Weekly Menu: Winter

I’ve heard from several readers that would like me to share the weekly menus I put together for our family. So the weekly menu feature is henceforth rolled into publication. Expect periodic posts under this category as some weeks we are out of town and other weeks life can be so hectic that every night is takeout, leftovers, or cheerios. Also expect that some weeks the menu will be published as a partial week menu due to travel. Finally, please note that while I strive to incorporate a healthy selection of vegetables, fruit, and fish every week, the menus are not set to a specific caloric intake or diet plan. They’re just set to yummy.

This week’s menu is below. Cookbooks you’ll need to have on hand include Southwestern Vegetarian by Stephan Pyles, Plenty by Yotam Otto Lenghi, and The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever by Beatrice Ojakangas. These cookbooks are all sound investments that we will be coming back to throughout the year for recipes. I’ve also included hyperlinks to the recipes online whenever they were available .

Snacks are meant to be spread throughout the day.

	Mon	Tues
breakfast	cheerios topped with milk, cinnamon and blueberries	oatmeal topped with craisins, nuts, and warm milk
lunch	leftovers	leftovers
dinner	pasta with tomato sauce* and veggies or meat; salad	wild rice and corn fritters (p.75 Southwest Veggie) w/honey butter; broiled tilapia**; steamed broccoli
snacks	crackers and cheese	apple, 12 almonds, 6 crackers, 1 yogurt
	Wed	Thurs
breakfast	egg burrito (egg, green pepper or chile, cheese); smoothie***	toast with peanut butter and bananas; orange juice
lunch	tuna salad (canned tuna, dill, mayo/miracle whip) sandwich; 1 fruit	fresh hummus with carrots, pita bread and red pepper slices
dinner	celeriac and lentils (p. 216 Plenty); dilled cucumbers dressed with oil and vinegar	Asian chicken wings****; kraft/velveeta mac & cheese; salad
snacks	orange, string cheese, crackers, yogurt+granola	1 fruit, crackers, smoothie
	Fri	Sat
breakfast	cheerios topped with milk, cinnamon and blueberries	oatmeal topped with craisins, nuts, and warm milk
lunch	salad; leftover wings	cocktail shrimp, mango, avocado salad (mix all, chill and serve)
dinner	burger night w/all the fixins (cheese, mushrooms, green chile, avocado, etc); eggplant fries	Tortilla Soup*****; chips and salsa
snacks	protein bar, watermelon, cashews	fruit, yogurt, crackers
	Sun
breakfast	Eggs, grits (w/butter and salt/pepper), breakfast meat, toast
lunch	cottage cheese and fruit (ripe pears/peaches)
dinner	Grandma’s chicken casserole (p. 155 Casserole cookbook); steamed baby potatoes, green beans, salad
snacks	apple, string cheese, crackers

* For quick weeknight pasta, start with bottled pasta sauce (I like Prego) and jazz it up with either fresh veggies (sauteed carrots, onions, mushrooms or zucchini work well) and/or ground beef or shrimp. Top with shredded parmesan (buy the block @Costco and shred yourself as needed).

**For the broiled tilapia, simply place the fish filets (1 per person) in an ovenproof casserole dish and provide a bit of liquid to keep the fish moist (I usually use a bit of white wine) and sprinkle with salt, pepper and your favorite seasonings for fish. Lemon pepper is good and the McCormick’s Citrus Grill spice is lovely too.

***For smoothie, blend 1 c ice, 1 cup frozen fruit of your choice(berries, peaches bananas, just to name a few), 1 cup OJ, and 6 oz of yogurt. You can also add a 1/3 cup protein powder if you workout regularly.

****For Asian wings, drizzle 24 wings generously with Ken’s Asian salad dressing, 3 T of chives and 1 to 2 T of any brand of onion jam you can find. Roast at 425 until juices run clear then sprinkle generously with sesame seeds. SO GOOD and easy.

*****For tortilla soup, saute 1 onion (diced) and 2 cloves garlic (minced) until translucent, add 2 green chiles (diced), 1 can diced tomatoes w/ green chile, 1 cup shredded or diced cooked chicken (leftover rotisserie chicken is great for this), and enough chicken broth to fill the 5qt pot 3/4 full. Bring to a boil then add 1/2 to 1 cup diced zucchini and simmer until zucchini is done. Serve with fresh diced avocado, salsa, shredded Monterey jack cheese as garnishes.

Board Game Review: Hues and Cues

Last week we received Hues and Cues from The Op Games. We recently finished playing through Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion (a fantastic game in The Op Games catalogue designed by Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim, and Kami Mandell that you should absolutely pick up to play with your family) and wanted to give another game from the same publisher a go. I picked Hues and Cues because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by other “test whether our minds think the same way” games such as The Mind and Wavelength. In Hues and Cues , players gather around a large central board comprised of 480 graduating colors of the rainbow surrounded by an x-y axis and scoring table. White and black (which are technically not colors) are conspicuously absent as are shades (mixtures of color + black; e.g., grey) and tints (mixtures of color + white; e.g., cream). On each player’s turn, they draw a card with four colors and the x-y axis codes of those colors depicted and they select one. They are in the

Board Game Review: Obsessed with Obsession

I'm completely obsessed with Obsession! I received a review copy of the updated second edition along with all the expansions (Wessex, Useful Man, Upstairs Downstairs) and from the moment I took everything out of the boxes, my excitement was over the top. Actually, that's not even the half of it - I remember I was already quite excited before the game even arrived. I'd wanted to get my hands on a copy as soon as I learned there was a game that brought the lifestyle that we all fell in love with watching Downton Abbey to the gaming table. Back in 2021, I was having a great time at the Dice Tower Summer Retreat and a new friend Bonnie sang the praises of Obsession. She had seen me eyeing the box on the shelf and gave me a summary of the game mechanics as she owned the first edition. She explained that the theme is centered on running an estate in Derbyshire and competing against others to have the best home, reputation, gentry guests, etc. Based on her enthusiasm and descripti

Board Game Review: Anno 1800

Whenever Martin Wallace designs a new game, I am all over it. This is because I absolutely love Brass Birmingham (another MW designed game); in fact Brass Birmingham is my #1 board game of all time. Over the years, his other games I've tried have been pretty good, but not necessarily amazing must-buys. Still, I keep trying each new release of his, searching for that next star performer. That's why I'm excited to report that Anno 1800 is, in fact, a star performer, and an amazing must-buy board game. Anno 1800 was adapted by the publisher (Kosmos) from a Ubisoft video game of the same name. In the board game, players take on the role of industrialists, charged with developing their island economies and exploring other islands. Each player begins the game with a personal industry board with trade & exploration ships, a shipyard, and industrial goods tiles printed on the board. A starting collection of workers (wooden cubes) of various types to produce the goods is a