Category Archives: menu plan Monday

Sometimes I can think about sloppy Joes without thinking of Adam Sandler

06/04/2012 Nichole 3 Comments

Monday: Sloppy Joes: This is Rachael Ray’s sloppy Joe recipe, and it’s excellent. It makes quite a bit, though, so I usually either cut the recipe or freeze portions in muffin cups for later meals.
Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner: The kids rarely deviate from their “grandpa-style eggs” on breakfast-for-dinner night. I’m not going to have fried eggs this time, though. I bought some pimento cheese this week, and by golly I’m going to put it in an omelet.
Wednesday: Grilled chicken: I’ll marinate it in Italian dressing, because it’s delicious and the children will happily eat it that way.
Thursday: Fish sticks & mac ‘n’ cheese: This is never my favorite meal, but the kids love it. I’ll probably just have a salad.
Friday: Pizza: The greatest food of all.

In which I grow something for dinner

05/14/2012 Nichole 3 Comments

I finally marked “Grow My Own Vegetables” off of the Mighty List yesterday. Our little garden has been growing nicely, but yesterday was the first time we really harvested anything out of it. (Pete and I have been grazing for a week or so, but that didn’t count.)

Yesterday Rockford went out in the rain and picked a salad for dinner. It was the most delicious lettuce I’ve ever had. Seriously. It was super tender, and it didn’t taste like plastic. I think we’re going to expand our produce empire next weekend with some strawberries, watermelons, cucumbers, eggplants and pumpkins. Unless it’s too early to plant those things. I haven’t really looked into that, yet.

My hope in starting a garden this year was that Poppy would finally yield to the experts who say if you involve your kids in cooking they’ll eat vegetables. We started with Letting Her Pick The Veggies At The Store, then moved on to Letting Her Help Cook The Veggies. Neither worked, so we thought we’d try Let Her Grow And Harvest The Veggies. She very much enjoyed planting the seeds and watering the garden, but she won’t so much as touch the lettuce, much less eat it. Oh well. More salad for the rest of us, I guess.

Monday: Subway: The children have been asking when we could go to Subway again. Tonight we have some out-and-about busyness to attend, so they’ll get their wish.
Tuesday: Spaghetti: I think I may be in a pasta rut.
Wednesday: Birthday dinner: We’ll be celebrating a fourth birthday with a friend. I hope there’s cake.
Thursday: Zatarain’s Jambalaya: I fell for one of those Buy This Thing and Get a Bunch of Stuff Free Meal Deal things at the grocery store a few weeks ago. So we’re going to give this a shot!
Friday: Baseball food: We’re going to a baseball game, so it’ll probably be hot dogs or nachos.

Flotsam / Jetsam, menu plan Monday

The problem with vacation is that it always ends

04/23/2012 Nichole 2 Comments

We took an exceptionally nice little vacation last week.

The kids stayed up way past their bedtimes every night watching basketball with Rockford. Meanwhile, I fell asleep at 8 one night. Amusement parks wear me out.

Pete and I rode the log flume twice. He loved it the first time, when he couldn’t see what was happening. We were in the front the second time. He did not love that. I did, though, which leads us to this:

I rode a roller coaster for the first time in 17 years. The log flume emboldened me. I opened my eyes once and only once, just long enough to see that we were about to go through yet another loop-de-loop. I practiced deep breathing for the full one minute and 48 seconds.

I’m pretty sure the family is in agreement that our favorite ride was the “river rampage.” We rode it six times and were thoroughly soaked. The glee on Pete and Poppy’s faces when Rockford and I got doused was absolutely worth it.

Like I said, it was an exceptionally nice couple of days. Then almost as soon as we got home, we were out the door again to go to a baseball game. Thus extending the exceptional niceness a little bit farther.

I think I may have left my brain on vacation, though. I had a very hard time focusing on this week’s menu.

Monday: Mac & cheese: Rockford has a work dinner, which makes it Kids’ Choice Night. And their choice is almost always mac & cheese.
Tuesday: Grilled chicken: Combine one bottle of Italian dressing, some chicken breasts and a grill, and you’ll have a yummy dinner.
Wednesday: Spaghetti: I made spaghetti with meat sauce one night last week. Rockford must’ve really liked it, because he requested it again this week.
Thursday: MIL’s Choice: We’re going to my in-laws’ for dinner. Whatever she makes will be wonderful, as usual.