

I need the Cute Millennials of Whole Foods to understand that I am an old dotard who needs very specific instructions. Like maybe you could just hand me the right salad? Thanks.

That vegan brownie was not so good. I’m sorry to say it, Cute Millennial Vegan Checkout Girl, but I think you’ve forgotten what a brownie should taste like.

This was the first result Pixabay offered when I asked for ‘cash register.’ I’m beginning to think Ashton Kutcher is running Pixabay. // photo by annca

Anywho, here’s what we’re having for dinner this week:

Monday: Rotisserie chicken and a salad: This’ll be some combination of cheese, bread, ham and a saute pan.

Tuesday: Cracker Barrel chicken: This is a ridiculously easy recipe. It’s meant to be a copycat recipe for Cracker Barrel’s “grilled” chicken tenders, which are delicious and you can’t tell me different.

Wednesday: Korean BBQ tacos: I found a Korean BBQ slow cooker sauce at Aldi’s a few weeks ago. It sounded promising.

Thursday: BLAs: That’s a Bacon Lettuce and Avocado sandwich, because tomatoes are gross.

Friday: Grandma’s choice: Rockford and I will be embarking on our annual Weekend of 1,000 Films — in which we try to watch as many of the Best Picture nominees as we can squeeze in — so Grandma is in charge of dinner.

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.

menu plan Monday

Youth sports and the dinnertime conundrum

02/19/2018 Nichole

Soccer practice is back this week, which means we won’t be home at a reasonable hour a few nights a week for the next few months. I’m going to try not to hit the drive-thru every practice night, but history tells us there’s a high chance of cheeseburgers on a regular basis.

Here’s what we’ll be having this week:

Monday: Grilled Something Sandwiches: This’ll be some combination of cheese, bread, ham and a saute pan.

Tuesday: BFD: Ah, my faithful old eggs and veggie sausages. You’re always a winner.

Wednesday: Rotisserie chicken and salad: I said we would be having this a few weeks ago, thanks to a coupon for a free meal from Whole Foods. I never went to Whole Foods, though, so we never used the coupon. Hopefully I get over there this week.

Thursday: Tortellini: Poppy’s request. I’m not sure cheese tortellini is Lactaid-worthy to me, so I’ll probably just have a big salad.

Friday: Takeout: There’s a Thai place nearby that I’d like to try, but I’m 99.9 percent sure the kids won’t try anything there. So it might be Pad Thai or Whatever Cereal You’d Like to Serve Yourself night.

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.