Grilled pork chops

with broccoli and left-over biscuits and raw veggies.

Last night was the chicken, in an Indian (Korma?) simmer sauce from Trader Joe's. A little spicier than I remembered from the last time we had it, but still good over couscous.

I need to edit the Thursday/Friday menu - Thursday will probably be eggs, reasonably quick. The pre-teen wants to go to the book fair that night. Friday will be leftover beef stew because it can be reheated really quickly after the mid-kid gets home from karate.

Beef stew

I scavenged the freezer today and found a "braising" steak, some chicken thighs, and some pork chops. The steak got cubed and cooked with onions, celery, and garlic for a couple of hours; then I added carrots and potatoes. Biscuits from Bisquik and salad to round out the meal (and, of course, mac & cheese for the kidlets).

Last night was leftover Chinese - the crispy fried tofu actually reheated a lot better than I thought it would; the sesame chicken was a lot worse.

Menu planning...
Tomorrow will be the chicken thighs in some sort of simmer sauce (I know there's a couple in the pantry) and Tuesday will be the pork chops, probably just grilled. Wednesday will be out. Thursday and Friday will be pizza or quesadillas and some sort of fish. Saturday I'll make bean soup, and Sunday will be on the fly.

Hamburgers and hot dogs

with tater tots and smiley face potatoes. Yum! TMOTH even made the hamburgers so I didn't have to touch the ground beef.
Cake-from-a-mix is in the oven for desert. Double yum.

We had turkey soup with barley last night instead of turkey pot pie. It just seemed easier, even though it probably took as long to cook.

Chinese with the pre-teen

We had dinner out at the Chinese restaurant next to the Goodwill. We tried to order things that we thought there was a chance the picky pre-teen MIGHT eat. No go. She ate some rice and a bowl of ice cream. Oh well - at least I got to have yummy crispy fried tofu. Quite possibly my favorite Chinese food. We now have enough for leftovers for at least two meals, maybe more - sesame chicken and moo shu pork to go along with the tofu.

Menu planning for the next week:

Thurday: turkey pot pie (the last of the Thanksgiving turkey)
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: leftover Chinese
Sunday: Pot roast
Monday: bean soup?
Tuesday: quesadillas?

Cheese ravioli and garlic bread

Frozen cheese ravioli were on sale at Giant, so we had some with plain pasta sauce and garlic bread. Very nice, even the kids thought it was edible.

monitor problems

The monitor on the "main" computer is busted, and we're supposed to get a new one tomorrow. It's just more of a hassle to log in on one of the other computers.

Tonight was leftovers. Toddler-boy has a cold, started Thanksgiving, that he's generously given to both me and TMOTH. It was actually a very good dinner - reheated ham, steak, macaroni & cheese, cornbread dressing. TMOTH made potato pancakes out of the leftover mashed potatoes and they were excellent.

Thanksgiving dinner

MMMMmmmm, I do love Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey, ham for the kids, mac & cheese (thumbs down from the kidlets because of the bread crumbs on top, but it was really good!), dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, broccoli, sweet potato casserole, and rolls. Champagne to drink, of course. Nobody has had room for dessert yet - although TMOTH and I had pie mid-afternoon.

I made the kids and TMOTH clean up, since I did most of the cooking, but I had one bit left to clean up - the pan drippings from the turkey needed to be refrigerated to go into the stock. BUT, I dropped the container and it went all over the floor. At least the hound was happy. It was like this turkey was bent on revenge - before being cooked it had leaked all over the inside of my fridge, so I wound up cleaning out both crisper drawers today as well.

Fish

A couple of nice ocean perch filets, stuffed potatoes, asparagus, and french bread. The pre-teen found some mozzarella sticks and wanted those.

Hopefully I can scare up some dessert later - we've got a box of clementines that aren't too bad, but we also have chocolate...

Chili

We had chili last night. I was able to get the crock pot up and running before I had to leave for the pre-teen's soccer game. It's chili weather here - cool and autumn-y. I also cleaned out the refrigerator enough yesterday to get the turkey in to thaw for Thanksgiving. Anyway, the meal plan for the next week is:

Sunday: Fish, salad, baked stuffed potatoes, carrot sticks

Monday: Bean soup with cornbread (I need the leftover cornbread for stuffing!)

Tuesday: Grilled chicken, french bread, O'brien potatoes, some sort of vegetable. (No more soccer practice!)

Wednesday: ? there may not be Wednesday night dinner, so we'll have soup and sandwiches if they don't. Otherwise, dinner out.

