"I need some help"

Meal Planning: Week of April 27th

Review from last week:

The last of the Hello Fresh meals we had last Friday was our favorite - Tilapia with potatoes, zucchini and cherry tomatoes with herbs.

Chicken enchiladas on Saturday.

On Sunday, I was planning to have Greg make tandoori chicken, which he did - but per his request, we also made the butter chicken sauce to go on top.  I had mine with zucchini and yellow squash "noodles".  It was perfect.

 

Greg had leftovers on Monday, and I made myself some pasta with arugula, slow roasted cherry tomatoes and Parmesean.

 

 

 

Blue Apron was 3 for 3 this week.  (They usually are). The cod dish from Blue Apron was amazing.  The fish recipes are typically our favorites. 

 

 

I loved this "dry" ramen dish with ground pork and bacon.

 



 

Piri Piri chicken.  Named for the spice blend, I think.  Greg and I usually aren't big fans of chicken thighs, but I'm now thinking it's because I don't know how to cook them.  These were GREAT.  Pan-seared for 2-3 minutes on high and then roasted in the oven at 450 for 22 ish minutes.  Crispy skin and perfectly cooked.  This dish was served with mashed lime-plantains and collard greens.

 



 

Plan for next week:

The FINAL COUNTDOWN is on.  We are just 2 weeks out from our Cabo vacation!  Which means the focus will be on protein and veggies and (possibly) even cutting back on alcohol.  Or should we actually be drinking more to keep our tolerance up? ;) 

Greg is heading out of town after work.  I'm excited to have a weekend with Benny on my own!  I'm made it a point to complete all work and chores in order to dedicate 100% of my time to playing with him.  We have a lot of fun things planned.

Tonight, I am going to treat him to - what else - NUGGETS AND FRIES!  I might make my cauliflower fried rice as planned, but I might cave and go the cheeseburger route.

Saturday:  Chicken and Avocado Mash Wraps

Sunday:  Crockpot Kalua Pork and Cauliflower Rice.

Monday: Grilled Salmon Kebabs

Tuesday:  BLT Salad with Corn, Feta and Avocado

Wednesday: Chicken and Avocado Mash Wraps - again. Or leftovers. 

Thursday: Zesty Lime Shrimp and Avocado Salad

Friday: Greg's birthday!  Dinner TBD - we will see how the birthday boy wants to celebrate. 

Week in Photos

Greg is always so awesome at busting out the Radio Flyer and giving Ben and his friends rides around the house.  Raleigh seemed to enjoy it :)

 

 

 

Rachel brought me flowers that looked like tulips, until they opened and now I have no idea what they are?

 

 

I normally never agree to the car cart at the grocery store, but Ben asked me VERY sweetly this time so I went for it.  Luckily, the store was super empty and I managed to get around okay in it.  We even got to "race" down the aisles that were empty. 

 

 

 

I don't know why, but walking into our room and seeing Ben like this made me laugh so hard.  It was his little shadow that really did me in.  I think it reminds me of the witch's feet in Wizard of Oz when she is stuck under the house.

 

 

Photo-bombing Ben's selfie sesh. 

 

Ben had the best time ever at the park with his two favorite ladies - Mira and Maylee!  Look at all the love in this photo :) 

Ben will often grab my phone and say "Can I take a picture of you _____________" (fill in the blank with whatever I'm doing).  I think he does it because the camera is the only thing he can access when my phone is locked.  He has asked me the following:

 

Can I take a picture of you getting dressed?  (No).

 

Can I take a picture of you going potty? (NO).

 

This one was, "Can I take a picture of you making me peanut butter toast"?  (Sureeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee).  And then he took 1,463.

Ben seems to be enjoying himself more and more at school with each week that passes.  I actually watched from the window the other morning when I dropped him off.  He had seemed a little sad as I was leaving, but then as SOON as he thought I was gone, he took off running and laughing after a little boy that was doing the same.  So, he is straight up PLAYING me.

