Menu Plan Monday: Off the Wagon Again

Last week was not the best for my menu plan. But I didn't go to the store either, so I didn't spend any money on groceries.We had an incident with my car pouring smoke out of the hood, which would have ruined dinner on Monday if I hadn't prepared it earlier in the day. Big T was working late most of the week, so I didn't have to worry about providing dinner for him. And we had a birthday party to go to on Saturday, which meant I didn't really need to plan dinner for that day either. So I planned out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and forgot about the rest of the week. Oops.

The Plan:
Monday: Cheesy chicken and rice bake
Tuesday: Split pea soup with bacon
Wednesday: Bacon quesadillas

The Reality:
Monday: Chicken and rice ranch casserole
Tuesday: Chik Fil-A
Wednesday: Split pea soup with bacon
Thursday: Apple with peanut butter
Friday: Eat at the in-laws'
Saturday: Pizza


The Method (not that there was much of one this week):
Monday: I started dinner early today, since the kids were with me all day. I knew I didn't want to be rushing toward the end of the day. (It was a good thing, too, since my afternoon ended up crazy and rushed when my car broke down.) In the morning, I cooked 2 chicken breasts by spreading mayo on them, then cutting an onion into rings and laying that on top of the chicken. I then baked them in a 365 degree oven for about 45 minutes. They ended up soooo moist and juicy. I reserved the liquid that had seeped out of the breasts for my casserole. While the chicken cooked, I made some Lundburg Wehani rice (my new favorite). To make the casserole, I diced the chicken and mixed it with the rice, the cauliflower I had cooked up last week, and frozen soybeans. I poured this mixture into a casserole dish. I mixed half a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing with the liquid left over from cooking the chicken and poured it over the casserole. At dinnertime, I had planned on baking the casserole in the oven to heat it through, but since all the ingredients were pre-cooked, I ended up microwaving separate portions. This was a delicious casserole. The leftovers were even better, and I'll definitely make it again.
Tuesday: Since I had to take my car to the shop today, I had to drive Big T to work. This meant I had to pick him up in the evening, too. Since I knew the kids would be getting home late because of this, we had to eat dinner out on the road, somewhere between picking up Baby T from daycare and picking up Big T from work. We ended up at Chik Fil-A, where Little M ate 4 entire chicken nuggets, and Baby T picked at one and ate some fruit while trying to stay as far away as possible from the clown that was there for kid's night.
Wednesday: I had gotten a bag of split peas the week before, and wanted to try my hand at split pea soup. I used a veggie broth I had cooked in my crock pot the night before, and threw that in with some bacon, sauteed onions, split peas, potatoes and thyme in the crock pot for 6 hours on low. At the end of the day, I pureed the soup (in tiny batches in my knock-off Magic Bullet, ugh). I threw some shredded cheese in at the end. It was better when eaten off the end of the bread I dipped in it than eaten off a spoon. I realized I don't love split pea soup, although it probably would have been tastier with some carrots and celery thrown in. I'm going to try to work it into a pasta and sausage casserole next week. Stay tuned.
Thursday: This was one of those days that I didn't have a menu planned. I was going to eat leftover soup, but I ended up eating the crusts off of Baby T's peanut butter sandwich and had an apple with peanut butter.
Saturday: Party. And pizza. Yum.

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