Hello, hello!
I hope you’re having a nice week so far. I’m celebrating Galentine’s Day today with some mom friends by going to early afternoon tea (right before school pick up). I’m so excited!
What started as a few of us walking together once a week after school drop off has morphed into a group of 10+ of us who do weekly walks, monthly mom’s night outs, and occasional other fun stuff, too, like today’s tea! Having a village is huge and I’m grateful for mine. <3
Speaking of Galentine’s Day/Valentine’s Day tomorrow, may I recommend a couple recipes? If you’re looking for something on the decadent side, my Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies are an all-time family favorite.
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A lighter but still festive idea with a similar flavor palate is my Cherry Chocolate Overnight Oats – make them later today and they will be ready and waiting for you by tomorrow morning! Or, try my Easy Beet Hummus, which is beautifully red and even the kids will like it.
If you want a dinner idea, another Valentine’s-friendly recipe to try is this old favorite Stuffed Chicken Breast with Feta, Cherries, and Kale. It’s easier than it sounds but feels like a “special” meal and it tastes SO good.
Matt and I used to alternate between cooking a special meal at home and going out on Valentine’s Day, but lately with kids in the mix it has been more fun for us to go out; that’s our plan for tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it!
Life Lately
And now, for some life lately!
The big excitement around here lately (as far as the kids were concerned) was that we had Freyja the dog for a week! (Long time readers may remember she was my brother’s dog first, then when he was living in the dorms for grad school we adopted her and had her for a few years, and then my parents “borrowed” her during the start of the pandemic and never gave her back! She comes to visit anytime my parents are out of town.)
Freyja came with us to school drop off each morning and the kids both were adamant about having to hold her leash – it was a whole thing. But luckily we figured out a system that worked with Wes holding the end of the leash and Riese holding the middle (with me and Matt on standby in case another dog came nearby and Freyja tried to run off). Oh and yes, Wes is wearing shorts – it’s his new thing, no matter the weather. Whatever, had to pick our battles!
We also appreciated having Freyja at the house because our kitchen floor was a lot cleaner. 😉 As Riese astutely noted: “When Freyja is here, our kitchen is cleaner but the rest of the house is a LOT more furry!” Truth. 🙂
Zara the cat is mostly indifferent to having her old roommate back in the house, although we do have to keep her food up high whenever Freyja visits because otherwise Freyja decides to help herself to the all-you-can-eat cat food buffet…
In food news, I don’t have a ton of food pictures because we were mostly eating basic staples the past week, but we did have a really good sheet pan pork roast recently. Also, I always forget how yummy sheet pan string beans are! They just had some oil, salt, and pepper on them.
The kids, however, refused to eat them because they had seasoning on them – sigh.
We also had some delicious burgers at Holy Cow Burger one night this week – the kids enjoy burgers so it’s usually a win for everyone. My latest favorite topping combination is pickles + lettuce + sauteed mushrooms + ketchup and yellow mustard. So good.
Plus waffle fries on the side. In my opinion, waffle fries are far superior to regular fries because of how crispy they get. I love the texture. Agree/disagree?
Another favorite food as of late: quiches. These had broccoli (sautéed first to soften it a bit) and cheese mixed in with the eggs. Came out great and was the perfect easy mid-morning snack for me to enjoy multiple days in a row! (I typically like something sweeter like oatmeal first thing in the morning with the kids, and then want something heartier and more savory by mid-morning.)
We have been doing a lot of baking lately – my pant-less littlest sous chef is super into it these days. <3
Banana muffins are the current fave – have you tried my Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins yet? You can make them with regular all-purpose flour instead of GF all-purpose flour if you like – they come out great that way, too!
I will leave you with some fun pictures from the date night Matt and I had last week, continuing with our streak of planned out weekly date nights that we gifted each other for Christmas. February was my month to plan (Matt took January), so last week was my first one!
I booked us a 1 hour private instructor at SportRock, a climbing gym in Alexandria. We used to go climbing there pre-kid but hadn’t been since, and it was so much fun to do something like that again together. Our instructor was friendly and chill but encouraging and belayed us so we didn’t have to worry about doing that ourselves.
We had a blast! We started on some easier ones, then moved on to some more challenging ones like the one I’m doing above that was kind of angled backwards at the start which made it really hard! I fell off once but at the encouragement of our instructor and Matt I regrouped and proudly made it to the top. 🙂
We also each tackled a climb on their super high 60 foot wall! It was intense! I didn’t look down until the very end. 😉 You can barely see me up there on the photo in the right below – and that’s only the top half of the wall!
So fun. My hands and forearms were super sore after!
That’s all I have for you today my friends – see you back here on Friday with some recipe inspiration!
