Happy Saturday…although by the time I publish this it might be Sunday! First of all, can we please talk about this gorgeous thrown together salad I made for lunch today? Mixed greens, left over BBQ chicken, cucumber, tomato, green onion, goat cheese, beets and pistachios, topped with lemon olive oil and fig balsamic. TO DIE FOR!
I had an awesome day. The ironic part is that I had SO many things to cross off my list today and things didn’t quite go that way. I started my morning with my first private Pilates session with my niece. Uhhhh, I bow to those of you that do Pilates on a regular basis. Wowzer – What a great workout. I will keep all you local folks posted when my niece will start conducting private sessions (nudge nudge), she was awesome!
I hit Trader Joe’s on my way home and picked up a few things…
TJ’s Orange Chicken is always in my freezer. We love this stuff. Funny that my son eats it without the sauce, so I serve the sauce separately. This makes for such an easy weeknight dinner. THEN, I grabbed a bag of these Wicked Good Chocolate bars for my candy dish to try something new. Go ahead and grab yourself a few bags of these, I promise you won’t be disappointed. I love strolling around Trader Joe’s – SO much great stuff!
When I got home, I made that amazing salad and turned on the TV. There was a show that popped up called ‘Lonely Planet’. I always get sucked right into Rom Com’s. Ironically, the main character, Laura Dern, is a writer and is writing a book. I will leave out my thoughts on the movie, in case you want to watch. For me, yet another sign to keep writing my book. I ended up taking a nice Saturday afternoon nap. I’m not a napper, but after the crazy week I had, it was lovely. I highly suggest a weekend nap from time to time – recharge yourself!
I’m fully aware that not everyone get’s super excited when it comes to cooking and meal planning. I love a good chilly weekend morning, curled up on the couch with a hot cup of tea, surrounded by cookbooks and Food Network (yes, complete nerd status). One of my all time favs on Food Network is Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. My Mother gave me an amazing 50th birthday gift this year and took me to where Ree Drummond makes all of her magic happen in Oklahoma (I will elaborate in another post). This trip helped with my inspiration for this blog too…just another sign.
My cooking inspiration…
I must pay my respect to my beautiful Mother and Aunt. They are both fantastic cooks (and amazing humans). I aspire to be as good as they are one day. I’m a total recipe follower and they are ‘add a little of this and a little of that’ type cooks…and it always tastes fantastic.I’m incredibly blessed to have these two beautiful souls in my life!
I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. I will update last week’s meal plan under the ‘Cook’ tab (once I make my Sunday dinner). My meal plan got a little off track this week, but the food was awesome. We tried the Pumpkin Overnight Oats this morning and I will absolutely put that into rotation. I also bought myself some flowers today – I think these bouquets are $4 at TJ’s. Don’t just throw them in a vase either, take a few minutes to cut the stems and arrange them…I promise it will make you smile! Permission to buy yourself flowers.
