Fourth of July Ribs

Having the day off Tuesday allowed me to be super productive. One of the biggest tasks I took on for the day-besides our kitchen cabinets- were the ribs we ate for dinner. This past year one of the things I have worked on doing better is cooking. I noticed through my first year at Washburn we were eating extremely unhealthy and I could tell I was gaining weight. I've alluded to this is previous posts but have been exceptionally happy with how big of a habit it has become.

Every Sunday one of the first things I do when I get up is meal plan for the week. Trust me- it is not an extravagant meal plan like those you see on health blogs but it is something. I typically pick anywhere between 4-5 meals for the week to buy groceries for. I don't pre-prep the food unless I know it will be a super busy week. I just lay out five meals during the week and choose one to cook at the end of each day. 

Now for those who know me, I am not the best cook. I never have felt "comfortable" in the kitchen. However, I do enjoy cooking... as long as there is a recipe associated with what I am cooking. I don't know what pairs well with what so I leave that to Pinterest. This week I decided with the fourth I would tackle cooking ribs. 

Andrew is not a huge fan of eating meat off the bone or really anything other than beef, chicken, and turkey. But every once and awhile I am able to sneak in another meat of choice so I thought what better day than the fourth of July! 

Recently I stumbled across the Little Bits Of blog and have been drawn to multiple of her recipes. Especially this BBQ Ribs post she highlighted when she took over the Whole 30 Instagram page awhile back. By all means I am not following the Whole 30... which is proven when I substituted her homemade BBQ sauce for store bought. However, this served as a guiding point for my venture to make our ribs somewhat edible. 

  

Although Andrew didn't eat much they satisfied my craving for BBQ! We hope your fourth was filled with delicious food and {safe} celebrating! 

Food coma

The holidays always make my heart and stomach full. Spending time with both Andrew and my family is always full of laughs along with delicious food.

This past week I told Andrew I wanted nothing more than a salad for dinner. We gorged ourselves on Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, and the day after that. There is always a ton of leftovers and everyone just ends up eating those the remainder of the weekend.

When we came home Sunday, it was rainy and gross outside. My all time favorite food in the winter is soup. Since the gloomy weather was supposed to continue I decided to prep two soups to take for lunch throughout the week.

This Black Bean and Lentil Chili has already made an appearance once on my blog. Last year I was given this recipe to try and absolutely feel in love. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been looking forward to winter just to have an excuse to eat this!


While in Beaver Creek, CO for a conference a couple weeks ago we had Pumpkin Soup and I became obsessed as fast as I ate the soup. While we were eating, someone recommended Panera's Autumn Squash soup and I am forever grateful. Unfortunately, it will not be in my budget or stomach's best interest if I ate this soup everyday. So I found a replica to try on my own and I'm looking forward to eating it this week for lunch! Behold- Butternut Squash Soup!

**I completely blanked and forgot to get the coconut milk while we were at the store so I substituted greek yogurt