Can’t remember the last time I’ve been so glad to see a week be done. Here’s what we had:
SATURDAY
Sausage, fried eggs, and muenster cheese on bagels
I will never complain when there are sandwiches for supper.
***
SUNDAY
Lamb lo mein with spaetzle; rice; pot stickers; rice
Probably the weirdest meal of the week. We had a nice meaty bone left over from last week’s lamb feast, so I cut the meat into bits and added it to this simple lo mein recipe from Damn Delicious. I made it even simpler by just chucking in a couple of bags of frozen stir fry vegetables, rather than using fresh. Then I made it weirder by using a few bags of spaetzle for the noodles. The result was a multi-ethnicish meal that soared to the level of Not Bad At All.
No one in my family has actually tasted lo mein before, so they were the right audience, I guess.
The potstickers were frozen from Hannaford. Kind of a pain for frozen food – you have to brown them in oil and then steam them – but they were tasty. One kid ate just the wrapper, and left behind little bundles of steamed cabbage and chicken, which I of course ate also.
You are thinking, “Why did she also make rice, with all that other stuff?” The answer is that at least three of my kids are currently following a strict Rice and Tears diet.
***
MONDAY
Tacos
On Monday, I looked at my driving schedule for the week and let out a weak whimper. Seriously considering buying each kid a moped and just letting them get where they need to be on their own. I’ll take out a credit card in the choir director’s name. Add an entire extra concert with rehearsals every night for two weeks right when all the other teachers are realizing we need to squeeze in all those field trips and special projects and fundraisers, will you? EAT MOPED DEBT AND DIE.
Oh, so we had tacos. It turns out cumin can be fairly overwhelming if you angrily shake in half the jar, but you can disguise it with extra salt.
***
TUESDAY
Pizza
Nothing to report. Luckily, I have two pepperoni distribution specialists living in my very house.
***
WEDNESDAY
Steak tips with mushrooms on noodles; rolls; roast asparagus
This is a slow cooker meal from Damn Delicious, and chuck roast is still on sale! The sauce never thickened up as much as it was supposed to, even with extra cornstarch, but the flavor was, in fact, damn delicious.
I mixed up the asparagus with a little olive oil, spread it on a pan, and slid it right under a hot broiler, then sprinkled it with lemon juice when it was done. Did you know you are supposed to eat asparagus with your fingers? Do you know it’s hard, but not impossible, to drive while licking your plate?
***
THURSDAY
Korean beef bowl, rice, roast sesame broccoli
Still a great meal, still easy. In the morning, I cooked up the meat and then transferred it to the slow cooker; I set up the rice in the Instant Pot (affiliate link!) (the 1:1 formula works fine); and prepped the broccoli. So when I tore into the kitchen that afternoon knowing half of us had to be out the door again in 25 minutes, we still had a swell meal.
Have I mentioned how I love roasting vegetables? I drizzled the broccoli with sesame oil, spread it in a single layer, sprinkled it with sesame seeds, and slid it right under the broiler until the edges got a little blackened. So many veggies taste good this way.
***
FRIDAY
Tuna noodle
And tears, no doubt.
Tears: high in nutritional content, low in calories!
Tuna noodle casserole makes half my kids cry so much I stopped making it years ago, after convincing a four year old that he would NOT gag and throw up if he tried a bite…and then he proceeded to do exactly that.
Ouch!
The Rice and Tears diet is very popular. I have several children who also follow it.
P.S. I love how you write.
Do other people’s kids rotate picky eating? I have one consistent super picky eater (autistic, just part of the fun!). The others rotate…like they are in cahoots “I’ve done this for 6 months, someone else take over for a while.” My 6yo is super picky now, complains about every dinner and eats almost nothing. He used to be such a good eater! He used to come into the kitchen every evening and say, “That’s my fwavwit!” Every.damn.evening. Sob. I miss him so.
Sounds just like my 5 y-o who used to eat everything and now will pretty much only eat pb sandwiches. He complains that I never make anything he likes, but then I point out that there’s nothing that he likes…
I did make one meal this week that every single one of us liked. Found this chicken marinade on PW’s Tasty Kitchen
http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/condiments/marinade-for-pork-or-chicken/?review_page=1#review-116957
and husband grilled it and everyone liked it. Even the 5 y-o ate three bites, cheering “Yum!” before getting up to make his pb sandwich.