What's For Dinner? Week 3

This just in: Girly Bibs!!!

It's about time huh? She's been wearing all of Will's boyish bibs since she started eating solid foods! Such a tragedy, I know. But look at her smiling face up there! She's so happy that I've finally acknowledged she's a lady. :)

Quick tip from last week: instead of pan frying those chicken sandwiches, I just dipped and coated them as the recipe directed and then cooked them between the grill plates of my panini grill! That was so much easier! My kitchen wasn't smoky and the meat was crispy on the outside and tender/juicy on the inside. Perfect! And Will ate it too. It's so funny how Craig and I will watch him very casually and then when he picks up some meat from his plate, we both pass a look to each other that says "Are you watching this? Do you think he's really going to eat it this time?" Then we glance back at him as discreetly as possible so as to give off the vibe that we aren't paying attention and don't really care what he eats. Then when he actually puts it in his mouth, chews, swallows, and goes for a second bite of meat, another look passes between us with a quick raise of the eyebrows that silently says "Victory!" Sunday was Valentine's Day and we had the steak dinner with lots of chocolate desserts. Also on the menu this week are:

1) Ham & Swiss bread pudding. (Tonight's dinner)

Bread pudding is typically a dessert made with milk and eggs poured over day-old bread cubes and sweetened with cinnamon and nutmeg. This recipe from Cooking Light magazine is a comfort-food main dish that replaces the cinnamon with salt and pepper and incorporates diced ham, green onion, Swiss cheese and cubes of toasted Hawaiian bread rolls. http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=443491

2) Broccoli cheese soup - this is the 5th week in a row that we're having some type of soup for dinner. Soup just always sounds good this time of year. I've never made broccoli soup but I found this one in a parenting magazine (can't remember which one) that was giving suggestions for how to increase your child's calcium intake. Hmm. That's not such a concern for me, but monterey jack cheese just sounds delish in a broccoli soup. And there's potatoes in it too - potatoes just seem to round out soup recipes nicely in my opinion, i.e. the winter squash soup recipe I love.

3) Stuffed manicotti - I have two of Giada De Laurentiis's cookbooks and she does a very nice job of making Italian food look simple. She also nicely blends authentic Italian and Italian American favorites to appease a broader fan base. This is another new one for me but I've made LOTS of her recipes and I usually like her stuff so I'm looking forward to it. It sounds similar to my stuffed shells recipe and that's a family favorite. This one has ground beef, ricotta cheese, mozzarella and Parmesan. And manicotti comes so nicely packaged in little plastic trays to prevent breaking! For some reason, I'm not able to copy/paste the link for this recipe but you can find it on Food Network's website.

You know, since I've been doing all my meal prep on weekends and basically just popping ready made meals into the oven or onto the stove top on week nights, I really can't imagine doing it any other way. How does anyone find time to cook amidst the craziness of evenings with the kids? I still sometimes have a bit of assembling to do, but nothing like full-on meal prep. I pick up our kids from the sitters at 5. Then just juggling 2 kids (one in an infant car seat) and all my bag-lady-belongings that I must cart with me to and from work each day is exhausting!! Then we all get in and unloaded and Sophie lays down for her catnap. In that time, I get the table set, get my pumped milk and Sophie's food ready for the babysitter tomorrow, and play with Will. Soon Sophie will likely be dropping that catnap anyway and then I'll be playing with her too. We try to eat between 6 and 6:30 and then there's everything that goes into bedtime routine. After they're in bed, I still have to clean up from dinner, do dishes (Craig often helps), and get my lunch packed for tomorrow. There's just no way I want to squeeze in cooking a meal in that already crazy evening. And I am not interested in serving my family fast food or pre-packaged frozen things on a regular basis. I don't say never, because it's not like I'm above frozen pizza or anything... I just don't want my kids to see that as the norm, you know? Anyway, I enjoy cooking. I don't want to make it unpleasant by rushing it when I could be spending more time with my kids while they're awake. So instead, I typically use Friday evenings after the kids are in bed to do most of my cooking (which takes an average of two hours) and laundry. Wow! That sounds pathetic huh? I know you're all very jealous of my happening social life. :) But seriously, it's totally worth the time investment and once that's out of the way, I feel like I can relax and enjoy my weekend. And I go into the next work week with the comfort of knowing my meals are already prepped. We generally get plenty of socializing and/or family activities in every weekend, so I'm happy with this set-up. Craig thinks I'm anal, but he also wants nothing to do with food/menu prep/planning/etc. You know how they say opposites attract? Well he's uber-laid back and I'm uber-organized. We balance each other out and that's just how this family functions. :)

Okay, I think that's it for this week. One last pic of my uber-cute Sophia just because: