The Monday Edition: 11.13.23

Welcome to the Monday Edition! I’ve been itching to write a more comprehensive, informal weekly roundup like I used to here on the blog. I have always enjoyed reading those ‘week in review’ posts which share a little glimpse into the day-to-day lives of bloggers. So I’m throwing mine into the mix!

In these posts, you can expect a little recap of what I’ve been up to in the past week, books I’ve read, shows we are watching, random purchases including clothing, home, beauty, and other things, recipes we’ve cooked, and any interesting articles that caught my attention that week.

The Front Page Thoughts

This past week, I’ve been gradually getting into the holiday spirit. I began by turning on a Christmas playlist while I was cooking dinner then I did some holiday decor shopping. I buy a few new things each year to add to my holiday collection. I placed a big order from Crate Barrel which included this realistic looking garland to hang on our mantle, some faux cypress stems, and a couple of these olive green glass taper candle holders for our dining room table. We won’t decorate till the day after Thanksgiving, but I want to be prepared when the day comes! I’ll be sharing some holiday outfits soon as well!

This past weekend, I took Ellie to go see the Taylor Swift Eras Tour film, and it was so amazing. The music, choreography, dancers, and everything was so well done. It makes me want to see the actual concert in person even more; although, I doubt I will get the chance. I grew up with her music, and each era brings me back to a certain point in my life. Ellie enjoyed it to, and we danced a little in our seats to our favorites.

Style

Here’s the outfits I wore and photographed from last week. As always you can find all my outfits with links in the Daily Looks page of my blog.

Food

Here’s a recap of the recipes we cooked this week. I discovered Caro Chambers ‘What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking’ substack, and I’ve been obsessed. We cooked five recipes from her site last week, and they all were SO delicious. I planned all our meals from her site again this week.

Monday: Sheet Pan Miso Ginger Salmon with cauliflower rice and snap peas

We added some brown rice because #ineedcarbs. The miso sauce was so flavorful and the salmon cooked perfectly plus it came together really fast as well.

Tuesday: Greek Turkey Meatballs with Couscous and Dill Yogurt Sauce

This meal came together in one pot, and it was super delicious. These flavors are my favorite, and I enjoyed the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Wednesday: Sheet Pan Sausage, Sweet Potatoes, and Apples

This is a comforting fall meal if there ever was one. The miso sauce that everything was cooked with was amazing, and I really like the addition of apples. The kids were literally picking pieces off the pan like animals.

Thursday: One Skillet Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Pot Pie

This one took some time to prepare (I would’t recommend it for a busy weeknight) but it turned out really delicious. This also cooked in one pan.

Friday: Bee Sting Pizza Insalata

I’ve been getting kind of tired of our usual pizza combinations so I was excited to try this one for our pizza and a movie night. We used a premade crust from our local grocery store, and the spicy and sweet combination was perfectly balanced.

Saturday: Out to dinner with the family at Mission Cantina

This is a family friendly Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood. It was Leo’s request (they have a free toy bin at the entrance, LOL.)

Sunday: Takeout from Falafal Salam

We usually don’t do dinner from restaurants twice in one weekend, but I didn’t feel like cooking Sunday night. We fed the kids some frozen chicken tenders and ordered our dinner after they went to bed.

We also cooked this granola to have on hand (I don’t know why I don’t do this more often; homemade granola is so easy to make) and this easy and healthy pumpkin bread.

Entertainment

This week, I finished up Elin Hilderbrand’s Hotel Nantucket and really enjoyed it! Her books are always good for a quick and fun read which is just what I’m looking for when I cozy up under the covers before bed.

We are also enjoying the new episodes of The Great British Baking Show which are released weekly. We are big fans of the show (we named our cat, Prue, after one the hosts.) We also watched All the Light We Cannot See this week which is based on the novel by Anthony Doerr and was recently released on Netflix. It started out slow, but I was enthralled towards the end.

I’ve also been listening to the latest series on Sharon’s McMahon’s podcast, Mayhem: The 1970’s You Never Knew. I really love these historical series she does on her podcast.