SATURDAY 12: Grilled chicken, yellow rice (from a mix), salad.
SUNDAY 13: “Fend for yourself” once again; I had a picnic at a church event. TheDad and TheKid made do.
MONDAY 14: Beef fajitas with leftover steak (which I freeze immediately after the meal to deter poachers). Just warm up the steak in the last few minutes of cooking the fajita vegetables.
TUESDAY 15: Skillet Chicken and Noodles. This can be on the table in about 35 minutes, it’s satisfying, and if there are any leftovers, it makes a great lunch!
I’m curious: do you say “dinner” or “supper?” It was always “supper” growing up–“dinner” was reserved for holidays, when we ate with the extended family, used the dining room and had tablecloths and fancy dishes. But when I went to college, the cafeteria called it “dinner.”
FRIDAY 4: Shrimp Scampi with pasta, which was such a hastily-put-together dinner that I wound up having to call my neighbor for a box of spaghetti.
THURSDAY 10: Fend for yourself! Big Brother took me to Center City Philly for my (belated) birthday dinner. We enjoyed Asian food served tapas style at Sampan.
I’m linking up with Simcha Fisher for her “What’s for Supper?” feature. I’ve only got 5 days here, because last week I was late, and I haven’t actually decided what we’re eating tonight. Even though it’s 5:15 PM right now.
SUNDAY 30: Hamburgers, hot dogs, tomato-cucumber-onion salad, baked beans (my secret recipe for baked beans: for every 15 ounces of canned baked beans, add 3 TBL ketchup and 1 TBL yellow mustard. Stir. Bake 20 minutes at 350.)
MONDAY 31: TheKid was visiting friends, so Hubs and I went to the diner for omelets.
TUESDAY 1: Chicken Breasts in Mushroom Sauce based on this recipe from author Jeanne Grunert. I still need to write up how I made it (note “based on” above) and include the nutrition information. This was a big hit.
WEDNESDAY 2: Spaghetti and meatballs. This is our Wednesday-supper tradition because I have folk-group practice on Wednesday evenings, and this dinner is easy to make and to clean up.
THURSDAY 3: Chicken thighs with barbecue rub, tater tots, salad, baked beans. Next time I’m putting those on sandwiches with a little cole slaw.
Linking up with Mary Ellen Barrett’s weekly feature!
A few changeups of note from last week:
On Monday I took the night off and got Chick-Fil-A for myself and the Kid. Hubs called just before I started cooking to say he’d be so late that he and his team at work had ordered pizza.
Friday, Big Brother was supposed to come home for dinner and we were supposed to have fish. But his car (Hubs’ old 2002 Hyundai, with over 170,000 miles on it) broke down JUST before he got onto a terrifyingly busy Philadelphia highway during the afternoon rush (thank you, Guardian Angel!) I had to feed the Kid at a reasonable hour, so while Hubs rescued Big Brother, I revamped that fish plan. I needed some comfort food, plain and simple, and something that I could keep warm until the guys were home. So I cut up half a pound of swai fillets and mixed it into Barbara Mahany’s mac n cheese recipe and served that with a salad. Big Brother suggests that next time I season it with Old Bay. It was GOOD STUFF.
Saturday, BOTH the Big Kids were home for dinner, and I was a happy mom, even though the Notre Dame football game didn’t go the way I wanted it. We had steak fajitas based on Father Leo Patalinghug’s recipe. I guess I’ve changed it up enough that I can write up how I do them. I highly recommend this cookbook!
I’m not assigning days to this week’s meals. Here’s what we’re having. I have all the ingredients for all of these meals, and I’m going to pick and choose as the mood strikes.
Here’s what’s in the plan:
Miss Jill Chicken, French fries, vegetable. The Kid would eat this 5 times a week if I’d let him!
Asian turkey wraps, fried rice
Sarah Reinhard’s beef & noodles, carrots. This one needs a write-up too!
It’s time for Menu Monday, hosted at Mary Ellen Barrett‘s corner of the Internet.
I’m still substitute-teaching, and with the “fall back” to Standard Time (can’t we just pick one and stick with it?) I’m setting up an easy plan for the next few days.
