RIP

Our meals have been pretty sad lately, but I am accepting that this might just be a season. Whether it was motherhood or the pandemic that led to the death of finding joy in preparing food, I won't ever know. At this point, the best thing I can do is accept the reality, hope that it's just for a season, and create room in my life for other more satisfying creative outlets.

Not only does the New Lisa tolerate Tupperware, she also actually scrubs toilets and has been known to swipe at a baseboard with a rag every once in a while

I share this here in case any of you are struggling with boring dinner rotations or lack of novelty around the dinner table. You're not alone.

Without further ado, here is our ultra-boring dinner schedule we followed surprisingly religiously for about a couple months this winter. 

Perhaps a more fun way to think of this is as a capsule meal plan. Like, we haven't given up entirely on life.

Saturday: take-out (usually Mexican or Vietnamese) -- this is a new addition, and it's been super nice (albeit counter intuitive) to pair grocery shopping day with take-out
Sunday: sheet pan chicken OR pork chops and kale

Monday: tacos OR spaghetti (we got 1/4 cow last fall and it helps to just have one day a week I need to remember to defrost meat)

Tuesday: leftovers

Wednesday: xuxu soup OR cheater hainanese chicken

Thursday: leftovers -- pre-pandemic we rarely had leftovers night; now it's twice a week and I'm pleasantly surprised to find out I haven't (actually) died from this.

Friday: spam and egg w/ rice and cauliflower

(The overall concept of a fixed meal plan is a marriage of Kendra Adachi's "Decide Once" principle to reduce decision fatigue, and Zombie Mode, which is a schedule that the Alive version of yourself writes for yourself on the days you feel dead.)

In the past couple weeks I've definitely started to feel a slight desire to cook other things (er, more precisely, to eat other things). But instead of switching up the whole schedule--because the schedule has helped create more sanity for me--I'm slowly introducing the option to try something different on a Wednesday night (e.g., cast-iron roasted chicken). This seems to strike the right balance between routine and novelty for me in this season.

I'm thinking that when it's actually spring, I will have a mostly different meal plan (capsule?) for the week, and possibly with more free choice days. In the meantime, this has been serving us decently well.

P.S. Shockingly, we have been following our nmemonic breakfast schedule for five years (!!!), with only one change. On Tuesdays we have tater tots and scrambled eggs. 

Speaking of

[Alternate title: 15 things on the 15th, (More than) a few randoms]

1. What we're eating this week:

bún / sunday night stew

2. A favorite meal from last week: Chinese-inspired beef and pork bone soup with lotus root, shiitake mushroom, goji berries, and red dates. I didn't expect at this point in my life to be cooking Asian food 80-90% of the time (and of that, mostly Chinese/Vietnamese, sorry David!), but it's one of those things where I've learned that there's way less drama at the table when we eat these foods. It's weird because I don't feel like I technically even know how to cook Asian food. (I learned it by eating, and when I learned to cook I didn't learn Asian food.) When I do feel in flow, it's cool to know that it's somehow just in my blood and also in my brain, the repetition of it hitting my taste buds on an almost-daily basis for 18 years (my mom is an amazing cook, of all different cuisines, too). I still have a LOT to learn.

3. Speaking of mothers, and in light of Mother's Day last weekend, I found something I made twenty years ago.

When I called her to show her, she laughed and said, "Why do you have this and not me?"

4. Re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird... 'nuff said.

5. My pattern of thin slices of joy is: time with people, sunshine, good food/drink, thifting, good conversation.

5b. We had a picnic on the deck this Saturday and we realized our meals are especially happy when they are a hybrid between take-out and home-made. This was pizza and steak, and the day before we brought over take-out roast duck and chicken wings with home-made cabbage, salad, and rice to a family's move.

Not pictured: me taking the photo, Theo searching for worms 

6. Speaking of slimy things, I've successfully brewed my first really good batch of kombucha. Let a sista know if you'd like a SCOBY!

