On This Week's Table...{Daddy's Gone Dinners}

It was a late night for all of us last night and therefore a late morning this morning. Most of us kind of stumbled awake, some of us reaching desperately for our coffees, others of us simply sitting, staring with glazed expressions at the breakfast which was laid out in front of us. It was an odd assortment of left overs and snacks from last night's gathering. Not the breakfast of champions I admit, but Girl Scout cookies in four varieties were involved so at least our breakfast supported the greater good...or at least, the greater Girl Scout.

My Man gets to travel to lands that are sunny and bright this week and the rest of us are just a bit jealous about being left behind in what the weather forecast for us promises to be another round of snow and drear. As is our tradition when My Man travels, the kids and I have planned a menu of "Daddy's Gone Dinners" which, this year has a note or two of international flavor.

Slated for our table this week...

• Thai Chicken Pizza from The Pioneer Woman (pictured below) - which was a total hit last year and so a must in our line up.

• Cheesy Rice with Broccoli from The Mom 100 cookbook. Usually in these parts, broccoli must be sortable, that is, removable from the other parts of the entrée, but not in this one! We're partying now! 
• Sesame Noodles with all the fixins and a lovely peanut-y sauce. Even though the kids are still a bit shy about adding peanut butter to savory dishes after a disastrous Daddy's Gone incident, we are confident that this Asian staple will hit the spot.
• Sloppy Joes...we know that this selection is hardly "out there" in the food universe, but My Man has long nursed an aversion to the Manwich product and we have not, as a result, ventured boldly into sloppy joe land. However, the kids are certain that they will not be well rounded citizens in their adulthoods if we do not get in the sloppy joe gear and so my Ant Sab shared her top secret recipe with me and we're off!
• Everyday Curry (pictured below)...from the Super Natural Every Day cookbook by Heidi Swanson. We thoroughly enjoyed this one last year too and happily, asparagus is just now coming into season for us to use in this beyond-our-comfort-zone favorite.

• Creamy Millet with Roasted Portobellos - say what?! Here's the scoop...we are, Cole, Meg and I, learning about mushrooms and by learning about I mean we are figuring out how to prepare them in all of their different forms and fashions. This recipe from The Sprouted Kitchen cookbook will be far from our regular fare, but hey it's all about the adventure, right? There will most certainly be a big pan of hot bubbly mac n'cheese at the ready in case our adventure gets the better of us!

• Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas---Olé! Mexican is our absolute favorite and even when My Man is in town we eat super-sized burritos on nearly a weekly basis but since Daddy's gone this week, we're kickin' it up a notch!
• Stuffed Spud Soup...the hands-down favorite of the younger set which I somehow managed to ruin recently when serving it to friends which was embarrassing enough but when the girls requested their fav for the week, they both added that they hoped I wouldn't make it taste awful like I did last time!

Now Daddy's not gonna be gone long enough for us to fix and eat each of those meals but if we have some of them for lunch we should be able to polish most of them off. To add the grand finale to our parade of food and to celebrate Daddy's return we're planning...

• Smitten Kitchen's Tomato-Glazed Meatloaves with Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes...sounds like a Daddy's Home Dinner if ever I've heard of one...minus all of those little pieces of green of course!

We'll let you know which meals were our favorites, and if you'd like to see pictures of each meal on the days we prepare them, you are welcome to follow us on our Instagram feed where you are sure to find many, many "slice of life" moments captured in pictures that never make it to the blog!