New Year's Day Brunch

When talking about his time off around New Year's, John and I both listed things that we wanted to do that would make us happy. Since I never got to fit in a meal for our friends over Christmas, I was itching for a meal together. We invited friends and babies over for brunch on New Year's Day. I made a salad, spiced potatoes, quiches, fruit, and John made cinnamon rolls. We served mimosas and f'mosas (sparkling water and OJ for me and the kids). It felt easy and rowdy and full, all things I love about being with friends.

Instead of setting up the big table, we spread out around the house. Burl and his buddies played army, superhero fight, the guys shot bow and arrows outside, and the girls talked inside. Aside from the mimosas, the highlight was probably Uncle Daniel showing up and wrestling and dancing with all the kids. The brunch was exactly what we hoped it would be.

This Week's Menu

Every night we have dessert after dinner. Most times it is fruit, and sometimes we have cheese slices or bread with butter. Very rarely do we actually have a sugar dessert, but it does feel special on those nights! On really great nights, we go outside to eat our dessert. However, this time of year we seem to be food for the mosquitoes. They enjoy us more than we enjoy our dessert outside, but we still make attempts every so often because it feels special in a small way. Here's what we're eating for dinner this week:

Shrimp bowl, salad

Fish tacos, green beans

Chicken tortilla soup

Pizza

Dinner out

This Week's Menu

We've been enjoying more salads lately, so the kids are getting accustomed to eating them more frequently. I've noticed a trend that the more I offer salad or eat them myself, the more they are willing to try them and enjoy them. Hopefully salads become normal, daily food options and not something that we bring out every so often and stare at. So, here is what we're eating this week:

5-bean chili, salad

Loaded baked potato, blue cheese lettuce wedge

Sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, squash, beet/goat cheese salad, bread

BLTs, grilled corn on the cob

This Week's Menu

John and I are swinging on the healthy side these weeks. What that means for us, which is different for all of us, is that we are pushing ourselves to eat more salads and stop snacking at night. We're laying off sweets. We feel so much better. I'm still struggling to find a healthy place with food, so I welcome advice and words of wisdom. For this week, here's what we're eating:

Black beans & rice with all the fun toppings
Bean & bacon soup, salad
Fettuccine bolognese, salad, bread (making this for a crowd coming for dinner)
Pinto beans, sweet potato, sauteed squash, steamed broccoli
Tostadas, kidney bean/avocado salad

This Week's Menu

Before I post my weekly menu, I just want to say thank you to all my friends who said such encouraging words about my last post. Some of you said that you shed tears over it, and that means a great deal to me. Everything that happens is for our good and for God's glory. 

Now for my weekly menu: My goal is to post weekly. I use it as a resource for myself to link any recipes that I might use and to have the list always available. Many times I plan a menu, buy the groceries, then forget what the plan is. If I don't keep the menu posted, then I always forget what I planned on making. I end up pulling a Macguyver in the kitchen every night, where I'm pulling random things together to make a meal. Here is my plan this week:

Falafels, carrot couscous 

Spaghetti, salad

Grilled garlic tenderloin, steamed broccoli, sweet potatoes

Salami salad (we can't get enough)

Tilapia tacos, chips and salsa

This Week's Menu

Every once-in-a-while I post my little menu for the week on the blog. Here is what we're eating this week:

Fish tacos, chipotle coleslaw
Black beans and rice with toppings

Tomato basil soup, Caesar salad

Tomato sausage pasta

Shrimp and vegetable stir fry, sesame coleslaw 

This Week's Menu

Here's my menu for next week. We have some dinners-out thrown in there as well because it's someone's (my!) birthday week. I love celebrating around food, so many of my meals are already planned and have been that way for a while. Here are the easy, non-birthday ones:

Chicken and wild rice soup

Black beans & rice

Corn & black bean quesadillas

Salami salad

This Week's Menu

Once again, I'm sharing my menu. For years, I shared it on Sundays, and now I post it on Thursday or Friday. I'm currently on the Whole30 food program, which always does two things for our house: adds a lot more fruit and vegetables to our groceries. There are currently so many of my favorite foods in season right now, and I'm enjoying such a wide variety. Here's what I'm making this week:

