Meal Planning: Week of November 24th

Review from last week:


I'm pretty pleased with how minimal (yet delicious) our meals were last week.  

We grilled up tandoori chicken on the panini press and had that with bulgar and zucchini noodles.

Another night we had grilled chicken (seasoned with fresh herbs) and the Trader Joe's Superfood Pilaf I had been meaning to cook forever that ended up being REALLY good.

I also finally made the Butter Chicken I had been wanting to try for some time, and it was great!  Not quite at restaurant quality, but probably a lot healthier.

Plan for next week:

We are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving the day after the holiday on Friday, and I'm really looking forward to that!  Greg, unfortunately, will have to work that day - however it's likely to be a short day.  My mom is going to come over in the morning and we are going to watch Christmas movies (I'm totally in the spirit this year!), cook, bake, perhaps decorate for Christmas a little, and then my dad and Greg will join us in the afternoon :)

For the remainder of the week, soup and salad! I've already made the creamy lentil soup and tomato basil soup - I'm basically saving up all of my cooking energy for Friday.

Ben vs. the slide

After a week + of being sick, we really wanted to take Ben out somewhere where he could do/see something other than sitting around the house.  We also wanted to limit his exposure to other kids/people because, germs - with a hint of a cough and a runny nose, we worried he was still potentially contagious.  

We decided to head the the zoo for a couple hours to get some energy out, especially since we hadn't been to the zoo in awhile and we thought he might actually be interested in it.  After a fun experience seeing the gorillas and some birds in the tropical rain forest, we found ourselves near the indoor play area that Ben definitely recognized from prior visits.  

On his very first trip down the twisty slide, something happened where he looked over his shoulder and managed to bash his face/lip/tooth on the side of the slide.  At first, I thought he had just bonked himself on the forehead or something, so when he came up to my crying I just told him "it's okay!" until Greg looked at his face and saw SOMUCHBLOOD.

We rushed to the family bathroom, where Greg (bless his heart) stood Ben on a stool right in front of the mirror (in order to wash away the blood and get a handle on the bleeding with some paper towels) - but unfortunately Ben found himself staring directly at the TRAUMA of blood all over his face.  Oops.  

When I finally got a look at his mouth, it looked like one of his teeth was jammed up higher into his gums (OMG) so we called the dentist who just happened to be at the office that day and we were able to have him checked out within the hour.

(I took this picture not to capture my sad child but in an attempt to be able to zoom in and actually see what was going on in there since he didn't allow me to get very close to his mouth).

The dentist was able to take a look and determine that none of his teeth were loose, that yes, it did look like his tooth had moved up a ton but that really, it's not that big of a deal since it's his baby tooth.  I was relieved to at least have talked to him.

Ben passed out on the way back, but we got him a milkshake that he devoured when we got home.

And in typical little kid fashion, by the evening it was like it never even happened.  He still has a cut on his lip that is healing, but his teeth look TOTALLY NORMAL (from what I can tell).

I keep telling myself that this is (likely) not the last time this type of thing will happen.  Time to stock up the first aid kit!

Meal Planning: Week of November 17th

Review from last week:

We had a nice dinner with Brenna, Noah and Paige last Friday (failed to take a picture, though)!

The Cougans came over the next night and that was fun!  I found it amusing that both nights were very early nights due to both families having babies under 1 year old!  Times sure are changing :)

I made the chicken and potato florentine soup and even after halving the recipe still ended up with WAY too much soup.

The Blue Apron meals were 2/3.  The flank steak, creamed kale (yum) and sunchokes 2 ways was really great.  Greg especially liked this one.

The salmon with barley-fennel risotto was surprisingly good.  Interesting tastes and textures that I really liked.

I actually hated the Thai chicken meatballs so much than I didn't eat it after a few bites.  That rarely happens with Blue Apron.  Perhaps I was off my cooking game that night.

We had steak and scallops again with roasted brussels and delicata, which I hadn't cooked before but it's delicious and you can actually eat the skin!

Over the weekend I made a batch of creamy lentil soup that was very simple, tasty and low calorie (which is necessary after all this indulgence lately)!

And finally, this Sunday we had Lisa and Evan over for brunch.  Lisa made eggnog french toast and whipped cream, and I made eggs and these breakfast grilled cheese sandwiches that Greg said he was super skeptical of when I was preparing them but he absolutely loved.

That evening I grilled some chicken on the panini press and finally made the bag of frozen "superfood pilaf" from trader joes (quinoa, kale, sweet potato, carrots) and it was completely delicious and I plan to keep a bag in my freezer from now on.

Plan for next week:

We have been doing lots of cooking the past few weeks, so the goal for this week is to only buy necessities to use up what we have.  (I feel like I say that a lot - but for real, we have a lot of food to keep us eating well through the week)!

Monday: Salad (using up the random vegetables and cabbage in the fridge) with toasted hazelnuts and goat cheese and left over lentil soup.

Tuesday: Butter Chicken and roasted vegetables.

Wednesday: Trader Joe's chicken pot pie bites and roasted veggies.

Thursday: Sauteed cod and salad or fish and chips!

Sick boy

Sick boy.  Day 6 of this.  Yesterday was the worst so we finally took him in to the doctor and got him some antibiotics and he is MUCH more cheerful today, thank goodness!  We have been spending our days taking multiple showers (for the steam) and naps (since there hasn't been much sleep at night) and we've gone through 2 full-size tissue boxes.  BUT - he is on the mend!    Can you say CABIN FEVER? 

Meal Planning: Week of November 10th

Review from last week:

We did end up getting Indian food on Saturday night (OMYUM) so I made the lasagna stuffed spaghetti squash on Monday (and then again on Wednesday) and it was so freaking good.  It was so filling and was amazing for lunch the next day.  

The Italian Wedding Soup was also good!  I failed to get a picture of it, but here is one of Greg enjoying it :)  Since we had a Costco sized bag of meatballs in our freezer, I cheated and used those instead of making my own.  It also made for great leftovers.

We tried Plated this week, but so far I've only had the chance to make one dish.  (The delivery arrived at 7pm on Wednesday, much too late for these early bird diners).  Blue Apron wins this round.  But the meal, Pork Chops with Cider Gravy and Roasted Fennel Apple Salad, was good!

Plan for next week:

Friday:  Dinner with Brenna, Noah and Paige!  Planning to make Roasted Red Pepper and Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken Breast with Roasted Brussels sprouts with garlic, prosciutto and pine nuts, and homemade bread (see recipe from a few weeks back).  

Saturday:  Cougle Dinner!  Since Rachel and Peter closed on their home in Edmonds on this week, we are planning to celebrate with a surf and turf feast (with buerre blanc, of course)!!  And because I'm impulsive and obsessed with Top Chef, I might try to recreate one of the dishes we saw on Wednesday's episode, which is similar to this (except I'll add Pancetta).

Sunday: The Beef and Broccoli stir from from Plated (last week).

Monday: Chicken and Potato Florentine Soup

Tuesday: Blue Apron - Crispy Salmon & Barley-Fennel Risotto with Fresh Herb & Red Walnut Salad.

Wednesday: Blue Apron - Flank Steaks & Creamed Kale with Sunchokes Two Ways.

Thursday: Blue Apron - Thai Chicken Meatballs with Red Coconut Curry, Bok Choy & Rice Noodles.