Menu Plan #4

I'm posting a lot this morning.  It's Friday.  I'm playing catch up.  All playdates were cancelled this week.  The week when I could have used them the most.  Between my sick kids and friends' sick kids, everything was a no go.

Today is #1's dinner night.  It as traded yesterday for #3's night.  #3 did the trading because she planned on a crockpot dinner but then neglected to get it ready before she left for school yesterday.  Today, again, she forgot, so I did hers, and she will make my Sunday night.  She doesn't know that yet, but she's pretty happy to cook whenever, and I'm more than happy to have a simple dinner tonight.

Tonight is the night of the surprise I mentioned on Facebook.

My brother is both a Jedi and a Stormtrooper for the Cloud City Garrison here in Portland.  They are a group that dresses up in Star Wars costumes and does a lot of service events in the area.  My brother's been doing it for years.  The kids think he's AWESOME.

His son outgrew his padawan costume, so a few months back, my brother and the Warden took up a conversation about #5 having the costume presented to him (complete with braid).  #5 is a Star Wars FREAK!  He has been since he was tiny.  A lot of my friends are surprised that that "Star Wars phase" hasn't passed.

Tonight, we will meet with various characters, and my brother, the Jedi, will present the costume to him.  He will get in costume and get to meet up with people and take pictures with them.

Tomorrow, they will be at the Children's Museum and #5 will get to join in on the fun.

Here's a little taste of what this is all about. My brother actually brought his "sand trooper" costume with him to our family reunion and had some of his buddies come join him to walk around the streets and the beach at Seaside, Oregon...

#5, being one of the middle children rarely has anything amazing happen for him.  I'm so excited that this will be just for him.

So, back to dinner....

As I threw the chicken into the crockpot, I realized that I hadn't posted this week's meal plan.  I've got to get into a better habit of this.  Anyway, here's what we've done this week....

Saturday:  Doritos Locos Tacos - basically tacos with crunched up Dorito's in them.  This was #2's meal.  He's so funny.  He finds something that some restaurant is doing and chooses to imitate it.

Sunday:  Chicken Divan Crepes.  I posted this recipe in an earlier post.  I learned not to fill the crepes too full.  This was good, but a friend suggested that curry and lemon juice needed to be added to the sauce.  I completely agree.

Monday:  Okonomiyaki.  I also posted this one in that same previous post.  This was the most expensive thing we've made so far.  Had to go to the Asian market to buy the flour and the sauces for the top.  I think we could probably use regular flour, but I wanted to make sure we didn't screw them up the first time.

Tuesday:  Waikiki Meatballs.  This recipe was found in our ward cookbook.  It was basically sweet and sour meatballs.

Wednesday:  Chicken nuggets and salad.  Usually, I wouldn't allow my kids to just throw frozen food in the oven and call it good, but this was #5's meal.  I figure once in awhile's not going to kill us.

Thursday:  Tortellini and Alfredo sauce.  We just bought some packaged tortellini, boiled it according to the package instructions and warmed up a jar of Alfredo sauce.  I know my friend has a to-die-for recipe, but it was a crazy week, so we took the easy route.

Friday (tonight):  Italian Chicken.  This is the EASIEST of them all.  Chicken and a bottle of Italian salad dressing in the crockpot.  We're serving it over pasta.


There you have it.  We just do simple, less-expensive things, usually, so I hope someone finds this helpful.  Enjoy!