The Emptiness at the End of Summer Vacation (I'm filling it with food and beads)

Today just seems like the end of summer; school is starting back (not that it affects me much) and our staycation has ended. It feels like a new start. . a perfect time to get back on the ball. While it unfortunately rained the last few days of our vacation, the bad weather gave me an opportunity to plan out this week. That planning especially included our meals. Here's what I'm looking forward to enjoying this week

Breakfasts: Oatmeal/cheese grits, Juice, Yogurt w/granola & fruit, Omelet w/fruit, Whole wheat waffles, English muffin with peanut butter & fruit

Baked Homemade Pizza Rolls from Back to Her Roots

Lunches: PB&J w/fruit & chips, Baked homemade pizza rolls, Soup w/grilled cheese, Bean burritos w/all the fixin's, Turkey sandwiches, Sesame noodles w/carrots, Leftovers

Slow Cooker Black Bean Enchiladas from The Kitchn

Dinners:

Slow cooker black bean enchiladas w/salad

Curried brown rice with broccoli casserole (1/2 recipe)

Pad Thai Soup

BBQ Tofu Pizza

Chicken Parmesan casserole (1/2 recipe) w/pasta

Pad Thai Soup from Tasty Kitchen - recipe and photo via Jackie Dodd

I'm linking up to I'm an Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

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Recipe Review

Since I didn't meal plan last week and thus didn't blog my recipe review, let me go ahead and review what we ate the week before last.

Spicy peanut butter tofu: I made these a little bit spicier than suggested with a tad more Sirracha and a touch of chili oil. It was yummy! I'll probably make this again.

Pasta and white beans with garlic rosemary oil (half recipe): I actually forgot that I was doing a half recipe of this, so I used the whole carrot, celery, onion, and garlic amounts but then adjusted most everything else down a bit. I also used some veg broth instead of water/cooked bean water in some cases. It was really pretty good. I may make this again.

Skinny baked broccoli mac and cheese: This was okay. . .I accidentally bought and used VANILLA almond milk in this recipe so I personally tasted a distinct sweetness to it. The hubs said he couldn't. Either way, I just didn't find this creamy enough for me. I couldn't taste cheese at all. I might make it again to see if it's just the almond milk that was the problem, but I'm not completely convinced that was it.

Honey balsamic carrots: I've made these before and we like them. I'll admit that I'm not a HUGE lover of cooked carrots anyway (I prefer them raw), but I like all the flavors that go into this recipe. I do have to adjust my amounts from the recipe as 2 pounds of carrots is WAY more than the two of us will eat. I'll probably make these again.

Garlic sesame snow peas:  These weren't listed on the menu two weeks ago, but I found this recipe at the last minute to cook the snow peas that I did plan (To clarify, I had snow peas on the menu but didn't specify what I would do with them.) I had everything on hand to make these and it came together very quickly! I'll make these again.

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Also during the rainstorms, I had time to make sure my bead table was ready for a fresh start. I started vacation off by pulling out a bunch of beads that I only had a single pair of left. Earrings. . .pairs. . .it seemed a good start to me.

About the middle of vacation, the top of my desk looked something like this.

By the time yesterday rolled around, this is what I was dealing with! GAH!!!!

It only took a few minutes to straighten in back out, thank goodness.

I mean. . .who wants to come back from vacation to a mess? The 19 pairs of completed earrings were a definite plus to the whole situation.

That's all for today. I've got all kinds of other news and posts to share with you, but I figured I'd stick with routine for this Monday. Is it feeling like the end of summer for you too?