What Ana Does

Alert! Alert! We're entering a transition month. Soccer and fall activities are ending. The days are shorter and colder. Winter coats are out, along with winter boots and all the hats/mittens/scarves I can find. And with all this change come a chance for me to gather goals for the winter months. - Wake up earlier. Leah is currently pulling me out of bed in the morning, being dressed and starving. It would help her out if I was actually getting out of bed myself. - Evening working outs. I did this once and now I'm not on the soccer field (being semi-active) three times a week, I need to find a weekly class or something to increase activity levels ... at a time of the year when I really just want to start hibernating. - Train the girls to do more stuff for themselves. Like picking up their after-school-snack wrappers. This should be subtitled, "I continue to nag my children" as that's what it feels like. - Back to weekly menu planning. Only one night a ...

With soccer season finally over (I have mixed feelings about this), I'll now have some extra time to get back to real menu planning. During soccer season, my weekly dinner menus heavily rely on frozen nuggets and veggies heated in the microwave -- what more can a working mom who gets home from soccer practice at 7pm do? Do you create weekly dinner menus? It's a life-changer. No joke. You'll spend less at the grocery store, throw out less food and help maintain a healthy diet. Plus, silence that nagging "what am I going to make for dinner tonight" question that runs on repeat on your drive home. It's all planned, sister! But it requires dedication. You can't plan a taco night and decide that evening you're in the mood for pizza. No sir! It's on the menu so YOU GET yourself in the mood to eat that taco. (!!) I sit down to plan meals on Saturday or Sunday morning -- depending on when I'm grocery shopping. First, I take a look at the week ahe...

I'm starting week 6 this week, meaning I'm half-way through this little weight-loss experiment. So far I've learned: A View of My Cutting Board - I can live without chocolate. Seriously. I swipe some ice cream from the kids, sometimes, but I'm pretty ok without it. French women don't eat chocolate unless it's very high quality, and then they savor a small amount. Be snooty about your food. - I cannot live without bread. I tried. The first two weeks I was limited to two servings and I nearly DIED (not really). I. need. my. bread. Since, I've let it sneak in a little too liberally, from Wasa crackers to a piece of toast topped with avocado and tomatoes. So, my goal is to find a happy balance. I mean, my splurge was croutons, people. That's crazytown. - I'm a big dork when I try complicated exercise moves -- and that's OK. I found a spot in my basement, in front of the TV, where I can see my reflection in a window. It's good, becau...

I don't know about you, but I go through cookbook phases, in which I have a little love affair with a book's recipes and author. And I love buying cookbooks, so I have quite a collection. Here are the cookbooks in current rotation: The Homemade Pantry  is my go-to for all the from-scratch cooking I've been doing lately; from my foray into yogurt making to the fresh lasagna noodles I made for Christmas and last night's pizza dough. Alana's writes super-simple directions that are easy to follow -- you can tell she makes these often, and is not just perfecting them in a test kitchen and moving on. Plus, she includes little memoirs of the recipe origins or her experiences with them. I'm planning on trying the homemade ketchup and mayo someday, and Dave has been begging me to make the pastries (homemade "PopTarts") that are on the cover. Seriously, it's the best. Get a copy. It's All Good is Gwynnie's new cookbook that is all healthy meals....

I was in the mood for some Frenchy soup last weekend -- despite the miserable heat (in September, really?) so I found a recipe for Leek and Potato soup, which sounded incredible Parisian to me. It was also super easy. I even made Crème fraîche for the topping. Because of Dave's lactose issues, I found a cream-less version (he passed on the topping), which is apparently even more Frenchy, on this adorable blog run by a gal living in Paris (Montmartre, to be exact). Just look at her picture! Adorable. (Her cookbook is now on my Holiday Wish List, family members take note.) Oh, and the soup was pretty good, too. A large amount of it went into the freezer for a rainy day. Potatoes Getting Peeled Leeks Sliced and Ready for a Boil Related posts: All the cookbook posts What I learned about menu planning