Menu Plan - Week 14

Christ is risen!  I hope you had a very happy Easter weekend.

Last week was a monumentally celebratory week:  I went to a masterclass on how to teach low income families how to eat healthily taught by Gina Keatley, we saw "Mary Poppins" in Dallas on Saturday, the "Anything for Anthony" COTA campaign reached its goal of $60,000, and of course, Easter is the biggest celebration of all.

Sunday started out with a severe thunderstorm complete with high winds, torrential downpours that led to flash floods, hail, and some "slight rotation" which made it a little tricky to get to church on time.  By the end of the day though, the weather was beautiful.

We had Engineer's parents, my parents, our sister-in-law, niece, (my brother had to work) and the Operinos over for lunch.

I grew up having big family meals for New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  My grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends who didn't have family close by would all congregate at the designated house and everyone would bring a dish or two to contribute to the feast.  On occasion, we had so many people that we would set up tables in the garage.

There was always tons of food and a kids' table.  I sat at that kids' table until after Diva was born.  There was no room at the grown-ups' table and quite frankly, the kids' table was way more fun.

After we ate, the men would often retire to the den and watch a game if one was on or doze off and the ladies would busy themselves in the kitchen cleaning dishes and chatting.  The benefit of the kids' table is that you can then go and play or watch movies or whatever you wanted to do - see, I told you the kids' table was the best!

Engineer grew up only having one family gathering a year on Christmas Eve which was more like a cocktail party so he had never experienced anything like a big family Thanksgiving until he came to celebrate with me before we were married.  I'm sure it was a shock.

It is important to me that Diva has the experience of holiday meals.  I don't know why.  I can't tell you what we talked about during those meals, although I probably can tell you what we ate; they were fairly standard Southern holiday menus.  I only know what I felt and how I feel now about sitting down for a meal and visiting with family and friends - warm, safe, loved, content, blissful, relaxed.

This Sunday was no exception to that.  Like old times, the men went into the den and visited and the kids watched movies, while the ladies sat in the dining room nattering away over coffee.

I want Diva to have these memories of opening our home to our family and friends to celebrate holidays with us and hopefully she will continue on the tradition when she extends our family one day...many, many years from now.  ;)

Here's what we will be eating this week:

Sunday - Easter Feast!  Glazed Ham, Apple Butter Sweet Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Coke Salad, Green Salad, Deviled Eggs, Relish Tray, Rolls, Cherry Pie, and Apple Pie
Monday - Cajun Eggplant Rice Casserole w/Bok Choi
Tuesday - Sweet Potato Chili & Cornbread
Wednesday - Black Bean Patties and Roasted Vegetables
Thursday - BBQ Chicken, Oven Fries, & Green Beans
Friday - Date Night
Saturday - Leftovers

This is part of Menu Plan Monday.