Welcome to the in-law edition of How Dinner Went Down. My in-laws, otherwise known as Nana and Poppy, are visiting. This always makes dinner a little bit different than usual as I try to accommodate everyone’s tastes and preferences. It turned out to be a great week of food!
Sunday
Vegetable Pad Thai from Cooking Light and Thai Meets Salad from Healthy in Candyland.
Tim absolutely loved the pad thai. I substituted broccoli for the tofu (because I can’t have soy right now) and used buckwheat noodles. The salad was really tasty, too. I used green peas instead of edamame and combined the two separate dressings the recipe called for. Delicious. It would be a great salad to make for a potluck. Thanks for the recipe, Candy! Note: Yes, I slipped up on my no-sugar for Lent with this recipe. I used a reduced amount of Sucanat instead of brown sugar in the Pad Thai and honey for the salad dressing. I almost made it the whole way, too! Grrr.
I offered Meghan plain noodles, broccoli, cheese, and blueberries. She would not try the noodles, ate a piece of broccoli, and all of her cheese and blueberries.
Monday
Chicken on the grill, barley risotto with asparagus, fresh bread, and leftover salad.
This was a great spring meal.
I offered Meghan chicken, barley with asparagus, and bread with butter. She ate all of her bread and a little chicken.
Tuesday
Portobello Mushroom Burgers on the grill, simply roasted cauliflower, and lightly fried chickpeas
Actually, the ladies had portobello mushroom burgers while the men had cow burgers. I love easy meals like this with minimal clean up.
Meghan had chickpeas, cauliflower, and blueberries on her plate. She ate up all of her chickpeas and asked for more, all of her blueberries, and no cauliflower. She didn’t want the cauliflower at all. She used to love to eat it!
Wednesday
I wasn’t home for dinner on this night because I was doing Easter candy shopping at Earth Fare and then had Bible study. So I had my dinner at Earth Fare. I was impressed with all of their healthy options. I had a vegan stuffed pepper and roasted sweet potato salad.
Thursday
Alphabet Vegetable Soup, bread, and salad
The men were golfing on this day and weren’t home for dinner. I threw this soup together at the last minute. It’s funny that this is a “kid soup”, but I love it so much. I used tiny shells this time because I didn’t have alphabet pasta.
Maybe Meghan would have ate this if I used the ABC pasta. Probably not. She has it in her head that she doesn’t like soup. We eat soup all the time, so hopefully she comes around. I took some of the veggies out to offer her a deconstructed version of the soup and also a grilled cheese. She ate her grilled cheese, but not the veggies. Boooooo.
Friday
Tomato Basil Pasta, fresh bread, and salad
Tim cooked! This past summer he found an article on how to cook pasta well and wanted to try it. Ever since then he’ll make his special dish if I ask him to. This is really more of a summer dish that is excellent when tomatoes and basil are in season, but it was still good nonetheless.
I offered Meghan the pasta, chickpeas, bread with butter, pumpkin seeds and some of the vegetables from our salad. She ate her chickpeas, bread, and a few bites of carrot and pumpkin seeds.
Saturday
Jamaican Jerk Chicken on the grill and roasted vegetables
I roasted all of the vegetables I wanted to use up: cauliflower, potatoes, and yellow bell peppers. Another good, easy dinner.
I offered Meghan chicken, the vegetables, cheese, and blueberries. She ate her blueberries. She was not interested in dinner at all.
Now I need to get on the ball and finish my meal planning for the rest of this week. Any ideas? Please share!
It is spring which means that I am in full fledged salad mode!! I am loving anything that has to do with a salad lately, so I usually end up with a dinner salad on the menu every week. We usually have side salads multiple times, cut on dinner salads I really load them up on the veggies 🙂
Keep offering Meg all the foods that you eat (that are safe for her to consume of course). I think all kids go through picky stages, some out grow it while others remain picky. I have found that if you offer it they tend to pick back up with eating a variety later on. I made the mistake of not offering my oldest certain things once he started his picky stage and now that he is almost 10 I have yet to get him to try them again. He loathes potatoes other than french fries, he use to eat potatoes all the time as a toodler. I know it is frustrating at times when you can’t get them to eat what you cook/make, but I always make their plates with at least a taste of all things on it so they are encouraged to try them. Once she is older it will be easier to get her to taste things. With my boys I now tell them that if it is on the plate they have to at least taste it before they can be dismissed from the table. Sound cruel to some people, but many times they discover that they actually like it and finish eating 🙂
I vote for the meatless bbq meatloaf because it is just that awesome. 😉
So funny! I had it on the meal plan for yesterday before I even saw this comment. 🙂
Glad you liked the salad! I made it to bring to Erik’s parents’ for Easter dinner, not sure how it would go over with such traditional tastes, but it was a hit there too!
I can’t help you with any meal plan ideas–I haven’t done mine yet either! 🙂
Thank you for posting what you offer Meghan and what she ate. She sounds very similar to my daughter in what she likes to eat. I remember when she ate everything (just like Meghan). And then she turned 2… got more independent and more picky. We just have to try our best! Does Meghan ever watch Veggitales videos? These videos peaked Lauren’s interest in asparagus and a few other veggies (Lauren loves to shop the produce aisle with me). Lauren loves the simply roasted cauliflower and will even eat a piece raw if I let her run around with it while I’m preparing it. She may never do this again, but I gave her half a bell pepper to play with and she ate 1/4 of it while playing with it. I give her a whole veggie while cooking and she runs around with it, talks to it and nibbles on it. I attribute the interest to her veggie tales videos 🙂
Funny that you mention the veggie tales videos. She got a veggie tales DVD in her Easter basket last year, but has no interest in watching it. She’ll always choose something else. I might have to push it more if it will get her more into her veggies! I love that your daughter ate a bell pepper while playing! So cute!