Week’s Eats

While last week I may not have totally stuck to my menu plan for dinners, knowing what I’d be making for lunches really helped because we didn’t skip out once! Often we’ll decide that we “need” to run an errand and pick up something while we are out. It was really nice saving that money 🙂  The chicken curry came out delicious, and I’ve finally gotten the heat down just right for our tastes. In fact, I ended up making it again on Sunday night for dinner (and some extra this time!). Friday night we went out to a local diner we really enjoy — An Apple a Day Diner in Red Hook. It’s not a fancy place by any means — there are no wall fountains or fancy paintings or cloth napkins, just good home cooking. It is the perfect place to go with kids! I ordered a Kingston Black burger, which is made with cajun spices, fried onion strings, and blue cheese. I put a little ranch dressing on it too and OMG, it was sooo good! So I’m going to try to recreate it for dinner this week. The boys will just have regular burgers.

And as usual, I am trying out one of Sandra‘s recipes. Seriously, everything she makes just sounds so delicious. I am so glad she puts her recipes online for everyone to enjoy! Speaking of which, I am working on redoing my own recipe blog, and I plan to do a better job of keeping it up to date. I’ll let you know when it’s ready!

This week also is, of course, Valentine’s Day! Since we’re going to be at my parents’ house on Saturday I am hoping to rope them into babysitting so D. and I can have a date night and go somewhere to eat. I think I’m going to do a special Valentine’s dinner for us on Thursday. I’ve been craving penne a la vodka (which is pink – how perfect!) and I know Jake loves it. Hopefully Noah will eat it. I need to think of a special dessert, too (maybe cupcakes). Anyway, here’s the rest of my meal plan:

Sunday
L: McDonald’s (I will admit that this is because I wanted a Hello Kitty watch — the Happy Meal toy)
D: Chicken curry, rice; leftovers for the boys

Monday
L: Chili-cheese burritoes with leftover chili, cheese quesadilla for Noah
D: Stuffed shells, green salad, cauliflower

Tuesday
L: Soup & salad
D: Burgers, potato salad, green salad

Wednesday
L: BLTs, Soup
D: Garlic Chicken Bites (using chicken breast instead of wings), oven fries, green beans

Thursday
L: Berkshire Blue Cheese Salads (chicken nuggets for N.)
D: Penne a la vodka, Ceasar salad

Friday
L: Either sandwiches or pick up something on the way to Mass.
D: Eat at mom & dad’s

Saturday
~ visiting my family and hopefully having a date a night for Valentine’s Day! ~

Baking & Making
~ a new batch of chili mix
~ muffins for the freezer
~ granola

For more menu planning ideas, check out Laura at Organizing Junkie