Total 180 from last week–I’m really liking my dinner plan this week. Maybe it’s 11:30 PM on Sunday night and I’m still working on it, but it’s not with the same sense of duty and rush with which I put together the plan a week ago. When it comes down to it, I write this blog because I love to cook–it just gives me a sense of purpose when I produce something in the kitchen that makes people happy and, in most cases, builds up their health (hence: “happy, healthy, homemade”). This is my outlet to share anything and everything related to that, but it can be hard work sometimes! The stress can really build up as I try to figure out what I’m going to make on what night, when I’m going to photograph it, race for natural light when the cooking/photographing process takes twice as long as I thought, and then write an educational and entertaining blog post in which to share the recipe a day or two later. It can suck the creativity right out of me, but it’s supposed to be a creative process–frustrating!
As I thought about this ironic little scenario all weekend, I’m determined to slow down and enjoy the process. Even when there are a million (or close) things on my figurative plate, I want to fully immerse myself in the task at hand until it’s done. Maybe I end up with only two things done, but better to do two wholeheartedly than 13 with the sole goal of completion.
We’ll be eating from the freezer a couple nights this week. One of those nights (the lentil soup) is a recipe from my eCookbook! It’s still available simply by subscribing for email updates that go out once a week with my new blog posts. None of that getting an email every time I post something shenanagans. Unless you want that, in which case you can edit your subscription preferences. Anyway, the soup is broth based, but it’s far from your typical brown mushy lentil soup concoction. It features firm, tiny French green lentils that cook super quick, a deep, earthy mushroom flavor base, and crispy, barely cooked asparagus pieces (clearly I’m not a fan of mushy things in my soup). On top of that soup recipe, the eBook also includes three other dinners that are 100% weeknight tested, plus both PDF and Google Sheets format shopping lists. And it provides a bonus shopping list to take each recipe one step further if you’re interested in learning some new techniques, have extra time, or just prefer every single component of your dish to be homemade with zero shortcuts. So much to love.
- Monday: Leftover jasmine rice and West African Peanut Soup (made last Thursday instead of the quinoa and vegetable soup)
- Tuesday: Roux-less bacon mac and cheese with thick green chili sauce (testing for a post!)
- Wednesday: Lentil and asparagus soup with a side of scrambled eggs
- Thursday: Cheesy squash and black bean hot dish with roasted broccoli (from the freezer)
- Friday: Date night! TBD if we’re going out or cooking in.
If you’re still reading and interested, just a couple more tidbits from my weekend. Steve and I drove SIX POINT FIVE HOURS EACH WAY to Buffalo, NY because…we love our friends and they were getting married. Such a cute and crafty orange and gray themed reception–bright flowers, the release of the couple’s own home brew with labels to fit the color scheme, and charming reception room with exposed brick and lots of natural light, just to name a few of the details.
Since we had some free time, we drove up to Niagara Falls–my first time in Canada! We also checked out Fort Niagara State Park, where I was scolded for spending approximately 25% of our time at a historic site taking photos of a vegetable garden. In my defense, it was some of the best looking chard I’ve ever seen, right on the coast (shore?) of Lake Ontario. It almost gave me the motivation to start a garden. And the fort part was also pretty fascinating to see, even to someone like me who’s not all that interested in history. Steve even taught me why the floor of the little outpost towers were sloped. It is gross and I won’t share it here, but I’m sure your friendly local history buff would be happy to enlighten you.
By the end of the weekend I finally managed to post the recipe for Portobello Fresca Melts, a simple, meatless dish that my mom shared with me. Somehow I managed not to overcomplicate her original recipe, so throw it into your pool of back-to-school dinners if you love mushrooms as much as I do.
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