Birthday Party Menu – Mexican Theme

Hey hey!  Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!  I’m still recovering (and may even be in the beginnings of a cold… boo!) from our wild and crazy weekend.  Saturday was a long church day with many activities, including cooking some food for the potluck.  I decided to do some Pinterest-ing to find some inspiration, and ended up making Tortilla-Black Bean Casserole and Southwest Chopped Salad with Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing.

They were both really easy to make and were hits!  I prepared both dishes in advance the day before (love that!), and my dishes were licked completely clean.  I didn’t hold out a lot of hope for the Tortilla-Black Bean casserole, because as I was making it, it looked kind of boring.  But it tasted really good!  And the Creamy Cilantro Lime dressing is “potent” (hubby’s word for flavorful), but it’s really yummy!  And the chopped salad ingredients are really versatile.  Whatever you have on hand, use it!

Anywho, that was Saturday.  Then I was cooking all day Sunday for my hubby’s 30th birthday par-tay!  It was tons of work, BUT we had such a blast.  We’re in that fun time of life when all our friends have kids as well, and it was just a hoot watching them run all over our house, blowing noise makers and wearing party hats 🙂

But, during the whole entire party, I forgot to take pictures!  Everything looked so yummy, but, alas, undocumented.  On Instagram, I snapped ONE picture of my ice cream cake, pre-assembly, and that’s it.  *Sigh.

Bad Blogger!

So, today, no Menu Monday as normal. We are on vacation this week, so no need for our usual menu.  But I thought I would share our menu from last night!

This menu doubled REALLY easily!  And I was able to prep most of it ahead of time, and then either reheat or put in the oven just prior to everyone showing up.  Click on the links to get to the Pinterest recipes.  I’ve jotted notes there as well, because I tweaked a few things in each recipe.  File this menu away for when you’re having a bash!

 

Chips with Salsa and Guacamole

Sparkling Lemonade and Berry Lemonade from Trader Joe’s

Roasted Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas

Mexican Rice

Southwest Chopped Salad with Creamy Cilantro Lime dressing

Mint Oreo Brownie Ice Cream Cake

Happy cooking!  And see you next Monday for a proper Menu Monday.  I’ve got a few blog posts up my sleeve for this week, but it will be a little lighter due to our vacay.  You can follow along with our fun-filled week on Instagram.

Menu Monday!

What I’m drinking – Organic Bolivian Blend, with milk, from Trader Joe’s

Another Monday!  Which means another weekend done.

Bummer.

We had an ok weekend around here.  Husband had to work all day Saturday, and part of Sunday morning, so, honestly, it felt like regular weekdays.  And NC has decided “Let’s skip Spring and go straight to Summer!”, which means you’ll only see this Midwestern Girl early in the mornings now.  Any later and I start to wilt.

Menu Monday!

What I’m drinking – Peaberry Coffee from Trader Joe’s

Happy Monday!  Hope you had a nice weekend!

My parents were in town, so we did some Durham tourist things, which included a visit to the Duke Gardens.  It was a wonderful day on Saturday.  I even got sunburned.  First of the year!  We finished our sunny afternoon off at Maple View Farms in Hillsborough.  If you haven’t been there, visit!  The ice cream is yummy, but I love sitting on the front porch, in a rocking chair, looking at the farmland and rolling hills.  Our sweet little girl managed to plant her face in my ice cream cone!  Sneaky.  She’s too fast!

What’s on the Menu? Menu Monday!

What I’m drinking – Joe’s Coffee Decaf, from Trader Joe’s

Happy Tuesday (oops!)

Yep, I’m a lazy tooshie… I had the menu written on time but neglected to write a post!

I’m going to have a brag about what we had on Sunday night!  We had one of my favorites for comfort food.  We had vegetarian chicken with a mushroom cream sauce (just a splash of half n half).  This time I added some pine nuts and wilted the rest of a bag of swiss chard that I had on hand.  So yummy!  Then, I used some potatoes I had on hand to make mashed potatoes.  Instead of mashing it with butter or heavy cream, I used broth.  I’m so proud that I even thought of that!  Then the mushroom sauce paired perfectly with the potatoes as gravy.  I had the leftovers Monday afternoon with some veggie chicken strips.

What’s on the Menu? Menu Monday!

What I’m drinking – Decaf Irish Breakfast Tea, black, from Trader Joe’s

Happy Monday!

Today is such an icky day here in NC.  I actually delayed my usual Monday grocery shopping until tomorrow.  I just don’t want to slug through the rain with a baby.

We had a so so weekend.  Friday night we celebrated a friend’s 30th birthday, but that meant a late night for us (to be clear, “late night” for us means getting home after 9:00…).  Saturday was pretty low key for myself and the Bean, but my husband worked all day.  Saturday night we caught up on another episode of Game of Thrones.  We’re watching season 3 right now.  And then on Sunday we had yet another birthday party.  This time a 3 year old! I have a feeling we’ll be attending a lot of kids birthday parties in the future!  We ended Sunday night with our favorite – Top Gear!