7. This simple matchstick solution has been bringing me disproportionate amounts of joy. I've made three or four of them already out of old votive holders or baby food jars and I can't get over how amazing it is.

We have been loving candles here... I don't know why it took me so long to realize that candles can take a day from gloomy to cozy! Tip: TJMaxx seems to have a great selection and for cheap.

8. Speaking of making the storage of things look pretty, I've been trying to do a lot of that in the house lately. Last-year-me dismissed the Nate Berkuss method of taking the labels off of things, but this-year-me is all about this. A friend was telling me about a family member who will only accept wooden toys in her house, which led her to call them, jokingly, "high-end granola." I laughed, but then later I was, like, that's what I want to be! (Insert thinking emoji.) When I told David that story, he said, "granola is expensive!" Indeed, it is.

9. Speaking of granola, I need to make a batch. Molly's No. 5 is the best, but I need to leave out nuts for the baby, so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do yet. Even if I hadn't mention #8 above, I've been thinking about granola and other breakfast items because I need more breakfast ideas. I've been avoiding eggs and also nuts, so my protein choices feel limited. We've been eating more sausage for breakfast but I need a little more variety so I've been thinking about prepping grain bowls (like this) or other savory meals (like this) that I can have in the AM - essentially, eating lunch or dinner for breakfast. If anyone has ideas for non-sweet breakfasts that don't involve eggs, I'm all ears!

10. Speaking of oats, have you ever had baked oatmeal? It was better than expected. One person called it the bread pudding of oatmeal, and I know not everyone likes bread pudding, but thinking about it that way made me like this even more.

11. An inspiring typography video of Ira Glass that could be applied to any creative endeavor / learning curve.

12. Princess Kate + vulnerability + social media + mental health awareness

13. A sweet home tour of a blogger I've been following for a while.

14. Speaking of homes, I'm taking The Nester's decorating class right now and my head is buzzing with ideas. It's hard to slow down and know that this just takes time.

15. David and I had a great conversation about rest, quality over quantity, spiritual wealth, and contentedness. What rhythms help you (and your families, if applicable) balance achievement and rest?

One hundred

Here are my "thin slices of joy" from the last week:

1 | visiting with an old friend from out of town (Hi Molly!)
2 | eating homemade whole wheat chocolate chip muffins with the kids on the front deck for a breakfast picnic; having dinner with neighbors
3 | aforementioned neighbors giving us two perfect kid-sized chairs {and the day before a different neighbor walked over and offered to give us her old electric trimmer because she saw David cutting some hedges manually and she didn't need hers anymore}
4 | fun playdate with an old friend from work; sunshine and two boys playing really well together in the dirt for hours
5 | painting Theo's room; also, watching Theo pluck basil for his pizza

Pro tip: get a cup of chopped onions from the hot dog condiments area the next time you order a Costco pizza.

6 | the tulip festival! and ice cream cones the size of our heads!

mud puddles > tulips

7 | sunbathing during naptime; dinner on the deck with a friend whose husband also had to work on Sunday; watching one 11-month-old take a nice mud bath

And here's our menu for the week:

This is my 100th published post! I'm still not sure what this blog is, but I'm glad I'm doing it. I suppose, then, that this is a good reminder that it takes a lot of doing to get somewhere. And that the more you do, the less pressure there is on each instance of doing.

I read somewhere that instead of thinking "One day..." you can say instead "Day One." I like that fresh and hope-filled vision. Instead of thinking "One day, I'm going to live a creative life," I have the choice to say, "This is Day One (or Day Two, Three, or Ten Thousand) of living a creative life." Thanks for following along!

This reversal

I recently stumbled across a recipe for Vietnamese chicken curry that captures that brothiness I so love in my food. (In case you've haven't noticed.)

My maternal grandfather's quick-and-dirty Malaysian chicken curry recipe uses a whole can of coconut milk and not very much water (in fact, as little as you can get by without burning the food), but I liked this reversal I found on Hungry Huy.

