Good morning!
First things first. What's on the menu for this week? Homemade pizza, grilled chicken salad with balsamic dressing, MaMa's Supper Club Tilapia (shown above) with cheese grits and roasted asparagus, chicken & black bean soup, pork tenderloin with twice baked potatoes and roasted broccoli.
Also, after reading Dinner Week 1, George thought you might want to hear how the week went, so here you have it:
The good: Monday's chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole was a hit with the entire family once the boys realized that, as I mentioned earlier, they do actually like that dish. It was a great meal to pop in the oven and have as a one dish dinner on a night that always ends up being crazy with tball. Tuesday, I made the shrimp & corn chowder, but we ended up going on an impromptu date night after curriculum night at school (yes, I needed a glass of wine after that!.) So, the shrimp & corn chowder fed the boys on Tuesday, and was great for lunch on Wednesday and dinner for me and George that night (boys ate at Wednesday night supper at church.) Tacos on Friday night were super fast and easy, and I can pretty much count on happy faces at the dinner table on taco night. A plus by the end of the week!!
The not so pretty: Last night, I made the mustard chicken, potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. Although, my husband and I LOVE Brussels sprouts, I can tell you that the boys do not! I wouldn't have even attempted putting them on their plates (I served them apples with peanut butter instead) except for the fact that I had heard Dr. Joey Skelton, founder Brenner FIT, speak this past week about childhood hunger and obesity. He said that you need to put something in front of a child TWELVE times before you give up as their tastes are always changing. So, I tried it :) They ate the bacon that it was cooked with...does that count for something? Also, the dinner from Julia's Take Away Gourmet was so yummy, but I did not take into account that she was making Chicken & Corn Chowder when I was doing my meal planning...we had a LOT of chowder this week :)
The ugly: Thursday morning, I asked my husband what he might like for dinner of our remaining choices...of course he said the risotto as he's 1/4 Italian, and any time I give him the choice, he'll choose Italian...especially authentic Italian...that takes FOREVER. I normally would not cook such a labor intensive meal on a "school night," but I decided that it would be great. I had a plan to start dinner at 4:00, plug the kids into a show if the need arose, and feed the baby in the high chair while I cooked. I had hoped to be done by 5:30 with plenty of time to spare before the kids were ravenous. Well, that was a bust because I ended up taking the baby to the doctor at 4:00. Diagnosis, croup! Are you kidding me? Now, what I should've done is scrapped the risotto idea and gone through the drive through at ChickFilA; instead, I got home at 5:45 and promptly started chopping, stirring, etc (I was determined!.) Thankfully, George was home and entertained the boys, got the baby to bed, and made it possible for me to even make dinner. At 6:30 when it became abundantly clear that this dinner was no where near finished, we (and when I say we, I really mean George) threw together turkey sandwiches and fruit for the boys, raced to get them into the tub and to bed, and I resumed stirring. At nearly 8:00!!! the dinner finally came together. It was well worth the wait, George and I loved it, but I would've loved for the boys to have eaten it too (we usually eat at 6:00, and they are usually in bed by 7:15)...it was clearly NOT the right night for it! Plan = FAIL. My demeanor at the end of making dinner = FRAZZLED MESS. Best friend coming over after dinner with pumpkin cookies in tow = SAVED THE NIGHT.
Going Forward: As I was writing last week's recipes, I realized that my blog post was going to be incredibly long, so I did not include the shopping list. If that is something you'd like to see going forward, please let me know, and I'll be happy to tack it on at the end. I'd love your feedback as to what you'd like to see more of, less of, questions you have, whatever!
Happy Cooking!
