Menu Plan

I'm sure no one even looks at this blog any more. With that in mind, I feel pretty safe writing the following things down to explain why there haven't been any new posts (or much cooking at all) going on.

1) My husband was laid off for about three months. He is our sole breadwinner. You do the math! Frankly, when the budget is that tight, cooking isn't a whole lot of fun--it becomes very casserole-heavy in an effort to stretch the protein out over a few meals and fill up the meals with filling and inexpensive starches. That was a very bleak time for us. It did, however, help encourage creativity on my part--how can I best utilize my pantry? How can I make a pound of hamburger feed us for three meals? How many ways can I serve potatoes? Thankfully, he is now back to work. So while I'm still quite frugal when it comes to groceries, I feel a little more leeway and the ability to feed my family what it wants to eat.

2) I was pregnant during that time of layoff, so, very tired. Very, very tired. Easy things like spaghetti work well when you have no energy at all. But planning meals and posting them does not work well. Obviously.

3) I miscarried. About a month and a half ago, we lost the baby I'd been so tired with for months. This really isn't the place to discuss too much about my state of mind and what all went down during that time, but suffice it to say that of all the things I could give time, thought, and energy to, cooking and blogging about it was pretty low on my list of priorities.

So now, I'm physically back to normal, Abe's back to work, and we have more of a routine now. Thank God for his healing and restoration! And if you're reading this, thank you for coming back.

You'll notice that this week's menu is grilled food-heavy. I have a concert this Friday and several practices this week in preparation, so I won't have a whole lot of time to cook. My hubs is always saying that when the grill is fired up, we should take advantage of its heat and grill up a bunch of stuff--this week, I'm taking the challenge and having him grill things for four of this week's meals this evening. I hope he does a good job! This week's menu depends on it.

Monday
Grilled Steak
Baked Potatoes
Salad w/ homemade croutons and homemade dressing

Tuesday
Grilled Chicken Tacos with cilantro and mango salsa, in home-fried corn tortillas
Cilantro-Lime rice

Wednesday
Brats
Grilled Onions and peppers
Potato Salad
Broccoli Salad

Thursday
Various pizzas--cheese, pepperoni and mushroom, and Margherita
Salad

Friday
Grilled Lemon-Garlic Pork Chops
Aglio e olio Orzo with Peas

Saturday
Eat out for hubs' 34th Birthday

Sunday
Leftovers or takeout