winner winner chicken dinner

We eat chicken about four nights a week in our house, because it's yummy and easy and usually quick.  Despite all of its wonderful qualities, though...chicken gets a little boring.  Last week I decided to try a handful of new recipes both with and without chicken.  This week I continued the routine.  Overall, last week was a success.  We had drumsticks that I seasoned with....um...hmm, I don't remember.  But otherwise, we had other main dishes every night of the week!  It was fantastic!  Tonight, in honor of skipping the chicken this week, I made a black bean soup, corn bread, and a salad.  The soup was pretty good, but it was missing something (chili powder, maybe?)  There's plenty left over to eat later and it's good enough to finish off!  Not that I ever throw out a bunch of leftovers because dinner didn't turn out....hmm. 

In addition to tossing out chicken for awhile, I'm trying to keep our meals healthy.  But, I've discovered that we. are. comfort food lovers!  I can cook a gourmet meal with three courses if I want to, and my husband and I will still prefer some good ol' small town cookin'.  For this week, I've decided on the following:

Mon: Black bean soup, corn bread muffins, salad

Tues: Cajun shrimp with spicy orzo pasta

Wed: Spaghetti, italian sausage meatballs, garlic breadsticks

Thurs: Leftovers/night off

Fri: Italian chicken, rosemary potatoes, green beans

Sat: BLTs, french fries

Sun: BBQ chicken sandwiches, mac 'n' cheese, salad

Um...okay so maybe I didn't totally toss the chicken, but I did get it down to two meals!  Besides, there's no need to toss it altogether.  The goal was to mix things up.  As far as I'm concerned, I've done at least that!  

I try to cook something fun and new at least twice a week.  It keeps both me and hubby from getting bored (even if it's more chicken!) and it's fun for me because I loooooove cooking!  One of my favorite things to  make is Chicken Parmesan (what.).  It's fairly quick, I can actually make the sauce from scratch, and it's sooo yummy!  Maybe that should go on the menu for next week...(hmm...note to self: make a note for Saturday: add chicken parm to the menu for Monday).

 When ever I can, I like to sit down on Saturday and check out the inventory in my kitchen.  From there, I will make a menu for about 7 days and then make a shopping list and fill it in with lunch items and other staples as well as snacks and drinks for the week.  Warning: Dork alert: This is one of my favorite parts of being a wife.  Sure, if I lived alone (or unmarried), I could still do this.  But, there's something more special about doing the planning for my family.  Yes, my tiny little family of two is still a family.  I know my husband appreciates dinner on the table at the end of the day, together.  As hectic as our lives our right now, sometimes it's the only time we see each other in a 24 hour period.  Dinner for an hour, then we go our separate ways to tend to our agendas (aka...I lock myself in the office for homework).

For a long time, while growing up, my mom made dinner for my family.  No matter what was going on...all eight of us gathered around the table for a big family meal led by prayer from my dad and filled with conversation of the day's events and the week's schedule.  No one got up to answer the phone (sometimes Dad would just toss it in their bedroom to ring unnoticed) and rarely did any of us miss the occasion.  The best nights were the nights we cleared the table and reconvene about an hour later for chocolate cake!  My mom almost always had a cake on the island that was no more than a day old.  Her novelty was a round, double layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing all over it!  Sometimes she would switch it up and make a strawberry cake, or we would have ice cream or Dad made milkshakes, but nothing really compared to that chocolate cake!  Funny thing is, it was always Pillsbury or Duncan Hines.  Nothing from scratch, but oh so yummy!  I hope to have a similar tradition with my own kids some day.  Maybe we won't have double layer chocolate cakes in the house, but I hope to have something.  I want my kids to look back on their childhood with fond memories of our family gathering together in the kitchen and making memories.  Lucky for me, I have plenty of time to make that happen seeing as I haven't even purchased my ticket for the mommy train!

Do you have a "food memory" from childhood that makes you smile?

What is your favorite meal to cook for yourself or your family?  Why?