It calls for only half a cup of coconut milk to 4-5 cups of liquid. He uses a mix of chicken broth and water, but since I stock (couldn't help myself*) Costco's organic stock which isn't very salty, I use all stock in my version for extra flavor.

(*When the cartons of chicken stock in your pantry notice you checking on your supply a lot, do they say, "Are you stocking me?" Souper sorry for that. Not.)

I was pleasantly surprised with how far that half cup of coconut milk went, giving the whole pot just the right amount of creaminess and Southeast Asian flair, and so instead of disregarding the recipe and just throwing the rest of the can in, I decided to make coconut sticky rice with mangoes, because obviously.

One last note on the curry before I share both recipes. While you can serve this over rice, the Viet way to enjoy this is with (Vietnamese, if possible) French bread.

You will be floating like this French bread after eating this.

(Okay that was not the last note because I have one more thing to say, as always:)

The leftovers are also amazing with noodles - such as vermicelli, udon, or by making a packet of ramen (spicy or regular) with some of the seasoning and broth, and throwing the curry into it, plus a poached-in-the-pot egg.

Actually, the egg can be eaten on any version of this dish. SEAsians were "putting an egg on it" way before it was the trendy thing to do. If you've never had a crispy fried egg with an oozing egg yolk over a bowl of curry rice, well, then, stop everything you're doing right now and get thee to a kitchen.

Vietnamese Chicken Curry (cà ri gà)
adapted from Hungry Huy

2 lb bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks, marinated in 2 t salt and 2 T curry powder
1 large yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks lemongrass, cut into 5" lengths (smash the base to expose more flavor, and cut lengthwise in half, if desired)
3 bay leaves, or a few stalks of curry leaves, if you are so lucky to have access
1 1/2 lb potatoes, cubed (~2")
3-4 carrots, cut into 3" lengths (the chunky look is nice for this soupy curry)
1/2 cup canned coconut milk (full-fat, try to use a Thai - not American - brand)
1 tsp sugar
4 cups chicken broth
extra curry powder to taste (I like Baba's, which can be found at Ranch 99, but a Vietnamese Madras curry powder would be great, too)
fish sauce and/or fermented shrimp paste, to taste
squeeze of lemon and/or cilantro, optional, for garnish

Marinate the chicken at least two hours in advance, or overnight. Don't be afraid to over-salt. This flavor will be dispersed into a pot of broth with over two pounds of vegetables, and salting the pot later can never match the level of flavor you get from pre-marination. (Pre-marinated murder?)

In a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, sear the chicken pieces in batches and set aside on a plate. Heat up more oil and sweat the onions in the pan. Add minced garlic, stir a few times, then add broth. Return chicken to the pot, along with sugar, bay leaves, lemongrass, carrots and potatoes.

(Hungry Huy has you par-fry the potatoes and carrots so they don't disintegrate into the broth, but I'm giving you the lazier version. Just cut your vegetables larger, and watch them so they don't melt.)

Bring to a boil, then lower and let simmer until everything is cooked, probably about 20 minutes. Stir in coconut milk. Taste for salt and add fish/shrimp sauce if it needs some extra funk. Serve with cilantro and lemon and with French bread.



Coconut Sticky Rice with Mangoes

1 1/2 to 2 cups Thai sweet rice
1 1/2 cups coconut milk (conveniently, what you will have leftover after you make the above recipe)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 t sea salt
2 mangoes (Champagne/Manila/Ataulfo are the best for this, as they are sweeter and less fibrous), cubed or sliced

Make sticky rice however it is that you make sticky rice. I'm lucky that my Zojirushi makes it for me, but if you have to use a steamer, this looks like a reliable method.

While the rice is cooking, simmer coconut milk, sugar, and salt together on the stove top. Taste it and make sure it has a good hit of salt. (I like it with the salt and feel that it makes up for the reduced amount of sugar I use compared to restaurant versions of this dish.)

When the rice is done, stir in about 1 cup of the coconut-sugar mixture into the warm rice, reserving the rest for serving when you plate.

