Meal Planning: Week of February 16th

Review from last week:

We loved having Kristin and Craig over for dinner on Saturday!  They brought the most delicious (and paleo) side to go with our flank steak: Bacon Pecan Cabbage.  I can't even explain how good it was.  I'll make this again with our steak for sure.

I made the pulled pork for tacos again.  Had mine in a bowl and a delicious Gregarita.  (Trying to see if I can pull that off for him.  They really are legendary margaritas deserving of their own name in tribute).

We had some filets in the freezer we needed to cook, so we had steak salad.  

We did Blue Apron this week for the first time in awhile, and it was great!  Greg made the chicken, mashed potatoes and maple glazed carrots while I was at yoga :)

The bouillabaisse style fish stew was good, too!  This was my first time cooking this kind of soup.  I think I prefer a bisque or chowder over it.



The last Blue Apron dish was steak with miso-roasted kale, turnip and sweet potato salad with ponzu dipping sauce.  Greg and I agreed the dipping sauce was the best part.  Good over all.



Plan for next week:

Sunday: Ricotta Meatballs with Chianti Sauce

Monday: Callie and the girls are coming over for dinner and a play date, and we are making pizza.

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Blue Apron Meal: Shrimp Po' Boy Sandwiches with butter lettuce & apple salad

Thursday: Blue Apron Meal: Orange Beef Lo Mein with Gai Lan & Napa Cabbage

Friday: Blue Apron Meal: Chicken & Sage Biscuit Pot Pie with cremini mushrooms & purple top turnip (minus the mushrooms, I'm sure, because Greg hates them).

Saturday: Greg is heading to Portland to hang with some friends so I will have delicious take out :)

Sunday: Crispy black bean tacos with feta and cabbage slaw

 

Discovery Park

Sunday surprised us by being a totally and completely beautiful, sunny and even a little bit warm day!  We took advantage by driving down to Discovery Park for a walk to check out the view.  Greg and I had been down here before, possibly when I was pregnant, and we have talked about taking Ben for a long time.  We accidentally took the wrong path, and ended up walking MUCH longer than we had planned.  Greg carried Ben most of the way back (uphill, with a broken toe - trooper), but it was worth it.  Such a great and beautiful place to get a workout in!

We finished the day with pizza and beers at The Watershed Pub where my friend Artie works!  We will definitely be back for more pizza!

Meal Planning: Week of February 9th

Review from last week:

I returned to an old favorite recipe, crispy black bean tacos with feta and cabbage slaw.  Delicious.  Sometimes I watch Greg when I'm getting dinner together and see him silently judging the dinners that do not contain meat....but then I watch him inhale 3 meatless tacos and glance back at the kitchen to see if there is any more.  Satisfying. 

I found another winner on doitdelicious.com - salad greens with fresh mozzarella and crispy (baked) prosciutto.  I always love finding a recipe that contains ingredients that we ALWAYS have on hand.

Arugula - check
Prosciutto - check
Balsamic vinegar/glaze - check

We had this with our weekly batch of tomato soup.

I finally got around to pulling the chicken and potato Florentine soup out of the freezer and was pleased that it froze/thawed very nicely!

I went out to lunch with an old coworker and had the most amazing Brussels sprouts salad, so I'm posting it here + the ingredients so I can try to recreate it at home.

Grilled chicken, Brussels sprouts, candied pecan, Gorgonzola cheese, dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds, red onions tossed in a lemony mustard vinaigrette. 

Skinny chicken saltimbocca.  Greg loves this one.

Salad and the most amazing sausage we found at Costco.  ATTENTION MARCIA: You have to go to Costco and look for Kiolbassa Cheddar and Beef sausage.  

Plan for next week:

Sunday: Soup and salad with crispy prosciutto and fresh mozzarella

Monday: I'll be making Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Almonds, Cinnamon and Sage (knowing that nobody else will come near this dish).  I'll also make Pulled Pork Tacos with Pineapple and Jalapeno.

Tuesday: Leftover tacos! 

Wednesday: Blue Apron Meal: Pan-Roasted Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Maple-Glazed Carrots

Thursday: Blue Apron Meal: Bouillabaisse-Style Fish Stew with Fennel, Potatoes and Castelvetrano Olives

Friday: Blue Apron Meal: Flank Steaks & Miso-Roasted Vegetable Salad with Ponzu Dipping Sauce

Saturday: Out for dinner!  Another Ethan Stowell restaurant :)  I made reservations weeks ago knowing that it would likely be booked solid on Valentine's Day.  I'm excited!  I bought stuff for my mom and Ben to make mini pizzas while we are away :)

Photo Catch Up and Ben Says

These "catch up" posts have been coming more regularly lately (which makes it a lot easier for me). :)

I have been bad at keeping track of some of the things Ben has been saying and doing lately that have cracked us up, but one in particular I made note of was the other night after we both yawned at the same time.  He said "Mama, we YAWNED together"!  Minutes later, we must have both sneezed closely together, which prompted him to say "We yawned together, And we bless-you'd together"!

Unrelated, but Callie snapped this picture after Ben and Maylee got their nails painted, haha!  I guess she started with just one nail, but Ben kept requesting another one, and another one.

On Ben's last day at Callie's (sob) she bought him, Mira and Maylee a special "friendship bear" for them to always keep to remind them of one another.  SO cute.  I'm not sure if he completely understands yet (and I also have not been very clear that we won't be going back each week), HOWEVER, every time he sees the bear I tell him what it is and we talk about the girls.

A few photos I snapped from Becca's bachelorette party in Leavenworth!

Steph and I met up one morning and took the boys to the Play Happy Cafe and followed up with McDonald's for lunch.

One morning on the way to dropping Ben off at school, we stopped for a bagel.

Our little artist.

We went out to dinner with the Cougans, but beforehand, Ben snapped a few pictures:

I wanted to carry Raleigh home in the Ergo, and before we left the restaurant, the hostess exclaimed  (to me, because I was holding him), "He is sooooooooooooooooooooooo cute"! To which I jumped in before Rachel could respond and yelled, "THANKS"! LOL! #mine

A little Waldo searching.

Out for a little walk and found a bomb stick.

Ben often mixes things up like "I", "me" and "he", and will refer to himself as "he" more often than not.  During Superbowl, the boys were outside playing and Ben kept running to open the door to yell at me "We guys are playing catch with the footballs"

Ben, wanting to do everything Laryd did, snagged a spot in Dan's lap, too.

Fresh out the bath in his cozy bear robe.

I had some errands to run at the mall one day, so we stopped for a ice cream cone for lunch (since I was craving one) :)

And in case you are ever wondering how long it takes a 3 year old to eat an ice cream cone, the answer is 37 minutes.  Not kidding. 

Meal Planning: Week of February 2nd

Review from last week:

We found a new recipe favorite last week - the pulled pork tacos with jalapeno and pineapple.  YUM.  I'm pretty sure this will find itself into our meal rotation quite often.

We had the chicken wedge salad again since I still had blue cheese, chives and tarragon from when we had it last week.

Instead of having butter chicken, I made chicken paillard instead.

Friday night we went out for the most delicious Mexican food with the Cougans:

Plan for next week:

Monday: Crispy Black Bean Tacos with Feta and Cabbage Slaw

Tuesday: Tomato basil soup and salad.

Wednesday: Leftovers or something from the freezer

Thursday: Skinny Chicken Saltimbocca with salad

Friday: BLT Chopped Salad with Corn, Feta and Avocado with grilled chicken

Saturday: Flank steak (Greg has perfected his steak recipe).  We will make either tacos or just have with a salad.