Menu Plan Monday: Oops.

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Ok, so last week wasn't a total bomb, but I was a little lazy when it came to meal planning. I didn't sit down to plan my menu until well into Monday afternoon. Then, Big T told me he wanted pizza and totally threw me off. And we spent 5 hours in the ER with Little M on Monday night. That didn't help. But Big T was off from work from Monday to Wednesday, so he helped out a lot when it came to dinners.

The Plan:
Monday: Order pizza
Tuesday: Taco Salad Cups
Wednesday: Hamburger Helper
Thursday: Chicken with stuffing and mashed potatoes
Saturday: ?? (I couldn't put it together and think this far ahead.)

The Reality:
Monday: We forgot about dinner (see below)
Tuesday: Homemade Pizza
Wednesday: Soft tacos
Thursday: Salmon burgers with mashed potato croquettes (basically mashed potato finger food)
Friday: Hamburger helper
Saturday: Chicken with kale, beets, and salad

The Method:
Monday: This was a bad decision-making day for me, apparently. I couldn't decide what to have for dinner, and when Big T suggested pizza, he totally threw me off. There aren't any good pizza places near us, and I didn't really feel like making it. We finally decided to order pizza. I was on the computer, about to order online when Big T picked up Little M by the wrists, just to move him away from the bedroom door so he could close it. Little M started whimpering and didn't stop. Not even while nursing. We knew something was wrong. He wasn't moving his arm, and if we touched it, he would whimper. We spent 5 hours in the ER, just to have a doctor re-set his dislocated elbow in about 2 seconds. Little M is completely fine--he had "nursemaid's elbow," which is pretty common if you pick up your child by the wrists and not under the armpits. Luckily, he wasn't screaming in pain and he slept in the Ergo most of the time at the ER. So obviously, we weren't concerned with dinner by the time we arrived home at 1:30 A.M.

Tuesday: Today, we were going for our pizza. We picked up fresh dough from the deli at our local grocery store and got pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. We made 2 different kinds of pizza: pan pizza in the dutch oven with ham and pineapple (leftover) and a regular-crust pizza on the pizza stone.

Wednesday: I was going to make taco salad in cute little homemade tortilla cups, but I didn't do any prep work and I had a rough day. So while I went to pick Baby T up from daycare, Big T sauteed some chicken, peppers and onion in a cast iron pan with taco seasoning and wrapped them in soft flour tortillas. I also had a few small corn tortillas, which I fried in some oil until crisp to make open-faced tacos.

Thursday: I have a ton of canned salmon that I get from WIC, and I picked up a recipe card for salmon burgers the last time I was in the office. They were easy to make and I had all of the ingredients. We had also brought home leftover mashed potatoes from Mom-Mom's the Sunday before, so I transformed them into potato croquettes. Amazing. They were like mozzarella sticks, but creamier and not as rubbery. They were a huge hit.

Friday: Little M had another incident today when I was holding him and tripped over the dog. Little M hit the floor hard and bit his tongue. He also hit his head on the corner of a wall, and his head and ear were cut. Thankfully, my in-laws live in town, or I would have lost it when I noticed the blood. Mom-mom came over and checked him out, and we figured he was ok. Once Little M started dancing to the "Curious George" music, we knew for sure he was fine. By the time Big T came home from work, the kids were fine but my nerves were shot. I cooked up some breakfast sausage that I had in my freezer, added it to the hamburger helper, and called it a day.

Saturday: Can I just say that the first week of 2012 sucked? As Big T was trying to clean the kitchen before he left for work, the sink stopped draining, then proceeded to leak out of the pipe all over the kitchen. By the time Big T left, the pipes under the sink were undone, there was a bucket of murky water under the sink, and there were sopping wet towels all over the floor. (Add two cranky kids and a very cranky mom to that equation). We were saved by the in-laws once again! Plumber Joe (disguised as Pop Pop) came over and thankfully fixed it while Mom Mom helped me distract the boys.

Also quite thankfully, one of my friends replied to my pleas for company and came over for an impromptu barbecue that afternoon. Dinner was easy. We grilled chicken, sauteed some kale and beets (I used to hate beets until I had them the way my friend makes them--sauteed with olive oil, maple syrup, and balsamic vinegar...a delicious beet recipe!), and had fresh salad from the garden.

The week is over. Thankfully. It can only get better from here, right?

Print out the recipes for Easy Homemade Pizza and Salmon Burgers (with homemade sauce) by clicking on the images below.

Easy Homemade Pizza Salmon Burgers

For more meal planning obsessiveness inspiration, check out orgjunkie.com!