We had an incredibly productive weekend, and it feels so good! Saturday was absolutely gorgeous – I’m talking one of the nicest days I’ve ever seen in Colorado in my 10 years of living here. The fall colors are just brilliant this year, and the weather has been phenomenal along with them. Since the weather was so nice on Saturday, we spent the morning playing with the kids, cleaned up the yard and cleaned out the garage during their epic 3 hour double nap, took a long afternoon walk together, and invited friends over for dinner (who happen to be the parents of Stella’s BFF) to watch the baseball game on Saturday night. Charlie is from St. Louis originally, so it’s a big deal in our house when the Cardinals are in the playoffs. Perfect day.
Yesterday the weather was a bit more erratic (for example, I’m pretty sure nobody listened to Pastor Harry’s sermon because we were all enthralled by the weather happening outside the massive window behind him – glittering sun, howling wind, dashing rain, and pummeling snow — all within a 30 minute window). Overall the weather was nice though — albeit a bit cooler — so we still had a great day. After church we had lunch and put the kids down, and though it was a short nap that time (maybe an hour? boo!), we were still quite productive. I cooked and I cooked and I cooked, and even once the kids were awake, Charlie tackled pumpkin carving (and painting) with Stella and watched over Harvey while I finished cooking. It was awesome!
- I prepped a big batch of Beef and Butternut Squash Stew that was all ready to just set into the crockpot warmer and turn to COOK this morning before I walked out the door. Dinner tonight is done. BAM!
- I thawed the shrimp that have been in our freezer forever (trying to be fiscally smart and use up freezer stuff instead of always buying fresh) and made a Spicy Parmesan Shrimp Pasta for dinner that was so good (& light!) that Charlie asked me to print the recipe and keep it in our regular rotation.
- I cooked an amazing frittata for easy breakfasts this week that had spinach, goat cheese, and a sweet potato hash crust. It is hands down one of my top 3 meals I’ve made of all time. It’s SO easy and SO delicious and just as good cold out of the fridge as warm out of the cast iron skillet. I highly recommend it – as does Harvey!
We are trying to stretch out our time between grocery store runs to cut down on our grocery bills, and it has been good for me to type in a list of ingredients (like “stew meat, butternut squash, carrots”) and see what comes up. I’m not a fantastic cook by any stretch of the imagination, but I can follow a recipe, and it’s so nice to have some meals pre-prepped and ready to go!