Can you believe that January is already more than half over? How did everyone survive Blue Monday yesterday? It’s really chilly in Toronto so the weather is not helping with the general mood.
I had a pretty good week with meal planning and followed until Friday night. We ended up taking my mother-in-law out for her birthday dinner so a good reason not to follow the meal plan. We ended up at Olive Press, a local Oakville Italian restaurant that is quite family friendly. Oh, I did change my Korean beef bowl for sauteed ground beef and tomatoes as I had a bunch of tomatoes that I didn’t want to go bad. After Friday, the weekend plan didn’t happen. We still ate in but we ended up have frozen lasagna Sunday night and for the life of me, I can’t remember what we ate Saturday night! Maybe pasta, spinach and tomato sauce? B could get pasta and tomato sauce everyday if he could and I’d rather he eat than not so sometimes I don’t have the energy to fight it and make an easy dinner that he (and we) can enjoy.
I still find it a struggle at times to meal plan. While it would seem weekends would be perfect time to do this, I find them too busy (we went skiing and a three year old birthday party on Sunday) and the last thing I want to do is meal plan. So again, while this plan is for the week of January 18, it is posted today, the 19th. A full week’s plan and mostly put together meals.
Monday
- Boiled wontons (my favourite ones from Costco) in chicken broth, noodles and baby romaine.
Tuesday
- Taco Night! I have some leftover rotisserie chicken that I froze a month or so ago so having that with hard and soft tacos and the usual toppings including guacamole. This guac recipe from Alton Brown is solid but if you don’t like cumin or don’t have some of the ingredients on hand (like jalapeno peppers), feel free to make your own! I think the four ingredients that are needed are avocados, lime juice, tomatoes and onions. I throw in some Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce. If I have on hand, I love adding sun dried tomatoes to my guacamole. I had it the first time 10 years ago at Rick Bayless’ restaurant Frontera Grill in Chicago and have been adding it every since. Great texture and depth of flavour and I would use in lieu of sea salt.
Wednesday
- Tortellini with tomato sauce served with mixed green salad.
Thursday
- Sauteed broccoli and flank steak with jasmine rice.
Friday
- Stir-fried shrimp and eggs from The Woks of Life with jasmine rice. I know we’ll have leftover rice and this dish will be nice and quick for a Friday night. My mom always made this dish for us growing up and since shrimp, eggs and rice are among B’s favourite foods, I hope it will be a tear-free dinner.
Saturday
- Chicken nuggets and fries.
Sunday
- Baked chicken breasts and mashed potatoes.
If there are any recipes that you think I should try, let me know and I will endeavour to put it on one of my upcoming meal plans. Have a great week!
Hello my friend,
Excellent line up this week and thanks for the reminder. I also had a half baked chicken and two link smoke chicken sausages in freezer. So I decided to make a creamy pasta dish with baked chicken and smoke chicken sausage along with cold tomatoes sliced very thick with a dollop of mayo and sprinkled with fresh basil and olive oil.