Ah, Monday

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And another week begins… as Monday comes to an end. The kids are in bed (asleep or reading), and I am bundled up under a blanket, enjoying a cup of tea. This year I hope to do more of these journal-type entries, so I hope you’ll indulge me. It’s a great way to keep track of the year. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve referred to old, old blog archives to look up something the kids did as babies. Anyway…

The day started with a migraine for my poor husband. He doesn’t get them very often, but when he does… ugh, not good. When I got up a little before 6 and saw he was already out of bed, I knew something was wrong. He’d been up since 4, laying on the couch, hoping to feel better. By breakfast time he’d improved a little, but he still took it easy today.

I puttered around this morning, making phone calls, doing housework… the usual. At lunchtime I threw together some creamy spinach soup. (D. usually has a big salad for lunch, but salad just wasn’t sounding good to him, so I figured this was a good way to get some veggies in.) Basically I just made my usual creamed spinach recipe, but added chicken broth and pureed it all. Considering that D. devoured two bowls at lunch and Laura insisted on having three helpings (pre-schooler sized, but still)… for dinner, I’d say it was a great success 🙂

This is when I realized that even though sometimes I fancy myself to be a food blogger, I’m just not. I love to cook. I cook all the time. I cook almost every meal of the week at home. But I am very much a “home cook.” Measurements? Sigh… most of the time I can’t be bothered. It’s a little of this and a little of that. And when it came to suppertime, that’s exactly what I did again. Naturally I poured a little glass of vino to enjoy while prepping everything.

wine for the cook

I’d planned on making lemon chicken, but I wanted to turn it into “comfort food” somehow. So I cut it into chunks, , lightly coated them with breadcrumbs, and went about my standard lemon chicken recipe. Meanwhile, I boiled tortellini, and then added it to the pan along with capers, artichokes, and a bit of leftover broccoli in the fridge. And voila! Lemon chicken tortellini:

lemon chicken tortellini

(Ugh, the dinner time light this time of year is so bad for food photos… it really looked much more appetizing, I swear to you!) It was quite tasty if I do say so myself, LOL!

Well, it’s time to finish up a few things around the house before calling it a night for myself. Hope your week is off to a great start!

Menu Plan Monday, January 7

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All right! The first full week of the year is here, and if you’re anything like me you’ve finally cleaned out the cakes, cookies, egg nog, and who knows what else is leftover from the holidays. I’m trying to use up a bunch of stuff in the freezer this week, but I think the menu came together all right.

I’m especially looking forward to Wednesday night’s dinner. Mmm… kielbasa, sauerkraut, egg noodles… I’m playing around with a recipe, so hopefully it will turn out great and I will share on Thursday. I’m not yet sure what kind of soup we’ll have on Friday. I made some creamy spinach soup for lunch today, and the husband looooved it. Maybe I’ll make that again. Or go with chicken soup? We’ll see what’s in the fridge!

  • Monday: Lemon chicken tortellini, salad
  • Tuesday: Meatloaf, baked sweet potatoes, broccoli, salad
  • Wednesday: Lazy pierogis with kielbasa, steamed veggies
  • Thursday: Out
  • Friday: Soup & sandwiches/salad
  • Saturday: Crock Pot beef stew with herbed biscuits, salad

For more menu ideas, visit Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday feature.

Happy New Year

cookies & cocoa

Well this week has certainly flown by. I didn’t meant to disappear all week, but honestly I just got so caught up in other things that by the time I thought about my blog, I didn’t even feel like booting up the laptop. It was a week of getting back into a schedule, back to school, back to work.

It was also freezing cold this week, which added to my desire to just crawl under blankets in my free time. Yesterday morning around 9:15 I went out briefly, and according to my car’s thermometer, it was 5 chilling degrees outside. The wood stove has been roaring, tea kettle constantly whistling, and comfort food has been on the menu.

In between grocery shopping, taking down and storing Christmas decorations, cleaning, and reorganizing (ah, that bug hits every January — today I completely rearranged my cupboards) I have done a little crochet. Just some simple, colorful washcloths. Poor Noah… his pillow is still unfinished in my bag. But this weekend. I swear this weekend I will finish it up!

The start of a new year just sets my mind on this crazy trajectory of about 8 million different project ideas. I don’t know what it is, but I suddenly have plans for blankets and doll clothes and home decorating projects. I have to constantly whisper to myself, one thing at a time. Still, it’s good to feel inspired. I just need to keep myself in check.

Well, I’m off to enjoy a quiet at-home weekend. No plans, no where to go, and I’m quite happy about it! Hope you all enjoy a relaxing weekend, too!