Preppin' for Parentals

We had the distinct pleasure of parading my parents around our stomping grounds this past week. But of course, being the anal-retentive person I am, I had a meal plan!

I needed a few quick and dirty - well maybe not dirty per say - weeknight meals to afford me extra time to scamper about the house cleaning like a crazy lady! Plus, Dad's birthday fell on Thursday, so I needed a fun menu worthy of the celebration.

And if that wasn't enough complexity for one week... I had this unstoppable desire to spend a Sunday afternoon futzing around with some homemade pasta.

Alrighty. So that all boiled down to 4 dinners (Sun, Mon, Wed, Thurs x2) plus 2 lunches (Mon, Tues) plus one birthday dessert!

• Sunday: sundried tomato stuffed chicken and pesto gnocchi (+lunch leftovers)
• Monday: chili baked potato and roasted broccoli (+lunch leftover)
• Wednesday: pot stickers and veggie stir-fry 
• Thursday: turkey burger with grilled portobello and baked sweet potato
• Birthday Dessert: French silk, peanut butter ice cream pie

My parents have also taken to consuming an unusual amounts of hot tea, seltzer water, fruit and nuts. Plus my husband was running low on a few essentials. So taking all of that into consideration, I drew up the following list:

• bananas (12)
• lime
• mango (5)
• cantaloupe
• avocado (2)
• tomato (2)
• pear
• basil
• broccoli
• zucchini
• red pepper 
• gold potatoes
• sweet potatoes (4)
• portobello caps (4)
• snacking cheese (I like to have this on hand when entertaining - gouda, manchego, something aside from silly old cheddar)
• grated parmesan
• sundried tomatoes
• pine nuts
• boneless skinless chicken breast
• ground turkey
• crackers
• Cherrios 
• eggs
• diet tonic (for birthday gin and tonics, duh!)
• coffee
• tea
• chocolate pie crust
• frozen pot stickers (found a bag at Trader Joe's for about three bucks!)
• ice cream
• Cool Whip

Long list for sure. But I was trying to sell my folks on moving out here, so I had to bring out all the stops!

Without a doubt, the homemade gnocchi were the show stopper this week. Something about playing with pasta dough is just so therapeutic - kinda like play-doh when you were a kid, but edible! I mean just look at these little pillows of joy - don't you want to run home and whip this up immediately? These Italian dumplings tossed with a fresh pesto sauce was just perfection.

Turkey Chili Baked Potato

And of course, one of my favorite weeknight staples - chili baked potatoes! It wasn't until I came to Texas that I realized what a delightful vehicle potatoes make for all types of saucy meats. For the sake of my waistline, I like to lighten it up by using lean ground turkey meat and serve along with a nice vegetable. For some reason, roasted broccoli is always my go-to for this particular dish. In fact, I'd venture to say you could get super crazy and serve the broccoli as an additional topping for the potato. Quick, filling, and damn delicious. 

Total Grocery Cost: $110.95