Menu Monday #8

I can't believe Monday has come and gone already and I am just now posting. Perhaps it is because I have spent the past 72 hours or so unpacking. I am an unpacking machine. After dropping off our storage items on Tuesday, the movers spent Thursday and Friday packing our belongings at our apartment, and part of Thursday, Friday and Saturday unloading them at the house. They moved over all of the beds on Thursday so that we could spend the night in our new home. Awesome! Definitely one advantage to a 15-minute move vs a 5+ hour one! I spent the days unpacking boxes, in hopes of unpacking them as quickly as they could bring them in the house. While I couldn't keep up quite that quickly, I was doing a decent job. At the end of today, I have unpacked everything except for my office! That doesn't count all of the boxes still sitting in the basement that need sorted through, but those are things we have lived without for the past 6 months, and I am thinking a lot of it we could live without period. I am seeing a big garage sale or some Craig's list ads in my future...

Due to my kitchen being in disarray for the past week, we have been doing a lot of eating out. :( Fortunately, all of this unpacking is helping to burn those extra calories, but I will be glad to get back into the kitchen again now. On Saturday night, hubby and I decided to go out to celebrate my birthday and our upcoming anniversary. With family so far away, nights out by ourselves are rare. So, we took advantage of the fact that my mom is here helping with the move, and escaped sans kiddos for a few hours! We decided to dine at Cafe Pacific since we had heard good things about it and knew it wasn't really a kid-friendly joint. It was amazing. We ate until we were nearly sick, but it was worth every calorie. We started with a piece of toast topped with a mango salsa and served with a shot of watermelon water, compliments of the chef. Then we moved on to some fresh bread (3 different types), accompanied by a creamy basil-EVOO mixture. Next up was a Caprese salad (which included tomatoes that they grew themselves in their garden) and a jumbo lump crab cake. Probably the best I had ever had, and I have had some good crab cakes! For our entrees, I chose the Steak Oscar, a filet topped with lump crab meat, and served with roasted potatoes and asparagus on a cauliflower mash. Incredible. Josh has the duck two ways, served with red cabbage and a potato side dish. It was also very tasty. For dessert, we went all out and splurged on the chocolate souffle cake. A warm chocolate cake with a creamy center, served over a creme anglaise and finished with homemade macadamia nut brittle. I had died and gone to heaven. Definitely not the meal we normally get when we go out anymore, so it was a nice change of pace.

On Sunday morning, I decided to try a new recipe for Cake Batter Pancakes with vanilla glaze for my birthday! :) I did modify a few of the ingredient measurements, so I'll try to post that one soon. They were a hit with everyone, especially little Noah, so I think I know what we'll be having this Saturday for his birthday breakfast too! ;) For dinner on Sunday, we all went out to Carrabba's. I was craving pasta and their Tag Pic Pac always hits the spot! :)

So, due to another crazy week/weekend of packing and unpacking, I haven't come up with a menu for the week past Tuesday...

Monday: Slow cooker salsa chicken with Cajun-buttered white corn
This is a such an easy meal that I can just throw in the Crockpot and forget about it until we're ready to eat! Last time I made it, we tried a twist on it that we found to be quite tasty. We rolled up the salsa chicken inside the tortilla, then sprinkled it with some shredded mozzarella cheese and melted it, making it an "enchilada" of sorts. Not quite as healthy, but oh so tasty!

Tuesday: Manicotti with homemade bread

Manicotti was almost always my requested birthday meal as a child, so with my mom here in town, she said she would make it for me this week! Yum! :) We fill our manicotti shells with a mixture of mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, egg and parsley. Then those are topped with a meat sauce, more cheese, and baked. Love it. We'll make some fresh bread in the bread machine to accompany it.

Wednesday: TBD

Thursday: TBD

Friday: TBD

Saturday: Noah's birthday party!
I haven't finalized the menu yet, but it will be full of yumminess!


If you have any easy meal ideas for me for the rest of this week, I'd love to hear them! My mind is shot from the move and meal-planning for the week just isn't working well for me. I can't wait until we get our grill fired up (finally!!), as I have tons of new grill recipes to try!