Sunday, February 15, 2009

Happy Valentine

We had a fantastic, jam-packed Valentine's Day weekend which included a birthday party, a movie, dinners and lots of family time. I'm pretty exhausted today!

We kicked off the weekend on Friday with dinner at a local pizza joint with Joe's dad, Aunt and sisters and their families.

On Saturday afternoon, we headed over to Nana B's house for Mackenzie's 3rd birthday party. Mackenzie is Jim's youngest and Joe's Godchild.



After the birthday party Joe and I headed home to get ready for a romantic and relaxing night out. Our wonderful and always fabulous friend, Theresa or as the kids call her "Aunt T", babysat the boys for us while we went to see a movie (in a theater!) and then enjoyed a delicious meal at Asparagus, a French Vietnamese restaurant in the region. The food and atmosphere was sexy and yet tranquil at the same time. And they have live Jazz on Saturday nights. It was nice to sit back and slow down for a few hours (sans kids).

Joe totally spoiled me with the fabulous evening out, but also with flowers, chocolates.. and the cherry on top...he hung up the chalkboard that I have been wanting in our kitchen (yeah, he knows the way to my heart!)





Instead of posting a menu plan for the week, I wrote up all the raw ingredients we had in the fridge so that I could see what I had to work with for the week. We'll also plan to use the board as a communication center, using it to write short notes to each other in the mornings etc.

Dinner Menu for the week:
Omelet
Chicken Pad Thai
Enchiladas
Veggie burgers/Turkey burgers
Gazpacho

For our lunches:
Pasta salad
Leftover omelet with mixed greens salad
Sandwiches
Soup
Spinach, strawberry salad

For dinner tonight, I wanted to use up the potatoes, asparagus and eggs before they passed their prime. So I made a favorite egg dish, Tortilla Espanola, a staple at any good Tapas restaurant. As a side dish, I sauteed the asparagus with some mushrooms and then finished them with a drizzle of white truffle oil...so delicious! The only thing lacking was a good garlicky aioli. A dollop of sour cream on the potato omelette was a decent substitute.













Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

3 comments:

Dee said...

Listing the stuff you have in your fridge is such a great idea! How many times have I forgotten about something because it got shoved to the back or hidden away in the crisper? I'm going to try the same thing.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Greco Family!
Glad to read your post! I was starting to get worried about y'all! Looks like you had a great Valentine's Day. (I was diagnosed with strep throat on V-Day but managed to grill a yum steak and lobster dinner anyway!)
Fran

QGIRL said...

Darlene, I have throw out so many veggies because I forgot about them. I was about to go grocery shopping on Sat and realized I had a fridge full of stuff already, so this really helped me utilize my stock.
My goal this week is to try and use everything up and not go to the grocery store at all if I can help it!

Fran, sorry to hear about your strep, hope you feel better soon! Thanks for checking in on us!