SUNDAY: Chicken and Pepper Paprika over noodles. I’ll be writing this one up. Here’s a teaser photo.
WEDNESDAY: Chicken Caesar Sandwiches in the slow cooker. Our over-the-stove microwave is being replaced, since its mysterious demise when Little Brother was using it as a timer 2 weeks ago. I can put the slow cooker someplace else in the kitchen, to give the late-afternoon installation guy room to get the job done.
FRIDAY: Seafood Surprise. Translation: I have 1 or 2 servings each of various fish fillets like tilapia, swai, cod and whiting. 3 of us need to eat. The surprise is what type of fish each person will get. I have a Meatless Friday fish recipe coming up at CatholicMom.com this week, so I might use that one for whatever fish I wind up cooking. That recipe will go live Friday morning at 8 or 9 AM (I’m not sure. The time change is messing up my sense of the schedule, especially since the site is based on Pacific time to start with.)
SATURDAY: Leftovers, now that I’ll have a working microwave to warm them.
On Friday I was asked to take a long-term substitute assignment for one of the second-grade teachers at Little Brother’s school. I’ll probably be working full time through Thanksgiving. This is the first time I’ve worked full time since I’ve had kids, and it is going to mess with the household schedule for sure!
When I make spaghetti sauce and meatballs, I make enough to fill this 12-qt. turkey roaster. BONUS: I don’t have to be home to stir it every 20 minutes and it doesn’t splatter all over the stove.
THURSDAY: Chicken enchiladas, rice (doubled so we’ll have enough to make Friday’s dinner) and salad. Here’s the recipe I use for enchilada sauce. Little Brother will probably just have chicken tacos. That’s the beauty of dishes like this–it’s easy to adjust for people who don’t like delicious things like enchilada sauce.
SATURDAY: the folk group is assigned the 5:00 Mass this weekend instead of our usual noon on Sunday. I invited everyone back here after Mass (I live closest to the church) for a potluck dinner. I’ll be serving Vodka Pasta.
Here’s some good stuff that someone linked to on Facebook yesterday: 8 dinnertime tips from Mario Batalli. This is not serious-chef stuff–it’s simple strategies that make home cooking easier.
SUNDAY: We visited friends and had Chinese takeout. I brought dessert: Make-and-Take Coffee Cake with apples. This cake is so easy to make, which was great, because with Mass at noon followed by rehearsals for both me and Little Brother, there wasn’t time to fool around.
MONDAY: I’m putting together a Ham and Cheese Bake for dinner and leaving Little Brother directions for putting it in the oven to bake; I’ve got a doctor’s appointment in the late afternoon and Little Brother has a rehearsal in the early evening. Cutting it CLOSE! I think the only thing I dread more than a gynecologist appointment is the dermatologist, which is the one I’m seeing today. With my family history, it’s always a stressful experience (we’re Irish. Need I say more?)
TUESDAY: Pot roast in the slow cooker, noodles and gravy. And a vegetable of some sort. Shame on me: my gravy comes out of a can. Maybe someday I’ll learn to make the Real Thing.
WEDNESDAY: Spaghetti and meatballs, our Wednesday-night tradition! I might change it up and serve cheese tortellini instead of regular pasta.
THURSDAY: Tandoori chicken, roasted asparagus, and roasted potatoes. All in the oven at the same temperature, and it’s all easy to clean up if you line the pans with foil. Since Little Brother has an early-evening rehearsal, I’m all about making it easy.
FRIDAY:Singapore Noodles with Shrimp. I can’t figure out if Little Brother likes this because he gets to squeeze lime juice all over everything or what, but he’s a big fan of this dish. And it’s not too hard to make!
It’s Columbus Day morning, and there’s no school today! I subbed 3 1/2 days last week and (so far) am down for one day this week. I’m going to savor this day “off,” do lots of laundry, clean up around here, FINALLY roast the chicken I FINALLY got, and maybe even bake a little.
