Food. All of Life is Planning for, Shopping for, and Making Food

Once again it comes down to food. Because no matter what else is going on in our lives, there are 5 people in this house and we all have to eat.

And there are days where family dinners are the only time we are all sitting face to face and interacting with one another. In the mornings we're all generally around, but it's more of a train station with people gathering various items to go to various places. In the afternoons, Cora gets some time with me since she visits my home office after she gets out of school at 3, but the big kids get out at 4:30 and basically go straight to swimming or soccer or theater rehearsal or whatever their interests demand that day.

But at 7:32, exactly 2 minutes after Coach James and whichever kids are swimming that day walk in the door from practice, we all sit down to a family dinner for the next 30 minutes. No distractions, no devices, no TV (never ever; I feel passionately about this)- just food and conversation, and our continued attempts to teach our children table manners ("Landon, it's 'bring the food to you, not bring your face to the food!!' [zomg/sigh]").

It is sacred and meal planning makes it easy- I make the recipe and shopping list on Saturday, James does the shopping on Sunday, and I cook the things during the week. If I know what's coming, I don't have to think about it and I'm not tempted to call James and say "let's just go out."

And so, even though a million other things are happening, here is the only thing I've managed to blog: our menu from last week, this week, and the one for the week after that.

Mon, Jan. 24: French Dip Sandwiches (crockpot; AMAZING), oven baked fries, Brussels & Kale Caesar Salad (this salad blew me away last week- the dressing is incredible and the croutons cannot be described with words; I want to make it every day forever).
Tues, Jan. 25: Crockpot Chicken Taco Soup (this was GREAT and so easy, it was immediately requested again).
Wed, Jan. 26: Pasties! I made a double batch last time just to give me a break one random midweek night.
Thurs, Jan. 27: Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup (forever favorite; James would eat this every day)
Fri, Jan. 28: Italian Style Turkey Penne Toss (we didn't get to have this last week and James has a meet on Saturday, so pasta is always welcome).
Sat, Jan. 29: James will be at his meet and Landon will be at a friend's, so the girls and I are having takeout Thai on the couch with a dance movie of some sort.
Sun, Jan. 30: Millionaire Gnocchi (I've been wanting to make this since Lindsey posted it), probably more Kale Caesar Salad with the magical dressing.

Mon, Jan. 31: Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuits (something cozy to close out January and kick off the week ahead).
Tues, Feb. 1: Greek Pasta Salad, Naan, Tzatziki.
Wed, Feb. 2: Doritos Taco Salad.
Thurs, Feb. 3: Baked Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad.
Fri, Feb. 4: Pizza - homemade or ordered will depend on the week.
Sat, Feb. 5: Out for a fancy dinner after HAMILTON! The kids' Christmas present from us this year, we have amazing seats and know every word to every song and we are SO EXCITED.
Sun, Feb. 6: Thai Crunch Salad with Peanut Dressing

Mon, Feb. 7: Tuscan Chicken in Parmesan Cream Sauce, mashed potatoes, side salad.
Tues, Feb. 8: Tuna Melts, chips, fruit.
Wed, Feb. 9: Roasted Tomato Puttanesca, salad.
Thurs, Feb. 10: Ground Beef Tacos, mexican rice, black beans, toppings.
Fri, Feb. 11: Claire has her final Cotillion dance, which means a night of general social whirlwinding and eating whatever whenever it makes sense (which probably involves pizza).
Sat, Feb. 12: Hashbrown Potato Cheese Soup
Sun, Feb. 13: Salmon, roasted potatoes, roasted carrots.

Beyond the constant cycle of planning meals, shopping for meals, cooking the meals, and cleaning the meals (this life phase of kids doing the dishes, emptying the dishwasher, and wiping the table is my favorite life phase), life is quite wonderful.

I did a boudior photo shoot and it's the best most empowering thing I've ever done in my whole life and I cannot recommend it more. My friend Emily King did my session and if you're in DFW I HIGHLY recommend her. It was the most fun I've had in a long time. (Another friend did my makeup; ensemble obviously not pictured.)

Maggie celebrated her 3rd adoptiversary with a puppacino and extra long naps.

I continue to use the outfits Bonnie made for me anytime I have to leave the house and I'm flummoxed by an ensemble that doesn't involve pj pants.

We're redecorating our TV room to become my study because I've bene working in a corner of our bedroom for nearly 2 years and can no longer pretend this is a temporary arrangement. It's a work in progress, but after I spent a day emptying out all our old bookcases, James and I went out for a fancy dinner and it was delicious and wonderful.

And finally, a few weeks ago was the one year anniversary of my Grandma Jo's death. I wore the ring I inherited from her every day that week, even when I was just at home typing in my bedroom, and thought of her so often.

