Marin Mama’s Weekly Dinner Menu for September 15th

Marin Mama's weekly dinner menu - September 15th

That was our dinner the other night and it was so good!  I had a nice glass of Rose from Spell Estates, a vegeterian banh mi sandwich and some kale salad.  As you can see, I finally made and photographed those vegeterian banh mi sandwiches so  I will be sure to post the recipe this week.  Yaaay!  It felt good when I got to check that recipe off my to-do list.

The kids both started school this past week.  They were so excited and I was so excited, so it was a win win!  We were all ready to get back to a routine and the kids were looking forward to seeing all of their friends and getting back into their activities.  Since it’s a fresh new year I came up a few ways to make morning time in our house a bit less hectic.  I’m having the kids fill their water bottles, pack their backpacks with snacks and school work the night before as well as figure out what they want for breakfast ahead of time so I’m not playing last minute short order cook in the morning.  I’m also having them pick out their outfits the night before.  That was always a time sucker in the morning.  So far so good for week one, the kids were ready to go each morning without any nagging on my part and our mornings started off on a good foot.  I love it!  Here’s a photo of their outfits all laid out for the first day.  I just had to take a picture as I thought it was so cute!

Clothes laid out for first day of school

Here’s 2 photos I took of the kids before we started off for school.  I can’t believe at times that I have an 8th and 3rd grader.  Time is flying by and I don’t like it.

First day of 3rd and 8th grade

The first thing I did Monday morning after drop off was clean out and organize my pantry. I had tons of more pressing issues to attend to of course, (paying bills, paperwork galore) but I felt the need to purge.  Oh my goodness, my pantry and kitchen were driving me crazy all summer.  With the kids in the house non-stop I just got lazy and stuffed groceries in the pantry, closed the door, and hoped that everything would just stay put and that the door would close.  Every time I opened the pantry I just cringed, quickly got what I needed and said to myself, “I will get this organized soon.”  Well, soon was about 3 months later, but it finally got completed.  Here are 2 quick photos that I took of the before.  You will have to wait to see the after photos next week as I’m doing a post on how I organize my kitchen. I’m doing this for my bestie Hilly as she just moved into a new house and wanted some tips.  It’s nothing fancy, but it might help spark up some ideas for some of you out there.

Pantry before organizing

We had some great meals last week and my favorite was Sunday night’s dinner.  We celebrated the last night of summer by having appetizers and dinner on the deck.  We starting off with some avocado-tahini dip along with some minty limeades.  For dinner we served up some chipotle shrimp tacos, corn on the cob, and grilled sweet peppers.  Aren’t those peppers just beautiful?

Avocado tahini dip, minty limeades, and chipotle shrimp tacos

For dessert we had some frozen s’mores and made them extra tasty by adding some caramel in between the marshmallow and chocolate layer.

Frozen s'mores

This was my breakfast all week and I was loving it.  Easy overnight steel-cut oats topped with strawberries, goji berries and creamy peanut butter.  As I type this I’m having some of the steel-cut oat leftovers with my 5 minute hot quinoa cereal.  I’ve topped them with some almond butter, thanks for the suggestion Carey, and I’m taking a break from coffee for the week and enjoying some green tea, so that picture of the coffee below is not in today’s menu.

hot cereal

Ok, let’s move onto this week’s menu.  I cleansed my kitchen and pantry and I feel like doing a mini cleanse myself, so this is going to be a meatless and coffee-free week for me.  I just feel like we’ve eaten a lot of meat lately with trying new recipes for the blog, that I want and am craving a “meat-free” week.  John and the kids are totally on board as well.  I have so many great meatless recipes on the blog, that it really won’t be a problem for us and we won’t miss the meat.  The coffee on the other hand, I may miss.

Sunday night dinner

Eli has a late afternoon baseball game and John is out of town, so the kids and I are most likely going to go out for dinner.  It’s been a busy non-stop sports weekend and it will be nice to have a night off from the kitchen.  I’m thinking either pizza or veggie burritos.

Monday night dinner

Heirloom tomato soup and grilled Gruyere cheese sandwiches.  It’s Manic Monday and as I said last week, Monday’s are now sandwich night till soccer and baseball season are over.  I made and froze a couple batches of heirloom soup when I got the tomatoes on that great sale last week, so I’m just going to defrost a batch of soup and grill up the sandwiches in between the kid’s activities.

