The weekly menu

Day by day we are getting into our rhythm and it makes me so pumped (we still have plenty of disaster moments too).  I love my little ones something fierce and they are already all about each other too.  I mean, P wants to be around V all day long, touching her, petting her, helping me soothe her, all of it.  He gets really sad when she cries and wants me to console her immediately regardless of what I’m doing (including feeding or playing with him).  I have a feeling they are going to be great buddies.

Here’s the run down of the week’s dinners.  And other random notes that creep in.

Enchilada nachos inspired by Gimme Some Oven.

I actually had planned these for the week that I went into labor so we had everything on hand already, which made it simlpe enough.  I cheated and used a store bought enchilada sauce because hi I’m not insane.  So I baked the chicken in it and then shredded it and topped chips with the works.  Kyle’s had cheese, mine did not.

In truth, mine was more of a salad with mega chips on the side because I did have a base layer of lettuce underneath there.  Then I added black beans, corn, bell peppers, avo, lactose free sour cream and salsa.  Oh and chips chips chips because salt is fantastic.

The next night we decided to experiment with bed time and dine together as a family.  It’s a trial week for this, but P seems to be able to stay up later and if we wait until after his whole PM routine to eat ourselves then we end up eating way too late.  Plus, we have Valley girl’s nursing sessions to factor in.  It’s an ongoing adventure in timing to make everyone happy…

There are a few major things this is going to change…

(1) We will all eat the EXACT same thing.  Before we could kinda get away with making Pacman’s meals similar enough to ours that it meant no extra groceries or cooking but occasionally I’d add stuff he might not tolerate to our version of the meal after setting ingredients of his aside.  But he notices EVERYTHING and so we can’t eat something in front of him that he can’t have because that feels mean.  He’s so perceptive it’s impossible to hide anything from him.  This might make my life harder because I haven’t found any spices that are produced in allergen free facilities.  That’s why his food is often plain.  It’s also why I grow so many herbs in our garden.  I trust it if I’ve grown it.  Yay for Nor Cal weather that allows even my chives to survive through winter (!!).

(2) He will get to try assembled meals.  I’ve mentioned this before but P really only likes things mis en place style.  So I usually put all the components of the meal on his tray prior to assembling them.  It’s weird but if I make something like a soup or whatever, even if he likes all the ingredients that go into it, he won’t eat it as a soup.  But because he’s so perceptive (as noted above), I know that if he sees mom and dad eating something, he will at least try it.  And if there are enough things in it that he realllllllly likes (i.e. meat) then he can likely be persuaded to eat the assembled dish.  So far it’s been mostly successful, but only time will tell.  He does like eating the same things as we do so in this case it will work in our favor.

(3) I will be challenged to make every single meal allergy free.  Like I said, this is something I have mostly done, but in the weekly meal posts I have shared in the past, I’ve always noted the tweaks I’ve made to his meal or ours because there usually are a few.  I mean, I like spices, so yeah.  This could be a fun or frustrating challenge.  TBD.

(4) He will have to be more independent.  I feed him for a lot of his meals.  He uses a fork fine, but spoons not so much.  I don’t know if he would get any quinoa or rice into his mouth if he tried it solo, but I suppose he has to learn eventually!  I also don’t really use plates or bowls – I just put everything right on his tray.  He uses a fork for all meats and some fruits, but his hands for most everything else (veggies, noodles, baked goods, etc.).  And then I spoon feed him oatmeal and yogurt and whatever else is liquid-y or too small to eat with his hands.  But I can’t baby him forever and if I’m eating at the same time I can’t feed us both.  Right?  Right.  If I’m being perfectly honest, it’s the mess that is inevitably going to occur that I have been trying to avoid.  What can I say, I’m a neat freak I like things clean…but eventually I want to eat family dinners all together, so we have to start some time!

I digress.

The above photos are the makings of the first assembled meal eaten as a family.  Quinoa, canned tomatoes, TJs sweet Italian sausage, and chard (from our garden).  The quinoa, sausage, and chard are all things he loves so adding the tomatoes (which he doesn’t really like) was the sneaky move.

I sautéed it all in shallot infused olive oil.  Speaking of!

Infused olive oils!!!!!!!

These are by the same company, BE NICE, I talked about here.  Remember the kickstarter for their bars??  So happy they are diversifying their product line because YAYYYYY for FODMAPs friendly products!!!  Flavor without the bloating.  Win.  I can’t wait to try all the others.  Basil!  Lemon!  Garlic!  So fun.  The shallot in this dish was deeeeelish.

And look who ate his too!

Bribed by the idea of seeing elmo at the bottom of the bowl, he ate this serving and seconds (mostly sausage)!  I let him use the spoon for some of it, but fed him a little bit myself as well.  Ok, it was like 80% me.  He wouldn’t have eaten the tomatoes at all if I didn’t strategically design some bites (with the sausage prominently placed on top/in front).

And the meal was good for us too.

From our neighbor!  Mega cheese so it has been Kyle’s lunch for a few days.  Saves me energy in prepping his food at night.

From a girlfriend!!

The salad was so bomb and lucky for me it had cucumbers so I claimed the entire thing.  Don’t mind if I dooooo.

The soup was probably P safe, but I didn’t know for sure so I just fed him some random leftovers and stuff I had stockpiled in the freezer.

I went BONKERS at Target earlier that day which was 100% due to my hormones being out of control and my hunger dominating my shopping.  I got SO MUCH Easter candy for half off and can pretty much promise it will be gone by next weekend.  I mean, look at that stash…how could I not go crazy and face plant in it all?  COOKIE DOUGH stuffed in dark chocolate!?!  WTF.  Where have these been all my life.

The next night was another dinner from a girlfriend.  Aren’t my friends amazing!?  And OMG this chicken!!!!!!

She brought us two massive breasts, brown rice, and a cucumber/avo/chickpea salad.  Once again I got to claim the entire salad for moi because cucumbers are Kyle’s enemy number one.

I want the recipe because the rub was amaaaazing.  And yes, it looks like a ton of food, but Kyle and I have appetites like whoa.

P ate with us and had the same cucumber, chickpea, avocado salad (gonna keep this one for repeat – so simple but so good).  She made a separate portion for him that was plain since she didn’t know if he’d like the dressing/herbs in ours (which was mostly red onion and mint from what I could tell).  He ate the whole thing and plenty of brown rice too.  Plus leftover chicken that I’d already had from the night Kyle BBQed last week.

I had mine with a white (!!!) Roscato.  I actually didn’t know they made a white, but it was a gift from a friend who knows me well and I was really excited to try it.  I like the red better, but this one is super yummy that I’ll probably continue to buy both depending on my mood.  Mmmmm.

The next night was ANOTHER dinner by a girlfriend.  Seriously my friends are the best.

She made us half a roasted chicken and sweet potatoes and quinoa, and then a cobbler and coconut chocolate almond butter treats for dessert.

HOLY [expletive].  These chocolate coconut bombs of beautiful yummmm!

I had more dessert than just that in case anyone was wondering.  I would venture to guess my desserts usually match my dinner in calorie counts, and occasionally surpass them.  Being honest.

Saturday was a busy day thanks to swimming in the am and a toddler birthday party in the pm.  We haven’t had a weekend off of two year old birthday parties in WEEKS!  And we have another one next weekend too.  All the kids are growing up.  Anyway, all that is to say, dinner was an easy peasy Caesar salad.

They made that cake!  Impressive no?

So back to dinner.  Nooch on mine, obvs.

With chocolate for dessert, duh.