The weekly menu

I have over 10 web pages open on my browser right now and they all involve either a zucchini galette recipe or a vegetarian cookbook I am lusting over.  I think it’s safe to say I’m feeling inspired by spring produce.  Weirdly (and I was just telling my parents this) I think spring is my least favorite in terms of seasonal eating.  I am SO OVER recipes with ramps and radishes in my reader feed. Ugh.  Bring on summer please.  But yeah, zucchini.

Zucchini counts as a summer crop in my book, so it’s safe from my previous rant.  And we got these little cuties from the farmer that owns the land where Kyle’s shop is (same one who has gifted us various veg in the past 2 years we have lived in Davis).  We have a nice little exchange going now…we have lemons and tomatoes and they have artichokes and squash.

It’s perfect actually, because Kyle doesn’t like either of these veggies, I don’t buy them.  And now I don’t feel guilty for indulging in an item just for myself in our grocery budget (that sounds lame but what I mean is, I try not to buy things that won’t be eaten by everyone in the family).

And now P will get to try fun new veggies with me.

Here are the dinners I planned for the week.  Keep in mind, it was highly open to flux because Kyle was out of town for much of the week and only ate dinner at home on Thursday night.

Oh and about my first solo parenting with two kids???  Yeah, I tapped into this for sure.

But first the weekend.  It was another busy one with a toddler birthday party, swimming, errands, and yadda yadda.

I phoned it in on Saturday and pulled this soup from our freezer stash.  It’s from Costco FYI and the portions are legit.

Filling and delish.  I’d buy again.

On Sunday I baked salmon.  Paired it with brown rice and broccoli with teriyaki sauce on top.  The sauce was separate because I baked the fish plain in order to keep it safe for P.

He ate an entire filet, per usual, and did it mostly with the fork all by himself!  Progress!  [We ate this meal together as a family, so he also had broccoli and rice, which he loves as well.]

Monday.  You knew this salad was happening.  I mean, it’s like my warm weather standard.  I’d eat it every day probably.

I had a bowl of brown rice on the side with more avocado on top.  The meal had a total of 1 1/2 avocados.

With a side of baby monitor and hulu plus.

I have no photos of Tuesday’s dinner because I scarfed it down while simultaneously feeding P.  We just started soccer but it ends at 6 pm which is nearly his bedtime, soooooo getting him home and then feeding him and doing the bedtime routine…all by myself…is tricky.  He wanted to go straight to bed after soccer (skipping dinner and a bath, but still reading books) and the whole ride home was me convincing him we had to eat/drink something after running around exercising for an hour.  You know that fine line between tired and meltdown?  Yeah, me too.  This kind of situation is hard enough to handle without a newborn, but my girl takes after her mama and when she gets hungry, she gets haaaangry has zero patience for anyone else’s schedule.

We survived.

Wednesday was market.  My parents came to play too.  So fun.

I got a corndog, but was kinda bummed the Bolani stand wasn’t there.  Since I had extra people to watch P I was going to get a veg option (with allergens) and load it with hummus.  Sad face.  I still liked my corndog though.

On Thursday I got my chef on.

I felt like doing something real.  And even though Kyle had late meetings, he still got home just in time to give P a good night kiss and get a warm meal.  Eaten with me!!  I love company.  🙂

I already had my side dish planned (a tomato/avo/feta salad) based on the limited fridge contents, so I googled a chicken rub and chose this one because I thought it would go with the theme.

If I’m being honest, I have to give myself a massive pat on the back for this because I executed it perfectly.  Seriously, this was pure chile lime deliciousness and the chicken was perfectly cooked (which is a huge feat when you start it an hour before you eat it…on the stove…while feeding a toddler…and interspersing nursing and bedtime routines in there as well (yes I did all that while the stove was going).  I turned the stove off a few minutes after flipping it the first time and put the lid on and then figured I’d come back and finish cooking it after P was down, but when I returned it was ready to go!

Then Kyle waltzed in the door and I plated us up some wild rice, salad, and chicken.

Winner winner chicken dinner.

More progress in the solo eating department with this wild rice and avo bowl for P (he ate it all by himself with a spoon while I was upstairs changing and feeding V).  I mean, it was a little messy, but he got it done.

Kyle was gone again Friday night so I was left to my own devices for dinner and settled on a Caesar salad with chicken nuggets that I shared with P.