Marin Mama’s Weekly Dinner Menu for May 12th

Marin Mama's weekly dinner menu - May 12th

Happy Mother’s Day to all you amazing moms out there! I hope you’re all doing something that you want to today, whether it be spending time with the family, relaxing at a spa, or climbing a mountain. I’m going to be spending the day chilling with my family.  The only request I had for today was that I didn’t have to cook breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Marin mama wants a day off! Well, I did in fact cook up my breakfast, but it’s my 5 minute hot quinoa cereal, so it literally took me 5 minutes.

So have you noticed anything new about the blog?  Does it look a tiny bit different to you? My good friend and HTML goddess Wendy, set me up with a new WordPress theme and created that cute new header that you see above. We still have a lot of work to do to the blog and we have so many great ideas. I mean my mind is just in this total creative mode not only with the look of the blog, but I have an exciting new series that I’m working on as well. My main goal for the blog is to have it be user friendly and easy to navigate for you all, especially when it comes to finding recipes. I mean this is a recipe blog, so the quicker and easier it is for you to find what you’re looking for, the better it is for all of us. Wendy and I are working on setting up a whole new recipe page with subcategories as well as drop down menus.  I will also have pictures for each recipe in the recipe section. You can kind of see an example of what a recipe page will look like if you click on any one of those sidebar photos such as, most popular recipes or weekly dinner menu. I know that when I visit a blog’s recipe site I love seeing photos of the recipes, so I’m excited that I get to add this feature to my blog. I’m stepping it up a bit folks and moving it on up as they say.

So I had a successful cooking week, as I made 3 amazing recipes. I made up a batch of soup, yes, I know it’s not exactly soup weather, but this sweet potato and chipotle soup was calling my name. It’s so good and creamy, but it’s dairy free and vegan. I’m posting the recipe this week.

Sweet potato soup

I also made up a batch of dark chocolate bark with roasted almonds, sea salt and coconut. It’s super addicting, but oh so good.  The only problem with this bark is that I ate a rather large piece on Friday night, and I was up till midnight, totally wired. I decided it’s going to be my new afternoon pick me up snack instead of an after dinner treat.

Dark chocolate bark

Last but not least, I made up this yummy asparagus and gruyere cheese pizza last night. It’s the perfect pizza for this time of year, as asparagus is totally in season, and it’s super easy to throw together.

Asparagus and gruyere cheese pizza

Ok, let’s move onto this week’s menu:

Sunday night dinner

It’s Mother’s Day, so tonight we’re eating out. I think we’re going to head on over to our favorite local restaurant, DJ’s.  It’s going to be a beautiful night and they have a wonderful patio to sit and enjoy dinner, plus they pour a mean glass of wine.

Monday night dinner

Green bean and shallot ravioli and crispy and easy garlic bread. This pasta is literally Eli’s favorite (I mean he asked for it for his birthday dinner) and has become a family favorite as well. It’s a super easy, week night pantry pasta that you will feel good about serving up to your family. I substitute broccoli rabe/broccolini when organic green beans aren’t in season.

Green bean and shallot ravioli

Garlic Bread slices on a cutting board

Tuesday night dinner

Sandwich night! My family is literally scattered tonight, so I’m making it easy and picking up some ham, turkey and provolone cheese and making sandwiches. I will serve these up with some sliced carrots and red pepper.

Wednesday night dinner

Thai style chicken burgers with cilantro lime mayonnaise, garbanzo and kidney bean salad and roasted asparagus.  These are quickly becoming one of our favorite burgers.

Thai style chicken burger

Garbanzo and kidney bean salad

Asparagus

Thursday night dinner

Broccoli lemon pasta and breadsticks from Trader Joes. We love this super easy one-bowl pasta. It’s a staple pasta for those busy weeknights, and come on, who doesn’t love those breadsticks from Trader Joes. They’re so quick and easy to pop in the oven, and my kids love having their own breadstick to devour!

Broccoli lemon pasta

Friday night dinner

I’m tired of eating out, so I think I might be a rebel and cook this Friday. I’m thinking of making some pizza, maybe another asparagus and gruyere cheese pizza (recipe next week) and I will serve this up with my kale salad with ricotta salata.

Kale salad

Stay tuned Wednesday when I post the recipe for this sweet potato and chipotle soup!

Sweet potato and chipotle soup

Have a blissful Sunday!

With love Jackie
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11 thoughts on “Marin Mama’s Weekly Dinner Menu for May 12th”

  1. I checked out the menu for DJ’s – looks great; don’t think I’ve ever heard about that restaurant. What are your favorite dishes?

    1. Hi Margie. I’m assuming you’re local to the area? We have been going to DJ’s since we moved her 17 years ago and it’s just become one of our favorite spots. The owners are like family and the restaurant is just full of locals and good energy. It’s like that song from Cheers, “Where everybody knows your name, and their always glad you came.” Anyway, our favorite dish is the empress chicken. It’s white meat chicken with snow peas and broccoli. The sauce is just a simple chicken broth or stock. It’s a light and simple dish and very appealing to picky eaters. John loves the mongolian beef, chicken or pork, and he likes it spicy. Their lemon chicken is good, DJ’s fried rice, sizzling rice soup. We also love to start off with either their pot stickers or onion pancake. If you do go, try going in the summer, and request to sit out on the patio. It’s so peaceful back there and is like eating in your own back yard. Let me know if you have any more questions, or if you visit, let me know. Tell them that you know me. I’m known in the restaurant at the Woo hoo girl! 😉

  2. Good morning Jackie! It sounds like you had a beautiful mothers day. You deserve it as one great mama to some great kids! I love the new look of your blog. I had to click around and love the images and pages to get to your recipes, it makes it so much more interactive! Your menu looks delish this week and as always, looking forward to your new recipes. That pizza looks right up our alley – all of us in the house love asparagus and this would be a fun way to eat it.
    So that chocolate bark was the culprit of you staying up last friday night, eh? I am the same way with things with caffeine. I will be up all night if I drink coffee or have anything with caffeine, even after noon time. SOmetimes though, it’s worth it. 🙂
    Creative mode is such a fun place to be – I’m looking forward to seeing more! 🙂 Okay, have a great week and we’ll talk again soon. xoxo, Sharon

    1. Hi Sharon! We had the BEST day. We didn’t do anything particular, but we just spent the whole day together, just the four of us. We biked to our favorite restaurant, DJ’s and sat on the patio. It truly was one of the best days I’ve had in a while and I think it’s because we were all present all day with each other, rather than focusing on all the other stuff that life brings. I hope you had a fabulous day with your two men as well as your moms!
      That pizza rocked! My friend Wendy actually texted me for the recipe, which I texted back to her. She made it and loved it as well. I will post that next week.
      Yes, that is the chocolate bark that had me up till Midnight writing up that crazy comment on your blog 🙂
      Talk to you soon! xoxo, Jackie

  3. Reiko Yamasaki Runquist

    Hi Jackie,
    I love your blog! I actually cooked several things for my family! We actually took a road trip down to SF and we stopped at Larkspar/Marin area. Such a great town, We stopped by at a local brewery in Marin and loved it!

    1. Hi Reiko! Thanks for stopping by and saying hi! I’m glad to hear that you had a great visit to the Bay area as well as my little town in Marin. 🙂 xoxo, Jackie

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