Meal Plan Monday - Week 21

We had a great weekend. Friday we went out for a nice dinner at a local place that we have been to a few times now that we really enjoy. It was a rainy storm filled weekend here, and while we wanted to get more done outside, but it just wasn't in the cards.

Saturday we had my niece spend the night, she needed some time with her "cousin" Stella. It was very cute, but it was nice for her to have some alone time with just the boy and I as well. We also had good friends S & J for dinner. I made some appetizers to start with, we had cheddar cheese with honey, craisins and sliced almonds, a couple of other cheeses, crackers, marinated olives that I made, marcona almonds, bread with olive oil. The menu consisted of a medley of boiled new potatoes smashed with blue cheese and my new favorite salad, arugula, blueberries, goat cheese, sugared almonds with a pomegranate dressing, SO good. Last but not least we grilled some wonderful steaks from Costco which I put a light marinade on, they turned out beautifully. For dessert we had strawberries, vanilla wafers and blackberries with a fruit dip. I will definitely be using this menu again.

Sunday my niece and I made caramel rolls and then my sister picked her up. The boy and I decided to run between the rain and get some ta-da's done and run to Lowe's and such and on our way we figured let's check out a movie. It had been quite a while, there was a theater right there, we weren't going to get any work done outside, so why not. We saw Something Borrowed which I loved, especially the scenery. When we came out, we noticed that it looked like it had rained quite a bit. While we were in the theater, multiple tornadoes had touched down in the metro area. As we drove home we noticed debris all over the roads. When we got home, we noticed that mulch we had put down had been washed out. The boy went down to the basement, and damn if you wouldn't know it, we had water. From what we understand it came down hard and fast, we believe that our gutters over flowed and the drain tile filled up and the sump pump couldn't work fast enough. The boy got it cleaned up, but we were pretty bummed. We joined friends for dinner at Fogo de Chao, and while that can be a fun place to go, I think it is too much meat. . . .

This week, it is more work at home. . . with a little fun thrown in. We had three fun dinner parties last week, small, completely manageable and a ton of fun. I think that is what makes the work worth it. That along with my day job is becoming more manageable again which is also nice. So this week while we have a ton of work going on at home again, and we won't be going up to the lake for Memorial Day weekend for the first time in five years, we invited friends today for an impromptu BBQ on Saturday, should be fun.

Monday
Plans - work on the yard, plant some more flowers
Dinner - arugula, prosciutto flatbread pizza

Tuesday
Plans - laundry, work on closets
Dinner - the boys parents are bringing pizza

Wednesday
Plans - clean the house, Costco for chairs for the deck
Dinner - steak salad

Thursday
Plans - mom and dad over to work on basement and dinner
Dinner - braised short ribs

Friday
Plans - HH and name change party for friend going back to her maiden name
Dinner - Out

Saturday
Plans - Impromptu BBQ
Dinner - Cheeseburgers and Brats and all of the fixings

Sunday
Plans - work on house
Dinner - BBQ ribs

Not an exciting week, and I am hoping to update with more recipes to add to the meals as the week goes on so please check back. For more meal plans and recipes, check out the orgjunkie.