My love story with Dinner, A Love Story

I have followed the blog, Dinner, A Love Story for a while now and I recently read my friend, Ada's review of the Dinner, A Love Story cookbook on her blog, Spark!. After reading her review, I decided to add Dinner: A Love Story: It all begin as the family table to my cookbook collection. Not since 50 Shades of Grey (yes I read all three books), have I turned the pages of a book so quickly. The author, Jenny keeps a dinner diary and has since 1998. This book is the story of how Jenny and her husband, Andy started cooking and serving dinner every night for their family and what they learned along the way. It is filled with real advice on working parents trying to get meals on the table. Added bonus...they also have a picky eater that reminds me of Clyde. I am really excited about the new ideas and recipes I have uncovered in the book.

My old method for capturing our weekly menus!

I have had a dinner diary of sorts for a while now with my menu planners but most weeks they are scribbled in an old notebook or on post-its. Dinner: A Love Story has inspired me to start an actual dinner diary. I have a nicely bound red notebook that was a Christmas gift from a co-worker years ago. I have yet to write the first word in the book but it will now become my diary. I think it will be neat to look back and get inspiration from previous meals and see how things change year after year. I am also hoping to incorporate some of the meals into dinners that everyone in the family actually eats. Right now, Michael and I are eating one dish and Camille and Clyde something else but we are eating together. Oh and sometimes Clyde is naked or only in his underwear at dinner and one night he cried on the floor under his chair for most of the time the rest of us were eating. We are trying!  Baby steps, right? 

Here goes with our first dinner diary entry.

Monday - Whole Roasted Chicken in the Crockpot, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans
Tuesday - Taco Soup from Dinner: A Love Story (using leftover chicken from night before)
Wednesday - Buttermilk Oven Friend Chicken with Rainbow Salad from Dinner: A Love Story going to try to get Camille & Clyde to eat. Fingers crossed!
Thursday - Kickin' Mini Meatloafs with Beans & Rice, Corn
Friday - Chicken Parmesan Burgers with French Fries

Are the stars aligned?

As mentioned in this post, I have two back to school year resolutions...eat dinner as a family and implement a chore and good eater chart. We have had some success with family dinner and the reward chart. Woot! Woot!

Our Toys R Us is moving locations so they have most of the store for 30% off. I went and selected about six $5-10 toys (three that would interest Camille and three for Clyde). I wanted to get something a little more significant then a Dollar Tree find. I put the toys in a large basket and they are hidden in the attic. Camille got stars for cleaning her room, helping me empty the dishwasher, and setting the table. Clyde got stars for picking up his toys, staying in his room until his tot clock turns yellow at 7 am and pooping in the potty (woohoo!). Both got stars for being clean clubbers. After 15 stars, they got to pick something from the basket. It was a fun exercise and they seem excited about getting the next 15 stars.

We are on our second row of stars now, about five in...we have slowed a little in the frequency and Clyde seems to be coming around to potty training (finally after 5 short months) so he is not getting stars for those tasks. The charts and rules are evolving but hopefully we can keep it up.

Menu Planner

I am a little late getting this out....here goes...

Monday - Robin Miller Pork Soft Tacos

Tuesday - Chicken Paprikash

Wednesday - Pizza with homemade crust from my freezer

Thursday - Turkey Burger & Fries

Hope everyone had a good weekend. We spent some time at Sandbridge hoping to enjoy one last dip in the ocean but it was cold! So I made a trip to TJMaxx...Long Sleeve Ralph Lauren Polos & Jeans on clearance for Clyde, a new purse & tennis shoes for me, Levis jeggings for my skinny Camille.

Bar Stool Refresh

When we completed our kitchen remodel in December 2009, we had a bunch of furniture to buy for the room (not to mention the expense of the remodel) as well as Christmas presents so our budget was spread pretty thin. We purchased some inexpensive bar stools from Target and they took quite a beating from our children however I don't think they were made well to start with. I would love to get some news ones but it still isn't in the budget so in the meantime, I spent about $12 and spray painted them.

I am happy with the results.They do look much better however still not perfect. I sanded the tops with sandpaper that was too rough so you can see the lines but an improvement nonetheless.

I used Rust-Oleum's Painter's Touch Ultra Cover 2X in Glossy Black. It did a great job covering with no primer. I used 2.5 bottles for all 4 stools.

Before

After

Weekend Recap

Today is my birthday. We celebrated by having a few friends over for drinks, dinner and Pearls cupcakes last night. It was fun and Michael cooked, planned, organized the whole thing. Super sweet husband!

Oh and we have had some success with eating dinner as a family. I hope we can keep it up.

Monday - Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Tuesday - World's Best Lasagne (from the freezer)

Wednesday - Baked Potato Soup (from the freezer),  Mozzarella  & Prosciutto Panini

Thursday - Crock Pot Beef & Broccoli 

Back To School Menu Planner

Picture on my mom's front porch

We had meet the teacher day today and tomorrow school starts for real! Here goes with the back to school menu planner. PS...I failed at family dinner last week. I am having a hard time holding the kids off until Michael gets home from work. We will keep trying.

Tuesday - Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breasts with Cannellini Bean, Roasted Red Peppers & Kale

Wednesday - Tacos with Ground Chicken & Black Beans

Thursday - Brown Butter Gnocchi (carryover from last week)

Friday - Kickin' Chicken with Crunch, Vigo Black Beans & Rice, Corn

Back to School with Lands' End!

Tomorrow school starts (woohoo!) and for the past few weeks I have been stocking up on items to start the year. I have found the cutest things at Lands' End recently.  They always have an additional percentage off if you sign up for e-mails and our local Sears will take the items back if they don't fit or aren't as expected.

Here are some of my finds. Side note....some of these finds are from summer but they still have them if you wanted to stock up for next year.

Bikini Top

Bikini Bottom

Sandal

Rain Shoe

Legging with Zipper

Parka

Jacket

And look at these cute Halloween totes...more expensive than the ones you can find at Marshalls or even Dollar Tree but really cute to look at it. I am considering....

Halloween Tote