Happy Birthday Weekly Eats

This Monday marked two years of posting all of my meals on the internet.   It's time to roundup the roundups and give kudos to the best of the best.

 Why I Post All of My Meals on the Internet
For exactly the same reasons I listed last year.  Standard disclaimer that these are just our meals, it's not everything we eat.

What's Changed Since Last Year
Looking back over our meals, we eat way more chicken, steak, and pizza than last year.  There's more of a trend toward us eating different things at the same meal (which makes sense now that I look back over the year: we eat more meat, which pushes me back toward my preferred less meat diet).  The kids are a year older, which means their schedules are even busier which makes more of our meals rushed, and it's just a fact of life that the trend will continue.  Our challenge is to do more meal planning.



Some things are very much the same.  Our mac and cheese consumption is still way lower than I would have believed. Tacos, Costco's Orange Chicken, lasagna, hamburgers, and chili mac are still featured prominently in our menus.

And not that I counted or anything, but 13 batches of breakfast burritos went down this year.

Best New Recipe of the Year

A Foodie Stays Fit White BBQ Chicken.  There are no words, you just need to try it.

Runners up for best recipes we tried for the first time this year

Skinny Taste's Salsa Chicken with Black Beans and Corn

Flavor the Moment's One Pot Creamy Sausage Roasted Red Pepper Pasta (my version is two pot, IMO it works better to cook the pasta separately)

Skinny Taste's Loaded Baked Sweet Potato

Biggest Family Dinner Successes

Twice Baked Potatoes.  I don't have a specific recipe to link to, just look at the first few hits that google brings up for inspiration and do your own thing.

Costco's Chicken Skewers are a lifesaver for those rushed nights when we need to get food on the table.

Food Crushes

Soy Curls (a nice change up from tofu)

The air fryer. Air fryer hits: fish (I cannot stress enough how much better fish is in the air fryer), french toast, bacon, fries, tofu.  Air fryer mehs: we only tried to cook steak in the air fryer once, it wasn't bad but it wasn't incredible.

Best TV Shows
Dirty John (yes the TV show but you've listened to the podcast too right?)
Outlander season 4
Dead to Me
Mama June from Hot to Not (I can't help myself...I enjoyed this show way more than any reasonable person should)
And the latest seasons of all of the shows I picked last year

Best Date Night Shows and Movies
Cobra Kai (last year it was my pick for best family show, this year the kids wanted nothing to do with it but the adults loved it)
Stranger Things
They Shall Not Grow Old
Our Raymond Chandler Spree:

• Lady in the Lake
• Murder My Sweet
• Philip Marlowe, Private Eye

Best Family TV Shows and Movies
Good Omens
Ray Harryhausan Movies (7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts)
Our 80's action movie spree: Lethal Weapon 2, Die Hard 2, Terminator 2, True Lies, etc.

Best Books
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
I Found You by Lisa Jewell
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
Secrets of Midwives by Sally Hepworth
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Will the Weekly Eats Continue?
Heck yes.  It's a ton of fun to write about my family through the lens of food.  Tune in next week for more breakfast burritos and other adventures.