A Month of Dinners - Days Three, Four and Five

Day three of a month of dinners which I started last week was Pork Chops with roasted beets and oranges. I confirmed that I do not like my oranges hot. The kids confirmed they don't like beets. Again I felt like this meal needed a starch so I also made some couscous. The pork chops were actually fine. Thank god. So everyone got to eat something. The kids referred to it as steak and dipped it in A1.

At this point I feel like I have to write that I promise, my kids really aren't picky eaters. They usually try everything, they even like salad, brussel sprouts and soup. I swear I didn't say anything to discourage them on the beets. By this time they had started complaining about dinner. They were forcing themselves to eat it because they know they don't get dessert without eating a good dinner, but even I was having a hard time encouraging them to eat something that I know doesn't taste good.

Strike three and I'm annoyed.

Wednesday I ended up having to go to a soccer game to entertain a client. I believe Kevin made the kids pizza rolls. I'm sure if you asked them it was the best meal they ate all week.

Day four of meal planning was Chicken with potatoes, bacon and cabbage. My first clue should have been that the chicken was only seasoned with salt and pepper.

I now know that I do not like cabbage cooked in three tablespoons of apple vinegar and a tablespoon of whole grain mustard. I must say that my meal did not even closely resemble the picture.

I wasn't having a very good night. I had gotten some unexpected news at work. Kevin was not in a good mood. I burnt the bacon because I was busy chopping cabbage, so I had to do that part over. It tasted better when I mixed all three items together, but of course the kids wanted to eat them separately and alone they were not good.

I believe this is the night Carter commented "Mommy, you used to make good dinners." Yes, yes I did.

At this point I had one recipe left. Tortellini with squash, mushrooms and fontina. How badly could they screw up tortellini I thought. Tonight I felt compelled to use the produce I had bought so I peeled and chopped the squash and mixed it with the mushrooms and started roasting them while I waited for my water to boil. I could smell the mushrooms and to be honest, I don't really like mushrooms. The more I checked them the more I knew no one was going to eat them. I turned the oven off, pulled them out and dumped them down the garbage disposal.

Then I made garlic bread, a salad and added a jar of pasta sauce to my tortellini. Carter told me it was the "best meal ever" although to be fair he has said this many times over (just not in the past week ha!).

So that was that. We are now back on track. I am done with this Real Simple plan. I'm convinced none of the recipes were tested by working moms or on kids.

This week's meal plan:

Sunday: Tortellini with salad and garlic bread
Monday: Turkey tacos with homemade guacamole
Tuesday: Pasta with leftover chicken apple sausage
Wednesday: We are hoping our new deck will be done and we are grilling ribeyes + potatoes
Thursday: Grilled barbecue chicken + sides ?

And I think we are going back to the Cook's Country Recipes we were using more frequently months ago. I may even pay for access to the site so I don't have to keep the magazines piled up.