Weekly Menu - Week 16

Some of you might wonder when I publish a Weekly Menu whether this is really what we have for dinner during the week in our family. Most of the time, it was not. The reason being that for me to keep publishing new recipes on this blog, I had to be ahead of the suggested Weekly Menu. Logique, non? Despite the needs for new recipes, I do try to keep a healthy balance for our family. So no, no matter how much my husband and children would have loved it, I never baked desserts everyday!
Unlike the other 15 Weekly Menus now available, this Menu is really what we ate this past week. You see, I started working again a few weeks ago... and I therefore realized something: I needed to be EVEN better with meal planning. Why? Because by the time I get home and only wished I could-relax/put my feet-up-with-a-cup-of tea-and-the-newspaper, reality hits me in the form of two lovely-but-hungry-and-tired creatures children: I have therefore 30 mns to prepare dinner if I want to avoid major meltdowns and still put my kids to bed early enough. 30mn Chrono! That's not much when you cook from scratch! So why did I do? I invested a few dollars into an iPhone app (I know I did not really need it but it does make my life easier and at this point, this is what matters!!) and started planning my meals a week in advance (inspiration generally comes on my way to/back from work). What works best for us is to have the next day dinner prepared the night before (Friday excepted) so that I have only minimum cooking to do to feed my children and I allow myself an Emergency dinner once a week. I stopped making my own yogurts for now but still make my own bread (starting the dough in the morning so that it's ready to bak in the evening). That way, we do manage to sit for 15 minutes on the sofa to enjoy some quality time while the main dish is slowly reheating on the stove. And while my children are eating their dinner, I start cooking the next meal : I am with them in the kitchen, we talk about life, we enjoy our time... So much better for all of us. And my husband in this story? Well, nothing has really changed for him... and that's not really fair, n'est-ce-pas? So yes, once a week, he'll be the one coming home early... and have a face-à-face with reality! Bonne Cuisine!

Weekly Menu - Week 16

	Monday	Lentils with Italian Chicken SausagesPlain Yogurt with Chestnut Spread Fresh Fruits
	Tuesday	Vegetable Soup with wholewheat Couscous Swiss cheese with homemade baguettes Fresh Fruits
	Wednesday	Chinese Dumplings with Green Salad Plain Yogurt with honey Fresh Fruits
	Thursday	Curried Split Peas Soup with homemade baguettes Plain Yogurt with jam Pumpkin Spices Teacakes
	Friday	Quiche Lorraine with Green Salad Plain Yogurt with dark brown sugar Fresh Fruits

Game Plan

Sunday Evening:

• If you make your own yogurt, prepare a batch for the week (I don't anymore)
• Prepare the Lentils for Monday evening. I cooked the sausages directly with the lentils.

Monday Evening: 

• You only have to reheat the lentils. I made more than I needed so that my children could take some to school for lunch on Tuesday. 
• Make the Soupe de légumes for Tuesday evening.

Tuesday Evening:

• You have to cook the Couscous (5min!) and reheat the soupe. Since they had lentils and sausage for lunch, Tuesday dinner did not need to have animal proteins.

Wednesday Evening:

• For Wednesday dinner, I used frozen dumplings. 
• I made the teacakes after dinner so that they were ready for Thursday. They don't take much to make so you could really make them in less than 30mns.
• I also made the Split peas soupe.

Thursday Evening:

• I did not have anything to make beyond the baguettes.

Friday Evening:

• Relax, it's Friday!
• I made the Quiche Lorraine from scratch. It was more than 30minutes but because it's Friday it did not matter too much. We skipped the aperitif tonight because my husband could not come home early enough and we have friends coming over tomorrow evening.