This is it! The last week of summer. Here in Michigan it feels very October-y and there’s no getting around it – it’s strange.  I’m sad that the loosey-goosey schedule we’ve enjoyed for the past three months is coming to an end, but I’m so excited for my kids to start school.  They both have fantastic teachers this year, and we just found out Maybelle’s “boyfriend” will be in her class with her.  They’re both thrilled; but cannot physically be near each other without making some sort of contact. I’m hoping they behave themselves in class.  It’s a Christian school, after all.

Here’s what’s on the menu for this week.  I have been very fortunate lately with people giving me produce from their bountiful gardens, so I will be making good use of it. Our garden; not so bountiful.  And considering there is a frost warning tonight, I am not sure how this harvest season is going to turn out.

For more Menu Plan Monday, check out I’m An Organizing Junkie.

MONDAY:

Maybelle’s birthday was Sunday, but we’re having her favorite dinner today instead.  She has requested “pasketti”. Pasketti it is. 

TUESDAY

This is A.P.’s birthday, so we’re having baked fish and broccoli slaw for dinner.  Seriously.  At least he’s normal enough to want cake; but he wants a “pineapple upside down cake, with strawberries instead of cherries”.

WEDNESDAY

Grilled chicken and grilled zucchini.  On the side, I’ll make tabouli. I have some heirloom tomatoes I don’t really know how to use, so I figure this will be a good way to really get the taste of them. And since it feels like fall, we’re also having Apple Crisp. 

THURSDAY

Homemade pizza with bacon, banana peppers, and cherry tomatoes.   For a side dish, I’m going to try and make Broccoli Salad, but since this is my first attempt I’m just using a random recipe and will give it a shot (except not with the sugar subsitute – yuck).  Anyone have a recipe for Broccoli Salad they like?

On a side note; my husband and I are having our, ahem, “Budget Meeting” later in the evening so I will probably be enjoying one or three glasses of wine with dinner in preparation for the loving, uplifting discussion I’m certain will occur.

FRIDAY

Red beans and rice with saugsage. I am thinking I will have some side dishes left over by this point in the week so I’ll just set those back out.

Wellll…. my husband is laid off again this week.  He has already created a list of things to do and hopefully, taking the kids camping again is on it.  He kind of has to create his own “Honey Do” list – if I make one for him, it just sits there, not getting done.  We have a leak in our roof, so the immediacy fixing that has kept him pretty busy, although he inexplicably began another project in the middle of the roof-fixing one.  Our window sills and fireplace have about 8 coats of paint on them – some lead, some not – and he is sanding that all off. 

The week has certainly gotten off to a good start.  Yesterday in church, my kids were so well behaved that a nice old Italian lady in the pew in front of us gave them each a quarter for being so good.  I think they were graded on somewhat of a curve, as other kids were being pretty rambunctions, but I’ll take it.  She also told me I had “a lot of patience”.  This is not a compliment I get often (for good reason), so that was worth more to me than the shiny quarter she gave my kids.

I’m not sure what else we’ll do this week.  I took the kids to the Zoo on Friday for the first time in forever.  I have to say, John Ball Park, you’re still not exactly Binder Park but you’ve come a long way in a couple of years.  My favorite part was after the minnniature goat petting section (is that the PC word? Minniature? Little? What do tiny goats prefer to be called?), Maybelle immediately looked for the Purel dispenser, as her hands were “very goaty”. 

So here’s what’s on the menu for this week:

MONDAY:

I hate it when I do this; but I made a meal, froze it, and can’t remember the recipe because I was making it up as I went along.  It was sort of a potato chowder with corn and chorizo.  It involved my food processor, that’s all I recall.  The sad part is that it was only a few weeks ago.  I also remember that I served it with salad and corn on the cob, so I’ll do that again too.

TUESDAY:

Ham salad sandwiches, home-made bread, fresh vegetables and dip, and some sort of desert that fits in a cooler well.

We’re heading out to Meijer Gardens for the Tuesday Night concerts.  Each week my kids spend less time listening to the music though, and more and more time rolling down the big hill.  Either way, it’s good clean fun. 

WEDNESDAY:

We’re cashing in our birthday freebies  and should be thoroughly stuffed after we head over to Red Robin (yummm).

 THURSDAY:

If it’s above 50 degrees, we’ll throw some chicken on the grill and use up one of the many marinade packages I have laying around.  I am trying to clean our the freezer before I start stocking up for my work season, so any bagged frozen vegetables that remain will be combined, smothered in butter, and served.  I also have some garlic bread in the freezer so I’ll make that too.

FRIDAY:

Our garden is having a hard time this year, and the jalapenos are just now popping up.  Finally! Time to make salsa and serve it up with chips, and easy tacos – ground beef, taco seasoning, tomato sauce, and flour tortillas.  I don’t have a link to my salsa recipe because it really depends on how many tomatos and peppers are ripe that day but I use tomatoes, peppers, diced onion, fresh cilantro, the juice from fresh limes, and sea salt.

For more Menu Plan Monday, check out I’m An Organizing Junkie.