 

They have a creative drama who teaches a few classes a week, and I have noticed Ben doing more pretending at home as a result of it!  Here is a summary of what they did in class last week:

 

When a dragon moves in by Jodi Moore

 

We’ve started by building a perfect sandcastles with tall towers and lots of tunnels. After this was done we decided to build a fort that would fit all of us (We used chairs and a cover). We really hoped that a dragon might want to move into our fort. So we left our hideout and went to swim. It was a hot summer day on the beach, so we splashed and swam and enjoyed ourselves a lot. When we c...ame back from the water it turned out that someone spilled my things out of my bag. The kids swore they didn’t have anything to do with that. But they started to suspect that it had something to do with a dragon. Then we went to have some ice cream and each child got exactly the kind he ordered, the ice cream started to melt and we became very messy and sticky. We finished eating ice cream and went into the water once again. This time we pretended to be different sea creatures, such as sharks, dolphins and turtles. Soon we felt that it was the right time to have a snack. I went to get my lunchbox and to my big surprise discovered that it was opened and everything I had in it was eaten. I checked with the children and once again they told me that they believed it was the dragon. Soon kids became bored hanging out on the beach and I offered to bring my notebook so they could draw in it. When I opened my bag I was astonished to see ripped and burned out pages. This definitely was the dragon. So we called the police and gave our testimonials to the officer. Yes, we saw it, he was huge, red, with sharp teeth and cricket nails and he ate all our candies and cookies. Something had to be done. We developed a simple plan: we decided to leave a bate (cookies) on the beach and hide away. When the dragon appeared and started to nibble on our bate we caught him with a big net. We acted as a team and moved very quietly. Hooray, we did it!

 

They also do yoga :)

 





Center time.  (Always a fun surprise seeing Ben sitting at a table with the other kids.  After his Little Gym experiences, I thought he would never be a willing participant in group activities) ;)



Circle time (and standing outside the circle - that's my boy)!



 

Lots of little blonde boys in this class :)

 



We all went to the Science Center last weekend (we bought a membership and are determined to get good use of it) and this is one of Ben's favorite exhibits.  It's a room that has "food" on a conveyer belt.  You can then scan each food item into the computer and create a "balanced" meal.  The computer will tell you the number of calories/fat/sodium/etc per serving and then you drag them into breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Here is mine:

Here is Ben's:

2 bagel and cream cheese servings and a bowl of macaroni and cheese for breakfast, with chocolate milk.

2 servings of chocolate cake and nuggets with chocolate milk for lunch.

Nuggets, nuggets and more nuggets for dinner - with chocolate milk. 

Meal Planning: Week of April 20th

Review from last week:

The turkey meatball pitas were just okay.  Kinda bland.

 

 This was probably my favorite meal of the week.  Greg's super delicious grilled flank steak that I'm obsessed with, roasted zucchini with Parmesean and a fun little creation I made up: bulgur, slow roasted cherry tomatoes, arugula, feta cheese with lemon juice. 

 

 

And then there was the other best part of the meal: impromptu BFF(s) for company! 

 

 

 Japanese pancakes.  I beg you, please try these sometime.  Or come over and I'll make them for you.

 

 

On Tuesday I was scrolling through Instagram and one of my favorite accounts, @thefeedfeed had a picture of fish tacos with Sriracha cream sauce.  YUM.  We had already been thawing cod that day to make fish and chips, and just happened to have Sriracha, sour cream and lime juice at home to make the sauce - so instead we had fish tacos.  And they were amazing.

This week we tried Hello Fresh, and while it was fun to try a new company, we will be sticking with Blue Apron.  The portions were probably larger with this company, but I wasn't as impressed with the flavor. 

BUT - I did learn how to make chicken primavera - which will be useful in the future!  It was a good recipe to use as a guide for when I have a lot of random vegetables to use up.

 

 

I also learned how to make gyozas!  And I have a bunch of little gyoza/wonton wraps leftover for future use.  And how cute are those little soy sauce fish?

 



Tonight we will make the final Hello Fresh meal, Lemon-Roasted Tilapia with Provencale Saute.

Saturday: The Olsons are coming over for dinner!  Chicken enchiladas and guacamole! 

Sunday: Tandoori chicken, roasted squash and bulgur.

Monday: Creamy tomato basil soup and salad.

Tuesday: Blue Apron Meal: Almond-Crusted Cod with Snap Peas & Radish-Red Quinoa Salad

Wednesday: Blue Apron Meal: Piri-Piri Chicken with Coconut-Smashed Plantains & Stewed Collard Greens

Thursday: Blue Apron Meal: Triple Pork Ramen with Roasted Garlic & Pea Tips

Friday: Greg is out of town all weekend for a golf trip with his coworkers, so I'm making a dish I know he would hate:  Cauliflower "Fried Rice" with grilled chicken.

