Beyond picky to food snobs

Hee hee hee. That would be my kids sometimes. They stayed at their grandma's for the very first time this weekend. FG's mom has babysat for us but never kept them overnight. When I called on Saturday morning to find out how it went, DS informed me that he ate French Toast for breakfast and "paper thin, soggy bacon." oops! I told him beforehand that he was to eat what was offered to him and if he didn't want something to make sure he said "No thank you" and not "I don't want that!". I just hope he didn't hurt MIL's feelings. She also told me she wanted to make cookies with them. I had to find a very polite way to tell her that they aren't really into cookies. DD is. She will eat them. DS loves my snickerdoodles but won't eat many other cookies (I have no idea why. Textures maybe????). With my past experiences with MIL and cookies, I have found that she buys the "break & bake" kind and bakes them 5 minutes longer than recommended. No wonder FG likes his cookies like little hockey pucks. That's what he grew up eating! Thankfully over the past 16 years I have brought him over to the brighter side of cookies, even if he still does like them crunchy and not soft. At least he now likes them homemade and not burnt. Needless to say, I discouraged the cookie making for her own good. I feared the kids would be awfully brutal.

Now onto this week's menu. I'm starting with Saturday because, well because I already started with Saturday! It felt like Sunday anyway. And I wanted to be sure to share the dry rub on the meat and the Blueberry Crumb Bars.

• Saturday - Tri-tip roast w/ dry rub*, Grandma's Baked Beans, tossed salad, sweet corn on the cob (farmers market corn, YUM), Blueberry Crumb Bars from smitten kitchen. Excellent but I will cut back the lemon zest next time I make them.


• Sunday - BBQ pork ribs, cous cous, more corn on the cob, more tossed salad, Avocado salsa


• Monday - Creamy chicken enchiladas, rice, grilled veggies


• Tuesday - Grilled cheeseburgers, pasta salad, steamed veggies


• Wednesday - Shrimp scampi over pasta w/ veggies


• Thursday - Make your own pizza night w/ the kids


• Friday - out?


• Saturday - Brats, saurkraut, french fries, tossed salad.

* The dry rub I just tossed some things together and it was excellent. I have no measurements but mixed up enough to coat both sides of the meat and let it sit for a few hours before we grilled it. I used: kosher salt, fresh pepper, granulated garlic, white sugar, paprika, a dash of cayanne, thyme, basil, dried lemon peel, toasted minced onion.

* Exported from MasterCook *
Avocado Salsa
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

2 medium avocado

2 medium roma tomato

1/4 red onion

2 tablespoons cilantro -- chopped

1 lime

2 cloves garlic

salt

tortilla chips
Peel and seed avocado, cut into chunks.Chop tomato into similar size chunks.Finely chop red onion.Chop fresh cilantro.Juice the lime.Press garlic through garlic press.Add salt to taste.
Mix all ingredients in med. size bowl and let rest for 1/2 hour.
Serve with tortilla chips.

* Exported from MasterCook *
Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

2 pounds boned and skinned chicken breast halves -- cooked & chopped

2 10 ounce can cream of chicken soup -- do not dilute

1 medium onion -- chopped

2 cups sour cream

1 1/2 pounds shredded jack cheese

12 large flour tortilla
Boil chicken for 20 minutes in water (bring to a rolling boil then simmer - add a bit of salt & pepper to the water) or grill chicken. Cool & chop into small pieces. Combine soup, onion, sour cream in large bowl. Reserve 1/3 of the mixture in a separate bowl. Stir chopped chicken into soup mixture. Spoon 2 heaping spoonfuls of chicken/soup mixture into tortillas. Top mixture with shredded cheese. Tuck ends in and roll sides up. Place seam side down into oblong baking dish. Repeat until all mixture is gone. Spread reserved soup mixture on top of rolled tortillas. Top with remaining shredded cheese. Bake 300 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

(I will only make 1/2 the batch because it's enough for our family for dinner. I generally make these to use up leftover chicken or make extra chicken when we grill or bake it with the intent to make these. They can also be made up to 1 day ahead, brought out of the fridge to warm up a bit then baked as directed. Good time saver for those crazy days!)