Mother Love

I love to cook, but I still find it so hard sometimes to just decide.what.to.make.for.dinner.

It’s such an easy task, really…I mean, it’s just food and recipes and just pick something and go with it already, woman! But sometimes it’s hard to decide…or is it just me?? I’m always shooting for a balance between having those well-loved meals (burrito bowls! soup + bread! meatballs + veg!) and branching out to try something new. I typically try to menu plan at least a few days in advance, because I’m a list-making-plan-loving-type-A kind of person. If I’m doing really good, I do a whole week at time, but that generally doesn’t quite happen. We live fifteen minutes from the nearest grocery store, so I can’t be running into town every day to pick up ingredients for dinner. And plus, planning out what we’ll be having helps me be efficient and mindful when I do go into town for groceries, instead of just throwing a bunch of things into the cart and hoping to use them up somehow. I’m a chronic over-shopper in the grocery store, so a set menu list and plan is pretty essential for me if I don’t want to end up spending our life savings at Wegman’s or Aldi’s or Trader Joes. #foodie

Lately, I’ve been challenging myself to make a wider variety of things, and it’s been fun. I’ve actually found that the more I try out new things, the easier it is to be creative and cook with variety. A few things we’ve had lately that have been major winners are these Indian-spiced chicken burgers, these braised short ribs, and these chicken lettuce wraps. All of these are recipes worthy of being cooked again and again!

Here are some other meal ideas to spark your creativity::

+ Chopped Chicken Sesame Noodle Bowl – asian food will have my heart always + forever

+ Asiago Stuffed Chicken Breast – chicken + cheese are such a perfect pairing

+ Sweet Potato Gnocchi – i’m not a huge italian fan actually, but i had some house-made gnocchi at a fancy restaurant a few months ago and it has haunted me ever since…it’s so pillowy!

+ Farmer’s Breakfast Skillet – we like having variations of this meal for dinner

+ Chicken & Wild Rice Bake – a perfect winter evening meal…

+ Greek Braised Green Beans – …with this on the side

+ Penne Pasta with Peppers & Bacon – another pasta dish because it looks super yum

What about you: do you menu plan or wing it? What are some of your favorite well-loved meals?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

1. My new favorite breakfast…apple cinnamon steel cut oats cooked overnight in the crock pot. Waking up to a hot and ready breakfast is the best!
2. A little arm workout to get those arms ready for all the baby carrying coming up.
3. Crocheting and episodes of Chopped…two of my favorites leisure activities.
4. Ben got our baby room changing table painted + hung this print, and I love this little corner so much.
5. White is such a nice color and I’m not even tired of the snow yet. #southerner
6. Sunday morning tomato basil quiche with dollops of herb-y cream cheese (a brilliant trick I learned from this friend).
7. We cooked up some short ribs for lunch, and they were so yummy I didn’t want to stop eating them.
8. Baby love.

+ + +

It’s amazing how fast a week goes by, and especially when I stop and think about how many we have left before baby comes (seven! seven! SEVEN!). And of course, babies come when they come so it might be fewer weeks or more weeks, but still…not too many of these baby-free weekends left. I’m ok with that.

Our weekend was once again house work and baby room projects. I decided to launder the baby clothes I’ve collected so far, and while it might be a tad early for that, I just felt like getting them ready. Ben worked on painting our changing table and crib, and was able to get them almost finished before running out of paint. I’m not a decorator by any means, but I’ve actually had fun envisioning our baby room and getting things together for it. It’s a lot of white, which is the easiest thing for me to use in home decor. I’m excited to get it all finished and put together here soon!

We went to a fundraiser dinner event on Saturday evening, which was so super fun. The meal was spot-on (seconds for this preggy woman) and the entertainment (this!) was so funny that it made my stomach and face hurt so bad.

Sunday was our norm…eating and sleeping and reading and relaxing. I love Sundays so much, just a quiet day at home with Ben together until our church at five pm. We often go for a walk together in the afternoon, but with the bitter cold and snow covered ground, we haven’t done that for a while. So we just stay in these days with books and naps and sometimes a movie, ooooooor I make him watch cooking shows with me, hehe.

Five things:
+ eating this
+ love this
+ wishing for this
+ glad to know this
+ purchased this (this shop has offered a 20% discount code to Beautiful Undefined readers! such a sweet gesture, so take advantage of it while it lasts :: use the code Beautiful20 at checkout to receive the discount :: code good through 5.20.15)

What about you: what is your favorite leisure weekend activity?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!