a food streak

For me reading cookbooks and creating good food is almost more satisfying than eating. Almost. I periodically go into a cooking rut where I apathetically exist off low quality, mediocre food. Being sick for months with this pregnancy cooking and food was the last thing I wanted to think about. This flipped and eventually evolved into a reactionary, cooking frenzy where I cant wait to try my next recipe. During this time I scour cookbooks, friends' blogs and recipe boxes looking for something new to add to my cooking skills and abate my epicurean curiosity.

For those of you that have seen Julie and Julia, I haven't gone quite that extreme. No french cooking, no crazy ingredients and every recipe can be made in under 20 minutes.

My goal this next month is to cook something I haven't eaten (or redo a recipe that never got a fair chance) every day of the week, or at least 6 new recipes. I have been doing this for 2 weeks so far and despite a few inedible finishes most of the recipes will stick around.

The recipes need to be healthy enough that I would recommend it to any of my personal training clients but tasty and interesting enough that I would order it at a restaurant.

This Christmas break we spent a few days with Brady's uncle Jason who is embracing and thriving on a "raw food" diet -salads galore, & all things whole and natural. Its a little bit too hippie and vegan for me but the concept is very inspiring.

The past few weeks we've been referencing "Cook This, Not That" by David Zinczenko. It's basically healthy copy cat recipes of chain restaurants and a fun addition to our weekly menu.

A few recipes we've tried have been California citrus salad, grilled mahi mahi tacos w/ avacado/mango salsa, walnut pear salad with fresh mozzarella croutons, green chili enchiladas, apple barbecue pulled pork sandwiches....

Liam's gun

We're always trying to tell him that he shouldn't be killing people or shooting them with guns. So to get around this he came up with an equally insulting alternative to being shot dead- being shot in the face with a poop gun. Where he got this idea we have no idea.

Liams Day at the Zoo

Liam has a "Planet Earth" book and was happy to see all of his favorites at the zoo. He voiced disappointment that the lion didn't take down, and eat off of any of the other animals, nor did it roar. However he did get to see a bald eagle which came from Alaska, he thinks from by his grandma Dalene's house, and a talking raven.

Lindsey's baby

Having babies is what life is all about. We were lucky enough to be around when Lindsey (Brady's sister) and Jake's baby Molly was born. What an exciting time. I'm 5 1/2 months pregnant and it really made me a little impatient. There is nothing so sweet as holding a new born baby and it was fuin to be around for LIndsey's 1st.

Christmas Break

After lots of laughing with family,lounging around in our pjs, eating gourmet food, soaking in the hot tub and playing board games, we're back from Christmas vacation.
We had a great time watching Liam play with Brady's parents and waiting for Lindsey's (Brady's sister) baby to arrive.