Category Archives: menu plan Monday

There’s a lot of tomato sauce in our future

01/21/2013 Nichole 1 Comment

Pete thoroughly enjoyed playing in his first basketball game and Poppy had a full schedule of playdates — one of which involved a zip line — over the weekend. Rockford and I had a nice weekend as well. He watched a lot of football and cleaned the kitchen, and I went to the mall, watched “Downton Abbey,” chose some new photos for the walls and polished all of our bouillon spoons.

(Only one of those things didn’t actually happen.)

Monday: Chicken Parmigiana: I’ve been making some variation of “chicken and a pan sauce” every week for the last several. This recipe — from Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything” — isn’t quite that, but it starts with sautéing the chicken so it’s close. Rockford loves chicken parm, so I’m hoping this is really great.
Tuesday: Chili: Tuesdays have turned into The Night When We Have Lot Going On, which also translates to CrockPot Night. I’m slowly but surely building a small arsenal of slow cooker soup recipes.
Wednesday: Pizza subs: It’s Poppy’s week to make the call for kids’ choice night. Seems she’s discovered that a pizza sub is a pretty much the same thing as pizza. Clever kid.
Thursday: Leftover night!: This will be our third week of Leftover Thursday, and I’ve been pretty pleased with it. I don’t normally like leftovers all that much, but I do enjoy not cooking one night a week.
Friday: Pizza: This will also be the third week of DIY pizza, which is doing nicely for the budget.

menu plan Monday

This weekend I learned how to hang a new light fixture and how not to make a delicious brisket

01/14/2013 Nichole 1 Comment

Last night I made a brisket that a popular food web site said was going to be amazing, and it was extremely not amazing. I’d categorize it somewhere closer to gross, and I probably won’t try to make a brisket ever again.

The bad brisket didn’t ruin my weekend, though. I slept ’til nearly noon Saturday and yesterday (thanks Rockford!), we finally replaced the light fixture in the dining room, and I wrapped up the weekend by watching the first hour of the Golden Globes, then “Downton Abbey” and then the last hour of “Golden Globes.” And I think everyone in the house is finally healthy again.

Here’s hoping the rest of this week’s meals are a bit tastier than the Great Brisket Fiasco!

Monday: Black bean soup: We ate the leftovers of last week’s chicken tortilla soup almost every day, and every day Pete asked for more beans. He also asked when I would make him a just-bean soup. Today’s the day, little buddy.
Tuesday: Chicken Piccata: I’m not sure I’ve ever tried to make chicken piccata before, but Rockford loves lemony chicken so I’d be surprised if I hadn’t. Leaky memories aside, I’m hoping this will be tangy and lovely.
Wednesday: Cheeseburgers: This week it was Pete’s turn to pick the kids’ choice meal, and he picked his favorite food of all time: “Cheeeeeeeseburgers!”
Thursday: Festival of Leftovers: I’m banking on having soup and chicken leftovers, obviously. I’m not sure what we’ll do otherwise.
Friday: Pizza: We made our own pizza last week, and it turned out pretty great. We’ll probably do it again this week.

menu plan Monday

This will likely lead to increased media consumption

01/07/2013 Nichole

We took the Christmas stuff down this weekend, so now the living room looks wide open and a little less cozy. We’re going to address that — I’m not sure “fix” is the appropriate word — by putting a TV in the living room this week. We have a TV downstairs and one in our bedroom, and I haven’t really missed having one in the main living area. Rockford has, though, so we’re going to give it a try. The basement is pretty chilly this time of year, and I’m looking forward to not shivering while we watch movies.

I think I’m on the forward edge of a migraine — the text on my screen is leaving shadows of itself everywhere — so I’m not even going to try to come up with a connection between moving the television and making a meal plan. But I will say that it feels like this is the first week in years that I’ve actually made a menu plan, so that feels like an accomplishment. (Update! It was the forward edge of a cold. Blargh.)

Sunday: Beef stroganoff: Sometimes I get a hankerin’ for beef & noodles. This was one of those times. I found a 4.5-star recipe for beef stroganoff at AllRecipes.com, but nearly every review for it had a change or two to suggest. My finished project only vaguely resembled recipe as it was published. (Another update! I spent the whole day in bed, and Rockford and the kids went to Subway after they discovered that the beef was too tough to chew. I left it on low in the CrockPot overnight, the beef became acceptably tender, and we ate it for lunch today.)
Monday: Football party: Some friends are having a national-championship-watching party, too which I’ll be bringing Crimson Tide Woopie Pies. I’m not sure what’s on the menu, but I’ve heard rumors that it might be corned beef.
Tuesday: Chicken Taco Soup: Poppy has an American Heritage Girls meeting at the same time as Pete’s first basketball practice tomorrow evening, which makes it a great day to haul out the slow cooker and make some soup.
Wednesday: Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce: I think I originally saw this on Pinterest, and then I ran into it again while browsing the Everyday Food section of Martha Stewart’s website. So I thought I’d try it. Don’t let me down, Martha.
Thursday: Fish sticks and mac ‘n’ cheese: Usually Wednesday night is kids’ choice night, but Rockford is in charge of dinner prep on Thursday and he requested something simple. Can you guess whose week it was to choose the kids’ night meal this week?
Friday: Pizza: We’ve ordered Pizza Hut for the last few pizza nights, because Poppy had a surplus of BookIt coupons to use. She used the last one last week, though, so I might actually make a pizza this week. (Or I might not.)