 

 

 

 

Meal Planning: Week of April 13th

Review from last week:

We had a wonderful Easter dinner on Saturday!  I forgot to take a picture that night of our meal, but here is one of my leftovers the next night :)

Chowing down!

 

The salsa chicken in the crockpot came out great.  We made it into chicken and cheese quesadillas with fresh guacamole.

 

 

Turkey pepperoni and prosciutto Boboli pizza with arugula salad.

The shrimp and kale pasta from Blue Apron was super good.  I have a think for greens with my noodles.

Saturday: Spiced Turkey Meatball Pitas with Sugar Snap Pea & Bibb Lettuce Salad tonight.

Sunday: Flank steak

Monday: Japanese Pancakes

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: We got a discount to try a new food delivery service, Hello Fresh, so we are trying it out this week.  Our first meal will be Lemon-Roasted Tilapia with Provencale Saute.

Thursday: Hello Fresh Meal - Beef Gyozas with Spicy Soy-Glazed Green Beans.  Greg is going to love this one.

Friday: Hello Fresh Meal - Pan-Seared Chicken & Orecchiette Primavera with Parmesan Cream Sauce & Spring Veggies.

Week in photos

Ben had his first REAL dentist appointment this week!  Since he was quite little, I had been taking him to my dentist every 6 months as was recommended by his doctor.  Each time lasted approximately 45 seconds as Ben was not at all interested in sitting in the chair or opening his mouth.  So, when it came time for his next "cleaning", I figured I had better try a pediatric dentist.  WOW what a difference.

 

I had extremely low expectations for how this was going to go down, but Ben surprised me by actually laying down, opening his mouth, and allowing them to clean his teeth!  It certainly helped that they had Mr. Peabody playing on a TV straight above him that he could only really see if he was lying down. He was very opposed to allowing them to use the water sprayer and "Mr. Sucky Straw" to rinse his mouth after the cleaning, however.  They had to wet a little piece of gauze and try to wipe it all off.  I even gloved up and tried to do it myself because Ben kept accidently chomping down on the poor guy's finger. 

 

The Dentist himself was also great.  He got in there and counted 20 teeth.  He also gave me an idea about what to expect from Ben's "dead tooth" (from the slide incident).  He told me that the infection has remained in the tooth and has not spread to his gums, (good news) but that it might fall out earlier than it normally would have (not great news).  He also told me that Ben has a bit of a cross bite and tight teeth - so when his baby teeth fall out and his adult teeth start to grow in, it could be a bit of a mess.  When I asked him if we should start an orthodontic fund, he told me that would be a great idea. ($$$$).

 

 

Ben's response when I told him he could choose ONE car to bring with him to the grocery store:
 

 

 

Dying Easter eggs with Shirley, Lisa and Grandma!

 

 

Cleaning house before our Easter party!

 

Related: Ben has been a CHAMP when it comes to helping us around the house!  He is very into cleaning windows and mirrors, wiping down the counter and this past weekend he helped us rake and pick up moss from the grass and sprinkle dirt and grass seed in the lawn.  So awesome.  He is earning a couple quarters every day to put into his "truck fund".

 

A brief time out break (on our favorite aisle) at Costco.

 

 

On the way home from Costco, Ben suddenly started whimpering and crying a little.  Greg and I asked "What is wrong??" and Ben's response was ".......nothinggggggg" followed by more tears. 

 

I looked back and saw that he had his hand in his hair and looked completely panicked.  I then saw the tip of a sticker and realized that he had a sticker (or two, I later learned) stuck in his hair.  Greg and I couldn't help but laugh because his "nothing!" response was because he probably knew he had done something he shouldn't.  So funny.

 

We managed to get them out relatively pain free. 

 

 

I received this beautiful tulip planted from my coworker that retired as a thank you for helping plan his retirement party!  They now live on my deck at home.  So pretty! 

 

 

It's a good thing we have a new budget that I'm trying hard to follow that does not allow for fresh flowers ALL the time - because otherwise, all of these mini potted flowers at Trader Joe's would have made their way into my cart.

Caught Greg mid-yawn.