Menu plan with kid cooking #20180501

This week makes me nervous. After we decided that my partner would make dinner every other Friday, I started scheming about how to get rid of cooking dinner when it’s not-his-Friday-to-cook. I considered making that a pizza night, but that would be too many pizza nights. My solution is to assign the menu plan and meal preparation to my kids, ages 9 and 12, alternating which one cooks.

We’re starting kids-cook-night with my youngest, Darian, and so I’ve been taking many deep breaths and also bought these cut resistant gloves. The plan is for the kid to pick his recipe the week before (no winging it until I get more comfortable with this whole situation), and then I’ll buy the ingredients, supervise and/or act as the sous chef. My hope is that adding more work for myself now will result in more freedom and kid-cooking-confidence in years to come. Without further ado, here’s this week’s plan!

• Monday was Friends Dinner, and not my night to cook. Ian made spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, and salad. He also had Strawberry Basil Lemonade from Costco, which is super tasty/refreshing/wonderful.
• Tuesday will be cheeseburgers and salad, possibly grilled but that depends entirely on the weather.
• Wednesday I’m grilling steak kebabs! Sides will be buffalo cauliflower and a half batch of green mac & cheese. My buffalo cauliflower is similar to this recipe, but I cook it on the grill and don’t add any lemon to my buffalo sauce.
• Thursday I’m grilling brats and chicken wings because it’s supposed to be nice, with plenty of green beans on the side.
• Friday is Darian’s first night to cook! He’s making this Honey Garlic Chicken recipe, rice in our rice cooker, and steamed broccoli.

So there’s the weekday-plan, the weekend-plan is TBD because my mom is visiting and that always adds a bit more fun and spontaneity to the mix.