Not-So-Spicy Peanut Chicken
SUNDAY: I realized yesterday that between my rehearsal for the Festival of Lessons and Carols (coming in December!) and the Kid’s audition for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (also coming in December!) there was no way I’d have time to roast a chicken. Plan B was magically delicious and super-quick: Not-So-Spicy Peanut Chicken (but with a twist. I had no bell peppers, so I just used a whole onion and served the stir-fry over broccoli.
TUESDAY: From the Department of We Didn’t Have This Last Week, Pork chops with fennel and oregano, Portuguese rice, vegetable. I still have to write up that pork recipe. It’s based on a Frugal Gourmet recipe and tastes like Italian sausage!
WEDNESDAY: Spaghetti and meatballs. Pasta Night is back to Wednesdays, at least for this week. I still have to see how the Kid’s rehearsal schedule is going to affect things.
THURSDAY: Miss Jill’s Chicken, roasted potatoes with zatar seasoning, vegetable.
SATURDAY: Fiesta Chicken Tacos, cilantro-lime rice, raw vegetable platter. I’ll be doubling or maybe even tripling this recipe so I can have quick and easy taco filling in the freezer for dinner emergencies!
Fiesta Chicken Tacos
SUNDAY: The Kid and I BOTH have rehearsals at nearly the same time. I have to work out his transporation to his rehearsal and we’ll need an easy-to-prepare dinner afterward. Hamburgers, baked beans and a pasta salad might do the trick!
Now that I have this week’s plan figured out, it’s time to work out how we’re all going to get through the next 2 months of rehearsals times two. I foresee a lot of triple batches and Survival Dinners in our future! Stay tuned!
As I suspected, we didn’t keep to the plan last night. We went to the diner instead.
And after I posted this menu plan this morning, I headed to the supermarket to get the roasting chicken we were supposed to eat tonight. But they didn’t have any. THIS is why I write the menu plan in pencil.
TUESDAY: Spaghetti and meatballs (I’m switching it up and fully expect that there will be a small mutiny because pasta night has migrated to Tuesday!)
WEDNESDAY: Pork chops with fennel and oregano, Portuguese rice, vegetable. I still have to write up that pork recipe. It’s based on a Frugal Gourmet recipe and tastes like Italian sausage!
Here’s our menu for the week, including one carryover item since our Friday dinner became Last-Minute Shrimp Fried Rice. (You won’t believe the secret ingredient!)
THURSDAY: Beef and noodles–a new recipe from Sarah Reinhard, who keeps telling me she can’t cook, but knows how to make gravy. I haven’t mastered that skill! If I manage not to ruin this, I’ll include the link in next week’s menu post. On the side: green beans.
SATURDAY: We’ll be eating at the Polish Kitchen at our parish’s Fall Festival. I’m looking forward to some homemade kluski and golabki.
Skillet Chicken & Noodles
SUNDAY: Chicken and noodles. Maybe. I just realized just how many times we’re having noodles or pasta, all in a row. (Not that I mind, because I could eat noodles every day of the week.) So this one might change.
As always, I write my menus in pencil because who knows what the week will bring? On Friday, for example, I spent the morning as I usually do: volunteering in the school library. I left at 11:35 and said goodbye to the secretary, who called my cell phone 10 minutes later as I parked the van in my driveway. They needed an emergency sub for the afternoon in second grade. I didn’t remember to take out the pasta sauce to defrost when I ran inside to grab my Substitute Teacher’s Bag of Tricks, so we had to go to Plan B, which was magically delicious.
SATURDAY 12: Grilled chicken, yellow rice (from a mix), salad.
MONDAY 14: Beef fajitas with leftover steak (which I freeze immediately after the meal to deter poachers). Just warm up the steak in the last few minutes of cooking the fajita vegetables.
TUESDAY 15: Skillet Chicken and Noodles. This can be on the table in about 35 minutes, it’s satisfying, and if there are any leftovers, it makes a great lunch!
WEDNESDAY 16: As on most Wednesdays, spaghetti and meatballs. And we had a birthday at folk-group practice, so I baked an Apple Coffee Cake.
THURSDAY 17: Chicken Caroline, rice, green beans.
