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It’s nearing the end of Lent, and I’m running low on no meat ideas for Friday dinners.  I’m fine eating a bowl of cereal (yum!) but I don’t think my meat-eating family would like that every week.

In an effort to jazz up the lunch box when Samantha started taking her lunch to school last fall, I started reading a few lunch box blogs.  It takes only a little more effort to make lunch special, which then means, it will get eaten.  I have to admit, these days, Brian usually makes her lunch.  However, Samantha has always been pretty good about eating vegetables and fruits of all kinds.  (Her favorite vegetables are peas and beans.  My least favorite!)  The common theme in getting kids to eat healthier is fun.  We had some discussions about superpowers.  For example, carrots make you have super sight.  I make Ants on a Log and arrange food playfully on the plate.

So, last week I decided that a hot meal was out since it was so hot outside.  Samantha loves rainbows, and I’m trying to instill that we need to eat food of all colors, so I had the idea to make a rainbow dinner.  Nothing fancy.  It received great reviews though.  It even inspired Sam to eat her squash, which is her absolute least favorite veggie (and one of my favorites!).

Ellie on the other hand is trickier.  Her diet consists of dairy, fruit and crackers.  That’s about all she’ll eat.  I’ll keep working on her.

strawberries, sweet potatoes, yellow squash, asparagus, blueberries and purple grapes

We had a yummy meal tonight.  I had a seminar to attend, so I knew it would be a long day.  Since it was cold too, a crockpot meal was in order.  Luckily, I had seen one recently that sounded good and super easy!  Boy, it was both!  I think I put it together in less than 5 minutes.  Seriously.  And Brian rated it a 9 out of 10, so you know it had to be good.

Creamy Crockpot Chicken from Birmingham Mommy

Oh.  I don’t think this resurrects the Dinner Series.  I know that’s what you’re all thinking…

For dinner this week, we’ve had

Chili and grilled cheese sandwiches

Mahi-mahi (for Brian) and shrimp (for Janie) with fettucine and asparagus

And Banana Split Salad for this week’s dessert (a light and fruity dessert – yummy!)

This week for dinner, we had

Chicken with gruyere and pancetta, greek salad, and wild rice

hamburgers, baked tomatoes and grilled asparagus

For dinner this week, we’ve had

pre-seasoned pork tenderloin with veggie fried rice (Sam LOVED the rice!) (thanks for cooking, Brian!)

Chicken Cacciatore with breadsticks

Also mixed in there was sweet potato casserole, butter peas, Brian’s brownies and vanilla pudding.