In an effort to be a whole lot more organized this year, and because everyone is always posting what delicious food they make, here is what I have been serving my family for the past week. I also envision this being a detailed account of how I fail miserably at meal planning when life gets too busy. But hey, it’s real life. Speaking of real life, I am not and never will be a food blogger. If I ever were to post food pictures for you, I apologize in advance for how awful they are.
- Saturday: Saturday ended up being a lot busier than any of us planned. As such, by dinner time, no one was interested in anything terribly fancy or time-consuming. So, I made the old stand-by, potato chip casserole, sans the cheese listed among the ingredients. (Honestly, I am shocked I was able to find a recipe online for it.) This is one of those meals you never quite want to admit to eating, but it is too damn good to ignore.
- Sunday: It must be childhood food week because tonight, Jim made sloppy joes for the family. Even the kids were commenting how long it had been since we last had them. Regardless, they were tasty.
- Monday: These are one of the two most difficult days of the week to plan dinners. With Holly gone until 9 PM, it just does not seem worth the effort. That’s why tonight, by unspoken agreement, we all agreed to eat leftovers or whatever else struck our fancy. This is also known as “fend for yourself” night by the kids.
- Tuesday: Holly and I had a simple dinner of a homemade breakfast sandwich. You can never go wrong with a fried egg and melted cheese on a toasted English muffin. The boys decided they were too good to eat.
- Wednesday: Jim left for another quick business trip, and no one was all that interested in eating anything fancy. I worked late, so my kids threw in a frozen pizza. Totally not sexy but it did the trick.
- Thursday: There was a crisis of the heart in the family tonight, so I was too busy consoling the forlorn to make anything substantial. I kept dinner simple yet again with ravioli and marinara. Honestly, I was impressed I was able to get him to eat even that.
- Friday: Jim came home tonight. Unfortunately, he had a late lunch, which threw my plans up in the air. Instead, he came to the rescue by picking up Noodles and Company for dinner for the rest of us. Yay Jim!
This was not the most impressive week for feeding my family. The meals I did prepare were nothing special, and we seem to have stuck with total comfort foods. I suspect it is the weather. I hope to do better next week, that is if I can pull together some semblance of a menu and actually hit the grocery store.
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What was for dinner at your house this week?
I love to cook but when Scott is out of town I just can’t be bothered! I tell when looking back on my calendar because it’s filled with easy and kid-friendly foods…lots of pasta! Fend for Yourself is another of my favorites. Scott hates leftovers and I hate the waste, so I’ll eat leftovers and let him figure out what the hell he wants to eat (usually he concedes to laziness and eats leftovers, too). I’m trying to be much better about future planning, but ugh–the work in coming up with ideas for each day! Hate it!
The work is why I stress about meal planning. I also find that a recipe that sounds good on Friday does not sounds so good on a busy Tuesday or Thursday night. It happens every week no matter what I plan to make. It is odd and frankly quite frustrating because it takes the joy out of cooking.
I am usually awful about not cooking when Jim is out of town. I may not have hit it out of the park these past few weeks, but I have definitely cooked more than I normally do. It definitely was not easy either. It is just a bit too easy and tempting to say, “Go have a bowl of cereal.”
That chip casserole sounds absolutely wrong on so many levels but also sounds pretty good.
I made way too much food for super bowl and then many of the people who planned to come did not come so we have a crap load of food left but none of it is the type that keeps well. I had to toss almost the entire layered salad this morning minus the two portions people actually ate. No one is going to want Brats tonight so I have no idea what to do with the ones we grilled. Track starts tonight so who knows what we’ll eat?
It is so, so wrong. I normally never tell people about it, but it is probably the only recipe from my childhood that I make. The whole family loves it too, plus it takes less than five minutes to prep. Easy and delicious. I cannot ignore that.
Oh, we had so much food for the Super Bowl that we ended up eating it for three days this week. I will not be having seven-layer taco dip any time soon. Or spinach-artichoke dip.
I think you still did great – I love breakfast sandwiches (hell, I love breakfast for dinner any day), and ravioli. Easy and always tasty. We usually have sloppy joes/coney dogs at least once a month in the summer. It’s an easy one to throw in the meal plan!
I think we will be having a big breakfast for dinner this weekend. We have all the fixings, and we have not done it in quite some time. Sometimes, it really hits the spot!