A New Week, A Better Plan

I said it last night, but I will say it again.  I seriously can't believe that the weekend goes by so incredibly fast.  Today was another busy day filled with family and friends.  Church this morning, followed by a baby shower this afternoon for Shelley, one of my friends from high school.  She's having twin girls, and she looks so adorable!!  I also got to see several other friends at the shower today, so it was a good afternoon. Chris's parents came up to see us today as well, and we spent the evening hanging out, cooking, and laughing.

Chris and I decided to approach this week with a better game plan, so that we're not (for lack of a better completely accurate sentiment) completely pissed every morning as we try to gather our lunches for the day or incredibly perturbed at having to figure out what we are making for dinner every night.  We've made a meal plan.  (yes, duh, I realize NOW that we should have been doing this all along.  Getting the ingredients for twelve recipes just seemed like enough.  I didn't realize scheduling when to actually make them would make that much difference.)

So, tonight we tried two new recipes that were outstanding.  Again, we pulled them from the Guy Fieri cookbook I mentioned a couple of posts again.  If there is one thing that Fieri does, it's infuse A LOT of flavor into his dishes. We made two different kinds of sandwiches for dinner with his folks, but we also doubled the recipes so we could freeze some and take some for lunches this week, too.

First up was a Jambalaya Sandwich.  CAUTION:  IF YOU ARE A VEGETARIAN DO NOT CLICK ON THE PRIOR LINK!!! (I'm sure by now I would have scared any of them off anyway with as much meat as this family eats.  That being said...) I don't know that I have EVER in my LIFE put this much meat into one meal.

This. Is. Amazing.   The recipe has some outstanding spiciness to it.  I did add some cornstarch when the cooking time was up to thicken the sauce a bit, which the recipe does not call for, but makes the sauce even better, if that's possible.  Not only was this DELICIOUS as a sandwich, but I think it will be amazing on top of rice too.  (also, a side note.  If you decide to double this recipe, please be prepared to spend at least an arm, if not a leg as well, buying the meat for this.  I will be watching sale ads even more closely now so that I can afford to make this again! ha!)

For our second sandwich option of the night, we made Saigon Pork Subs.  We were not disappointed with these, either.  Very nice spiciness, and the pork was SO tender.  This dish does take a little longer to cook though, so if you decide to make this one, make sure to plan ahead time-wise.  At least I didn't start it at 8pm as I have some other slow cooked pork recipes in the past. The cucumbers are marinated, so they lost some of their fresh cucumbery taste, which is good for me since normally I can't stand them.  They work well with this sandwich, though. 

Sheri, my mother-in-law, makes out of this world pie from scratch, and she brought us a coconut cream pie today that she had made.  SO GOOD.  This was our dessert for the night.  It was honestly a perfect end to a great meal.  Thanks Sheri!!

So, tomorrow we start with the new game plan.  Hopefully this week finds us less harried.  We may even sit around in a circle and sing Kumbaya since we will be so organized and harmonious with this new meal plan.  I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Cheers!