Dinners, Week of 11/8

m  teriyaki chicken, rice, broccoli
t  baked pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella (i'm adding ground turkey)
w enchilada casserole
th  salmon burgers, salad, fries
f  steak, green beans...
s  moroccan tagine + cous cous
s  fire roasted tomato chicken with rice and broccoli

Week of 11/1

m  pea bacon chicken risotto

t  flautas, beans

w  chicken stir fry, rice

th  sausage cous cous green beans

f  chili cornbread brussels sprouts

s  leftovers

s  fish, quinoa with red pepper cilantro salsa, edamame

Week of 10/25

m  chicken pot pies 

t  pork tenderloin + sweet potato dish w/ raisins, broccoli

w  turkey meatballs, pasta, salad

th bbq chicken pizza + salad

f  salmon burgs, fries

s  leftovers

s  chicken, rice, broccoli

Meal Plan for the Week (10-11 thru 10-17)

m  potato quiche (had leftovers for the night we were supposed to have this last week so it got postponed to this week!)

t  salmon burgs, fries

w  turkey meatballs and pasta 

th  moms night (last week's was cancelled)

f  leftovers from wednesday

s  spicy peanut chicken soba noodles

s  butternut squash and mushroom risotto with chicken  

Back from Orlando, Back to REAL Food

had a great trip, but we're so happy to be home and eating healthy food and VEGETABLES and fresh FRUIT! man, it's tough to be disney's food prisoner. expensive + unhealthy. blah! so here's what we've got going on this week:


m  lasagna rolls

t  jambalaya

w  crustless quiche

th  chicken pot pie pockets

f  stuffed pork tenderloin

s  shepherds pie

s  leftovers

Meal Plan 9/20-9/26

last week's standout dinner was the lentil soup with spicy italian sausage and bowtie pasta. welcome, fall!

we ended up having more leftovers than i thought from the spag/meatball dinner, so we didn't have salmon burgers + fries, therefore i'm stealing that menu item for this week!

this week i really look forward to thai chicken pizza! this time i won't use too much sauce :)

m  shrimp pesto quinoa (so good last week, need to repeat!)

t  ground turkey tamale pie

w moms' night (senoritas + margaritas!)  

th  thai chicken pizza, salad   

f  leftovers

s  salmon burgers, fries 

s  stir fry chicken and rice

Meal Planning

I'm taking a cue from a blog I follow by posting meal plans. Not until I started reading her blog did it really even occur to me to do such a thing, but once I got into a groove with Coops (after he was a few months old), I realized I didn't want to make multiple stops at the store throughout the week and figured I should plan everything Sunday night for the week and do my shopping Monday morning. It's totally flexible as we don't always have what is planned for each day. It has been working out for us for months now, so I thought I'd share by posting the plan weekly. 


Here's what's on the table this week:

m  naan pizza, salad   

t  lentil soup with chicken sausage + cornbread

w  spaghetti and turkey meatballs, spinach salad

th  shrimp pesto pasta (chicken for wes)

f  tortilla pie

s  leftovers

s  salmon burgers, fries

Country Breakfast Cont'd--Fourth Course

The fourth course was my favorite, yet I could only stomach a few bites. Not to fear, we took it home with us for breakfast tomorrow! This course included eggs of your choice (3, I believe), a biscuit, an apple sausage, a piece of ham, a slice of thick cut bacon and super yummy potatoes that appeared to be grated.

I'd say this is the most extravagant breakfast I've ever had and, while it was a fun experience, I probably wouldn't put my waistline through torture again. I think I'd go straight to the egg/potato/meat entree below.

Country Breakfast Cont'd--Third Course

I was the least impressed with this course, oatmeal with honey and brown sugar. As with the 'cakes it's more than likely because I prefer the way we cook our oatmeal at home...and beacuse I was starting to get realllllly full at this point. I only took about five bites or less. I thought it was super thick oatmeal, while my mom thought it was pretty thin. Go figure!


We had a window seat and enjoyed looking at the rainbow and the start of the falls. It's a shame the hotel isn't able to get a full view of the falls.

Country Breakfast Cont'd--Second Course

The second course was a double stack of buttermilk pancakes topped with a strawberry, powdered sugar and served with maple syrup.

Along with the pancake course came a bowl of fruit, Devonshire cream and strawberry yogurt. The pancakes looked perfect, and tasted just like you'd imagine they would. I still prefer Wes's gingerbread/barley pancakes ;)

Salish Lodge Country Breakfast--First Course

Mom, Cooper and I went to the Salish Lodge this morning for their fancy "Country Breakfast." It was quite the splurge, but we got a break with the Prime card.

The first course consisted of coffee, juice and a baker's bread basket. Coffee was served with cream, sugar, white/milk chocolate shavings and vanilla-infused whipped cream.

The baker's basket had three treats: a muffin, a scone and a cinnamon roll. We split the scone and cinnamon roll and took the muffin home. My only complaint with this course was that the selection of breads/pastries were not served warm. We both got grapefruit juice.

We liked the coffee cups--tall and thin, which is unconventional. Here's a pic of my decaf with chocolate shavings. 

So...it turned out to be 15 days of celebrating

Which is fine by me! Got too busy and realized I am not cut out for daily blogging. Yeow! That is hard stuff, man! It makes me realize even more so that my dear friend Marisa is a freaking rock star for not only doing a daily blog but a daily sewing project. Sheesh! I look forward to her posts daily!

30th Birthday!!

Today was the big day! It all started with an hour-long massage, which was sooooooo nice and relaxing. I tried to savor every moment. I was so looking forward to the foot massage, but was so relaxed I fell asleep. Ack! Cooper was such a good boy while I was out; I don't think he even realized I was gone! He had a great time with Auntie and Mormor. We had a fabulous meal at Etta's at the market. I had salmon, the other two had halibut. The waiter brought a piece of coconut cream pie that was chilled and had a twisty candle on it. So yum! We walked around the market for a bit, then headed back to Bellevue where we enjoyed a hot bevvie from the buckstar. Met up with Wes at Lincoln Square for a Kinect premiere recap. We were handed glowing orbs upon entry (Cooper loved them) and were told concessions were free. We stood in line for about 10 minutes and didn't get very far as we didn't want to miss the showing so we went back to our seats, but it turns out they delayed the showing about a half hour because the lines were so long. Lame! We were better off without the popcorn anyway! It was cool, though, to see the preview of Kinect. Had a tasty dinner at Boom Noodle across the street, then came home and had a surprise at the door--a birthday flower "cake." SO cute! It was from Jamie + family. So sweet :) Also sweet was the piece of birthday cake I had at 10 p.m. OY! Why did I do that? Cuz it's my birthday, I know. But now I'm so full and hyped up on sugar. Hahaha. Ah well! All in all, a great way to ring in "30," being with my family and enjoying the beautiful day! (It did start raining at dinner, but we're grateful for the sunshine we had all afternoon!)

30 Days to Celebrate 30, Day 14

Ooops, missed yesterday, too! Had a fun day with the maz and sis. Cooper went on the swings again; ate a delish meal at 13 Coins downtown; strolled around the Bellevue Botanical Gardens; and even had a date night with the hubs--saw Athlete at the Crocodile!

30 Days to Celebrate 30, Day 13

Best things today: the people who did show up, my husband's surprise gifts, hanging out with my family, more deck time, watching Cooper play with his buddy, Scene It, cake!