Monday Morning This and That

-A little late, but noteworthy nonetheless. I contributed a great recipe to an article about Secretly Healthy Fall Comfort Food. I altered, and then combined two of my favorite chili recipes to create the Creamy Chicken White Bean Chili recipe I share it the article.

-And as I mentioned before, I'm competing in a recipe competition for Golden Grain Pasta. For the competition Golden Grain asked me to create an original recipe with fewer than 8 ingredients, and I'm really proud of the 3-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese recipe I came up with. The competition ends on January 2nd, so there are only a couple days left to cast your vote! And remember, ever time you vote you are entered to win $250!

photo from here

-I've been working on a menu plan for the New Year that includes delicious, simple and healthy recipes that I hope will become a staple on our dinner rotation. So far I've got: Moroccan Lentil Soup with Sweet Potato, Spaghetti Squash Bolognese, Skirt Steak Tacos and Pesto Shrimp with Squash Fettuccine. Most of these are from the Practical Paleo cookbook or Relish, and if any of them turn out well I'll be sure to document appropriately! What are your favorite simple, healthy, weeknight meals? I bought these pads of paper too to help with my grocery store shopping!

We have been spending copious amounts of time at home since Christmas, and it's been glorious. We're homebodies to the core. Keith has been working and I avoid crowded places when I'm solo with the toddler, SO I've been online shopping. It's really hard to drag myself out to a store when I can get free shipping too! Some of the things I've picked up this week:

I know I've mentioned that Owen has been taking longer than normal for us to rock him to sleep at night. Sometimes up to an hour, and he usually just wants me to rock him. So, in my efforts to keep myself from going totally stir crazy up there I've started listening to audio books. I just finished Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling (really funny, easy listen) and now I've moved on to Dad Is Fat by Jim Gaffigan. In my opinion, comedies are the easiest to listen to with out becoming annoyed by the voice of the person reading, since it's usually the comedian themselves. Next up I am totally trying whisper sync.

And now we're off and out the door on a fun family day!!