Hey, hey!

I hope you’re having a pleasant week to this point. I’m celebrating Galentine’s Day right now with some mother associates by going to early afternoon tea (proper earlier than college choose up). I’m so excited!

What began as a couple of of us strolling collectively as soon as per week after college drop off has morphed into a gaggle of 10+ of us who do weekly walks, month-to-month mother’s night time outs, and occasional different enjoyable stuff, too, like right now’s tea! Having a village is large and I’m grateful for mine. <3

Talking of Galentine’s Day/Valentine’s Day tomorrow, might I like to recommend a pair recipes? In the event you’re searching for one thing on the decadent facet, my Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies are an all-time household favourite.

A lighter however nonetheless festive concept with the same taste palate is my Cherry Chocolate In a single day Oats – make them later right now and they are going to be prepared and ready for you by tomorrow morning! Or, strive my Straightforward Beet Hummus, which is fantastically purple and even the youngsters will prefer it.

If you need a dinner concept, one other Valentine’s-friendly recipe to strive is that this outdated favourite Stuffed Hen Breast with Feta, Cherries, and Kale. It’s simpler than it sounds however appears like a “particular” meal and it tastes SO good.

Matt and I used to alternate between cooking a particular meal at house and going out on Valentine’s Day, however recently with youngsters within the combine it has been extra enjoyable for us to exit; that’s our plan for tomorrow. I’m wanting ahead to it!

Life Currently

And now, for some life recently!

The massive pleasure round right here recently (so far as the youngsters have been involved) was that we had Freyja the canine for per week! (Very long time readers might keep in mind she was my brother’s canine first, then when he was residing within the dorms for grad college we adopted her and had her for a couple of years, after which my dad and mom “borrowed” her through the begin of the pandemic and by no means gave her again! She comes to go to anytime my dad and mom are out of city.)

Freyja got here with us to highschool drop off every morning and the youngsters each have been adamant about having to carry her leash – it was an entire factor. However fortunately we found out a system that labored with Wes holding the top of the leash and Riese holding the center (with me and Matt on standby in case one other canine got here close by and Freyja tried to run off). Oh and sure, Wes is carrying shorts – it’s his new factor, regardless of the climate. No matter, needed to choose our battles!

We additionally appreciated having Freyja on the home as a result of our kitchen ground was rather a lot cleaner. 😉 As Riese astutely famous: “When Freyja is right here, our kitchen is cleaner however the remainder of the home is a LOT extra furry!” Reality. 🙂

Zara the cat is usually detached to having her outdated roommate again in the home, though we do should hold her meals up excessive each time Freyja visits as a result of in any other case Freyja decides to assist herself to the all-you-can-eat cat meals buffet…

In meals information, I don’t have a ton of meals footage as a result of we have been principally consuming primary staples the previous week, however we did have a very good sheet pan pork roast lately. Additionally, I at all times overlook how yummy sheet pan string beans are! They simply had some oil, salt, and pepper on them.

The youngsters, nonetheless, refused to eat them as a result of they’d seasoning on them – sigh.

We additionally had some scrumptious burgers at Holy Cow Burger one night time this week – the youngsters get pleasure from burgers so it’s often a win for everybody. My newest favourite topping mixture is pickles + lettuce + sauteed mushrooms + ketchup and yellow mustard. So good.

Plus waffle fries on the facet. For my part, waffle fries are far superior to common fries due to how crispy they get. I really like the feel. Agree/disagree?

One other favourite meals as of late: quiches. These had broccoli (sautéed first to melt it a bit) and cheese combined in with the eggs. Got here out nice and was the proper simple mid-morning snack for me to get pleasure from a number of days in a row! (I usually like one thing sweeter like oatmeal very first thing within the morning with the youngsters, after which need one thing heartier and extra savory by mid-morning.)

We have now been doing loads of baking recently – my pant-less littlest sous chef is tremendous into it lately. <3

Banana muffins are the present fave – have you ever tried my Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins but? You can also make them with common all-purpose flour as an alternative of GF all-purpose flour when you like – they arrive out nice that method, too!

I’ll go away you with some enjoyable footage from the date night time Matt and I had final week, persevering with with our streak of deliberate out weekly date nights that we gifted one another for Christmas. February was my month to plan (Matt took January), so final week was my first one!

I booked us a 1 hour personal teacher at SportRock, a climbing gymnasium in Alexandria. We used to go climbing there pre-kid however hadn’t been since, and it was a lot enjoyable to do one thing like that once more collectively. Our teacher was pleasant and chill however encouraging and belayed us so we didn’t have to fret about doing that ourselves.

We had a blast! We began on some simpler ones, then moved on to some more difficult ones just like the one I’m doing above that was sort of angled backwards initially which made it actually laborious! I fell off as soon as however on the encouragement of our teacher and Matt I regrouped and proudly made it to the highest. 🙂

We additionally every tackled a climb on their tremendous excessive 60 foot wall! It was intense! I didn’t look down till the very finish. 😉 You possibly can barely see me up there on the picture in the precise under – and that’s solely the highest half of the wall!

So enjoyable. My arms and forearms have been tremendous sore after!

That’s all I’ve for you right now my associates – see you again right here on Friday with some recipe inspiration!