Menu Plan: Week of June 2

Last Week

This past week I discovered I don't like rhubarb and strawberry together.  I made another batch of roasted rhubarb compote and picked up a package of strawberries since they were on sale and figured I'd combine them for that classic flavor combo in my oatmeal. I finished it, but did not like it at all.   I ended up eating the rhubarb in my oatmeal and ate the strawberries separate by slicing them and pouring non-dairy creamer on top. 

Friday's Sushi for me and Sonny D.

On Friday for Me & D night I took Sonny D out for sushi at Takumi.  He was excited about it since he likes seaweed, fish, and rice, but it ended up he wasn't exactly ga-ga for it.  He did like some of the fish, loved the avocado, and chowed the tempura shrimp from one of the rolls but didn't care for all of it together.   So I ended up pulling a lot of things apart so he could eat his favorite parts. I was proud that he tasted pretty much everything.  My new favorite thing was the spinach rolls (at the end of my chopsticks in the photo) simple but good.  We had a good time though going out for a meal by ourselves, we haven't done that in a long time.

For dinners during the week I ended up not making several of the dishes I was planning, mainly the grilled pizza and the coconut shrimp.  Our plans changed and luckily they were both dishes that could easily be switched up, no meat was defrosted or any other planning ahead. 

Spicy ranch dressing on my lunch salad.

I created a new salad dressing creation, light ranch dressing with Taco Bell hot sauce. This is my version of the Bolthouse salsa ranch yogurt dressing I've been looking for at the grocery store.  Our store only has four of the Bolthouse yogurt dressings and salsa ranch isn't one of them. I also love the Trader Joe's healthy 8 chopped veggie mix.  It's a tub of pre-chopped veggies that are great to add to salads. 

Burgers & Brew event, I filled in at one of the booths for a bit.  Fun and fast-paced.

I had a great time working at the Burgers and Brew event on Saturday.  I was there mainly to put up the signs, but I ended up doing a whole lot of other things like putting up tents, filling the napkins for each booth, setting up the information table, folding tee shirts, cutting apart a roll of stickers, filling in for a booth volunteer, etc.  Once the event started, my husband and friends showed up and we all chowed down on burgers.  Some of the burgers are so big, there's a minimum of 1/4 pound of meat but some are definitely bigger than that.  I'm glad I got my friends to bring a knife so we could cut them in half and share them for maximum tasting.  My second favorite was a vegetarian spinach Florentine patty with roasted red pepper sauce and my top favorite was the a Mexican burger with a lot of spicy flavors.  A lot of the burgers were rather bland and all about the same concept, a cheeseburger. Next time we'll share the three burgers rather than each getting our own tickets since it's so much food.  But I'll definitely buy more drink tickets, I loved the three flavors of local soda from WiscoPop.  I would rank them the ginger beer as my favorite, it tasted like real ginger.  The cherry bomb was #2, it's made with real Door County cherries and you can definitely tell.  The root beer was a bit much for my friends (two of them agreed that it reminds them of root beer barrel candies) but I loved how it was a different root beer flavor since it's made with all real ingredients. 

Husband Jeff and I at Ride the Drive, trying to keep up with Sonny D.

On Sunday we took Sonny D downtown for Ride the Drive where they close down some major streets to cars and trucks and allow pedestrians and bicyclists.  Sonny D rode his scoot bike (no pedals, helps them learn balance) and he had a great time.  He got a lot of "thumbs up" from other cyclists who thought he was so adorable.  His favorite part was when we went into the big tunnel underneath the Monona Terrace community and convention center. He loves tunnels

On Sunday afternoon my new interior decorator lady came over, Sarah Helf. She was so awesome! She's my age, not stuffy, and really seemed to understand what I'm looking for -- accessorizing with colorful items and not expensive.  We chatted straight for 2.5 hours and we came up with a lot of awesome ideas that have really inspired me.  

This Week

• Monday - Grilled pizza made with homemade crust (using part of Billy Jean, my sourdough starter) and topped with Trader Joe's Italian chicken sausage, a frozen bag of garden veggie medley, grilled asparagus, and salads. 
• Tuesday - I've got my regular Latin hip-hop cardio class (Zumba) after work so I'm going to cheat a bit on dinner by opening some packets of Indian food and serve it with rice and naan bread. I love the packets of Indian food and we need to eat them or stop buying them. 
• Wednesday - I want to see if I can make Singapore rice noodles, but I need to check if I even have rice noodles at home!
• Thursday - We're taking care of our friends' dog Fuller for a week, so this will be an adventure for us.  Sonny D has been asking for us to get a dog again (ours died last year) but he also seems really hesitant about dogs, so I'm hoping he'll get comfortable with him.  For dinner we're going to Sonny D's preschool for a picnic and sing-along.  For the picnic we're going to pick up fried chicken from our favorite meat market, Jim's Meat Market. It works out well since the meat market is on the way to the school.   I'm sure I can scrounge around the house to find some other picnic food. 
• Friday - It's Me & D night again, I have no idea what we're going to do for entertainment.  Husband Jeff wants to grill burgers so we'll pick those up at the meat market the night before when we're getting the fried chicken. 
• Saturday - In the morning I've got my last Core Fusion class of the semester.  During the day there are many things to do, but I'm mainly excited to hit the neighborhood rummage sales. Around dinner time we're going to a B-Boy battle at the local high school.  I have no idea what to expect, but I'm interested to check it out and try new things. I'm not sure how we'll handle dinner since the event will be from 5-7 p.m, maybe they'll have things to eat there? 
• Sunday - We're doing our regular visit to the northside farmers' market in the morning.  And I know it's not seasonally appropriate, but I want to pull out some frozen chili for dinner.  Maybe we'll have it on hot dogs to make chili dogs.