{"id":2301,"date":"2016-03-04T07:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T07:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betondinner.com\/?p=2301"},"modified":"2018-03-09T02:29:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09T02:29:00","slug":"food-for-thought-5-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/food-for-thought-5-february\/","title":{"rendered":"Food for Thought #5: February."},"content":{"rendered":"

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1.\/\/ There has been some glorious, spring-y, sunshine-y weather around here lately and it makes me the happiest! We go on lots of (painfully slow) walks through the neighborhood pushing baby dolls and collecting acorns, gumballs, leaves, and other debris<\/del> nature.<\/p>\n

2.\/\/ I have always been kind of staunchly unexcited about e-readers and What They Mean For Society<\/del> pro-book, but we took a Kindle on vacation recently and I got kind of obsessed with it. Well, mostly just the instant gratification of being able to check out library books online and have them appear in my hand without leaving my house. I’m sure Jay would like to have the Kindle back at some point, but this just arrived (digitally, with no effort, and free from the library): After You, by Jojo Moyes. I’m forcing myself to finish the book I’m reading before I start it, but so excited!<\/p>\n

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3.\/\/ Sometimes when I’m meal planning, none of my “normal” recipes sound good and I try a bunch of new recipes in a row. Here are the\u00a0success stories from this month:<\/p>\n

Slow Cooked Shredded Beef Ragu Pasta<\/a><\/span> by Recipe Tin Eats – We loved this! I used a chuck roast and was kind of amazed at how different it was from regular spaghetti sauce made with ground beef even though it’s essentially the same ingredients.<\/p>\n

Broccoli, Cheddar, and Quinoa Gratin<\/a><\/span> by Cookie and Kate – This was a hit with the adults, not so much the kids. (I kind of expected that, though, since my older daughter is anti-quinoa even though she loves rice, and my toddler was just suspicious of the whole thing. Hence my chosen sides of banana bread<\/a><\/span> and applesauce<\/a><\/span>!)<\/p>\n

Cracker-style Thin Crust Pizza<\/a><\/span> by Two Red Bowls – You know I love this pizza dough<\/a><\/span>, but I’ve been wanting to have\u00a0a thin crust option, too. Really good texture! I did 1.5x the recipe but wished I had doubled it since the girls inhaled it and I was willing to make another batch of dough and wait 30 minutes because I WANTED MORE PIZZA but Jay talked me out of it. I also finally tried the pizza sauce recipe I mentioned in this post<\/a><\/span>, and we liked it, too.<\/p>\n

Loaded Broccoli Cheese and Potato Soup<\/a><\/span> by Mel’s Kitchen Cafe – We had the college students Jay works with over for dinner and did a baked potato bar with lots of toppings. My mom made a delicious version of this soup to help use up the\u00a0leftovers (baked potatoes, better steamed broccoli<\/a><\/span>, cheese, etc)!<\/p>\n

4.\/\/ On Saturday Jay took the girls out of the house for like two hours and I made a recipe and took pictures of it for my next post with\u00a0no interruptions\/”helpers”\/people eating my photo props<\/em> and it was glorious. He also brought me an apple fritter<\/a><\/span> the size of my face and only judged me a tiny bit when I ate it in its entirety\u00a0for lunch. He’s the best, in other words. The only downside was uploading the pictures and realizing how often my belly\u00a0makes a cameo in\u00a0those from-above pics. ;o)<\/p>\n

5.\/\/ Don’t forget to enter the GIVEAWAY for Julie’s ebook, The Kindness Antennae! Click here to enter the giveaway<\/a><\/span> by Monday, March 7at 12 pm!<\/p>\n

Have you read any good books lately? Tried a successful new recipe? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!<\/h3>\n