so long, restaurants (for a while…)

slow cooker chicken vindaloo If you know my family, you know that we enjoy eating out at restaurants. There are a lot of great places around here, from chains to hole-in-the-wall diners. But as I mentioned in my previous post, Laura is entering a rather, um… difficult phase. Last night we ended up at Friendly’s because the pork I’d thawed looked suspicious and quite honestly, Drew and I were restless and felt like doing something. She wasn’t happy with the applesauce I’d brought for her, grew tired of fries after a while and wanted little to do with a roll. I was mortified as she threw things on the floor and immediately I was cleaning up after her. (I can’t understand mothers or fathers who leave messes on the floor for the waitstaff to clean up — at least make an effort!)

So, we’re cutting back on our restaurant visits, which is fine. We’ll save some money and calories in the process I’m sure! I’m thinking about doing another freezer cooking day like I did back in February. It would be helpful to have some dinner kits prepared, some taco meat ready to go, and burger patties made up for quick dinners (and so we’re not left scrambling the next time I take a chance on marked-down meat). Maybe I’ll plan it for the beginning of June when several of the other blogs I read do their freezer cooking. I need to prepare for the big day, LOL!

While we were out we checked out new microwaves. Ours is probably seven or eight years old and it’s pretty tired. We’re considering splurging on an over-the-stove model. Our range hood isn’t the greatest and I’d love the extra counter space we’d gain by moving the microwave up. We checked out several models from name brands like Samsung to generic store brands and have an idea of what we’re going to go with. And then, as if by magic, we got a coupon for Lowe’s in the mail! Don’t you love when things like that happen?

Going back to cooking, I’m changing up tonight’s meal plan as well. I had a craving for chicken marsala, so I’m making that along with linguine, roasted asparagus, and I’m about to bake up some artisan bread to go with it all. I’m hungry just thinking about it! What are you having tonight?

(Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the photo up there? That’s the chicken vindaloo I made the other night. Seriously drool-worthly!)

3 comments

  1. Liz says:

    I totally can relate to eating out angst. It got so bad around here that I’d have panic attacks if we were going to go to a restaurant (usually by husband’s insistence). Eventually I just wouldn’t go in. He’d claim that everything was fine and I was being overly dramatic… maybe true… sometimes I think my anxiety fuels the mood of the entire family. Friendly’s was especially bad because they’d bring out balloons and then all hell would break loose!

    We’re just now getting back in to the swing of going out… funny considering we don’t have hardly any sit down restaurants way out here in the woods. It was good for us to break our eating out habit. (and it really wasn’t that often, once or twice a week at the most)

  2. jesser says:

    We are at that stage with Ben too. We’ve still managed a good meal or two, but it’s really hit or miss (and we don’t go out that often!!). All he wants to do is walk … and if he’s confined, things get thrown, people get scratched, chaos ensues. Traveling and eating out are hard during the 2nd year. But they are so darn cute.

  3. Lisanne says:

    I’m sorry about the Laura and eating out problems … we really don’t eat out that much just because of the expense. But it’s also healthier to eat in. 🙂 That chicken looks awesome!

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