Weekly Cookup: May 26th

As a management consultant, I travel a lot for work however I try to minimize disruption to my household.  When I am home, I enjoy cooking for my family because I think it is healthier and I like to try new things.  So, when I am away I don't want them to revert to takeout for dinner every night.  Not only would this be expensive, it would not be nearly as healthy as the organic farm fresh food I typically prepare.  This week, I will only be out of town for a couple of days so I prepared a couple of dishes.  I made lasagna roll-ups when essentially have the same ingredients as regular lasagna with a slightly different prep.

Rolling lasagna noodles filled with ricotta and shredded cheese

I also cooked curry chicken which I threw in the crockpot as we were on our way out the door to a Memorial Day cookout.

Though I cook a lot, I have a general rule that my time in the kitchen should not exceed 30 minutes for a meal unless it is a truly special occasion.  So the crockpot is a perfect solution.  My weekly cookup includes meals that reheat well and make good leftovers.  Let me know if you have any suggestions to add to my repertoire.

Lazy Sunday morning and iced coffee

I turned my Memorial Day weekend into 5 days of downtime thanks to vacation days on Thursday and Friday.  I've taken on additional leadership responsibilities at work so I really make an extra effort to be fully present during family time which means unplugging and relaxing.

I started if this morning with iced coffee and mango pancakes (my hubby is the Pancake King!)  Normally, I eat protein, fruit and veggies for breakfast but I could not resist these awesome pancakes.  The mango carmelized as they cooked....yum!

Then I spent some time on the patio with my daughter as she planted her taco and pizza gardens.  My hubby and son had a tee time at Turtle Creek so it turned out to be a Girls'' Day In.  We relaxed and gave ourselves pedicures on the patio.  It turned out to be a perfect holiday Sunday.  Feeling blessed!

Ending a Busy Week

As a management consultant, I often travel Monday – Thursday.  So yesterday, I headed home.  I left my client’s office a bit later than normal which means I arrived home a lot later than normal (11pm).  However, since I now know the Atlanta airport (my connecting point) like the back of my hand, I had already planned to treat myself to a decent meal during the long layover.  In my opinion, the best restaurant in the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport is One Flew South.  It has a wine bar feel and a fairly unique menu.  I enjoyed salmon bruschetta with a salad of mixed greens, pears, and goat cheese.  A nice oasis in the hustle and bustle of the world’s busiest airport.

This morning, I was up and at ‘em early for my 5:30am Crossfit Class.  As usual, the workout appeared fairly simple but still managed to leave us all flat on our backs.  But boy, what an awesome way to start the day!

The kick a$$ WOD (workout of the day) we did at 5:30am

My awesome post-workout breakfast!

The rest of the day was a blur of dropping off/picking up my kids at school and juggling conference calls and client deliverables.  I felt like I was operating in a haze of fatigue (because I was!) and was more than happy to end the day with drinks with my husband’s staff.  It was nice to finally exhale…