Tag: food

  • Friday Favorites #2

    I’m actually here on a Friday, joining A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals again! Woohoo! This week was busy, busy, busy, but I’ve made it through and had some definite favorites. Let’s go.

    #1 An Actual Spritzer!

    My friend just returned from Croatia and discovered a favorite drink there. It is made with Lillet Rosé and Grapefruit juice. It wasn’t bubbly, but it was quite tasty and looked very pretty. And it was excellent for a hot, hot day. Fall is a misnomer for what’s going on around these parts right now.

    #2 Sticking with parts of a meal plan

    I was far from perfect this week. We got a take-and-bake pizza for one of the nights, and my daughter and I got In-N-Out when she had to babysit. But, I did do two meals from the list and a third edit of one of the meals. First, the cottage cheese bowl – it was delicious. I don’t know what I didn’t do one every morning. But, alas, I only had this beautiful masterpiece once this week.

    I went to Panera one day (I have a sip club for iced tea and work near one on Tuesday and Thursday mornings) and got avocado toast there and today we had a morning meeting with breakfast. The other day, I just didn’t have breakfast.

    I also made the Greek Chicken bowls this week. They were excellent and my family was able to build their own so they didn’t complain about the assorted things they don’t like, which are, of course, different from each other. I loaded it up with everything!

    #3 Napping Pets

    We had a lot of napping this week from the pets, as always. I was able to capture these cutie pies:

    #4 Sunsets

    We had some pretty sunsets this week. One of the evenings, my daughter and I jumped in the car and drove out by the orchards near us and I was able to capture the tail end of this lovely one:

    #5 Pumpkin Spice Season!

    I thought I was going to have to wait until Monday (August 25 – when Starbucks releases their Fall drink lineup) to get my first Fall fix, but we went to Human Bean this week and they had their Pumpkin Latte ready to go! They make theirs with pumpkin puree and no syrup and I get it half sweet and it is AH-mazing!

    And I was inspired to “spice” up my own coffee at home today in my travel mug. I use Trader Joe’s Cold Foam creamer and then I tossed some Pumpkin Pie Spice on top. Quite tasty!

    That’s it for me in this week’s favorites!

    I did teach my first couple of classes, and they went well. I’m trying to get my house cleaned and reset before the craziness of the full Fall semester kicks in. It has not been a favorite, but I’ve definitely made progress on laundry and decluttering some things. Much more to do this weekend!

    I am looking forward to seeing everyone else’s favorites!

  • Full Week Ahead!

    Full Week Ahead!

    Well, tomorrow starts Fall 2026 teaching for me! 😮

    Hopefully, I will be “cruising” along soon, but it is always a little rough adjusting to the choppy waters as we start. I feel like I need to manage a few things better this year to avoid feeling overwhelmed by Week Six. So, here is what I’ve done to set myself up for success in my classes.

    #1 Edit classes to decrease grading

    I edited down my graded assignments a ton; I didn’t get rid of all of that work, but made it part of a portfolio assignment. I have built units that I hope will feel more intuitive for students than just following the order of book chapters. Each class is mapped out in a skeletal fashion, with some slack, just in case.

    #2 Meal planning

    I am not a meal planner typically. But, last semester, some of my most frustrating times were coming home from work exhausted and there being zero plan for what to eat. Exhausted me does not handle decisionmaking well and I am often hangry after work. So, having a plan will definitely help. Executing that plan will be the challenge. But, for this week, I have five recipes for this week, went grocery shopping today for the items needed and I’m ready to roll tomorrow! Here is what I’ve planned for the week:

    Monday: Greek Chicken Bowls from Eating Bird Food

    Look at this photo:

    Mine probably won’t look half that good, but YUM! And healthy!

    Tuesday: Easy Sheet Pan Gnocchi from The Nutrition Junky

    Again, a great looking dish:

    Wednesday: Tortellini Pasta Salad from Insanely Good Recipes

    Since my husband travels for work on Wednesday and pasta isn’t his favorite, I try to do pasta-heavy meals while he is gone. This looks like heaven in a bowl to me!

    Thursday: Pasta with meat sauce (will consider frozen meatballs as well) and garlic bread

    Friday: Leftovers

    After Senior Sunrise at 7:30 am and with my husband coming in late that night, I want to make it as easy as possible!

    Saturday: Sheet Pan Pork Chops from I Heart Naptime

    Yum, yum, yum! Again, I just need to execute on all these plans!

    I also have decided on Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowls for this week to try to increase my protein intake a bit. I don’t eat fish, so I’ll skip the salmon one and I don’t have all the same ingredients, but I have enough of them that I can improvise the rest!

    #3 Chore Chart from Lamberts Lately

    My husband and daughter are both a little “clutter-blind”. This also creates a bit of frustration in exhausted me. So, I’ve printed out the Cleaning Schedule with morning and evening things to do, daily chores, and even Room of the Week Chores. I hope this “checklist” style reminder will help them see that things need to be done even if they don’t naturally notice. We shall see…

    #4 Showering at night

    This is a new one to me. I am a morning shower person typically, but I read that this is a good strategy for improving sleep and my sleep has been ROUGH lately. I made the mistake of getting off my sleeping schedule (staying up way too late) during Summer and now I’m back to perimenopause-style sleep. I feel like it had really improved at the end of last semester, but here we are again. So, trying the showering at night to go along with my Magnesium Threonate and Vitamin D. Fingers crossed this works. I’m also going to fight my rebel urges to stay up late and try to be in bed by 10 pm every night. I have no problems waking up. I haven’t used an alarm clock in years because I start waking up around 4:30 am and even if I get back to sleep, it is never for a lengthy amount of time. So, no worries on the morning side of things!

    What about you? Do you have any tricks, tips or changes you’re making to keep your cruise for Fall 2026 as smooth as possible?