Chicken Enchiladas. I can’t get enough of this recipe. It’s so good! I made two batches of sauce this time. One with the peppers and one without. We leave out the cream sauce and even without that, it’s still really tasty.

Spaghetti Carbonera with Black Kale. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but it turned out alright. I don’t think I’ll have any cravings for this, but it was a good way of using the kale that’s growing in our garden.

Bruschetta. Yummy! I didn’t butter the bread, which I’m sure would have made it more yummy, but I went without that step. I can’t wait for our tomatoes to fruit because I’m definitely making this a lot this summer!

Week 5/27 – 5/31

Monday: Sopas (I’m putting Ben in charge of dinner since he’ll be home)
Tuesday: Orzo with Feta, Basil and Shrimp (I didn’t get to make it this week, so I’ll try to do it next week)
Wednesday: Simple Tacos
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Pizza/sushi night

I’ve cooked so many different recipes since I started meal planning that I need to go back to help refresh my memory of some of other dishes we really loved. Cooking doesn’t come naturally to me and I’m still not a wing it sort of cook, so I definitely need recipes to help guide me. How do you decide what to cook for dinner?

Oh man, oh man. Since we’ve been working on educating ourselves on various ways we can save the planet (using this book I shared about last week), we’ve definitely all been feeling a little bit convicted. The big girls and I have really been enjoying going through the book and talking about things we do and how we can improve. They aren’t major things, but it’s definitely a start. Plus, awareness and intentionality is key.

We talked about how we need to use both sides of the paper because we want to help preserve trees. They’ve also started turning off the water as they soap their hands and then turning it back on to rinse. Brave has a tendency to take a long time to wash her hands, but now we agreed singing the “Happy Birthday” song while washing is sufficient time. They used to keep the bathroom light on at night (they’re afraid of the dark), but now they turn it off because they say they don’t want to waste energy, even that one surprised Ben a bit because they loved having that light on!

We made a small list of practical things we can do on the whiteboard, which the girls then wrote down in their journals. They also made a little picture to accompany each tip. Then, they even made their own eco-warriors! True named hers Princess Earth, and Brave named hers Laura. Not sure what that has to do with saving the planet, but that’s what she decided, so Laura it is!

Here are some bits of information from You Can Save the Planet that startled us…
“The average person uses and disposes of the equivalent of seven trees a year.” That’s a lot of trees!
“Up to 2 gallons of water can run out of the tap in one minute.” Imagine all that water we waste so fast!
“A color TV left on standby can use 85% of the energy it uses when it is actually one.” We don’t have a TV, but my computer is always on standby, I need to shut it off more often.

It is kind of cool to see the girls taking an active role in these little things. I know these things are minor and small now, but hopefully it will instill in them an awareness in helping take care of this planet. It’s a beautiful place and I want them to take care in keeping it that way! Like Tinajo said in a comment last week, “Everyone can’t do everything, but everyone can do something!” That is so true and I want to teach my kids that though they are little, they definitely can do something.

I loved all the suggestions you gave last week about other books/blogs to read regarding this subject as I’ve looked some of them up already. We’re definitely enjoying learning how to be eco-warriors together and I encourage you all to do what you can too!  What sort of things do you do in your own home to help save our planet? I’d love to hear your tips and tricks too!

This is one of my favorite rooms in the house. Maybe because it feels the most complete, or maybe it’s because I just love that hammock so much. Actually, we all do. If you wanna see more of it and find out some of my favorite parts of the room, you can check out my room tour over at A Beautiful Mess. It was a couple weeks back, but I just kept forgetting to share it in this space, so here it is. I actually just took pictures of some other spaces in our house and I promise to share more with you soon.

