Mediterranean Chicken

Happy Monday friends.  Today was my first day back to work after a week off.  The week off was much needed.  I did a lot of thinking and soul searching.  I began to read, again, from the beginning.  Brene Brown's Daring Greatly. 

I think that this time around I might actually finish it.  I came to realize that a lot of my problems that I had this past month was from me withdrawing myself from human connection.  I finally today just summoned up my courage and asked for what I needed.  Only time will tell if things will improve the way that I want them to, but I feel better for putting myself out there.

Baked Pasta

Day 8 of no meat.  I cannot say that I miss it entirely, but there are certain things that I find I cannot do.   One is eat at Alex's favorite sandwich place Jersey Mike's.  Sure they have vegetarian options, but they are not as satisfying as a nice turkey sandwich.  I choose to just get something from the grocery store and he can have his sandwich.  Today was a snow day from  school.  My car has not left the parking lot since I arrived home on Thursday.

Sourdough Bread Lasagna

Time gets away from me.   Weeks turn into months and pretty soon we do the whole year again.  This year is already flying by.  On February second I took my last bite of meat (hopefully) until my birthday.  So far so good, especially if I find more recipes like this one that are wholly satisfying.

Vegetarian Mexican Lasagna

Well the new year has come and gone.  

Christmas Review and French Bread

French Bread

 (Julia's Kitchen Wisdom pg. 81)

Thanksgiving Recap

My friends I had not meant to be away from this space for so long.  I've been so busy with work and not really doing anything else that I haven't had anything to share with all of you.  Here are some of pictures from our feast yesterday.

Finishing up the last of the meal!

Wellington

Instead of going out to a Halloween party Alex and I stayed inside on Friday night and made these beauties.

Cajun Fettuccine Alfredo

Yesimir Kik Wot

The other day Alex and I had this wonderful Ethiopian spicy red lentil stew for dinner.  We were so taken with it that we decided to find a recipe to try and make it ourselves.  I'm hopping it makes enough for us to eat for several days.  I'm going to be a busy girl.

Pizza

Today was hard.  Today required no working out, no healthy food and a bit of cream soda.

But, I wanted to make something new, something from scratch, and I really wanted pizza.

Why not combine them all and make...

Sautéed Veggies and Shells

 

So today was a wash.  I wanted to go to D.C. and see the cherry blossoms.  However, we walked out the door to a rain storm.  No Cherry Blossoms for me today.  This made me a little sad.  I wanted to have a fun Easter since we are far from home and our wonderful friends, who celebrate in style every year.  

Caramel Shrimp

 

Back home in California THIS caramel chicken recipe was a go to for a simple dinner at home.  Tonight we were craving shrimp so this is our adaptation.

Sausage Soup

 

We had all these leftover vegetables and some vegetable broth and stock from other recipes.  

We didn't want them to go bad so we put them all together with some homemade turkey sausage.

Birthday Dinner at Home

Birthday Dinner!

Sweet potatoes with tomatoes and collard greens

It's February. WOW! Where has the time gone.

Happy New Years

Last night Alex and I made Steak Diane and these Cloverleaf Rolls from One Perfect Bite.

Hubby Makes Dinner

I'm not sure why, but this has been a difficult week for me.  Emotionally.  I've been a basket case.  So tonight we decided to venture to a antique store in a town about 30 minutes away we get there and they are having a down town, Christmas celebration and there is no parking to be found.  So Alex says to me I'll make you dinner.  I'll do it all by myself.  This is the result. 

Creamy Dal

A cold fall evening.  

Well all day it's been cold.  

I've started a new scarf, but I'm not sure if the yarn is long enough I might have to pull it out and begin something else.  A hat?  A cowl?  Or something else. 

For dinner I decided to pull out my copy of The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker and put some lentils in the pot.  

Creamy Dal 

pg 18

Applesauce

We cut up three different types of apples.

Magnolia Gold

Black Bean Soup

Happy Labor day everyone.  I'm sure there are countless backyard grills going as I write this, with hamburgers and hotdogs.  Alex and I left our trusty grill back in California, I think our little car would have looked quite the sight with a big red charcoal grill strapped to the roof as we drove 3,000 miles across the country.

This leads us to the realization that we cannot grill this holiday, sad day.  I did not disrepair, since this gives me the opportunity to try out a recipe that I found on Babble.  It's an adaptation from a recipe found on Smitten Kitchen.

Meatless Mondays is something that I've been trying to do for some time now.  Some weeks it works some weeks it doesn't.  This week is a success even though Alex tried to convince me that the soup needed ground turkey, I did not give in to the meat temptation.

Black Bean Soup