Category Archives: menu plan Monday

I intentionally ate mushrooms

02/27/2017 Nichole 1 Comment

Rockford’s parents have been joining us for dinner on Sunday evenings pretty much every Sunday night for nearly a decade. Rockford’s sister recently moved to town, though, so now we’re going to her house for dinner every other weekend. She and her fiancé are excellent cooks, and it was delightful to finish off a very busy weekend with homemade chicken marsala made elsewhere by other people. I even ate the mushrooms, which is a good indication that it was delicious. After dinner most of us trekked back over to our house for dessert and the Oscars. I didn’t put nearly as much work into dessert — eclairs and a triple-berry tart, thank you Trader Joe’s — as they put into dinner, but we still enjoyed it.

We also mostly enjoyed the Oscars. Jimmy Kimmel needs to lay off the Making Fun of People’s Names bit, though, and that ending was a doozy. I’m glad “Moonlight” won, but I feel bad that they didn’t get the full experience. I didn’t think “La La Land” deserved to win at all, but I also feel very bad for the folks who worked on it to literally have the statues taken out of their hands on stage. What a weird, awkward way to cap off the evening.

Anyway and apropos of nothing other than it’s Monday and we talk about food on Mondays: here’s what we’ll be eating for dinner this week.

Monday: Breakfast for dinner: I have a meeting this evening, and Rockford has promised the kids pancakes and eggs and veggie sausages. Overachiever.

Tuesday: Blackened Chicken with Avocado Cream Sauce: I’m pretty sure I found this one on Pinterest. I love “blackened” seasoning and avocados. Hopefully I love them together.

Wednesday: Spaghetti and meatballs: Wednesdays are pretty busy for us, so I’m going to have to make the meatballs early in the day to make this happen. We’ll see how that goes.

Thursday: Probably out: I have another meeting on Thursday. Rockford and the kids might meet me for dinner afterward, or they might have something delicious waiting when I get home.

Friday: Pizza: It might be nice enough weather for grilled pizza this week. But it might be a long enough week for ordering out or frozen pizza.

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

Seriously, though, when’s the last time our menu plan was complicated?

02/13/2017 Nichole

Three-quarters of our household has been sick for at least one day since Thursday, and not all with the same illness. So it was kind of a weird weekend. I was out of commission for most of it. I’m still coughing and congested, but it’s getting a little better. This week’s menu plan is ultra-simple, though, just in case.

Monday: Honey-Teriyaki Chicken: I’m using a Blue Dragon sauce packet with chicken, carrots and red pepper.

Tuesday: Sweet potato gnocchi: This one caught my eye on a list of Things You Need to Try at Trader Joe’s. I’m going to serve it with a salad.

Wednesday: Sandwiches: Most likely a choice of ham or grilled cheese. Or maybe chicken salad. I haven’t decided yet.

Thursday: Tacos: This is Pete’s pick almost every week.

Friday: Pizza: It’s Pizza and a Movie night! And it’s my turn to pick the movie! I’ve been on a nice run of ’80s movies — “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “ET” were my last two picks. What should we watch this week?

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

Current events, menu plan Monday

In which Poppy reminds me to keep writing. Also: a menu plan.

02/06/2017 Nichole

I have written exactly one post here at Butterscotch Sundae since inauguration day, which you might through the process of inference take to mean that I am one of those liberal “snowflakes”[ref]Sidebar: Who in the world would consider “snowflake” an insult? I thought admiration of a beautiful snowy vista was one thing we all actually agreed on.[/ref] who is very upset about the state of the world. To which I would say “Congratulations on your powers of deduction,” because that’s exactly why I haven’t been writing.

What I have been doing is reading[ref]”The Hobbit” and “Lovecraft Country.” Working on “Born to Run.” May have abandoned “The Romanovs.”[/ref] and cooking a lot of things in the pressure cooker[ref]Not an Instant Pot but the same general idea.[/ref] and going to soccer tournaments[ref]They won 1 game and tied 2.[/ref] and watching movies[ref]”Moonlight,” “La La Land” and “Arrival” for our annual anniversary film-a-thon.[/ref] and folding laundry[ref]Always.[/ref]. So just like normal.

Except for telephone calls.

I’ve also been calling senators and other governmental offices. I hate talking on the phone, and here I am calling strangers every single day to talk about Cabinet appointees. I don’t know that my phone calls are going to make a difference, but I decided I couldn’t keep doing nothing at all.

Poppy asked me this weekend why I haven’t been writing, and I told her it was because I don’t feel like I have anything important to say. “Well you should do it anyway,” she said, and she’s right. This blog is primarily for her and her brother, and if they want me to keep writing about chicken casseroles and science homework that’s what I’m going to do.

So let’s do this. Let’s talk about something mundane. Like, for example, this week’s menu plan:

Monday: Breakfast for dinner: I made a bunch of hardboiled eggs for deviled eggs in the pressure cooker this weekend, and they were a thing of beauty. Now I’m going to try to figure out the right timing for a perfect soft-boiled egg. (I told you this was going to be mundane.)

Tuesday: Ina’s Lemon Chicken: The hardest thing about this recipe is finding boneless chicken breast with the skin still on. Fortunately, we have a great local butcher who will prep them that way for me. Which reminds me: I need to call them to place my chicken order.

Wednesday: Spaghetti & meatballs

Thursday: ???: It’s Poppy’s choice night, but she hasn’t made a decision yet. Odds are it’ll involve cheese.

Friday: Pizza