To serve, you can mold the rice into a small bowl or some other mold, then invert it onto your serving plate(s). Arrange mango on the side and drizzle more coconut mixture on everything. It can be served warm or at room temperature.

Share, if you're generous, or destroy the evidence, if you're not.

--

And for what we're eating this week:

P.S. Writing about coconut prepared two ways reminded me of the time I wrote about pumpkin: sweet+savory.

P.P.S. One other coconut PSA. Saw this recipe and I'm tempted to try it out!

Well worth the effort

Last week's menu was ambitious, but a couple of the meals turned out really well. 

The Vietnamese turmeric-dill salmon was awesome. I didn't do the sauteed vegetables on the side but we did bún bowls / spring rolls. I recommend the marinade and cooking method even just for having the salmon with rice. I had a pretty big filet, so I separated and removed the belly portion (which was thinner and thus cooked more quickly) when it was cooked and let the rest of it cook for longer. It isn't as pretty for presentation (or the blog, ha), but to have everything perfectly cooked was more important. The fish was buttery and moist.

In place of a picture of the salmon, here is some tempura shrimp Kathy made!

The other meal I really enjoyed was the Russian cabbage soup. I merged a bunch of recipes together and, even though it's a little counter-intuitive, I slow-cooked a roast the same day I made the soup. It felt awkward, because doing two lazy-in-theory meals in one day added up to a bunch of work. But the soup was delicious and in the end, well worth the effort.

I was prepared to add vinegar and sugar to give the sweet-and-sour taste I've had in Russian cabbage soups before, but the blended diced tomato (Kayla you are amazing) gave it the perfect brightness and sweetness it needed. I also added an extra can of tomato sauce but I think one or the other would be sufficient.

If you have leftover meat from a roast, or want to do this recipe with ground beef, I think those alternative methods would be great. It is, admittedly, a bit labor-intensive to do it the way I did.

Either way, I enjoyed experimenting this week and I will probably be making a borscht sometime soon to satisfy that perennial craving I have for all things sour.

Russian Cabbage Soup

the equivalent of one cooked beef roast, cubed. I used a ~2-3 lb bone roast that I salt-and-peppered-and-seared, then cooked in a crock pot with one beef bouillon cube and one cup of water.
1 onion, diced
1-2 carrots, diced
1-2 stalks celery, sliced, optional (I think I wouldn't put this in next time)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can tomato sauce and/or 1 can diced tomatoes, blended
1 head of cabbage, sliced
1-2 quarts chicken and/or beef stock (I prefer chicken stock if you have to use pre-made; beef stock can be tinny)
s+p
handful chopped dill
sour cream and chopped dill for garnish

Saute chopped onion in oil, then add carrots, celery, and garlic. Salt and pepper as you go. Add in tomato, cabbage, and chicken stock. Add cubed beef pieces, and any bones you might have. Adjust level of liquid so everything is covered. Bring to a boil, then lower and let simmer about 45 min to an hour. Stir in chopped dill (or leave entirely on the side if you have picky eaters) and serve with extra sour cream and dill.

Another random picture!



Sorry there are no pictures in reference to the food I talked about today!

And here's this week's menu:

mac 'n' cheese / excited to have sheet pan chicken again now that we have a working oven.

And always, please let me know what you're eating, especially for breakfasts and lunches (those meals are killing me slowly).

What we're eating, II

m: braised pork belly and egg (similar)
tu: slow-cooker chicken tacos
w: russian cabbage soup (still looking for a good recipe but probably will make it up as I go; craving something borscht-y but without the beets, but not because I don't like beets, because I do)
th: Chinese ground pork omelettes over rice
f: baked potatoes
sa: turmeric dill salmon (trying out a new recipe that looks fun!)
su: burgers / korean tacos

What we're eating

Here are a few pictures from what we ate last week.

Hainanese chicken rice with ginger-scallion sauce and sauteed spinach

Corned beef + cabbage, potato, and carrots

Last week seemed to drag on forever, so when it was Friday, I loaded up the kids and took them out to Mexican food by myself for lunch. They did really well.

