Wednesday's "What We Ate April 15-21, 2013"

Can I tell you about my flop of a meal on Tuesday? Can I share how much I desperately *needed* the glass of red wine pictured below? Can I be that honest today?

Usually when I'm planning my meals for the week (I do this every Sunday afternoon during Ruby's nap), I really do try to do it with all of my brain. I purposely do it while Ruby is sleeping so I can focus, file through all my favorite recipes, look for new ones, & create my shopping list. Most of the time, I still manage to get distracted by other things & try to multi-task.

I also try to plan "easy" meals on the nights that we are going to be busier than usual. We do generally have a pretty busy life, so if I want to make something that takes more than 20 minutes to prepare (i.e. frozen pizza), then that usually means I'm starting dinner during Ruby's nap in the afternoon so we can eat around 5-5:30 (yes, we eat early around here!)

On Tuesdays, John & I lead a lifegroup through our church. It's a time where a group of people come together & chat about life & talk about the bible a bit & pray for each other. It's definitely one of the highlights of our busy schedule & we love the group of people that attend. However, it starts at 6:30 (our choice) & for some strange reason, for the past couple of Tuesdays, I just haven't planned our meals well.

A few weeks back, I was making falafel salads & was having some serious problems with cooking the falafel. We tried deep frying them & they just kept falling apart, so I resorted to also baking them. I got dinner on the table, literally at 6:10, which hardly gave us enough time to scarf it down & locate a stick of gum (mmm falafel breath).

This week, I decided to try making homemade ravioli using eggroll wrappers. The only problem was that I accidentally bought spring roll wrappers. I'm not even sure what the real difference is with the wrappers, or if my technique just completely sucked, but either way, my attempted scrumptious pumpkin + ricotta ravioli with sauteed thyme + rosemary covered in cauliflower alfredo sauce ended up to be a soggy, wet, falling apart, goopy mess.

So instead, we had macaroni noodles with the alfredo sauce, which worked out I guess because the whole time Ruby was begging for "cacka ruby & cheese" (macaroni & cheese). The sauce was actually pretty awesome & I really shouldn't have told John what was in it before he ate it because we both hate cauliflower & he was skeptical from the start. I thought it was marvelously creamy & rich, he thought it was "pretty good, but I wouldn't call it alfredo sauce." I took that as a compliment, considering the meal was over & we were finally eating something.

Tuesday's dinner: Whole wheat elbow macaroni with cauliflower alfredo sauce, salad (spring mix, broccoli, avocado, red bell peppers, soy nuts, & balsamic vinaigrette), & ciabatta bread

The rest of our meals this week went alright. I was possessed enough to not only have a rummage sale on Friday (it was 30 degrees, snowing, sleeting, & raining), but I also hosted a clothing swap on Friday night & Saturday morning. Oh yeah, & we also tore out a huge bush from our front yard & built 2 raised beds for my massive vegetable experiment. So yes, we ate out a few times. We almost went out to eat on Sunday, but I was stubborn enough to not want to eat 3 dinners out in a row, so we resorted to breakfast, which is hardly a compromise. 

Check out our vegetable garden progress. I'll be sure to post about that specifically soon!

 My little vegetable babies

 Tearing out the roots of the bush John cut down (thankfully we had some help from some of our friends!)

 Roots in the truck after lots of, um, effort

 2 raised beds complete! Now I just need the cucumber/zucchini trellis & 1 more bed & we're done building- then to fill them with dirt!

Our dirty little helper

What meals have you totally flopped? Were you able to redeem them into something else? Please share a story in the comments below!

What We Ate April 15-21, 2013
Monday: Naan Thai chicken pizza with hummus & raw carrots & broccoli
Tuesday: Whole wheat elbow macaroni with cauliflower alfredo sauce, salad (spring mix, broccoli, avocado, red bell peppers, soy nuts, & balsamic vinaigrette), & ciabatta bread
Wednesday: Salmon burgers & salad (spring mix, cucumbers, red bell peppers, sunflower seeds, & balsamic vinaigrette)
Thursday: Sweet potato hash with caramelized onions, sausage, & eggs with whole wheat toast
Friday: Pickerman's sandwiches
Saturday: Toppers Pizza (one mushroom & the other chicken, spinach, & tomato)
Sunday: Whole wheat English muffins, covered with eggs, sausage, & cheese, with sauteed potatoes & onions

I also made a batch of hummus, lara "balls", & fruit & vegetable smoothies this week.