Heirloom tomato soup

Tuesday night dinner

Paul McCartney’s refried bean tacos and lacinato kale salad.  This is such and easy no-fuss dinner.  The tacos take under 20 minutes to make and the salad can be made ahead of time, or if you have your kale washed and ready to go, then the salad and dressing only takes 5 minutes to assemble.  There is usually leftovers of the refried beans, so I  get to enjoy a tasty lunch the next day.

paul mccartneys refried bean tacos 3

Kale Salad

Wednesday night dinner

Ina’s summer garden pasta, kale and ricotta salata salad and crispy garlic bread for the kids. Eli has soccer practice till 6:30 on Wednesdays, so I want an easy dinner that take minutes to make when we get home and this is the perfect make ahead dinner.  I always make up the garlic butter, tomato marinade and salad earlier in the day, then all I have to do when Eli gets home is cook up the bread and capellini and voila, dinner is ready.

Ina's summer garden pasta

Garlic Bread slices on a cutting board

Kale and ricotta salad

Thursday night dinner

Leftover night.  Take a look at last night’s dinner and that’s what we’re having tonight paired with a kid friendly caesar salad.

Kid Friendly caesar salad

Friday night dinner

Roasted red-pepper pizza and kid friendly caesar salad. I love this pizza and we haven’t had it in so long, so it will be a nice treat.

Roasted red pepper and arugula pizza

Kid Friendly caesar salad

I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday!

With love Jackie
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7 thoughts on “Marin Mama’s Weekly Dinner Menu for September 15th”

    1. Yes, it will be nice to have a week off from cooking meat and I will be able to shop for more than one day. I usually buy my meat the day of as I’m a freak about it. The coffee thing might be difficult, but I had a nice cup of green tea this morning and I feel great thus far. It does have a natural caffeine it in 🙂

  1. Hi Jackie: I love your blog. I can’t wait to see your pantry make-over. I need to reorganize mine as well, but first I am looking for glass, square containers that can stack and keep everything fresh. Any ideas?
    – Anna

    1. Hi Anna! I love the glasslock glass storage containers. You can buy them separately or in a set which has all different shapes and sizes. They are by far my favorite glass containers because the tops stay shut when you seal them. We have another older set from rubbermaid where the tops don’t seal anymore and it’s a total pain.
      I use the glasslock containers to store everything from pantry items to frozen soups to leftovers. I even have smaller containers for the kids to use in their lunch boxes. You can find them anywhere really. The tops are sturdy as well and don’t breakdown like a regular old rubber top. Let me know if you have any other questions girl! xoxo, Jackie

  2. Hope you had a happy Sunday too! Have you been watching the SF/Seattle football game? We are watching it, had the rain delay and it has been thundering and lightning here like crazy but the game is back on as I type. The menu looks delicious. I love the 1st day of school pics and love Eli’s one man band t-shirt! You’ve got such cool kids. 🙂 It must be pantry cleaning week because I cleaned mine out last weekend too! It was like yours – all summer just stuffing stuff in there and it was a mess and super crowded. I got rid of so much stuff and it’s so much neater and easier to find things. That will be a fun post to read about organizing your kitchen, looking forward to it. Have a great week, girl! xoxo, Sharon

    1. Hey Sharon! No, I haven’t been watching the game. I was watching Eli’s baseball game this afternoon and it was long, as the kids are learning how to pitch so each child takes 5 minutes up at bat. It will be fun once they get the pitching down, but it was a beautiful day so it was nice to be outside. So I’m assuming the game must have been in Seattle, because there was not a cloud in the sky here. Hmmm… I’m curious who won?
      Eli is all about style this year, he doesn’t want to wear his sports shorts and tops, he wants to wear button downs and khaki shorts. We’ll see how long that lasts 🙂
      Yes, I think I know about 20 other people who organized their pantry and kitchens this past week. When the kids go back to school, it’s nice to get the house organized again. Ok, have a great week and I can’t wait to try some of your soups girl! xoxo, Jackie

  3. I’m dying to try the recipe for your vegetarian banh mi sandwiches…they look amazing, and I’ve never tried banh mi before. I can’t wait to see the after pictures of your kitchen organizing as well. I am completely OCD about everything being neat and organized in my house, I love any new tips!

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