So today was our first day of a seven-day adventure.  First I had to do menu planning, then I had to go grocery shopping. Since this is a busy week, I’d only plan to go to one store. I chose Wegmans, because my list is produce heavy and Wegmans has the best selection of fresh produce in my opinion. I wasn’t able to find vegan dinner rolls or near ripe plantains.  So I will have to visit the local Giant tomorrow.

Let’s start with breakfast. I have ~45 minutes between the time I start cooking breakfast and the kids finish eating breakfast. Therefore I look for pre-packaged foods.

Today we went with waffles, raisins, and rice milk.  This is what I found in our pantry before the grocery shopping trip. Everyone cleaned their plates so it was all good!  The kids  had their breakfast while I drank my coffee and prepared the grocery list.  I took my coffee with a teaspoon of evaporated cane juice and coconut milk. By the time I finished my list, it was way past time to leave for the grocery store, so I skipped breakfast and headed out the door.

I shoveled Oreo cookies in the kids mouths (they are mostly vegan, less the sugar), while we shopped to keep them quiet. The shopping trip was easy, I had to visit fewer sections in the store for my shopping this week.  Since I skipped my breakfast, I was starving near the end of the shopping trip. I passed through the bakery section for a quick bite.  I was so tempted to get a croissant, donut, or muffin–but I was good, I picked a kalamata olive roll from the artisan bread section.  All in all, the grocery bill was about $30 less than the typical week.  My splurge item was trumpet mushrooms at $12.99 per lb.  Every week, I buy something special that is either an expensive item or something we haven’t tried before, the trumpet mushrooms fell into both categories.

 I picked up my son from preschool and headed home. I usually have about 15-20 minutes to get lunch on the table before the meltdowns start, so again we go with quick meals for lunch.

Today we did gnocchi with marinara sauce and sliced cucumbers on the side.  I made 2 lbs of gnocchi with the hope we would have enough leftover for Thursday’s lunch, but no such luck. The kids ate nearly 2 lbs of gnocchi and the entire cucumber by themselves.

I had to pick the leftovers off their plate and scrap together a lunch.  I know what you are thinking.  I must have teenagers. NO!  I have a four year-old son, and two toddlers that are 2 and 1/2 years-old.

Let’s skip to dinner. I made a variation of a recipe I’ve used for years. I tweaked the recipe for Toasted Barley Salad with Red Bell Pepper, Corn, and Grilled Portobello Mushrooms.

Lately the kids have been against spicy food so I substituted green bell pepper for the poblano pepper, lemon for lime, and the basil for cilantro.  We had the salad with a side of roasted carrots (2 lbs) that were drizzled in olive oil, a pinch of salt, and 1 tsp of maple syrup.

Everyone liked it. All the kids went back for seconds. They barely left enough carrots for dad and me.  I had my dinner with a glass of Chardonnay.  Everyone ate well all day!