Sunday - Day 1

The kids and I hung out at home today, after an early morning trip to the grocery store to kick off the week. Sunday morning is definitely the time to shop at King City Safeway. If anyone in King City is awake at that hour, they are in church, leaving the heathens to roam the store, listening to Black Sabbath (no, seriously) and "Let's Get Physical" by Olivia Newton-John. It does make for quick shopping though, so the kids and I could be in and out in record time.

My parents joined us for breakfast, a Sunday morning tradition at this point, started shortly after Hurricane Katrina when the whole family was living here. It's a much quieter affair than when 6 kids under the age of 10 were running around the house every weekend. I decided to start with the very first recipe in the book, which was Chocolate Chip Pancakes. While at the store, I did a little impulse purchasing and bought some turkey sausage as well. Having tried it, I don't think we'll ever go back to pork sausage except on those special occasions for Mark (of course, he'll want bacon instead, so I think we're good). We also had clementines, for a well-rounded meal.

The pancakes were pretty good. We all had the same reaction, which was the best reason to keep this recipe was knowing it was better for us. Lisanne, our picky eater, ate four smaller pancakes and loved them (thank God for that). After breakfast, we engaged Nana and Poppy in some Wii time. I drove Nana up the wall with Super Mario Bros. This is the woman who called in sick for four days after she gave me a Nintendo for Christmas in the 90s...to try to master the original Super Mario Bros. The kids thought it was hysterical to watch her freak out every time Luigi died...which was pretty often.

After doing some reorganizing and playing trains with the kids, I started on our early dinner. For dinner, I was going with a "safe" recipe for Lo...Mac and Cheese with low-fat kielbasa. The frustrating part was that my grocery store obviously caters to the blue-hairs in the area and didn't have the lowest low-fat turkey sausage (they didn't have reduced fat kielbasa at all) and the cheese they carry isn't as low fat as Devin recommends. Frustrating. The mac and cheese was very very cheesy. Always the diplomat, Lisanne's response was, "Mom, I like the mac you made with the cheese that came in a box." That's right, she means Velveeta. I wonder if they make a low-fat version of that...she added large quantities of ketchup and found the meal to be copasetic.

Devin lists another mac and cheese recipe on her website. I might have to try that one next Sunday and see if it's met with greater appreciation. I could eat this one again; I just felt like it was a bit pointless when I couldn't get it to the same level of "low fatness" as Devin's.
Tomorrow's dinner? Chicken Piccata and Asparagus with Shallot-Vinegar Dressing. How many should I cook for?