Thursday: Thanksgiving!!
Turkey
Ham slice (for kids, who don't really like turkey)
Homemade macaroni and cheese
Cornbread dressing
Bread cube dressing (if TMOTH decides he wants to make it)
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Sweet potato casserole (mostly since the mid-kid loves the marshmallows)
Rolls
Tiny green peas from the silver can (for the boy-kids)
Broccoli
Pies-a-plenty - chocolate and pecan at a minimum. Likely not pumpkin - nobody in our family really likes it all that much.


Friday: Pancakes and fruit

Saturday: Pork - chops or tenderloin, fried apples, biscuits, green beans

Hot dogs!

I often overlook the hot dog option, since I don't really like them all that much. However, everybody else does. So it was a happy dinner.

Fish tacos

Great concept, poor execution. We ate at a new restaurant tonight, the ?something? Grill. The first bite was great, until I started to taste the fish - not very good fish, it tasted like catfish. GREAT fries, though.

Grilled pork chops and stuffed potatoes

TMOTH cooked dinner- and quite a good dinner it was. The stuffed potatoes - with cheese, green onions, and bacon - were excellent. Kind of a porky dinner, come to think of it.

Not much meal planning this week - I have ground beef and ground turkey for chili; just have to get it ready for the crockpot so it can cook on Friday. Wednesday and Thursday are both dinner-out days.

Pasta and salad

We had cheese tortellini, and angel hair pasta for the kids, with a basic basil/tomato sauce. Garlic bread and tossed salad to go with. Easy and cheesy.

Bacon & eggs

with toast or english muffin. A nice lazy rainy Sunday, although the kids were mighty bored.

The current household crisis is that we can't find the power cord for the laptop. We spilled some beer on the keyboard and fried a couple of letters. We replaced the keyboard and now the power cord is missing. On a positive note, I've put away/thrown away a bunch of stuff trying to find it.

Quesadillas

Something the entire family will eat! Easy and reasonably healthy into the bargain. Grapes on the side - really good red grapes. Toddler-boy loved them - he has the benefit of being the 3rd child and getting to do some things that we never would've let the 1st one do.

Ham and potato casserole

Scalloped/au gratin potatoes are the one thing that I prefer out of the box rather than from scratch. With some cubes of leftover ham and a little bit of red onion, it's a nice dinner (for the grown-ups, at least - the kids all turned up their nose). Carrot sticks and cucumber slices on the side. I was really bummed that the cauliflower we got over the weekend had frozen in the refrigerator. I'll roast some this weekend, but I really prefer it raw.

The menu items are all pushed back a day since TMOTH cooked last night. Quesadillas will be good if the tween has a friend over tomorrow night.

Veterans Day today, so I was off work. I finished painting about 2/3 of one long wall in the living room, I have about half of a short wall and a few extra bits of wall space to go. Then I have to finish taking off the wallpaper in the stairway that I starting taking off 10 years ago. Such is the pace of home improvement at our house...

I did help TMOTH get the gutter back up - and he did! I was so impressed - I never thought he'd be able to balance it all the way up on the big ladder and that it would hold until he could attach it. What a huge relief it is to have that back up.

Grilled chicken thighs

TMOTH made dinner- grilled chicken thighs and tater tots/hash browns. The boys also had mandarin oranges as an appetizer. I have apple crisp slated for dessert, so we're not completely without fruits & vegetables.

Joe's Pizza and Pasta

The tween and I had a girls' dinner while the mid-kid and TMOTH were in the baseball room for the end-of-year party. Italian buffet; not special but serviceable. She wants to go to Bob Evans (why? I have no idea.) for her birthday dinner when we get a chance.

So, it was the tween's 11th birthday today. We got her pajamas, slippers (which she desperately wanted and loves), a necklace, a stuffed monkey, and book/kit to make beaded rings, and some Littlest Pet Shop toys. She picked out a cake at Giant tonight; it was pretty awful but it looked nice. She's getting so tall - about an inch short of 5 feet right now.

Chinese (sort of)

The menu plan called for chicken, which we (sort of) had.

Egg flower soup to start, then steamed dumplings from the freezer at the Asian supermarket. TMOTH had come up with a plan, so I was amenable. Apple crisp for dessert, yum.

Monkfish

A nice monkfish filet, baked with butter/oil, salt, and lemon pepper. Fried potato cubes. Broccoli. French bread (not very good French bread; a lot like Wonder bread in disguise). Apple crisp for dessert, mostly courtesy of TMOTH. He started slicing up all of the apples that toddler-boy had taken a bite or two out of and then discarded, and wound up with most of a big bowl of slices. All I had to do was the topping.