April 15, 2023

WEEKLY MENU 04.16.23

Celebrating the EARTH during the Weekly Menu 04.16.23 (And every day, really.)

Earth Day 2023 is on Saturday during the Weekly Menu 04.16.23! Of course, we should be celebrating every day, but it’s always worth a reminder. Every year on April 22nd, ever since 1970, is Earth Day. Does 1970 not seem that long ago to you, too? It was 53 years ago. And it was the start of the modern Environmental Movement.

Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans — at the time, 10% of the total population of the United States — to take to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment and there were massive coast-to-coast rallies in cities, towns, and communities.
Earthday.org

The date was originally chosen because it started on college campuses across the country: this weekday was between Spring Break and Final Exams.

Bert works in the scrap metal industry – they call themselves the original recyclers – and when we first started dating, he was tasked with manning a booth at the zoo, directly in front of the elephants. Apparently they were doing what elephants do (we checked with the zoo guy) and helping each other out with a touch of constipation, if you will. Those trunks are multi-taskers. EEEEEK! I’ve never been quite the same. The boys (who were barely twinkles in our eyes at that point) would have loved it. Sorry about the visual.

So that was the first Earth Day I remember.

It has grown and grown, and it hits beautiful Erieland at exactly the right time of the year: we’re Zone 5 or 6, which means our growing season, on average, is May 20th to October 29th. It’s supposed to be a beautiful 75 degrees here today, but only 40 degrees with a possibility of snow on Monday, so that tracks. So we can plan on Earth Day, but we can’t plant on Earth Day.

What can we do to celebrate? There are 31 fabulous ideas, including learning and reading about the environment at

31 Ideas to Meaningfully Celebrate Earth Day 2023

Here’s some of my favorites (that we can do in our Zone)

Clean up litter in your community
Restore nature in your area
Make small lifestyle changes that benefit the planet
Shop sustainably
Host a clothing swap in your community
Go car-free for the day (it’s on Saturday, so this is doable!)
Go Meatless one day a week
Learn, learn, learn!

How is Earth Day 2023 impacting the Weekly Menu 04.16.23? First of all, we’re making these darling, super kid friendly cookies:

Spring clean up continues. We’re not doing a clothing swap, but the Salvation Army is happy to see us coming. And we are going meatless on Earth Day!

What else is for Eats on the Weekly Menu 04.16.23?

This week is very special for reasons other than Earth Day. It also marks the birthdays of two of our boysies. Yep – two of them. The very best day of the OG Baby Boys life (his second birthday) was followed two days later by the day he stopped being an only: our betwixt and between Baby Boy was born!

Planning wise, it was not ideal, and it means a lot of cake this week. Full disclosure: neither of their birthdays is going to be celebrated at home, except for the cake and ice cream. The OG Baby Boy always has a fabulous Paula Deen recipe for Coconut Poke Cake, and D loves himself some cookie cake: basically Toll House Cookies in a pan, frosted expertly.

In case you were wondering, Baby Boy goes for a triple chocolate cake – a three layer chocolate cake with chocolate chips inside, frosted with a double recipe of chocolate fudge icing, topped with shaved chocolate on top.

It’s a good thing I love baking.

We’ve got a fabulous pork loin on the menu Sunday. The original recipe calls for brussels sprouts, which no one but me will touch, so I’m subbing in new potatoes. I might roast some BS on the side. (Ha!) We’re going to start out the week with the Earth Day Cookies so we can spread out the baking love throughout the week.

The plan for Tuesday is chicken burrito bowls, although, as I said, we won’t be eating them here. And Wednesday is a family friendly (and SUPER easy) sheet pan dinner.

Thursday is Baked Ziti, which D would love if we were, you know, eating at home. And Friday is burgers, because we need to come down from all the eating out.