This weekend was busy and nice and busy. My brother and his family came for a visit, the kids had birthday parties and playdates and an Easter egg hunt to attend, we bought groceries for the week, we saw “Rio 2,” Rockford mowed the lawn and planted the garden, and I tried on but did not buy swimsuits, made a giant outdoor Twister board for our upcoming homeschool co-op field day, planted a bucket of potatoes and made Easter dinner.

I think I need a nap and a snack.

Monday: Scalloped ham & potatoes

Yesterday we had The Easter Dinner, with ham and potatoes and carrots and salad and deviled eggs. Today we will revisit the ham and potatoes, in a slightly different configuration.

Tuesday: Festival of frozen foods

The kids are doing their annual standardized testing tomorrow, so I thought it might be good to make it a super-simple dinner night. I told everyone to pick their frozen food of choice at the grocery. Rockford will be having cheese enchiladas, I’ll have Palak Paneer, Pete will have Indian Butter Chicken and Poppy will have a cheese pizza.

Wednesday: Oven-roasted cheeseburgers

I’ve been trying to make a return to Kids Choice Night lately. Last week, Poppy chose butternut squash lasagna. This week it’s Pete’s Choice, which means we’re having cheeseburgers.

Thursday: Lemon chicken

We tried Stephanie O’Dea’s orange chicken recipe a few weeks ago, and it was good. (I thought it was OK; Rockford and Pete loved it.) Rockford is a big fan of lemon chicken, so when I noticed that she also has a lemon chicken recipe, I thought we’d give it a try. It has frozen lemonade concentrate in it, so I’m a little dubious. We’ll see.

Friday: Pizza!

On Saturday night I made pizza using garlic-herb pizza dough and fresh mozzarella from Trader Joe’s. It was delicious. That’s probably what we’ll do again this week.

I’m linking this up with OrgJunkie.com’s weekly Menu Plan Monday thing.

Sunday: Butternut Squash Lasagna

I’ll try just about anything that includes a butternut squash puree, because it’s the one vegetable that Poppy will eat willingly. Rockford’s cousin posted a picture of her butternut squash lasagna a few days ago, and it looked and sounded so delicious that I made it for Sunday night dinner. I couldn’t find the amaretti cookies the recipe calls for (yes, there are supposed to be cookies in it), so I just added a little sugar and a splash of almond extract to the butternut puree.

Monday: Kung Pao Chicken

One of my very favorite meals is PF Changs’ kung pao scallops. I don’t like cooking seafood, though, so we had kung pao chicken instead. The recipe I used calls for “velveting” the chicken. It’s a method that includes coating the meat in egg white and cornstarch and then briefly poaching it, and it makes for a more tender protein in your stir-fry. It’s worth the extra steps.

Tuesday: Pizza

I believe we’ll have a wood-fired pie from our favorite local pizzeria. The last time we were there they had an autumnal pizza with butternut squash, gorgonzola and pancetta. It sounds a little weird, but it was exceptional. I’m looking forward to seeing what their special is today.

Wednesday: Chicken sausages and macaroni & cheese

We never had this last week.

Thursday: Cheeseburgers

Pete wants cheeseburgers every day, for every meal. He’ll be very happy on Thursday.

Friday: Ribs

We bought a large pack of ribs at Sam’s Club when my dad was visiting recently, and I have a few racks in the freezer that I need to use. I usually make Alton Brown’s No Backyard Baby Back Ribs, but I’m thinking about switching it up and trying a Korean marinade this time.

I’m linking this up with OrgJunkie.com’s weekly Menu Plan Monday thing.