October #1 menu

Here's another 2 week menu plan! If anyone has some great ideas of what to serve with BLT pizza, comment please! I fail at side dishes, especially for pizza!

1. Egg stuffed baked potatoes, Greek yogurt bar
2. Chicken paillards, crusty french bread
3. BLT pizza
4. Baked oatmeal, banana bread, smoothies
5. Breaded garlic chicken, fettuccine, salad
6. Sweet and tangy chicken, rice, beans
7. White chicken chili, cornbread
8. Date night
9. Leftovers
10. Tuscan garlic herb pork chops, bean salad, crusty bready
11. Make your own pizza bar
12. Roasted garlic mac and cheese, roast asparagus
13. Sausage and potato skillet, smoothies, biscuits
14. Chicken noodle soup, rolls

Breakfast foods

• Scrambled eggs and toast
• Granola
• Oatmeal
• Pancakes/waffles
• Yogurt parfaits
• Cinnamon rolls
• Smoothies
• Biscuits
• Popovers
• Muffins
• Pumpkin bread

Snacks

• Popcorn
• Graham crackers
• Yogurt
• String cheese
• Fruit/veggies
• Roasted chickpeas
• Cinnamon chips
• Apple nachos 

Treats

• Raspberry white chocolate chip cookies
• Slow cooker ooey gooey chocolate pudding cake
• Homemade doughnuts

My three valentines + yummy Vday dinner

Jason's aunt Margaret did a mini Valentine's Day photo shoot a few weeks ago and I'm just now posting these pictures. I love my three little valentines!

Juno had a really hard time keeping her mouth closed and her eyes open. Either they were both open or both closed. So we're going with both wide open!

When you have three girls, Valentine's Day is less of a romantic couple's holiday and more of a romantic family holiday (at least at our house!) We had a candlelit dinner with table linens, sparkling cider, etc, and then watched the Olympics in a food coma. 

Dinner: Steak with blue cheese crust, salt baked potatoes with roasted garlic butter, fresh green beans with balsamic butter, and raspberry pretzel jello. For dessert, I made a chocolate velvet torte thing that was too rich and not that great--I shouldn't have wasted my time and instead just served the cookies, chocolate covered strawberries, bags of candy from in-laws and school parties, or gourmet cupcakes and cake bites from Jason. Yeah, we overdid it on the treats this year.

dating adventures

Jason and I recently celebrated our eighth anniversary!!
I can't believe it's been that long. A few years ago, Jason did the math and we have officially known each for more than a quarter of my life. Pretty cool, huh?
To celebrate, we went out on the fanciest date we have ever been on--to Ruth's Chris!! Jason's parents gave us a gift card for Christmas and we had been saving it for our anniversary.
Now, for those of you who have kids, you know what a big deal date night is. We made a reservation, invited my brother and his wife, scheduled a babysitter, got all dressed up (I even did my hair!), drove into the city early to walk around a bit, and paid for parking. It was a big deal.
We were so excited. We had both been looking at the menu online for months and couldn't wait to try it!
Finally, it was time for our reservation. We went in and gave our name. It was so fancy and nice! The hostess asked if we planned on using a gift card; yes, Jason said.
"I'm sorry, but our system is down and we can only take cash, check, or cards with raised numbers--no gift cards."
Jason and I had a quick conference; no way could we afford that dinner without our gift card. It looked like our fancy, long awaited date was canceled.
"Would you like me to reschedule you for tomorrow night?"
"We can't come tomorrow night!" I snapped. Yes, I was mad. I was also nearly in tears of frustration, anger, and disappointment. Didn't they understand what a big deal it was for us to go out on a date--a real date, with a babysitter and everything? We couldn't just come back any night they wanted us to!
We went outside to wait for Tyler and Erin and break the news to them. I was so disappointed. My sweet sister-in-law Erin took one look at me and gave me a huge hug and then she and Tyler saved the night. They offered to pay for dinner in exchange for our gift card, so they could come back another night and use it themselves. "Really? Are you sure?" we asked them about a hundred times. They insisted on saving our night so we went back in.
After all that drama, we finally sat down and decided what to get. We settled on the crab cakes and "spicy lobster" appetizers to share, and the sweet potato casserole as a side dish to share. Jason and Tyler got the cowboy ribeye (it was as big as Jason's face), I got a filet with blue cheese crust, and Erin got a salad (she's a vegetarian). 
Once all the food came out, all the frustration from earlier in the evening disappeared. It was so good! The steak was melt in your mouth, the blue cheese crust was so yummy, and the sweet potato casserole was like dessert--and I don't even like sweet potatoes! We also got two desserts to share--a molten chocolate cake with chocolate custard and a white chocolate caramelized banana cream pie. Both were delightful. Out of all the food, though, I think the spicy lobster was my favorite!
So, the night turned out to be so fun. And this is my big public thank-you to Tyler and Erin--THANK YOU! You guys are the best!

mom's worst chore

I just did one of my most hated chores: made my two week menu and grocery list.

Feeding my family is so stressful!!

I don't mind the actual preparing of the food so much, but I really, really dislike planning the menu, making the grocery list, doing the shopping, unloading the groceries, and then putting them away. That's pretty much the whole process, isn't it?

We have a small grocery budget ($300/month) and I only go shopping twice a month, so I feel a lot of pressure to a) stick to the budget and b) make sure I have enough food in the house to last us two weeks. Getting ready for a shopping trip is a really long process, especially now that I have a Costco membership and I'm figuring out what to buy there and what to buy elsewhere.

So: how do you do it? What do you do that keeps your costs down and makes the process go more smoothly? Coupons, price matching, bulk stores, Bountiful Baskets, I wanna hear about it!

Herbivores vs Omnivores

It's finally happened.
Jason and I have seen it coming for several years.
I'm actually a bit surprised it took this long.
Tempe has made the connection that "chicken" on her plate at dinner is the same as "chicken" in our neighbor's backyard chicken coop, or at the farm up the street, or wandering around the zoo.
Tonight at dinner she weepingly asked Dad how he would feel if he died and someone peeled off his skin and ate him.
Then she took a bite of chicken and liked it so much that she ate her whole plate.
That's a moral dilemma right there.
So any tips on a omnivore raising a herbivore?