Maybe too well. See the missing flauta in picture above, and the flauta thief below.

I literally tried to take pictures as soon as the food was laid down. I was eager to eat too. But apparently not quick enough.

David made beignets from scratch on Saturday. 

There's no way I could have married better.

Made these mini breakfast kabobs for Theo and he gobbled them right up.

And here's our menu for this week.

I need 497 xiao long baos.

Freedom + discipline = being an adult

tu: Lo shee fun is the Malaysian dish that inspired last week's post, and was good enough that Kathy requested it again this week / f: corned beef and cabbage for St. Patty's / sa: I can't share my grandmother's recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice or I'd have to kill you, but here's a pretty good internet recipe, 

We had a busy weekend so I'm just barely getting to this post now on Tuesday. I also had to scramble to come up with a menu for this week but the blog is keeping me accountable.

Besides choosing to post here as a method of staying on top of meal planning, I've been using Trello, which Slai had suggested to me in a comment five months ago. I've come around to using it almost two months ago, when I mentioned The Menu-Planning Reboot of 2017, and I'm loving it. I really wanted to make sure my new system was sticking before I wrote about it here.

Honestly, it's been great to have a menu plan. I mean, the worse thing that can happen is, like:

Lisa to self: Really, we're going to eat __________ again today?
Self: Well, do you have any better ideas?
Lisa: Uhhh...
Self: That's what I thought.

So, the way I'm starting to see it, menu planning is just one part of #adulting. One more place where freedom and discipline do a good little dance.

If you're curious for the nitty gritty (nerdy dirty?) on how I use Trello, read on.

I only have two lists on my menu board: a list for this week's meals, and then a list for previous meals.

When I start planning for the next week, I archive the items from this week into previous, so they automatically get pushed to the bottom.

When I'm planning the current week I get ideas from our past favorites. Here's this week's menu.

I only use Trello for the initial pull, and then when I put it up on the kitchen chalkboard, I think about the best order for the week. 

I only spend a few minutes doing this, so it's relatively painless. Like I said, once it's decided, I can either go along with it and be grateful to my grown-a** self that I did this, or I can be like, "Oh, let's have _____ instead" and then run with that new idea. It's no biggie.

Also, one last CRITICAL step to this whole system working is that I then write up the shopping list and my lovely David helps me with all the shopping. SO WONDERFUL. <3

Let me know, as always, if you have any other menu planning tips, meal ideas, questions or anything you need help with!

P.S. Slai, we need this in our life, right??

P.P.S. Happy Pi Day!

The life raft I've needed

Somewhat abashedly, I bring you this post that has been sitting in my drafts for a couple months now: The Three Most Influential Books I Read in 2016. 2016 was a big year for me, and the biggest gift - besides the birth of my daughter, obvs - was learning about Overdrive and getting access to a library (#literally) of books at my fingertips. 

I'm thankful for all the discoveries I made through falling in love with reading again this last year; there was so much magic in it (#literallyagain), and I look forward to reading and sharing more in 2017!

1. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

I keep thinking I need to write a separate post about this because it is changing my life, as well as still kicking my butt because I am not done with it (i.e., the tidying, not the book).

I'm sure you have heard enough about Kondo's concepts from everyone else on the internet already, but it has been the one method that has really worked for getting me to confront the underlying reasons of why I can't always do the things I need to do to get to the place I want to be.

A few of you texted me after I wrote The Secret Sauce. I still really struggle with scarcity mentality, and I've been thinking a lot about how if I let go of fear, what will be left?

2. Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Oddly, I can't remember exactly why I loved this book so much (other than having it read to me by the author; I've since changed Siri to a UK man voice so I can pretend that Greg McKeown is with me always).

The most convicting point was when he challenged his readers with the question (paraphrased): are you going to look back on your life and regret not doing the one thing you were made to do, because you were so busy chasing the meaningless other things you thought you needed to do (or that you thought other people expected you to do)?

3. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

This was another good one to have read aloud (Christine rightly recommended the audio version, and I am SO not an audiobook person), because it's also read by the author, and Liz Gilbert has thee most soothing and encouraging voice ever.

I loved everything Gilbert had to say, but the most important takeaway for me was: don't take yourself so seriously / don't be a tormented artist / follow inspiration and curiosity / don't worry so much about the outcome / enjoy the process / have fun with your art.

This is the message that I've been carrying into my life for the past half-year now, and am incorporating here by showing up on my blog, starting to Instagram more, doing random art projects, and working on some diy projects around the house.

I think she really gets it right when she talks about how inspiration is from the Divine, and that if we want more opportunities for it, we have to take action on the ones we are given.

This seems like a bold statement to make, but I feel like Big Magic has been the life raft I've needed ever since graduating from college.

Please let me know what you've been reading and loving!

--

And this week's menu!

Miso mapo tofu is my own creation to make mapo tofu without gluten (so many black bean sauces have wheat in them, didn't know that before!). Miso works really well (not soy free, however) and makes a flavorful dish that incidentally serves as a non-spicy version great for kids! Another standby is to have rotisserie chicken from the grocery store on one night and make broth with the carcass the following day for pho (just add fish sauce!). For bún (i.e., Viet noodle bowls), we work off of Molly's recipe from Delancey.

P.S. I am so giddy because apparently on February 23 I got my first two Amazon Affiliate purchases from this blog. Besides feeling giddy, I am so curious who that was, so if that was you and this wouldn't embarrass you, would you please let me know either by comment or email what you got?? Thanks, on all counts!

P.P.S. Shout-out to Christine, whose What I'm Reading series inspired this post, and which will inspire you as well.

How I trick myself into "cleaning"

I am not very good about chores and cleaning. I think I heard Kendra Adachi once mention that what Martha Stewart says to do once a week, she does once a month, and what MS says to do once a month, she does once a year, and what MS says to do once a year, she never does. I think I'm like that, but probably one notch even worse.

So I'm writing this because I desperately need more tips. I'll share a couple tricks I use to get myself to clean, and if you have anything to add, please let me know in the comments!

1. Set a timer.

This is usually a good stand-by. If I don't feel like cleaning, I set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes and just see how much I can get done. Usually I end up either finishing what I need to get done, or getting really into it, and working past the timer until everything is done.

2. Tell myself to pick up five things.

I don't tell myself what exactly I need to do (no one likes to be bossed around). I just pick a number (usually five) and then I do one thing, a second thing, a third thing, and so on until I reach the number. And if I've gotten momentum from doing the first five, and I start over again with five more.

3. The Dave Ramsey snowball method.

Lol, The Lazy Genius wrote about using the snowball method to pay off your TV debt (i.e., Netflix queue), and I have used the same method to clean my house. I start with the smallest mess: the dining table, and sometimes just move everything to the counter, then clean the counters, and then finish off with the sink.

Perhaps this is more a method of geography than size, but sometimes just getting something accomplished gives me that emotional boost to keep moving.

4. Address the thing that will give me the most bang for my buck.

I've recently realized that if I clear off the living room rug of toys (we don't have a coffee table because more horizontal surfaces = more clutter) I immediately feel better about the living room.

5. Have a specific order in which I do things, every single time.

I think this is one I could improve on. I find that my morning routine (i.e., the order in which I open the curtains, make the bed, change and put away my clothes, and start my coffee) really helps me be mindless about things (especially at a time of the day that I am pre-coffee). So I think I could benefit also with some other set routines for other house chores.

6. A home for everything.

This is one that I am really stuck on. It takes the most work, but I do also see that there is a ton of payoff in doing it. Any ideas on how to work on this one?

--

After I wrote this I saw this funny article entitled A Real Mom's Guide to a Clean House and it's the perfect conclusion for this.

