Theme Dinners

Well, it's been a while since I blogged. Things have been crazy with five kids! But wonderful too. I have been stretched in every direction possible as far as I could go. Things got really disorganized, really fast. Among other things, dinners started going down the drain. I was ordering pizza several times a week, or we'd have frozen dinners or things like that. I'm not saying anything is wrong with that every once in a while, and we were in a little bit of a bind with the new baby and what we could handle, but it was time now that she reached three months old to get ourselves back on track. I didn't know where to start, though. Whenever I'd get online to look at new recipes I was SO overwhelmed! I'd look up "chicken recipes" and several thousand would show up. I was tired of my old recipes too. I was in such a rut. So I roped in my kids and told them we had to do something. We came up with a "Themed Dinner" menu for each night of the week. It's been working out so amazingly! I am able to find meals I want to cook without getting overwhelmed, and the entire family is all okay with trying new stuff. Here's what we came up with:

Soup and Salad Sunday
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chili and Cornbread
Minestrone Soup and Rolls
Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Mexican Monday
Enchiladas
Quesadillas
Taco's
Tortilla Soup

Italian Tuesday
Fettucini Alfredo
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Lasagna
Baked Ziti

Waffle Wednesday
Waffles
Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Toast
Crepes
Omelets

Cowboy Thursday
Shepherd's Pie
Hamburgers and Hot Dogs
Chili and Cornbread
Barbeque Chicken Haystacks
Beef Stew

Pizza Friday
Homemade Pizza From Scratch
$5 Little Ceasar's Hot N Ready Pizzas
Frozen California Pizza Kitchen

Shanghai Saturday
Orange Chicken
Homemade Wonton's
Chicken Curry


I've also planned out some fun desserts to go with some of these meals, like Fruit Pizza for dessert on pizza night, and Dirt in a Cup (chocolate pudding, crushed oreos, and a gummy worm) for Cowboy Thursday, and I'm even going to attempt Flan from scratch on one of the Mexican Mondays! Cooking has turned from a horrible dead end into something that is SO MUCH FUN!