Meat Month: Days 22-25

It is Day 26, my friends. So close. So very, very close. I can see you from here, October, and you look like a shimmering stein of German beer. Perched atop a hill of soft pretzels. Covered in a gentle dusting of powdered sugar. If you follow me on Pinterest you may have concluded, based on my 24-hour dessert-pinning rampage, that my head is not exactly in the game anymore. And you would be right! Why, today at Central Market I committed my very first intentional cheat: a sample-sized cup of coffee even though it was after 12 pm. SHUT IT DOWN, THE EXPERIMENT HAS FAILED.

No, it's fine, I will push through this shocking transgression and finish out the week. I recently came to the conclusion that maybe I don't actually need to come up with new and unique meals three times a day. And that maaaaybe my mood would improve with a little bit less work. So I threw in a couple of repeats--chocolate chili and meatza (Yes! A meatza repeat! Za!) and looked for a simple way to generate several servings of food. Where to turn for inspiration? Holly seems much, much, better at this than I am, I thought. Probably because of all the taco salad.

And with that, I figured out Paleo.

Incidentally, if you're interested in reading some Whole 30 reporting that is different than mine in every way imaginable (which is to say, thoughtful and interesting and grown up), Holly's got you covered. She even has a post with Whole 30 tips where I have a small but pivotal role as "Whiny Commenter."

Or, you know, you can just stick around here for four more days of complaining. Four! More! Days! Four! More! Days!

Since today's entry is a little light on food, how about some Food Lush posts that I keep forgetting to link to? Okra, port, roasted nuts, and ratatouille. What more could you need?

The girls spent some quality time with their grandparents this weekend, mostly being mesmerized by their respective toys. And when I say Ivy was "mesmerized" by this crab, I do not mean that she was very interested in it. I mean she attained some different level of consciousness every time it made its little crabby noise. Keep in mind that there is absolutely nothing in front of her throughout this entire series of pictures.

Kinda takes a turn at the end.

Anyhow, Anna really enjoyed her activity too.