April is known for the ‘Humor Month’ and starts with April’s Fools Day on the 1st, which happened to be Saturday.
I’m a sucker for April’s Fool jokes, and as a kid, I pulled many pranks on my parents. At least, I thought they fell for my jokes. However, I might have lived under the illusion that they actually believed that aliens had kidnaped my sister, owed me 500 DKR for renting my brain and that I had developed a sudden dangerous allergic reaction to eating my vegetables.
April was the second month in an early Roman calendar, but became the fourth when the ancient Romans started using January as the first month.
April is named for the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite.
The name for the month of April originally came for Aprilis which means to open
Our kids associate April with Easter Bunny, chocolate, time off school, and spring is finally here.
Some flowers are starting to peak through the ground, pushing aside dried leaves, and showing their beautiful yellow colors. I’m not much of a botanist, so I refer to them as yellow flowers.
Having Viking Daughters
It is odd and wondrous that our kids are all teenagers now. Despite having kids that soon leave the teenage phase, I still don’t feel that old and see them all as three toddlers. I worry when I can be near them to help them, but I also curse at them when dragging their feet or make silly decisions.
But that is what growing up is all about. Failing builds character, although I want my kids never to fail. So instead, we try to guide them through various challenges and hope they make the right choices.
Sometimes they do not want to listen and get upset when we are too honest with our feedback, but I cannot allow our kids to put themselves in too much debt, and they need to work for their degrees and grades.
In case you did not know, we have two wonderful daughters, and they happen to have birthdays within two weeks of each other. One daughter just turned 19, and the second joins the teenage clan in early April.
Our soon-to-be 13-year-old is stubborn, brilliant, and has a great sense of humor. In addition, she’s a fantastic evolving artist with some extraordinary drawing skills. Sure, I drew when I was a kid, but she’s taking it to the next level.
May the war gods of Valhalla give us the strength to survive our second daughter’s teenage years. She has been looking forward to this day since kindergarten, and has been 18 for the past three years.
Due to Easter and school holidays, she missed out on the in-school birthday surprises, so no one had decorated her locker or shared home-baked goods. As a result, she was visibly upset last year and felt her friends had forgotten her.
A few of her close friends surprised her with a birthday party and sleepover at a friend’s place this past weekend. It was a wonderful surprise clearly visible on her face and mood. They laughed, listened to music, ate snacks, laughed some more, and went to bed late.
We will also host a birthday party for her, with pizza and a trip to the local cinema. Bowling might even be explored, but it depends on how many can attend the event.
Cooking for Easter week
Despite a less-than-joyful week, I am grateful that the kids are off for Easter, and I do not have to prepare too many meals for the family. At least I can somewhat skip the daily lunch operation, hoping the family can fend for themselves in the kitchen jungle.
Also, the other reason is that we are celebrating our 13-year-old daughter all week. Therefore, she can choose what to eat for dinner, which often involves a lot of pasta and perhaps some rice. Such meals are quick, but I must prepare the meat so that we can heat it.
However, it did not stop me from grilling many delicious meat options on the grill and preparing some proteins for the midweek dinners.
- I baked a large tray of spicy queso Friday night for a friend’s birthday party.
- Saturday, I made spiced burgers and baked delicious buns
- Sunday was topped off with excellent wings, steak fries, tender steak, and a nice salad
I’m cooking three proteins covering sea, air, and land animals for the week. We need some variety in protein intake, and shrimp is often a safe option. So, I made an excellent cajun-inspired shrimp and smoked sausage dish, where we must mix in some boiled pasta.
For the bird option, I use chicken and will attempt to make Hawaiian teriyaki thighs served with rice. A simple dish, and we love some thick thighs, and it is quickly made in advance.
The land animal has been selected as the pig. Vikings enjoy pork. It contains a lot of excellent cuts, although it is less healthy than lean beef cuts, and poultry wins the health challenge.
Nevertheless, I made some tender country-style boneless ribs. In all honesty, it is not even ribs but a loin cut that is sliced into ribs-lookalike. It was slow-cooked for almost 3 hours until it was falling apart. I’ll serve it with some excellent creamy grits.
I’ll bake some ciabatta buns for the kids to enjoy for lunches, especially pesto and mozzarella tonight.
Lunch & Dinner
| Lunch | Dinner | |
| Monday | Caesar Salad with grilled chicken | Creamy cajun shrimp and sausage pasta |
| Tuesday | Caesar Salad with grilled chicken | Hawaiian teriyaki chicken with coleslaw |
| Wednesday | Ciabatta with pesto and mozarella | Spinach with corn and pasta |
| Thursday | TBD | Country style ribs with creamy grits |
| Friday | TBD | Country-style ribs with creamy grits |
One day, I might get so organized that I will link the meals below to my recipes. We can only live in hope!
Have a fantastic week, my friends. I hope you enjoy these meal plans. It is much easier to make food in advance, although you must invest several hours preparing meals during the weekend.
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