A menus post, with some other stuff.

[nwhiker]

I said I was going to start posting again in October. I didn't say I was going to start with boring menus. I have been writing them up for a while, and trying to keep paper copies, but really, online works better in many way.

Things are difficult. My big eater has left, AC is living with the dipshit, and while Linnea is rowing and eating, she still doesn't eat as much. Which means leftovers. Or making less. I'm working on the latter while often ending up with too much of the former.

Anyhow.

Monday: chicken asada with onions and tortillas.


Tuesday: leftovers.


Wednesday: strata with sausage, shallots, and apples.


Thursday: salade nicoise, with vinaigrette potato salad, green beans, tomatoes, capers, olives, and tuna or cooked chicken depending... or rather tuna for dh, and perhaps Linnea, and maybe cooked chicken or nothing for me.


Friday: sausages with mash.


Saturday: chicken shawarma with naan.


Sunday: muffuletta on ciabatta rolls.



I guess family is coming here for Thanksgiving (or at least my mom, aunt, and sister are, brother and family can't make it, wah) so I want to make sure I have an empty freezer for that. And I found a trove of Aidell's chicken sausages, three different kinds. Still perfectly good, I must have just bought twice without noticing. At Costco. Heh. Anyhow I need to clear some of the out and Linnea likes them, so eh, twice a week won't kill anyone.

A note about the chicken shawarma. I've been buying it from Trader Joe's, and it's seriously good. It's a cinche on the grill, and had a great balance of spices and spiciness. I highly recommended it.

One thing I want to make again soon is the focaccia I made last July. It requires 24 hours, but it was wonderful to make and eat and the kids loved it. I just have to figure how to plan it in to make for a Saturday evening when Perry will be home.

Oooh. I think I'll try to take a few minutes to update on his first impressions of university! Or maybe tomorrow.

Comments

[camelsamba]

My menu planning has become mediocre: Z was the one who inspired me to cook healthy, and he's not here. Matthew will eat most anything so he's not a problem, but T is kind of picky. Mostly I just miss having Z around, and I'm taking it out on meal prep...

[nwhiker]

I hear you. Perry just started last week (quarter system), and I didn't plan menus last week, so this is my first test of if I will be able to maintain menu planning with just three of us eating, when one would rather eat junkfood and get to bed. :}

Does Z come home at all on weekends? I think Perry will, at least for now.

[camelsamba]

He has come home a couple times (more than C did the first year) - but mostly so he could play fortnite. :^O He's having a bit of a rough time adjusting, e.g. "I don't have any new friends" (beyond people he already knew from A2).

[nwhiker]

Oh wait. I thought he was still in A2 for school, just not living at home? Like C in other words?

[camelsamba]

Right. He's in a dorm about 2 miles away. Z moved in to the dorm almost a week before classes started (same as C - it's part of how they manage move-in for such a huge crowd). He's in a "Michigan Learning Community" but a different one from C. The one C was in did a bunch of community-building activities that first weekend. Z's did nothing - they were basically on their own for 5 days. There are a couple of kids on his floor that he knew from K-8 (one of them from preK!), and other friends from town (high school, sports teams, etc) that he socializes with. He seems to have imagined that college would be full of new friends from day 1. We keep trying to remind him that making friends takes time, but he doesn't want to hear that. He thinks if he'd moved out of town he naturally would have made new friends. Left unsaid is how he could have gone away and still not made new friends the first weekend... It's hard to see my outgoing social kid being unhappy.

[nwhiker]

Poor kid. Especially the social ones, they expect their world to settle in a long faster, I think, at times. I hope he starts making friends soon.

And on their own for 5 days? SHUDDER. That must have been totally miserable.

Perry's dorm did some stuff, but I think having rowing in place is helping too.

And many hugs to you. It is so very hard, in so many ways.