Spring and fun foods

Is this post early?  Is it late?  It's anybody's guess!  Happy spring to you all!  It’s been a wet and wily spring so far.  It feels like every week, we get completely dumped on.  It’s a miracle that the turnouts at the barn dry quickly enough for the horses to get out at all.  I know the mud at the house and at the park has not completely dried, which is why I feel like half of it ends up inside our house and underneath Bowie’s nails.

The last few weeks have been a slew of doctors visits, with follow ups to my accident in January (everything is fine) and Bowie’s vet visits for an infected callus (do not even get me started).  Add tax season on top of it and I think I’ve done enough adulting for 2024.  Seriously though, is there anything as adult as 1) taking care of yourself properly and 2) paying the government money?  Pretty sure they don't warn you about these things when you're a kid because I would have voted NO.

Moving on to more fun things though…

Let's focus this post's recommendations around food!  Firstly, healthy eating.  Now you may ask, how is that a fun thing?  Sounds like another adult thing that you’re adding on top of taxes and doctor’s visits.  The recipes I’m sharing below are YUM and definitely don’t like healthy eating (that’s the fun part).  Coming off the back of our annual doctor’s visits this winter, Bryan and I are reassessing our diets.  We’re pretty good about eating - we don’t eat out very often, no fast food, no sodas, etc.  That being said, we can crush some chips & guac / queso and Bryan’s never met a potato he hasn’t liked.  That and my penchant for baking and then eating an entire cake by myself leaves some room for improvement.

This healthy recipe of Cilantro Lime Chicken and Lentil Bowls from Pinch of Yum is a winner.  If you haven't peeped Lindsay of Pinch of Yum's blog, what are you even doing?  It has multiple healthy recipes that are relatively easy to prepare and make.  Since you can also meal prep with these recipes, those of you with better discipline than me, go check out the website.

Baked oatmeal from Sally’s Baking Addiction - I know, the words "baked oatmeal" don't exactly rouse anyone's tastebuds.  Apparently oatmeal every morning is supposed to be good for your cholesterol (pretty sure this is a conspiracy by Big Oatmeal).  Either way, this bake is delicious to eat any time of day.  I made a separate tray for my mom this past weekend and warned her that it was a healthy recipe.  She didn’t seem to mind as she ate an entire row after lunch.

Alison Roman’s Nothing Fancy - Someone somewhere got me this cookbook five years ago when it first came out.  I didn’t really pay attention to it, besides flipping through the pages to look at the beautiful pictures.  Fast forward to a week ago when we were about to host dinner for some of Bryan’s friends who I’ve never met before.  Nothing like cooking under pressure (y’all know I like to try new recipes out on new folks anyway).  I broke out the cookbook and whaddya know, Roman’s lining up the hits.  Since then, I’ve made a few more recipes from her book and I’ve been super happy with all of them.  We've made the crispy vinegared potatoes twice already (what did I tell you about Bryan's love of potatoes).

The other thing we’ve done recently to level up our cooking is ordering high quality spices and herbs online.  I am not sure why it has taken me so long to do so but it has definitely made a difference.  I’ve cooked for two different sets of people with them and every time our guests have asked what spices we used.  I’ve tried five of the spices so far and highly recommend all of them - go to Burlap & Barrel and pick yourself up some grown up spices.  The royal cinnamon and the crushed red pepper have been winners.  I will slowly be replacing all of my the spices in my drawer with these.

Now go forth and eat well!