Also, we are three week's strong on menu planning so I'm going to keep sharing it here.

m: pad thai / t: bbq chicken / w: spaghetti / th: sirloin tip roast / f: pumpkin chili / s: lentil falafel / su: lazy genius ribs

Black bean not-burgers

Inspired by the cilantro-turmeric salmon patties I wrote about a couple weeks ago, I set out to make a black bean burger that I'd actually like. I think the key is to not try to make a burger per se, or to think that, when you are eating one, that it is supposed to be anything like a burger. You will just be disappointed, like I always am.

But when I packed these with chopped cilantro and quinoa, the whole concept changed for me. It didn't hurt that I fried them in that morning's bacon grease.

I served these with buns for those who wished, but just having it with tomato, avocado, and onion - similar to the salmon patties with salad concept - was, imho, perfect.

Black Bean not-Burgers (patties? fritters?)
inspired by these salmon patties

I made my first and only batch so far* with egg because we were challenging eggs last week, but the mixture was very wet (maybe I didn't drain my beans too well, either) and I had to add in gluten-free flour to dry it up. So I'd probably just skip the egg, and add flour only as needed to make a slightly thick batter.

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 t salt
freshly ground pepper
1 egg (optional, see note above)

Throw everything in the food processor and blend together. Add a little flour if it looks way too watery. It's not going to be firm because we're not making burgers, but you do want it to hold some shape. Start with 1/4 cup flour and go from there. Too much flour makes it bready and dilutes the impact of the flavor you're going for here.

Heat up olive oil (or bacon grease!) on medium-high, and fry patties in batches. Serve on buns and/or with salad ingredients

_______________________________
* Yes, it was on the menu for last week but we didn't get to it.

And here's this week's meal plan, while we're talking about it:

Challenging soy, hence the tofu and soy-sauced based recipes. Also, changed the structure to put Sat and Sun at the end because it's stressful to have to plan Sunday's meal on Saturday night without groceries when there is church on Sunday morning.

A few randoms

1. New guilty pleasure: Nashville. Connie Britton, singing, love triangles... um, swoon, basically. "No One Will Ever Love you" = so haunting I died.

2. Let's talk about meal planning for like the 50th time. I decided that not feeling ecstatic about having a set meal plan > stressing out about what we are having for dinner every day. I'm trying to think of it like Anne Lammott's shitty first drafts: my inner critic should not be criticizing until there is something to critique.

We are challenging dairy this week on the elimination diet, if you were wondering.

And if you didn't catch the post on sheet pan chicken, do it meow.

3. "Focus on being a verb, not a noun." This was referenced on the The Mom Hour podcast on radical self-care, and attributed to a poet who was on Liz Gilbert's Big Magic podcast. The poet was trying to tell an aspiring artist, "don't try to be a poet, just write poems." I really like that, and I think that is a good thing to tell myself. I don't need to try to be a blogger, I'm just going to focus on writing blog posts. Such an easy and freeing shift of perspective! 

4. Another good quote. "One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." --Andre Gide

5. Related to #1, because I cannot get enough of Connie Britton, I am getting back into Friday Night Lights while working on a crochet project. So fun.

6. Green chocolate smoothies with mixed baby greens, rice + coconut milk, frozen banana, cocoa powder, medjool dates, and chia seeds.

Pro tip courtesy of my friend Karen: when you can't finish that box of baby greens from Costco (you know the one), freeze it so it's ready for smoothies.

7. I am not a nail polisher by any stretch of the imagination, but Kathy surprised me with this amazing bottle that looked good even when applied by someone with the nail-polishing skills of a 12-year-old boy (that's me). It gave me that my-nails-but-better look; I had no idea that what would look like a perfect neutral on me would appear so pink in the bottle. Consider me enlightened.

8. This red lentil soup. If Molly Wizenberg and Melissa Clark tell you to make something, you listen up. Follow every step, including blending half of the soup. (Though I have to admit, I held off on the salt until later because of my extreme fear of the lentils not softening. Kayla, you know what I'm talking about!)

monster trucks provided by Theo

Tell me what's up with you! Any inspiring quotes, good podcasts, satisfying meals, fun shows, tips/tricks, stupid stuff that makes you laugh?