Dry rub ribs, sweet potato fries, cilantro slaw

Chicken tortilla soup

Almond butter "pancakes," sausage

Roasted brussel sprouts, horseradish carrots, sweet potato fries, roasted cauliflower

Enchilada zucchini boats 

This Week's Menu

Every Sunday for a few years now, I've posted my weekly menus on my blog, but lately I've found it difficult to make my way to the computer on Sundays. During my little blog break, I thought it would be nice to switch my weekly menus to Thursday or Friday. I don't have exotic menus or elaborate recipes. I simply like keeping a record of my menus (for several different reasons). 

Tomorrow I'm starting Whole30 again. I am not a fanatic of the diet or think that it's the ultimate way to live, but I'm on this food journey to get to a healthy weight and a healthy place with food and sometimes I rely on Whole30 to help with that. I'm not sure that's the best way, but I'm struggling on how to live with food. I'll write more about that later, but for now just know that my menus will have a ton of fruits and vegetables in them. Here's what I'm planning on making:

Easiest fish tacos, cilantro lime brown rice, spicy greens
Veggie soup

Veggie night: homemade sweet potato fries, grilled okra, steamed lemon broccoli, bread

Tuna salad lettuce wraps, cantaloupe, chips

Chicken mulligatawny 

Burgers, grilled corn-tomato salad

This Week's Menu

I've never loved cooking more than I do right now. I'm truly loving it and I have no idea why. Part of it might be the progress I've made in counseling the past months about my food issues and shame and all that negative stuff. I hope to post more about that soon. Still, every week I have fun cooking for my family, and every week I hope to post my menu for the week here on the blog. However, I've missed some weeks. With the weather warming, it seems that I'm like most people and like my evenings out of doors. I'm able to post this week, so here is how we're eating (and hopefully most dinners will be eaten outside as well):

Campsite cooking is the dreamiest

Leftovers, mac & cheese

Turkey lettuce pita pockets, black-eyed pea salad

Potato corn chowder

Tilapia tacos, grilled corn

Veggie night: black eyed peas, sweet potatoes, lemon broccoli, fruit

Tomato pasta

This Week's Menu

Burl's always into classifying and compartmentalizing life, as am I. This weekend he's done the girl roles and boy roles of the house. "Daddy and I are boys and we do worker stuff, and you and Fern are girls." I asked what we, the girls, did and he thought for only a second and replied, "the food." Later, it turned into, "Daddy's the boss of the house and Mama's in charge of the food, right?" He's starting to see what our roles are at home and I think that's sweet, because, for the most part, those are our major work jobs we do at home. I cook. John fixes stuff. So, how appropriate to share that story on my weekly menu. And, how ironic that I'm posting a picture of John making fresh biscuits for us, which are my favorite biscuits that I've ever had. Truth. Here's our menu for the week: 

Breakfast casserole, cheese grits, biscuits, fruit

Fettuccine bolognese

Dinner out

Tomato artichoke cream soup, hummus and bread

This Week's Menu

I've got some bonfire experimenting planned for this week. We just planned our first camping trip for the season and it's for our longest stay yet. While we're still new at this camping thing, my biggest challenge is the food. I'm learning how to keep and cook good fresh meals while we're at the campsite. I've received some advice (and always open for more), and now I need to test it. And, I always like an excuse to build a fire on a school night. So, here's what we're eating in the kitchen and in the front yard:

Blackened fish tacos and mexican street corn

Turkey lettuce pita pockets, tomato and cucumber salad

Butter chicken and rice

Oven fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans

Bonfire philly sandwiches, bonfire potatoes

This Week's Menu

It's nice to return to Sunday night menus. I haven't posted it lately due to lack of planning and vacation. I'm happy to return to this routine, because I always do better when I have a plan for dinner. John has an answer to "what's for dinner?" and I don't have to put anymore thought into creating a meal plan. While I love buying groceries, cooking, and sometimes cleaning up, coming up with the meals is the hardest part for me. It's done now.

 Cousin meal time, more on this later...

