Meal Plan Slump

Today's to-do list was all about getting back into the swing of things after almost a week away from home. Despite not working for the last several months, I still find myself writing lists of what needs to get done. At least that way I can look at my day and feel like I accomplished something (other than taking care of our baby boy, which of course is my most important job). I spent most of my morning unpacking, cleaning, and trying to create a meal plan.

Speaking of which, I'm in a total meal planning slump. Every week I sit down to come up with some interesting ideas, and I find myself facing a painfully blank page. It reminds me of college, when I had to write dozens of papers (I was an English major), and staring at the blank page was the worst part. But back then, once I got a few paragraphs written, the words would flow. With my meal planning lately, I come up with one (pretty pathetic) idea and then sit there annoyed with my inability to think of more.

Here's what I have so far for this week:

Dinners:
Monday: Mom's chili verde (when we left yesterday she handed me a container out of her freezer and told me she really does love me...and Terry is even more excited than I am) with a salad.

Tuesday: Crock pot chicken (I'm going to try winging a new recipe with salsa and chicken breasts in the slow cooker) with a side of rice and another salad

Wednesday: Date night!

Thursday: Leftover crock pot chicken

Friday: Out of town again

Lunches:
I have absolutely NOTHING on our lunch menu. Today I ate fried eggs and toast. I wish I were the type of person who loves salad so much I could eat it every day and just rotate different vegetables and proteins into the mix. I should really try harder to force myself to like salads more. But to me, salad is almost always an accompaniment to dinner and nothing more.

I've tried looking in cookbooks and on Pinterest, but I keep making excuses or just fail to follow through on recipes that look good. I think I feel like every meal needs to be "easy," when in fact we have a very independent baby who would be happy to hang out on his own while I start dinner. Plus, Terry usually plays with Marshall and does most of the bedtime routine, so I get a good chunk of time there, too. Still, I haven't found a good rhythm yet with the meal planning thing and find myself making the same stuff over and over--and it's not even all that delicious.

These are my problems. Please alert the masses.

 Okay, so back to the day.

Lots of unpacking. Here's Marshall's stuff from the week. We ended up acquiring several new outfits thanks to generous friends and family!

Marshall LOVES looking in the mirror now. I plopped him down in front of a mirror in our room and he had a blast smiling at himself!

Also, he spent about ten minutes just chilling on his mat like this.

Umm...what? (He kind of looks asleep there, but no, he's wide awake. Just contemplating life.)

After Terry finished work and I finished a few errands, we met up at the Strand for a long walk while watching the sunset. (<--Please know that I really do appreciate the fact that I live so near such a beautiful beach and that I can watch the sunset there anytime.) We're soaking up the last few days of "late" light before Daylight Savings kicks in.

When we got home, we played with Marshall and put him to bed, then devoured my mom's chili verde and a salad (I did spice things up a little by adding cherry tomatoes and avocado...). Now I have brownies baking in the oven (those are Terry's favorite dessert and what I consider the very best homemade brownie recipe ever. I reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup but keep everything else exactly the same, and they are truly awesome). It's been a really nice start to the week.

And here's another photo from the weekend, in case you missed it on Instagram. Marshall loves his Uncle Chris!

Can you suggest some new, interesting meals for me? Any meal planning tips?

Do you love looking in the mirror as much as Marshall does? Lately I avoid mirrors, and it works out for the best for my self esteem. :-)