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Much to my displeasure, the Chipotle fairy still hasn’t arrived to deliver us unlimited Chipotle for this week of craziness post-surgery for Erik. He’s home from the hospital, the infection is going away, and he’s moving more each day. Even so, life feels pretty freaking crazy. Ollie had a ROUGH time adjusting. He woke up one morning with Mem there instead of Mom and Dad. Much later in the day, an absolutely exhausted Mom showed up to bring him to the hospital to see his Dad in a hospital bed. I know in the grand scheme of things, an appendectomy is nothing, but I think we perhaps lost some of the weight of all the events on Ollie.

We spent a lot of the weekend laying low, trying to get Erik better and our normal Ollie back. I didn’t love the not sleeping, not listening Ollie after a night of about one hour of sleep. We’re getting there! As I said, unfortunately, no Chipotle fairy has arrived to deliver safe, to-go food for the week, so yesterday I went to work planning and prepping.

saturday:

chicken and dumplings from my mom

The Chipotle fairy never came, but my mom did deliver a giant pot of Erik’s absolute favorite meal she makes. It was enough for two dinners, lunch leftovers, and will be deconstructed into a few others lunches this week too (cut veggies for Ollie, chicken in quesadillas etc). 

sunday:

taco salad

This is the signature dish from one of my aunt’s. Her version uses ground beef, Doritos, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and Catalina dressing. Our allergy-friendly version subbed Xochitl tortilla chips for the Doritos and Organicville French dressing for the Catalina. We also used chopped butter lettuce as that’s what we had in the fridge. Brown the beef with onion and taco seasoning, cool, mix with the chopped veggies, and add the dressing and crushed chips right before serving. SO GOOD! 

monday:

honey buffalo meatballs and mashed potatoes and cauliflower.

I used this recipe but with 1 lb of meat and a bunch of shredded carrot. I’m honestly a little nervous how they’re going to taste but Erik seems to think they’ll be good. I’ll report back soon. Also made mashed potatoes, but added a half of bag of frozen cauliflower to the boiling potatoes. Still trying to sneak veggies in wherever I can!

tuesday:

beef burgers

A few weeks ago, I scored a bunch of organic ground beef on clearance at Shaws. So, beef burgers it is! They were on the menu last week but I think we were at the hospital instead. Oops! Ideally, we will have carrot fries with these. If I’m being totally honest, there is a good chance it’ll be tater tots instead. I have to work Tuesday. We need easy. 

wednesday:

sundried tomato chicken and pasta

I cannot find the recipe for this. We made it for the first time a few weeks ago and it was AMAZING. I said I should make a new recipe card right then and there before we lose the recipe link. Guess what happened? I’ll report back when we have it. 

thursday:

pizza

We use Costco pizza kits as a base, add Daiya Cheddar Cutting Board Shreds (no pea protein!), So Delicious Mozzarella Dairy Free Shreds, and Applegate turkey pepperoni. Easy and delicious! Who doesn’t love a pizza night? I’d do this more if the cheese wasn’t so darn expensive and hard to find around here.

friday:

Eating out(ish)

 There is a family pot luck at Ollie’s preschool. We will go, but will bring his own PlanetBox of food. Definitely feeling pretty nervous about a giant collection of children eating a full meal of allergens, but we’re all working together on it. His school has been great about consulting me on safety measures. 

There you have it! That’s our allergy-friendly meal plan for the week. I also cut a bunch of fruit yesterday and stocked up on some easy lunch options for Erik to have while he’s home. And coffee. It is imperative we don’t run out of coffee in the next week.