Leftover shrimp bisque, salad, bread

Roasted chicken, brown rice, sauteed snap peas

Vegetable soup

Roasted cauliflower, sweet potatoes, green beans, fruit

This Week's Menu

Every Sunday I try to post my little menu for the week as a place to pull my online recipes or simply remember what I'm making. Here's our list for this week:

Greek salad, homemade pizza, & fresh pita bread 

Red beans and rice

Burl's birthday dinner: bonfire hot dogs and cheetos

Oven fried chicken, mashed potatoes, southern green beans

This Week's Menu

I lost 7 pounds in 48 hours. Praise the Lord Almighty for recovery from the stomach bug. I'm about 90% better. John made biscuits for dinner, so that number probably increased a little bit. Boy.knows.how.to.biscuit. For the rest of the week, here's what I'm making:

Stuffed bell peppers, lima beans

Roasted cauliflower, green beans with Lauren's sauce, baked potatoes

Bean and sausage soup

Black beans and rice with all the trimmings

This Week's Menu

I just wrapped up a women's retreat at our church. 150 women gathered for Friday night and Saturday night and everything went flawless. I was all prepared to solve some problems and take action, let's just say "on edge" all weekend, but nothing went wrong. As the daughter of a caterer, I was constantly watching our meals and how they were flowing. Perfect. Everything went perfectly, and I have to say that I'm still buzzing off the time that I had. It's still sinking in how much I loved it. One of my funny scenes was the greasy bags of chips we had stashed for the taco bar. Everyone had a good laugh over these cuties. All that aside, here is our menu for the week:

My favorite kale salad (my kids eat it too)

Roasted chicken, brown rice, and mushy green beans (so southern)

Veggie night: Roasted cauliflower, horseradish carrots, SPF, lima beans

Bean and sausage soup

This Week's Menu

Thank you for the huge response from my food confessions. It makes me want to invite everyone over and we can talk about where we are and where we think we should go. I think that I would have a nutritionist there to tell us the actual truth, and of course we would have some killer good snacks. If you're new here, then I post my little menu on Sunday nights for a record-keeping kind of thing. It's worked well for me. There is nothing grand about our meals, so it's not a recommendation or anything like that. It's just a peak into what our family eats.

Lettuce wraps, homemade egg drop soup

Coconut shrimp, peas, acorn squash

Bacon-wrapped fish, wild rice, sauteed green beans

Black bean and rice bowls with all the trimmings

This Week's Menu

 Food issues, what food issues? Let's just say that I have a big personal post coming in the morning about all this food stuff. This is my last week on whole30, and all I want is the best bowl of beans and rice with all the trimmings. Then, some birthday cake for dessert.
Here's what I'm making instead:

Acorn bowls with sausage, apples, and coconut (recipe from my sil), zucchini 

Veggie nite: sauteed green beans, sweet potato fries, tomato and cucumber salad

Breakfast dinner. Eggs, sausage, and grain free muffins

Lazy, layered eggplant with lamb

Pops steaks, sweet potatoes, southern green beans

Primal enchiladas

This Week's Menu

Well friends, I'm a broken record. I'm back on Whole30 along with several friends. We all want a different way. We all want change. We all want a reset button. But what we really, REALLY want is some pizza dipped in queso and some birthday cake. 

I have some things to say about Whole30 and food and diets and me, but I need a big chunk of time to and energy to sit down and process it all. Things are changing, and hopefully I'm going to find some freedom. More on that later. For now, here's our menu for the week...

My mom's birthday dinner out

Roasted chicken, cauliflower rice, roasted brussels

Beef burgundy, brown rice, sauteed green beans

Bacon burgers, fried plantains and guacamole

This Week's Menu

Over Christmas, both my kids got to sit at the cousin table for dinner; my dad made an incredible vegetable soup that I was skeptical about; and the kids wanted to eat breakfast on the kitchen floor before opening presents. What the what? 

And for my weekly menu post:

Jenny's salsa roast, sweet potatoes, lima beans

Dad's better-than-I-thought vegetable soup

Favorite Kale Salad

Veggie Night: sweet potato fries, brussels, broccoli, berries

15 bean chili and sausage