And while I was sad, everytime the sparkles of her birthstone caught my eye, it made me smile and remember to buy the good stuff and wear it often, use the good china, speak your mind, and never question the need for another accessory. May we all leave such a legacy behind.

Happy almost-February to you all.

January 3-23 Dinner Plan (and Lunches!)

2022 is here and I have been cooking all the things! I treated myself to a new cookbook for the month and it has provided much inspiration. Below is our menu from last week and the weeks ahead. Some of the recipes I can't link to because they're in book, but I wrote one out below because it was AMAZING. Bon appétit!

Monday (Jan. 3rd): Chicken Enchiladas (I made this up with shredded chicken, monterrey jack cheese, and verde enchilada sauce), Mexican Rice, Black Beans
Tuesday: Summer Chicken Soup (forever a fave, I skip the zucchini and just add a bag of frozen mixed vegetables towards the end).
Wednesday: I went to see Dear Evan Hansen at Bass Performance Hall! The family had pasta with meat sauce.
Thursday: French Onion Beef Stew (from The Comfortable Kitchen cookbook), Salad, Bread
Friday: Mexican Rice (from my grandma; written out below), Toppings
Saturday: Harvest Salad with Miso Dressing (The Comfortable Kitchen; copied below). Quite possibly the best salad I've EVER made. James added grilled chicken because he had a meet the next day, but it didn't need a thing.
Sunday: Pappardelle with Bolognese Sauce, Salad, Garlic Bread

Dear Evan Hansen outfit!
It is still so exciting everytime I leave the house

Monday (Jan. 10th): Chicken Tortilla Soup
Tuesday: Sheet Pan Kielbasa with Mustard Vinaigrette (The Comfortable Kitchen)
Wednesday: Mediterranean Turkey Meatball Bowls, Tzatziki, Pita, Veggies
Thursday: Crockpot BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, Chips, Fruit
Friday: Out! James and I are hosts for Cotillion, so we'll be grabbing food after watching a bunch of 6th graders learn some new square dances.
Saturday: Probably going out after the kids' swim meet outside of Dallas that afternoon.
Sunday: BBQ Sheet Pan Ribs (The Comfortable Kitchen), Potato Salad, Fruit

Monday (Jan. 17th): Italian Beef Sandwiches or Foil Pack French Dip Sandwiches, Brussels & Kale Caesar Salad
Tuesday: Vegetable Noodle Soup
Wednesday: Coq Au Vin with extra carrots, Mashed Potatoes.
Thursday: Italian Style Turkey Penne Toss, Salad
Friday: Oven Jambalaya, Sauteed Green Beans, Cornbread
Saturday: Date night! Part of James's Christmas present to me was some new insane fancy shoes and reservations at a few restaurants we've been wanting to go to but haven't made it yet spread throughout the year. This time we're hitting up Lonesome Dove and I can't wait!
Sunday: Spaghetti with Crispy Zucchini, Salad

Lunches
(I'm trying to make big batches of fun salad fixings on Monday and then assemble them throughout the week. These are all great.)
Autumn Glow Salad with lemon dressing
Beet and Goat Cheese Salad
Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
One Pan Farro with Tomatoes
Roasted Cauliflower and Quinoa Salad

Mexican Rice
(From my Grandma Mary's next door neighbor when they lived on base in Spain)

1 lb. ground beef (or turkey), browned with diced onion and garlic
1 small can tomato paste
1 regular can tomato sauce
1 can water (from tomato sauce can)
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
(1-2 tsp. sugar; I never add it, but it's in the original recipe)
1 cup cooked rice (I use the bags of frozen brown rice from Trader Joe's, microwaved just before adding to pot at the end.)

1. Brown beef with onion and garlic, drain fat.
2. Add rest of ingredients except rice, simmer for 20+ minutes (it's better the longer it goes).
3. Before serving, add the cooked rice, stir to heat through.
4. Top with shredded cheese, lettuce, diced tomato, sliced olives, avocado, etc. Fritos or tortilla chips on top are also a must.

Harvest Salad with Miso Dressing
(From The Comfortable Kitchen cookbook by Alex Snodgrass, p. 43)

Sweet Potatoes
1.5 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, thiny sliced
2 Tbl olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
1.5 Tbl white miso
2 garlic cloves, grated
2 Tbl apple cider vinegar
2 Tbl freshly squeezed lemon juice
Pinch of salt and pepper

Salad
5 cups curly kale, deribbed, thinly sliced
1 large apple, cored, cut into 1" pieces
2 cups cooked wild rice
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
1/2 cup lightly salted roasted pistachios

Steps:
1. Cook the sweet potatoes: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Toss the sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and arrange on sheet pan. Roast until potatoes are tender and golden brown on the edges, about 22-25 minutes.
2. Make the dressing: Whisk all ingredients together until well combined (I put them all in a mason jar and shake vigorously).
3. Assemble the salad: When there are about 10 minutes left on the sweet potato cook time, add the kale to a large bowl with the dressing and toss until well combined. Add the other ingredients, toss well. When the sweet potatoes are still warm, add to salad and toss gently once more.

