Lovely Meals Lately: January 2023

Friends! I've missed you! How was your holiday season? Was it bright and cozy or a bit chaotic or all the above? Ours was a little bit of everything. Sweet and slow and full of snowwww! It's a real winter wonderland here in Denver.

We flew back to in Ohio for the first time in 6 months. Traveling over the holidays with a toddler is quite a doozy, but we had such a great time seeing our fam and friends.

You may have noticed that I took a little break on Lovely Meals content but I'm so happy to be back today to share some simple yet satisfying eats! Be sure to check out The Top 10 Recipes of 2022, too.

In other news, Max turns two in a few weeks and I cannot believe how fast our guy is growing and blossoming into a hilarious, spunky, mischievous human. He's such a little man.

We visited our friends in Columbus when we first got to Ohio and it was so great popping into Alchemy and all our other favorite restaurants. Sinking my teeth into Detroit-style pizza with hot honey and basil at our beloved Paulie Gee's was a memory I won't soon forget!

Lovely Meals

We brunched with pals on epic breakfast sammies (with homemade English muffins!!) at the new Mercury Diner.

For breakfast at home I've been craving a bowl of oats with a pool of salty peanut butter and juicy, sweet blueberries. Most of the time I have some scrambled eggs on the side, too.

I made this sweet potato salad with creamy honey mustard dressing and we looooved it! (Lots of changes based on what we had--subbed romaine, no cheese, croutons, herbs, or cucumber.) We both want to try more meal-salad recipes so we're planning to make a new one each week. It's nice to have leftovers for lunch, too!

We still make my vegan lasagna all the time. Jeff and I are far from vegan, but this foolproof recipe is so scrumptious and nourishing! We like to enjoy it with a salad and garlic bread.

Every weekend Jeff has been making these incredible oat flour waffles for us. We absolutely love them! The crispy texture and buttery flavor is sublime (we use butter).

Tuna pasta salad for easy fridge lunches!

I whipped up my chocolate peanut butter protein bars to have on hand for quick snacking. Yum!

Almond flour chocolate chip cookies for life. Always my number one when we're craving easy cookies!

I'm not gonna lie...I don't usually have lunches prepped and ready to go. Getting dinner on the table *most* nights feels manageable but lunches tend to be leftovers, eggs and avocado toast, smoothies + something else to fill me up, or frozen burritos. Amy's Vietnamese burritos are my favorite!

Smoothie bags weee! I haven't done this in forever but I've really been craving chocolate blueberry smoothies. In each bag, I put a cup of frozen blueberries, a few frozen strawberries, a small handful of frozen spinach, a scoop of protein, 1 tbsp each cacao powder and chia seeds, ½ tbsp flax, and ½ tsp spirulina.

When I'm ready to blend, I add almond milk to cover, some avocado, and a medjool date for sweetness.

I forgot to snap a photo, but I made the peanut butter lover's chocolate tart on New Year's Eve from Oh She Glows Everyday cookbook and it was sooo yummy.

One day I had a hankering for grilled cheese so I made one with havarti and cheddar plus this tomato soup.

Stuff I'm Loving Lately

1. Jack Ryan: There's nothing not to like about John Krasinski (so easy on the eyes). This show always has me on the edge of my seat wanting more!
2. More than My Hometown: Did you know I throughly enjoy country music? Pop country is probably the correct term, but I've listened to this jam on repeat the past couple weeks.
3. Winter in Paradise: I love everything Elin Hildebrand and this book is no exception. I adore her sense of humor, character development, and balance of lightheartedness and realistic hardship in the stories.
4. I want this lightweight cardigan shacket situation and love all the color combos! Half off right now.
5. Glowscreen: I've been using this as my daily SPF for months ever since my best friend's glowy face convinced me. Well, I'm officially converted. It goes on much smoother than others I've tried and adds such a pretty layer when, especially when you don't want to use makeup. I have the bronze one and love the tan it gives me. The tube also lasts so long. I'm still on my first one!

What book/show/song/random thing are you loving lately?!