Meal Planning: Week of September 23rd

Review from last week:

I made a different butternut squash soup than I had been planning on.  My friend Hilary walked me through the way she makes it, with apples and spices, so I made it her way and it was delicious!  I found a similar recipe here.  Sadly, Greg wasn't a fan - but I'll try it out on Ben again soon.  I absolutely loved the way my house smelled the entire day it was cooking.

The maid-rites and sweet potato fries were SO good.  The only problem I found was that if you cook the meat according to the recipe, it dried out quite a bit.  I stopped it at least 7-8 minutes sooner and even then it was dry.  Ben, however, dipped the meat in ketchup and could NOT get enough.  He ate his entire plate and then started in on mine.  I will definitely make this one again, especially for Ben.

 

The Santa Fe Chicken was excellent and incredibly easy - m y favorite kind of recipe!  We mixed some of the Trader Joe's jalapeno/cilantro hummus and a little cheddar cheese into it and put a "southwest" dressing (aka olive oil and lime juice) on our salad.  I didn't have black beans like the recipe called for, but I used the great northern beans I had and it was still good :)

 

 

Plan for this week:

Saturday: We are going up to Kate and Dan's house (rescheduled from a couple weeks back) so no meal planning for us that day. :)

Sunday:  Ben turns TWO on Tuesday, but we wanted to have a weekend day dedicated to celebrating our little guy.  We decided not to do a birthday party this year (bad mom?) but trust me when I say he will be spoiled with gifts and love and attention (as he is every day of his life) :)  We are planning to head to the zoo (weather permitting) followed by a late lunch at Chuck E. Cheese, and then then ice cream cake (and maybe a salad, too) for dinner :)  

Monday:  Smoked BBQ Pork Tenderloin. 

Tuesday: Ben's birthday!!!  Cheeseburgers at home.

Wednesday:  Pizza chicken and salad

Thursday: Maid-Rites.  I have all of the seasoning and the sandwich buns for this, so we will have it a second week in a row :)

Friday: Lemon Chicken with Artichoke Hearts