What's For Dinner? November Week 1

Do you know what's special about this "What's For Dinner?" post? It is the ONE YEAR anniversary of the start of this series! One year ago, I wrote a random post about the dishes I was preparing for the first week in November. It was brief and picture-less but I came back and did another the next week. Gradually, I started adding more and more about Sophie's baby food, about meal prep and routines, about the challenges of family meal time, and I started including pictures!

There always seem to be phases in my life - things that interest me that I jump into and get all excited about. I do them for a little while - sometimes weeks and months - but eventually, I struggle to continue making time for them as new things and new challenges are presented. Tot School, Flashback Fridays, running logs, etc. They aren't gone... but they are definitely on the back burner. But then there's FOOD! Part of its long-standing interest is out of necessity. We have to eat... I am the sole meal-preparer in the house... I work full time. Those are the facts and life is only going to keep getting busier as the kids get older.

The other part of its continued interest is my undying LOVE of FOOD! :) I love to cook... I love to eat... I love to express my love to my family and friends through meals... I love to build a foundation of family around our dinner table... I love to offer my children and my husband (and myself!) a time each day that we can depend on gathering together, enjoying a meal and talking about our day. That time together (however hectic) gives me so much satisfaction in knowing that the people I love are healthy, happy and well-nourished.

So! Here's to MANY more weeks of "What's For Dinner?" Because, while life is flying by and the children are growing too quickly, these are the times that I (and hopefully they) will cherish the most. There are a zillion memories to create in a lifetime. All of them special. But no one activity serves more purpose - to nourish our bodies and our souls, to strengthen bonds, to teach manners and respectfulness - than to eat a meal together as a family. That, friends, is an interest that will never fade in my lifetime.

On the menu this week:

1) Saturday morning - pancake breakfast again - this time the Weelicious whole wheat oat pancakes again. I've started stocking buttermilk in the fridge on a weekly basis now for our pancakes and I love that this recipe uses the agave nectar in place of sugar. I DO plan to branch out sometimes - LOL - but there is just so much versatility with pancakes! I'd like to work on incorporating more protein into breakfast though. Sophie would inhale eggs if I made them but Will's not quite as dependable when it comes to eggs. I'm also not the biggest fan of eggs. But perhaps an omelet or a frittata would be worth another try sometime soon? Currently our breakfast protein comes from nuts, yogurt and wheat germ.
Here's a few more snapshots of Soph using her spoon for yogurt. She has come to insist on doing everything herself now.

I love that the hand not holding the spoon just seems to hover in this position off to the side as she focuses on getting the yogurt-filled spoon to her mouth. :)

Cheese!

Note the left hand... hehe.

Okay, I'll be honest: I am racking my brain and cannot figure out what we had for dinner last Saturday night! I know it wasn't anything big, so it was probably leftovers or some scrounging together of randoms.

2) Sunday we had our Halloween get-together and the food was very casual. I made white bean dip with pita chips and veggies... AGAIN. CAN'T GET ENOUGH! I think if I had to pick one dish to live on forever, it would be this dip with raw veggies and pita chips. It's so satisfying and well rounded with protein, olive oil, grains and veggies. We also had our breads and apples with caramel fondue. And everyone brought additional sides and snacks to go with. I'll admit, it was mostly sweets, but we did have cheese and crackers and I renewed my love for sharp cheddar cheese. Thanks, Casey!

3) On Monday, I served lasagna with steamed broccoli and grapes. I have got to get a new lasagna recipe. Mine is just okay. I'm not even going to share it. I want one with cottage or ricotta cheese in it. Anyone have a recipe to share? I know my mom and Casey make one like that... I'll have to get their recipe.

For dessert, Will got a piece of his Halloween candy while Sophie got a popsicle from another batch of the Pumpkin Pie-sicles. She LOVED it!

Go to town, sister!

4) Tuesday was a school day for Will as usual and I was so excited for him to open his lunch bag to find the dinosaur sandwich container from Aunt Casey & Uncle Dub. I'd forgotten about that until just recently and I knew he would love it. The container went with that dinosaur sandwich cutter that cuts a whole sandwich into two dinosaur shapes... so cool! But since he's not always a sandwich-kid, I decided to make him some small, ham & cheese kabobs along with sliced plum, sliced yellow pepper and cucumber and 1 slice of banana bread cut in half. The lunch bag came back to me with the banana bread and a couple yellow peppers uneaten. Good enough!

For dinner on Tuesday, we ate lasagna leftovers.

5) Wednesday was the night I had to go to the mortuary with mom and Case, so I fed and bathed the kids super fast after work (they ate mini meatloaves from the freezer plus some healthy side items). Then Craig put them to bed while I was gone and when I got home at 8:45, I made the two of us taco salads. I have a confession that I have to admit... Craig and I eat in front of the TV about once a week. Actually, for Craig on weekends, it's a lot more than that. I eat weekend meals (breakfast & lunch) with the kids at the table at "normal" times and Craig eats on his own time in front of the TV usually during a game. But dinners are at the table except for the once a week that Craig and I just want a quiet, peaceful dinner alone. It's a little bit of a guilty pleasure... but not too guilty. ;) The thing is... it makes me wonder what meals will be like for us when our kids are grown... Will we totally neglect formal meal time when I can't use the importance for the kids as an excuse? I hope not. But it makes me wonder.

Anywho, I'm proud to tell you that this week I made a nice little change to our taco salads... I didn't use the seasoning packets! I made my own from a concoction of herbs and seasonings (following a recipe I found online). It's just another tiny step towards less processed meals:

Taco Seasoning:

1 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

-Mix ingredients together and add to browned ground beef with 3/4 cup water.

(From mydailymoment.com)

Here are my tips on that: it didn't specify how much to add to 1# beef specifically and the total mixture was way too much. I ended up using 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of the mixture to 1# beef. Also, there's really no thickening agent in it, so while I would still add water, I wouldn't use 3/4 cup. I only used 1/2 cup and that seemed to take awhile to evaporate... cause it wasn't really thickening. Overall, the flavor was only slightly different and Craig didn't even notice. (I didn't tell him.) I thought it was really good.

Taylor & Amanda, we missed you! Wish you could have joined us!

6) Thursday was leftovers again.

7) Friday I didn't really have a meal plan. Whaaaa?? And Craig was on the brink of dialing for Veto's pizza until I convinced him that we should just scrounge a bit and figure something else out. He obliged me under the condition that I would strongly consider Veto's for Saturday night. Whatever. What we came up with was a bit of a smorgasbord, but hey... you've gotta' do that sometimes. Frozen cheese raviolis served several ways for three of us, and English muffin pizzas for Will (per his request).

Oh, and pre-dinner, while I was prepping, I whipped up another avocado smoothie for the kids to split. I wanted to use up the avocado we had and avoid the whining/hanging on my legs bit while I was rushing to get our meal together.

So, I quickly cooked the cheese ravioli, toasted Will's pizza, prepared a salad for myself, steamed some green beans, warmed some marinara for Craig, and sliced some apple. I cut several of the raviolis in half to top my salad. Try that! It's really good! Craig's meal is pretty obvious. And Sophie got some squash on the side to scoop with a spoon and coat her raviolis a bit.

Okay, I think that's it for this week! Hope you're all cookin' up something warm as the weather cools down. Happy eating!