Sunday Morning Meal Planning

I planned and purchased our week’s food yesterday.  The pre-bar exam period has been a hodgepodge patchwork of crappy frozen meals and delicious gifted meals from friends, as well as living in filth.  I stayed disciplined even though it drives me crazy to wade through piles of dirty laundry and weeks-old food crumbs, and the Professor kept things running despite feeling sick, but it’s really a two-healthy-person job to keep this house in order (on top of the two real jobs we both have!)  I finished the bar on Friday and came home and collapsed, then went out for drinks with a friend that night, to a bar a block away that I can walk to (our V-Day/bar celebratory dinner with the Prof has been postponed to when he feels better).  And on Saturday – CLEAN.  I scrubbed the house top to bottom, while the Professor ran errands (getting Liam’s new glasses, picking up a futon frame we’d ordered weeks ago, taking the boys to take their merit admission test for the FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL that only lets in kids who can pass a test, WTF).  I also planned the week’s meals.  I go back to the normal work-schedule Monday.  Zippity zoom goes the year.

Saturday: Sweet and sour chicken, jasmine rice, steamed broccoli.  I did indeed make this last night and it was really, really good.  I made it just as the recipe says, and next time I will probably cut down on the sugar a little.  The vinegar did not overpower (I used rice wine vinegar since we didn’t have apple cider, which may be why it was on the sweeter side).  I doubled the sauce and used half during baking, then boiled the other half to a nice thickness and poured it over top when I pulled the bits out of the oven.  I love my rice cooker – it has a steamer basket included, so you can cook rice and steam veg at the same time.  Not this one exactly, but same idea.  Anyway, this recipe shall be repeated.  Next time I make it, I’m hopeful that I won’t have a toddler come up and show me his handful of poop while I’m in the middle of frying the nuggets in hot oil (and the Prof was at the store – UGH!)

Sunday: taking a lasagna to a friend’s house tonight.  It’s a frozen Stouffer’s that I bought for bar-time, but we ended up never eating it.  We’ll have salad, bread, red wine, and good conversation.  That is, if Liam feels better – right now he’s feeling poorly.  🙁

Monday: Balsamic chicken and vegetables.  I like that this one is a starch-free meal.

Tuesday: Sausage and pepper hoagies with homemade potato salad and fruit.  I used Aidell’s chicken sausage and it’s delicious.  Yes we shall OD on chicken this week but there was a huge BOGO sale on chicken thighs, so I’ve got a ton in the freezer.

Wednesday: Wednesday night supper at church – I have church choir Wed night and we usually attend the supper beforehand.  A few weeks ago we had a king cake tasting – so fun.  Last week it was fried catfish, green beans, and quartered new potatoes – delish.

Thursday: Ground turkey tacos with refried beans and fried bananas (look through this linked recipe for the fried bananas – the whole Cuban bowl is a delight but it’s too much work for a weeknight).

Friday: Store-bought cheese ravioli with pesto and chunks of pan-seared zucchini and yellow squash.

Saturday: DATE NIGHT kids get mac and cheese woooooo