We took a little family excursion to visit the Carlsbad Flower Fields a couple weekends ago. I’ve always wanted to take the girls, but every year we miss the small window of time they’re open. This year we almost missed it again, but made time to go on the last Saturday it was open, but even then, we almost missed it because we left later than originally planned and then I was totally mad the whole drive there because things weren’t going as planned. Well, they weren’t going as I planned in my head. Thankfully, Ben and I kissed and made up once we got there because it wouldn’t have been fun for the girls had I decided to hold on to my silly frustration. So we went in, let the girls do the little scavenger hunt they had there, went through a sweet pea maze, saw lots of gorgeous flowers, and admired how pretty everything was. And since we only had an hour and a half there, we were walking like mad and the girls were running from flag to flag to make sure they got all their stamps for the scavenger hunt. It was a shorter time that I had planned, but we still ended up having lots of fun. Next time though, we’re going to aim to get a little more time in there.

I’m sure most know by now about the fury a tornado unleashed in Oklahoma. It makes me so sad to see the images of it all. I’ve never experienced a tornado, but reading Rachel’s post really got me. Things like that really sober up life a bit. I think one of the great things about the internet and blogs is that as much as we can encourage each other on our favorite products, or what style we’re currently loving, we can also encourage each other to make a difference where it counts. So if you’re moved to help out in anyway, I encourage you to do so. The Red Cross and Conduit Mission is on hand to serve those affected, as well as a number of other charities, so let’s do what we can!

We were both getting dressed to go on our date (and my brother’s senior recital later) when noticed we were pretty much wearing the same thing. Ben told me to change and I told him to change, but we both didn’t want to change, so I said, “Whatever.” And then so we matched. I thought it was kinda funny.

Date nights are rare, but thankfully we have a great babysitter and she came to watch the girls, so Friday afternoon (before my brother’s recital) was the perfect time to sneak in a date. We went to Native Foods Cafe, which I had been dying to take Ben to because I had a feeling he would love it. Well, turns out I was right! All the combinations sounded completely interesting to him and he ended up ordering the Moroccan Bowl and I got the Scorpion Burger. He was quite impressed with how loaded his dish was with veggies. I was totally impressed with the buffalo wings, which were the best tasting wings I ever had, even if it wasn’t even really made out of chicken. I’m getting hungry just thinking about how yummy it all was. We both agreed to plan another date night there again soon.

It’s nice to get a meal in without interruption. I think we mostly talked about the food. Ha! Oh and summer. We have vacation plans underway and we are very, very excited. And I’m pretty sure I was giving Ben googly eyes all afternoon. I love that man. I really do.

When was the last time you went on a date night? We go about once every other month. We’d love to go weekly, but it isn’t realistic for us.

Salmon Tacos with Mango-Avocado Salsa. The salsa was very good, but it tasted better a day later. I think all the flavors had time to blend and it was much more yummy. We love fish tacos, so it’s hard to go wrong with that for dinner. Brave is the only one who isn’t wild about salmon, but I think True had like 5 tacos! Of course, the girls did theirs without the spice. The radishes we used were straight from our garden and they are the best radishes I have ever tasted!

Kale Noodle Bowl with Avocado Miso Dressing. This one was just, “eh.” It sounded good in theory, but something was missing to me. Ben liked it, but he wasn’t wild. True loved the soba noodles and Brave loved all of it (she had a couple of servings). It was loaded with lots of kale, so that was one good thing about it. I probably tripled what the recipe called for because we had a lot to use from our garden.

Week 5/20 – 5/24
Monday: Orzo with Feta, Basil and Shrimp
Tuesday: Chicken Enchiladas
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Hummus wraps
Friday: Sushi night

I would love to make this, but Ben says it’s a bit costly for a family dinner, so I’m thinking of making a similar version using cod. Anyone ever try to change crab cakes into fish cakes? Is it just as good? I’ve totally been loving the Williams-Sonoma food blog. All their pictures are just gorgeous and almost every dish suddenly makes me hungry! I’m obsessed with looking through their blog for ideas and I’ve been pinning so many of their recipes. What have you been cooking lately?