The Monday Edition: 11.20.23

Happy Thanksgiving Week! You may find the content here on Stitch & Salt a little spotty as the kids are home with me all week. I will be sharing some of my favorite Black Friday sales that are going on though. Many of the things I own are discounted right now, and if you’ve had your eye on something, I want you to get it at a good price! I will also be sharing a fun list of my favorite things if you’re looking for gift ideas.

I had ordered a big Thanksgiving spread from Sunbasket a few weeks ago thinking we’d just be staying home with our family this year (all our extended family is in Kansas City), but a new friend invited us to their Friendsgiving celebration at their house which sounds much more fun. I’ll be cooking our Thanksgiving meal box on Wednesday probably, and we’ll just enjoy the leftovers all week for yummy lunches.

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’m still obsessed with Caroline Chamber’s Substack What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking Her recipes are really creative but approachable, super family friendly, and don’t dirty a ton of dishes. If you’re not familiar with Substack, it’s basically a paid newsletter subscription. At only $5 per month, I think it’s well worth it.

Monday: One-Pot Pantry Pasta

This was such a quick, easy, and delicious meal to put together on a weeknight. It reminded me of a fancy, homemade hamburger helper. The recipe calls for cauliflower rice which means extra sneaky veggies, and we also added spinach for more.

Tuesday: Chicken Tacos

We needed a quick meal to throw together in between gymnastics and a school event. We went really simple and classic with chicken, pico, guacamole, cheese, and cilantro.

Wednesday: Pork Chops With Apples And Polenta

This meal was restaurant quality but came together in about 30 minutes. I love polenta and don’t cook it enough. This one will be made again for sure.

Thursday: One Pot Mushroom Orzo Carbonara

This vegetarian meal was lemony, creamy, and delicious. I’m usually not a big fan of mushrooms, but this recipe did them right.

Friday: Nachos!

We like to switch between pizza and nachos for our Friday family movie nights. These chips are seriously the best tortilla chips and will ruin you for every other brand. We piled ours high with seasoned taco meat, cheese, jalapeños, guacamole, pico (both store-bought, but super fresh), sour cream, and cilantro. So good!

Saturday: Takeout from Falafel Salam

We did this last Saturday night, too. Danny and I can’t get enough of Middle Eastern food.

Sunday: Sheet-Pan Honey Roasted Chicken, Carrots, and Brussels Sprouts with Tahini Yogurt

I love a sheet-pan meal and this one had that balance of sweet and savory that I love. We served ours with a fresh baguette.

We also cooked up these healthy pumpkin oatmeal pancakes on Sunday morning which were heavily spiced and very pumpkiny. They got rave reviews all around.

Entertainment

I started a new nonfiction book this week called Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, MD. Maybe it’s because my 40th birthday is rapidly approaching, but lately, I’ve been very interested in the science of aging and how to stay healthy in body and mind as I get older. Full warning, the book is a bit of a tome and heavy in science based vocabulary, but I actually enjoy that (I used to be a nurse!)

I also listened to the new podcast by Julia Louis-Dreyfus called Wiser Than Me. The premise of the show is that nobody interviews older women although they are a wealth of knowledge and experience. I have listened to her interviews with Jane Fonda and Fran Lebowitz and found them both frank and fascinating. Highly recommend!

We also have been watching Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV and enjoying it so much. It’s based on the book of the same name by Bonnie Garmus which was one of my favorite books of the last few years.