Right Now

I'm hanging out with our broken-armed child while her siblings are at swim practice.

My parents sent her an Amazon gift card so we're watching all the movies from my childhood, currently Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which has some terribly misogynistic messaging, but also great dance scenes and Jane Powell. In one of the first scenes when Adam brings Milly to the homestead and tells her to get dinner ready, Cora turned to me absolutely outraged, "he's not going to help?!! Mom!!" Her favorite part so far is when Milly hits all their hands with a spoon. Will be interesting to explain the stealing of the women and the Stockholm syndrome and marriages that result at the end. Ah beloved childhood classics!

Last Saturday, after a week full of missing all the fun things and being incredibly cheerful about it, I took her to get her first pedicure. And let me tell you, she is a FAN.

I've mostly adjusted to my new shorter hair. The first time I washed it was a shock, but it dries so quickly that I've actually dried it (almost) every day! I'm almost like a real grown up!

Landon had his first middle school dance and it was apparently very fun, though he did NOT dance. James, who went to all-boys private schools his whole life was shocked at his failure to capitalize on an opportunity to mingle with girls, but Landon was like eh, I see them everyday.

Claire has her next dance next Friday and cannot WAIT.

The kids continue to have sleepovers every Friday and Saturday night (and this past Thursday and this Sunday night thanks to a short Fall break) and I realized I didn't have a picture of this regular occurence that is just one of my favorite things.

Life continues to be weird and normal. I work from home, Cora visits me every day when she gets home from school and tells me about her day and sings to the cat. And then she goes to eat a snack and play with her horses or draw pictures and I go back to my legal work and this is normal now.

It's October 9th and fall simply refuses to come. Maggie desperately wants to wear her seasonal sweaters, but has to make due with a tutu instead because it's too hot for anything else.

I keep trying to take her on walks because exercise is good for us, but she just wants to sit in the yard and look pretty.

Meanwhile Milo has promoted himself to my supervisor and spent all day Thursday micromanaging my work.

He has very high standards.

And apparently I was not meeting them.

Sorry Milo, I'll try harder next week. Meanwhile we're still earnestly pretending fall is here. We made Trader Joe's haunted cookie houses.

And yesterday we used the kids' school holiday for our favorite fall tradition - the Arboretum Pumpkin Village! With the traditional stop at Tacodeli for 18 tacos (actual count) which were devoured in mere minutes.

We've been going to the pumpkin village since 2013 when I was 8 months pregnant with Cora.

The kids keep getting bigger, but their love of a good pumpkin house remains the same.

As does their penchant for sticking close together in their little trio.

A kidpack if you will.

This year's theme was Bugtopia and they did a great job.

Nothing like sweating through your bra in 96 degrees surrounded by pumpkins. Fall in Texas! So crisp and refreshing.

Cora obviously followed her doctor's directions and walked at a safe and moderate pace.

Absolutely no running through hedges without looking where she's going.

That would be unsafe.

The kids solved the riddle of the children's garden maze, and were JUST as excited about it as they were last year.

Any time we go anywhere I get home and realize I have 67 pictures of the three of them together taken from behind where I'm strolling with James. And I just love them. Because that's generally our view the whole time we're anywhere - the three of them racing ahead to enthusiastically explore all the things, and James and I holding hands and walking like normal people behind them, smiling at their exclamations over everyday things they've probably seen before.

It's the best.

And now, food!

Sat: Chicken Enchilada Chili, toppings.
Sun: Driving to San Antonio and back to visit the grandparents, so probably stopping on the way home.
Mon: Sheet Pan Roasted Veggies and Sausage (I use that recipe as a base with chicken sausage and change up the veggies), Garlic Parmesan Orzo.
Tues: Black Bean Tortilla Pie (family recipe), side salad.
Wed: Fettucini with prosciutto and peas.
Thurs: White Bean Soup, bread.
Fri: Homemade Pizza.
Sat: Lasagna Soup, bread, side salad.
Sun: Out for a fancy family dinner to celebrate James's 40th birthday!!!
Mon: Mississippi Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Carrots, Rolls (James's chosen birthday meal).
Tues: Chicken Verde Enchiladas, Mexican Rice, Black Beans.
Wed: Cauliflower Soup, bread.
Thurs: Pasta with Vodka Sauce
Fri: Date night!

Maggie hopes you have the very best week ahead.

