Happy Sunday Friends.
Alright, week two. We’ve been home now for two weeks besides a couple grocery store runs and a daily walk or workout outside, not getting too close to people of course. It’s a bizarre thing to have certain parts of your neighborhood closed off in caution tape, cops patrolling the streets, and seeing every restaurant, bar, and shop closed up. It’s scary, but this is our new normal. We’ve been cooking a lot, chatting with family & friends over FaceTime, reading, watching movies/shows. I’m working from home, and Thomas is still flying but he’s had the last 9 days off which has been so nice having him home. We have no idea if his hours are going to be cut or what the airlines will do so we have to wait and see. Everything is so uncertain at this point so we are just staying positive, focusing on what we can control, enjoying the little things and embracing that this is the new norm. I just wanted to pop on here and share some recipes we’ve had the last couple of weeks, things we’re reading/watching, and other tidbits to help brighten your Sunday!
What we’ve been eating
Let me tell ya, I need those daily walks/runs with all the eating we’re doing! I get the snack attacks being inside so much, but overall I feel like we’ve been pretty healthy and being diligent about planning out meals and using what we have. Here’s some of my faves we’ve made over the last couple weeks:
Beans and things:
Brothy beans with kimchi and squash from Bon Appetite – I’ve made this multiple times the last couple of months. You throw everything in one pot and it’s so simple.
Chickpeas – I’ve been loving boiling these with a little chicken stock and spices, smashing it on a tostado or corn tortilla and topping it with whatever you have! My fave from this week was a chickpea tostado and I put roasted cauliflower and drizzled it with lemony tahini and cilantro.
Split pea soup – so easy, so good. Is this a southern thing? Thomas had never had it before. Don’t judge me, but everyone had bought all of the ham at the store so I used jowl bacon… and it was delicious!
Eggs:
I feel like there hasn’t been a shortage of eggs in grocery stores and it’s something that lasts a few weeks in the fridge, so I would definitely recommend getting several cartons! My favorite egg recipe lately is making grits with a little parmesan and milk (or you can use whatever cheese you have), topping with any sort of tomato sauce or pesto in your fridge, and adding an over-easy runny egg to it!
Pasta:
The ultimate comfort food and based on the lack of it being on the shelves in the grocery store I’m guessing you all have A LOT of it in your pantries.
– Lemon and Walnut pasta by Chrissy Teigen – so simple and good.
– If we want something lighter, we use a veggie type pasta like Lentil pasta from trader joes and toss it with the red pepper sauce I use in this recipe! We make this sauce in bulk and use it for quinoa bowls throughout the week.
How we’re staying entertained
Lots of books, movies, and shows!
Shows: Tigar King which was so crazy and ridiculous but I couldn’t stop watching! We were watching The Deuce on HBO but now we’ve switched to season 3 of Ozark.
Movies: lots of classics but in terms of new movies we watched Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler and I didn’t love it – he does a good job acting but the entire movie it seems everyone is screaming and it’s a pointless plot. Fracture on Netflix is pretty good! Crazy plot twist at the end.
Books: You guys, I think I said this already but Behind Closed Doors was one of my favorite suspense type books as of late. Order it on Amazon if you need a new book! Now I’m reading the One which is about a DNA test that matches you with you soulmate and it follows 5 characters, seems cool so far!
If you need a cute at home date night idea do a wine tasting around your house! Since we had to cancel our anniversary trip this weekend, Thomas surprised me with a fun wine pairing in our apartment – how stinkin’ cute is that?! Different cheeses and wines set in different places in our apartment! If you’re looking for a fun date night I would 100% do this. Pick out several different wine regions, and match cheeses/appetizers to go with it. For example you could do Spanish wine and then have manchego cheese and jamón ibérico. Or you could do a French wine with brie and baguette for a different region.
The last two weekends we’ve loved having happy hour on our balcony! If you’re use to going to a bar for happy hour take advantage of this time to make cocktails at home! I love using imbibe for recipes – We made a grapefruit Paloma this last weekend which is grapefruit juice, tequila, simple syrup, and topped with seltzer.
I’m trying to keep the mood light on here, but my thoughts are with everyone struggling through this crazy time. I pray everyone stays healthy and we can get this thing under wraps soon soon soon 💕
