Meal Planning: Week of November 28th

Review from last week:

Caprese salad.  We buy the fresh Mozzerella from Costco and it never lasts very long!

Blue Apron from the week before (masala chicken with kale and rice):

 

Our favorite butter lettuce/pistachio salad and more caprese salad.

 

Also, as planned, we worked our way through lots of leftovers from the freezer and made some much needed room in the fridge for.....

THANKSGIVING!

The turkeys both exceeded my expectations and they were SO delicious!  I'll 100% make this herb butter smothered chicken again next year. It was juicy and flavorful and made the entire house smell SO good.

 

Greg smoked his turkey breast over apple wood chips and wrapped it in bacon.  How could this go wrong?  It was salty and smokey and tender. 

 

Plan for next week:

I'm not planning meals for the weekend since I'm HOPING we have lots of leftovers.  What we do have are a lot of fun plans: Going to see Moana, getting our Christmas tree, and generally enjoying the long weekend.  Might grab a few meals while we are out and about.

Monday:  Dinner at The Spaghetti Factory for Jeannette's birthday - a several-year long tradition at this point!

Tuesday:  Blue Apron Meal:  Smoked Trout Tartines with Romaine, Cucumber and Radish Salad

Wednesday:  Blue Apron Meal: Chicken & Kale Caesar Salad with Radishes and Almonds

Thursday:  Blue Apron Meal: Balsamic-Glazed Onion Cheeseburgers with Roasted Potato Wedges 

Friday: Skillet Chicken in Tomato Chipolte Sauce with Avocado Crema

Meal Planning: Week of THANKSGIVING

Review from last week:

A great new chicken chili recipe.  I'll make this again.

 

Baked potato for Ben - always very satisfying when he finds a new food he likes (even if it's a no-brainer kid-friendly item like a POTATO).

Pasta with sausage :)  So into this easy, delicious recipe.

 
Blue Apron!  White fish over pasta with collard greens.  Yum.

Steak, garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli (cooked in steak fat). 

Cooking up the last Blue Apron dish tonight.

Plan for next week:

Saturday:  Burgers

Sunday: Brunch with Broady's!  They are coming over for our favorite french toast and bacon.  Dinner will be something light (tomato soup and butter lettuce/pistachio salad)!

Monday - Wednesday: Leftovers! Chicken Pot Pie, Jerk Pork Quesadillas, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Soup - whatever.  No cooking and fridge/freezer clean out in preparation for the big day.

Thursday:  THANKSGIVING.  Very excited to be hosting a bigger group this year!  Greg and I are cooking turkey 2 ways: A big one roasted in the oven and a smaller one smoked on the grill.

Friday: LEFTOVER PANINIS

Meal Planning: Week of November 14th

Review from last week:

The only picture I took last week was of the spaghetti squash enchilada bowls.

Plan for next week:

Saturday: Queso Crockpot Chicken Chili with Roasted Corn and Jalapeno

Sunday: Loaded Baked Potatoes - We learned that Ben not only ate baked potato wedges with bacon, cheese and greek yogurt at school - but had SECONDS.  Definitely making them for him at home now.  ANYTHING for a new option he will be into!

Monday: Paprika White Wine Bucatini


Tuesday: Blue Apron Meal: Seared Barramundi with Collard Greens, Fregola Salad and Shallot Agrodolce

Wednesday: Blue Apron Meal: Masala-Spiced Chicken with Yellow Tomatoes & Jasmine Rice

Thursday: Blue Apron Meal: Seared Steak with Garlic Mashed Potatoes & Sauteed Broccoli

Friday: Burgers with caramelized onions

Meal Planning: Week of November 7th

Review from last week:

This chicken gnocchi soup was great.  Greg especially loved it.  Personally, I don't think it needed the gnocchi - the flavor was great without it.

Another new recipe: sticky garlic chicken bites.  I think this one will make it into the rotation, too.

Not pictured: the jerk pork we cook all the time.

Plan for next week:

Saturday: Burgers with caramelized onions

Sunday: Spaghetti Squash Enchilada Bowls

Monday: Chicken Pot Pie

Tuesday: Korean BBQ Bangkok Burritos (I froze leftovers last time I made this dish)

Wednesday:  Leftovers

Thursday: Spaghetti & Meatballs (from when Marcia was here and froze dinners for us)!

Friday: Parent's Night Out - out to eat!

Week in Photos: First Lost Tooth, Craigslist Win, and Halloween 2016

Ben's best buddy Freya had her 5th birthday at the pumpkin patch, which was really fun!  The day ended up being probably the nicest day we had here in October, which meant the patch was PACKED.

 

 

 Falling asleep SO HARD.

Terrible lighting in this picture, but Ben is "hiding" under the couch during a game of hide and seek.  I have to give him credit, he actually HID this time (vs his usual running around scrambling for a place to hide).  But he did immediately start laughing SO LOUDLY as soon as I said "ready or not, here I come"! ;)

Playing with glitter at school - adding to the long list of things I love about his school: they encourage him to do things that I would never initiate at home!

Morning snuggles and YouTube Kids on the OLD couch:

 

Couch upgrade!  Due to a number of factors (10 year old couch, massively misshapen pillows, but most importantly - mine and Greg's current bad back situations), we decided to start looking for a new (firmer) couch!  My taste/preference is generally a little more expensive and modern than Greg's.  We had been looking all over online and in stores trying to agree on what is reasonable to spend on a couch and what style to get.  Enter BFF extraordinaire Rachel:  She helped us find the best compromise on CRAIGSLIST (which I now am obsessed with.  Correction - I'm obsessed with telling Rachel what I'm looking for and allowing her to find it).  Anyway, we found a couch we both really love that is comfortable, supportive and at a great price!

My mom brought over a variety of goldfish to do a GOLDFISH CHALLENGE. 

Ben reading me bedtime stories...in HIS bed!  We had slipped into a bad habit of letting Ben fall asleep with us every night and then carrying him asleep to his bed.  All 43 pounds of him.  Ben would literally request that "a dream carry me to my bed".  Anyway, it got to be too much.  Greg suggested requested demanded that we institute a new bedtime routine.  SO, we successfully have made a transition where bedtime = Ben reading a book to me, and then me reading Harry Potter to him :)  And it's been awesome.

BEN LOST HIS FIRST TOOTH!!!  It became loose on October 8th when Greg and I were out to dinner for our anniversary.  He had a dentist appointment on the 25th where the dentist said that if it wasn't out in 3 weeks, we would need to go back and have him remove it.  (Apparently it can damage the new tooth coming in if the baby tooth hangs around too long).  Anyway, it came out on the 28th and it was very exciting for all of us!

My attempt at a Hamilton themed pumpkin :)

 

Ben had a cold so he joined me at my doctor's appointment - which happens to be where my mom works!  He was a hit in his doctor's costume. 

Not fun side note: but I have a herniated disc.  Lots of PT and a Cortizone steroid shot are in my future. :/

 

Halloween fun at school:

 

 

Counting/organizing his loot:

 

 Coloring while out to breakfast.