Fat Cats, Tiny Babies, and All the Food

Okay another quick break from our vacation and back to everyday life. This past week was #2 for back to school and I can't believe I haven't gotten a call yet to quarantine one or more of my children. It seems inevitable so I'm just bracing myself for impact. Speaking of impact we still don't have a nanny and I feel like I'm just making it day by day. Wednesday is the worst when Landon has swimming at 5, Cora has soccer at 6, and Claire has volleyball at 7 all in different parts of DFW, but thanks to friends and teammates (and a crock pot!) we made it work. One week at a time...

Meanwhile, this was the view behind me late Tuesday night while I was working on a legal memo and every child needed to be near me too. And all the pets, though they scattered themselves about the floor and weren't pictured.

Honestly, I love when we're all in the same space. And while I look forward to having a nanny again one day, I do love it when this girl bursts into the house at 3 p.m. each day and throws open my bedroom office door to tell me how AMAZING her day was. She always grabs at least one animal on the way. She is such a little infusion of joy.

Meanwhile, in another part of the house, while we were all sleeping and/or working on legal memos, a certain extra fluffy cat was sneaking into the pantry and using his tiny vampire teeth to open a whole in a spare bag of food to make himself an all-hours kibble buffet.

We didn't catch him until Wednesday evening when we noticed he wasn't yelling at us when his food bowl was empty and he seemed to be walking into the pantry a lot.

Obviously, he maintained his innocence while keeping a constant vigil by the suddenly always-closed pantry door to catch the thief.

On Thursday afternoon I sent our after-school schedule into complete chaos and drove to Houston to take my mom to her back procedure Friday morning. My mom has been in near-constant back pain since July 4th and finally got into a neurologist for a spinal injection. My dad had a golf tournament and I was able to be there, so off I went to drive my poor broken mama to the hospital where she walked up to the pre-op area at 7:30 a.m. in heels, a long dress, and full makeup, because of course.

The procedure went very well and we're really hoping for some relief for her, particularly after what has been a very rough start to retirement with her broken arm, skin cancer and facial reconstruction surgery, and now her back. Fingers crossed for brighter days ahead.

The visit to Houston also meant I got to meet my brand new niece and nephew!

Are they not the most perfect teeny tiny little babies?

I stayed at my brother's house the next night and just loved snuggling these little nuggets. I made food for the adults, fed milk to tiny babies, said "oh big stretch!" every time they did a big stretch, and tried to take a walk with them only to remember that Houston in August is mosquitos and misery so we turned back around and decided some days it's okay to not take any steps at all. The babies agreed and we all did more stretches.

My mom came over on Saturday and we hung out, exchanging babies and watching Top Chef while we sent my brother and sister-in-law to nap and otherwise get a little break.

I can't believe my baby brother has two tiny babies of his own.

My kids cannot WAIT to meet their cousins and everyone is glad they will be two tiny babies to share because we all know Landon will hog one.

My first nephew! Our family is bookended by boys- Landon born in 2007, then six girls, and then Wade, 4 minutes after Zoe in 2021.

I drove back last night so I could have today to sleep in, be with my family, meal plan, teach barre, and otherwise laze about the house. We watched Cruella, which we thoroughly enjoyed, took Maggie on two family walks, and I recorded a short yoga flow for Gigi to start moving her back a bit more. It was a good Sunday and we're as ready as we can be for the week ahead!

My emotional support bulldog stands ready for snuggles if you need them. Milo will cuddle for kibbles and Moose is ignoring your texts.

And finally, food!

Sun: Tofu and Brown Rice Lettuce Wraps, potstickers (frozen from TJ's). (This was SO GOOD; super fast, filling, and perfect. We skipped the spicy mayo and crispy onion and added shredded carrot and extra sauce. You'll see this in my regular busy midweek dinner rotation for sure)
Mon: Spaghetti with Crispy Zucchini (SO GOOD. We loved it and James and I stood over the stove eating the rest of the zucchini crispies like it was a contest to see who could finish first)
Tues: Crispy Baked Beef and Black Bean Tacos, Mexican Rice
Wed: Crockpot Red Beans and Rice
Thurs: Tuna Melts, Chips, Fruit
Fri: 16th wedding anniversary! James and I are going out for a fancy dinner while the kids eat blue box mac and cheese and consider themselves the fancy ones
Sat: Shrimp Boil at a friend's, I'm bringing Seven Layer Magic Bars and Sopapilla Chesecake for dessert.
Sun: Steak Salad
Mon: Chicken Meatballs with Peppers and Orzo
Tues: Oven Jambalaya (I made this for my brother before I left and now I'm craving it for us!)
Wed: Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup, bread
Thurs: Greek Turkey Rice Skillet, Naan, Tzatziki, extra veggies on the side
Fri: Homemade Pizzas