Recently I have received some very nice comments from some wonderful people about how organized and gourmet our meals are, etc. I appreciate them taking the time to read my blog and for sharing such gracious comments with me! I don’t however, mean to give the impression that everything is always perfect or turns out as planned around here. I do my best to be organized and prepared, but life happens and sometimes things don’t go as expected! (Also, in the last few weeks I have really been experiencing pregnancy brain! I have had trouble remembering some things, which messes up my organizational abilities somewhat.) In all these years I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve cooked something and then threw it out because it was so bad. Unfortunately, one of those times was this week! I am perplexed, and still upset about it! Monday night I made orange chicken and rice for dinner. I don’t know what happened, but it. was. Aweful!! I believe the ratio of batter to chicken was off somehow, because it didn’t fry up crispy. All I know is that I tasted about three bites and said, “we are not eating this!” Andrew then graciously offered to go get chinese take out. I LOVE him! 🙂

I cut my finger this week chopping carrots for David’s lunch box.  I obviously need to improve my knife skills, but I am a scaredy cat! Probably has something to do with I play piano for a living, and therefore NEED all my fingers working. 🙂

I was in the middle of making chicken parmesan for dinner last night, only to open up the package of chicken and have that awful your chicken has gone bad smell waft up my nose. I already had my pasta going, the pan hot and ready, and the breading/egg mixture ready to coat the chicken in. Andrew quickly went to the store and bought some more chicken for me. Did I mention that I LOVE him!? 🙂 Despite his heroic effort to help me save dinner, I still managed to blunder it. The pasta was overcooked, and the chicken was too thick and didn’t cook quick enough (I should have either sliced it thinner, or pounded it more.) So we ate burned on the bottom chicken with smooshy spaghetti noodles. However, it wasn’t so bad that I threw it out, and the kids still ate their spaghetti.

We did have some culinary successes this week too! 🙂 One evening we grilled a flank steak (we couldn’t find a reasonable priced skirt steak) marinated in a chimichuri sauce.

Another night we had Lemon Basil Shrimp Risotto. Both recipes are very easy to cook. We had them as separate meals, but you could also have them together as one meal too!

 

David had his first day of pre-school this week! I had to keep with the trend and take the “first day of school” photo! It is amazing to see how they grow from year to year! David’s first day picture from last year popped up on my facebook the other day, and he has grown about five inches at least since then!

Emma was so funny on David’s first day. She wanted to go to school too! She had to grab her lunch box (I bought her one for when she goes to parents day out, which doesn’t start till Sept.), and she took it with her to drop David off at school. It was sweet! 🙂 We are really going to miss David when he’s at school, and are going to have to adjust to a new routine around here!

I recently bought some finger paints for the kids. David loved doing finger paints when he was Emma’s age, but Emma takes finger painting to a whole new level! 🙂

Here’s the winning photo of the week! Emma was giving David hugs at the game last night! He was actually hugging her back too! 🙂  Cuties!

Here is our menu for next week!

Monday: Lunch, Polish sausage, white beans, and broccoli. Dinner, Carbonara. 

Tuesday: Lunch, Chili Dogs and chips. Dinner, Pizza night for the kids (we have dinner plans)

Wednesday: Lunch, OUT. Dinner, At Church.

Thursday: Lunch, Bleu Cheeseburger. Dinner, Pollo A La Plancha.

Friday: (going out of town)

Saturday: Dinner, Chicken fried steak, green beans, squash.

Sunday: Lunch, Pot Roast, carrots, potatoes. Dinner, Italian Sausage with meat sauce, salad, and rosemary potatoes. 

Love,

PK