meal plan monday: april 1.

in a most surprising turn of events, in the middle of a weekend that i had planned to fill with as much sleep and relaxation and rainy afternoons on the couch as physically possible, i found myself awake at 8am on Saturday morning, responding to a text from my mother-in-law. i had been planning to text her at some point later on Saturday to see what i could bring to Easter dinner on Sunday, but she beat me to the punch by asking me if i could bring a side dish. at 8 am on a Saturday morning.

 

i will forgive her this one time, because i think that she honestly forgets that not everyone works the same hours as an accountant during tax season, and that there are people in the world whose weekend plans involve staying cocooned in their comfortable world of pillows and blankets until at least 9'oclock.

 

but since i at least try to keep up the appearance of being a wonderful daughter-in-law, i wracked my still-sleepy brain for a possible side dish that would compliment a dinner menu of ham, potatoes, and no less than three types of vegetables without being repetitive. not exactly a simple task. but i think i did alright, and even though i had sworn to myself that i would stay far far away from the grocery store (and its inevitable accompanying fistfights over the discounted hams) on the day before Easter, i added a stop to my Saturday errands and came home with a metric ton of fruit. which i then arranged in an almost Pinterest-worthy spread:

 

sometimes i impress myself. 

i wish i could say that the only sugar i consumed all weekend came from that giant bowl of fruit, but that would be one of the most outrageous falsehoods to ever cross my lips. i'm thinking that i might need to put myself back on a no-artificial-sugar-diet to combat the reese's peanut butter eggs and delicious fudge brownies and that whole bag of hershey's milk chocolate nuggets that i inhaled this past week, but i'm thinking that's not going to happen until after i finish this bag of jellybeans...

aside from the jellybeans, here's what i'm thinking we'll be munching on this week:

Monday: grilled chicken on spinach salad.
Tuesday: frozen raviolis in jar sauce.
Wednesday: crock pot chicken noodle soup. (recipe)
Thursday: grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Friday: let's eat out.
Saturday: angel hair with zuchinnin and tomatoes. (recipe)
Sunday: baked fish with roasted potatoes.