I love having the links here to refer to through the week, so I’m putting our week’s meal plan up again. I also wanted to note that my Day in the Life was probably quite boring, but I wanted a record of the insanity. The Prof is helpful when he’s in town – that’s what the weekdays are like when he’s at his job out of state. Twice a week or so, I don’t open the laptop and work after the kids go to bed, and that helps me catch more sleep. Weekends are typically just as crazy, but crazy family-time – this is why I work weeknights, so I can protect my weekends. I try to carve out an hour or two on Saturdays and Sundays during naptime to relax. Occasionally, I’ll work part of a weekday from home, which also makes me feel more centered, even though it’s still working.
Today in particular was baseball opening day, so we were at the ball field most of the day. I am pretty dusty and tired, but satisfied. I get the sense that the elementary school years are going to open up a whole new life for us that I love – much less isolated than the baby years. After a very pouty, whiny game day, we see that we’re going to have to work on Jack’s sportsmanship and attitude. But that’s what this baseball lark is for – not because we have any illusions about professional baseball, but because there’s so much for him to learn about being a good citizen and a decent man.
With that said, here’s the week’s meals. For the rest of March, I am thinking of trying Blue Apron for two days a week. It’s a touch expensive for groceries, and we are limited in our dollars . . . but I love outsourcing some of the planning and decision-making, while retaining the health and calorie control of a home-cooked meal. It’s cheaper than going out, and better for us than frozen pizza or PF Chang’s (which is also cheaper than going out, and tends to be my fall-back on a busy day). Anyway, we may try it and if I love it we may keep it two days a week. It involves new recipes, new ingredients, no waste, and health. I’ll trade a few precious grocery dollars for that.
- Grilled Asian Sesame Chicken wraps. No recipe – I just had some chicken we needed to use, so I put it in some Asian sesame salad dressing we had, and we’re going to grill it. We have flatbread, lettuce, and I might grill some bell peppers to go inside.
- Quinoa crust pizzas – I’m taking the leap. I shall report back.
- Southwest salad, sounds yum
- Provencale chicken supper plus quartered new potatoes
- PWs corn chowder – made some a couple of weeks ago and froze the extra, we’ll defrost and have with a salad
Check out amalah.com. She had a discount code for Blue Apron recently and a review.
Just a warning on Blue Apron – meals took 30-40 minutes to cook. I thought it’d be faster since it was all portioned out, but it took longer than many of my go-to weeknight meals. The food was quite tasty though (unless you’re one of my kids).
I can get you a free week of blue apron if you want. If you’re interested, email me with the email address you want to use for blue apron.
amalah is my inspiration for this, actually. She is my age with boys the same distance apart as my boys, but 3 years ahead of me in her kids’ ages. I.e. three more years past the baby years – she sort of represents the light at the end of my tunnel, re: personal health emerging from a long period of self-sacrifice in the name of growing babies. I am not “made of bird bones” as she says she is, but I don’t want to look like her – more to reclaim control over my neglected body, as she and her husband have done.