Yes, it’s Tuesday again. If ever there’s a day that dinner is lame, it’s this day. We affectionately call it, “Tuesday Night Special” around here; affectionately is said more with sarcasm than love, at least by me. And so far we have managed to survive this weekly mundane meal for years; which is way too long in my opinion. I don’t know what it is about Tuesday that makes figuring out what to have for dinner so difficult, it’s just another week night. Period. Isn’t it? Am I missing something here? Is it just me? Help!  Sometimes our Tuesday Night Special falls on a Wednesday; but not often.

So here I am, writing this blog post and I’m still not sure exactly what we’re having for dinner. I have some thoughts; I even got a new magazine in the mail the other day. I’m thinking about the Three-Herb Chicken Breast with Mushrooms but that also depends on what I have in my pantry and refrigerator right now. Did I remember to get those mushrooms at the grocery store?

Cooking magazines are so good for helping my imagination fill in the missing pieces for those pesky meals. And I have some missing pieces sometimes, believe me.

But we’ll get back to that…later. Right now I wanted to tell you how I’ve decided to make our Tuesday dinner special; in the real definition of the word. You may have noticed that I started this blog post with a picture of individual blueberry pies, so…

Quite often, I find myself with leftover pie crust and when it happens; my thoughts tend to lean toward somehow including it in the evening meal. Since I do bake for a living, I usually think sweet first, way more often before it occurs to me to even consider a savory option. And since this is Tuesday and as usual I’m not sure what we are having for dinner, I can skip all that and head straight to dessert.

My reasoning for that; EVERYTHING, tastes better when you have a great dessert! It’s true. So, dinner may be special but if we add a little blueberry pie for each person and ….maybe a little scoop of vanilla ice cream, I think dinner may just cross the line over into Special, the real Special!

Sometimes I don’t feel like making individual pies, instead I opt for a more rustic one. Here is a picture of a peach one that I made awhile back.

Many things can become mundane and ordinary if we allow them to. Our meals don’t have to be one of them. With so many options at our grocery stores, or our farmer’s markets, etc., why would we let that happen? I know that I’m certainly ready for some change in our meals – especially on Tuesdays! And I’m speaking to me, okay maybe you too, but all it takes is a little thought and a little planning to make little changes that can have a big impact on the quality of our meals.

And you know, it doesn’t take all that much to make a meal special. I do know this but sometimes (like Tuesday’s) I forget! By adding something as simple as a fresh fruit salsa to the meal occasionally can kick things up. Or you could make a great big salad and serve it with a piece of grilled meat or fish on top. A one-dish meal certainly cuts down on the clean up and who doesn’t appreciate that?

Just promise me this…. Try one thing new this week. See how it goes. If it’s a dismal failure, so what; have fun anyway, get up and try again. If that one change has great results, why not try two new things next week? Whatever it takes to make your families meals special will be worth it.  I promise.