I’ve been talking a lot recently about the new eating habits at our house. Not only have I gone vegan but the whole family is eating healthier. Dinner in particular at our house was a bit of a disaster. To be honest with you it was something I dreaded everyday. Often a cause for tension in an otherwise happy home.

We’d buy the same staple ingredients each week at the grocery store. Lots of produce, avoid the junk, mostly shopping the perimeter of the store. We were buying healthy but not buying many ingredients. When it came time for dinner I was left trying to make something out of nothing. By the time I finally did get it together we were all overly hungry and cranky. Peanut butter and jelly, spaghetti, grilled cheese, pancakes, waffles, quesadillas, chili. Rinse, lather, repeat, again and again. Vegetarian done the wrong way, until I started menu planning a few weeks ago.

There are multiple ways to menu plan but recently I’ve been using Plan to Eat and I’m loving it. I started out with the free 30 day trial because I hesitated to pay for something I thought I could do myself. After 30 days of using the program I was sad for it to end and began to seriously think about purchasing. After a week of being without, we decided it was essential!

It’s easy to use, which is key for me. I don’t want to spend extra time trying to learn to use something to save me time. It allows me to create a recipe book with my own recipes as well as import more from internet sites. The best part for our family is the grocery list. Once I set our meals in the calendar, the ingredients are automatically added to the list. This means I get exactly what I need to make delicious meals and nothing I don’t, which ends up saving us money. It has saved my sanity, helped get a variety of healthy dinners on the table and in turn made my husband very happy.

Are you looking for an easier way to menu plan? Take a tour of the site and see what you think!

err Tuesday…. wait it’s 12:05 at night, so Wednesday. Oh geez…better late than never right? A post that I began on Monday is finally being posted 2 days later. Welcome to my new life with 2 littles! Anyway here’s what we’re eating this week.

Monday: Black Bean Burgers, Mushroom Rice, Peas
Tuesday: Quinoa Stuffed Peppers & Roasted Cauliflower
Wednesday: Noodle Salad With Peanut Mmm Sauce
Thursday: Apple Cinnamon Pancakes
Friday: Roasted Chickpea Tacos

If you’ve never had roasted cauliflower please click the link above! You won’t be sorry. I was not a big fan of cauliflower before but I think I’d only ever had it raw. After tonight I can say that I officially love it roasted. Super simple. Really delicious!

We are eating soo much better around here. The thing that has amazed me the most is we’re eating better but actually spending less at the grocery store. I’ll be back tomorrow to tell you why and share exactly how I’m doing my Menu Plan. For now I need to get some sleep!

 Excuse me but where exactly did the last 4 weeks of my life go? Anyone else feel like that after having a baby, like someone pressed fast forward on your life? A woman at the grocery store asked how old the baby was so I smiled and said “2 weeks.” Looking puzzled my husband chimed in and said “uh.. he’s almost 4 weeks.” Whaaat?

Our sweet boy has some reflux issues going on which cause him to be grumpy 75% of the time, making things a little crazy around here these last few weeks.

Also he doesn’t like pacifiers. Awesome.

The doctor suggested I try going dairy free to see if it would help him. So far it’s been 10 days and I can’t say I see a huge difference but maybe a little. His one month appointment is Monday so hopefully we will figure out a plan of action for him then.

Although I’m not sure I’ve seen a difference for him I can say I see a difference for me! At first I had no idea what to eat which made me realize how heavily I was relying on dairy products. Those around me would call me a vegetarian but I think the technical term for my eating habits is a pescatarian. I don’t eat meat but I do eat some seafood, eggs and as of last week dairy. However for someone who should be eating a mostly plant based diet, I had really gotten off track.

Although I don’t like to label the way a person eats, I would probably have been closer to something along the lines of a carb-a-tarian. My taste buds were too picky for my own good, so I found myself turning to bread products more often than not. I don’t care for tomatoes, mushrooms, raw onions, tofu, pineapple, honeydew, watermelon, celery, etc. etc. you get the idea. The point is I was too picky of an eater to be a healthy vegetarian. The past week of eating a vegan diet has inspired me to cook more and explore new tastes. When you don’t have the option to eat your usual pizza, cereal, and grilled cheese sandwiches, you quickly realize you have to get creative or you’ll starve!

I picked up the new cookbook put out by one of my favorite bloggers, Mama Pea. Although I’ve been reading her blog for a while I had yet to try any of her recipes. Cooking blogs are great but there’s something about having a cookbook in hand, filled with pages of delicious food that makes me want to get in the kitchen. Peas and Thank You, named after Sarah Matheny’s blog of the same name has beautiful food photography, amazing recipes and is believe it or not, laugh out loud funny! Mama Pea has found a way to work her humor seamlessly into the pages of a cookbook. Although the book is technically vegan it will inspire anyone to rethink the way they cook and eat. Even if you aren’t totally sold on the whole vegetarian thing, you’ll find healthy ideas for feeding your family that (and here’s the key) actually taste good!

Our menu the past week went like this:
Sat. – Black Bean Soup w/ rice
Sun. – Zucchini, Fennel & White Bean Pasta
Mon. – Peanut Butter & Jelly (the menu’s not perfected yet but it’s sooo much better!)
Tues. – Vegetable & Edamame Pasta
Wed. –  Italian Meatless Meatloaf Muffins (a la Mama Pea) w/ Mashed Cauliflower
Thurs. – Potato Corn Tacos
Fri. – Black Bean Burgers (also by Mama Pea) w/ Roasted Cauliflower

A certain toddler at our house tore the cover of my brand new copy of Peas and Thank You this morning. I don’t normally buy books new but because this one just came out I paid full price at Barnes and Noble. I am a bit of a freak about “treating books nicely” and not being rough with them so needless to say I was not a happy camper! Total accident on her part but my book is now not as pretty as it once was. Boo. For those of you who don’t have one yet, Peas and Thank You can be purchased for a steal of $12.71 right now on Amazon!

This is my daughter.
This is my daughter at 11:30 at night.
This is my daughter at 11:30 at night, completely asleep.

No lie. Because this is how you roll when you’re 2 and obsessed with sunglasses. You own 5 pairs and take them everywhere, because clearly you never know when you might need them!

Anyone else now singing the same 80′s song that I am? “I wear my sunglasses at night. So I can, So I caaan…”
You’re welcome. ;  ) Happy Weekend!

I have long wondered the answer to this question.  I enjoy hard boiled eggs but I don’t like my yolk to be soft at all. I also don’t really care for the yolk when it turns gray on the outside although I usually settle for it because in an effort to avoid soft boiled I boil them to death every time. We’re talking 20 min. boiled to death here.

I am happy to report that I have finally mastered the art of the perfect boiled egg. Not too soft, not too gray. Just right.  More for myself than anyone else I wanted to jot this down so I will never forget.  I figured there must be someone else out there who is having the same trouble so if you are look no further. You now are a wiz at boiling eggs!  Here’s my [not so] secret formula: 

• Place eggs into a pot.
• Add cool water.  Be sure the water covers the eggs.
• Turn on high heat and bring to a rolling boil.
• As soon you have rolling boil turn the heat down to medium.
• Cook for 10 min.
• When 10 min. is up remove the eggs from the stove immediately.
• Transfer them into another bowl / pot of cold water.  I put the bowl into the sink and let cold water run continuously on the eggs.
• Allow eggs to cool in the water for at least 5 min before attempting to peel and eat.

Walah! You should now have yourself a perfect, not too soft, not too gray, hard boiled egg. Enjoy!

They don’t last very long around here!