Dinner Inspiration

The need to find (re-find) our dinner groove has been going on for a while. For Mother's Day, I requested an afternoon at home to cook! Not just me- for the family to make and dine on a bonafide, sit down, lick your fingers good meal.

I went to Patty's blog to pick up some inspiration. Her What's For Dinner Sunday posts always make me want to cook!


So there you have it- Mac and Cheese  Roasted Broccoli  Sheet Cake

Since then, with the May/June craziness of plays, graduations, first communions, weddings, ... and then the summer craziness with Mark starting football that was every.single.day. until 5:00 p.m. plus the 30 minutes to an hour it takes to drive home (we do carpool thank goodness!), to now with the beginning of the school year craziness full with outside classes, hosted co op classes, football every.single.day. until 6 with the same stinkin' drive, we have been at loss on how to get this dinner thing off the ground.

I guess it must have been on my husband's mind as well. As we chatted on the phone in the afternoon last week (I had just dropped of Mark at football), I could sense the frustration in my husband's voice concerning out dinner plans - or lack thereof. He is usually a great sport at whipping something up after work when need be, but things were just not coming together in a way that we were both happy with.

Enter, Dinner the Playbook. I had been reading Elizabeth Foss' blog about their own dinner dilemma and she mentioned recently reading the two books to gain some needed inspiration. Well, desperate for some of my own inspiration, I impulsively ordered them from Amazon. And, the book had just come in the mail. And, it was sitting on the seat in the car right next to me.

That minute, I flipped through the pages of the book, chose the easiest possible recipes and headed to the grocery store to purchase the ingredients.


Easy Macaroni and Cheese with Curried Carrots! The chicken was better than this picture makes it look. I just bought some chicken pieces, rubbed them with oil and some spices and baked them for about an hour while I made the rest of dinner. 

Since then, we have managed every meal at home: 

Once night was simple cheeseburgers with chips and applesauce (not going to make the highest nutrition rating, but better than out food!). 

The next night was quesadillas with the leftover chicken from the first meal. 

Our latest was a "fiesta salad bar". No recipe needed.



The choices were: Lettuce, chicken strips, corn (browned and seasoned with chili powder, salt and pepper), black beans, bell pepper, sliced olives, cherry tomatoes, grated carrots, avocado, and chip strips. We used an Annie's gluten free vegan dressing. 

We still don't have it all figured out yet- the challenge from the "Dinner: The Playbook" is to make 30 different meals in 30 days (I think weekends are off). Then the author gives lots of notes on how to make it all come together. 

I also ordered Dinner: A Love Story which is part inspiration and part cookbook. 

I am doing things sort of backward- I'm jumping in and trying to make it happen and then reading to catch up to where I am at. 

It's not like I have not been in and out of this cycle many times in my 34 years of marriage. Hopefully, we are on a roll here!! 

Happy Eating!! :) 




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