The last week of school is almost as hectic as the first week of school. Instead of this looming sense of “we’ve got all school year to figure it out”, there’s this sense of “holy crow, if it doesn’t get done now, it never will!!”, which can be a little overwhelming.
Or a lot overwhelming. This week was a lot overwhelming. By Wednesday night I’d had quite enough, so I decided that I was giving myself (courtesy of MomCentral) a break Thursday night for dinner.
We packed up the kids and headed out to Noodles & Company at the newest outdoor shopping center in Central Indiana. I was excited that not only were there many menu choices, but that the choices spanned continents. I was able to have Indonesian Peanut Saute (yum! more yum!), hubby was able to have Italian, and the kids, well the kids weren’t going to venture out past mac and cheese. I was ok with that–I got to eat Peanut Saute while everyone else in my family was happily eating what they like as well.
Also? I didn’t have to do the dishes. And? Someone else cooked my meal. And? The service was quick so the four of us actually sat at the table all together to eat without chaos. We had a great meal, let the kids play at the playground across from the restaurant, and made it home with plenty of time to spare before bath time. It was a great weeknight excursion (which is saying something, because quite often excursions on school nights are anything but great).
Honestly, part of this review is supposed to include my kids eating vegetables while we were at Noodles & Company. That wasn’t going to happen, unless veggies were added to the cheese sauce discretely. Children with a more diverse palate would probably have no problem with the veggies found in most of the menu items, but my kids weren’t going to stray far from mac and cheese. It’s something I plan on working on over the summer–getting them to at least put more vegetables to their lips.
Check out all of the variations available at http://www.noodles.com/ surely by the end of the summer they will pick something besides mac and cheese, right? New for summer is an Asparagus & Lemon Linguine dish which sounds divine (it wasn’t available the night we went).
Overall, we had a great family night out–I’m so glad that Noodles & Company did the cooking for me Thursday night!
“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central (www.momcentral.com) on behalf of Noodles & Company and received five Noodles & Company bowl cards to facilitate my review. Mom Central also sent me a thank-you gift certificate.”