Hey!

I like the idea of doing a weekly round-up on IG. I don’t really post to my feed much at all, and now there’s an option to add music to still photos and carousels, and it’s just too many things to decide (which photos?, do I edit them?, music?, what order?). So I avoid it altogether. 😅

Lately, I’ve seen people do a round-up sort of post, with a selection of pictures from the week. And someone suggested using the acronym REPORT to decide the pictures:

• Reading (whatever you’re reading)

• Eating (maybe a fav meal)

• Playing (maybe like, something fun you did?)

• Obsessing (a show, movie, content creator, hairstyle)

• Recommending

• Treating (not really sure about this one😏)

Anyway, having a framework of some sort helps me, so I thought maybe it would help you too!

My latest round-up is some outfits I wore this week plus some foods we had. Not all of you are on Instagram or you may not see me in your feed much, sooo here’s that round-up! (Here are my favs from the week - Can you tell those are my favorite shoes?😍)

Other details about these 3:

• First: the top is a maternity tank from Walmart, and the jeans are maternity from Ingrid and Isabel (via Target).

• Middle: non-maternity dress from Target (Knox Rose is the brand)

• Last: maternity top from Target (Ingrid and Isabel), old cardigan, and a skirt I made myself ❤️ 

Soft, romantic life

According to the internet, a soft life “intentionally pursues an easy and peaceful life.” There’s a lady on TikTok who seems to display this. Her name is Nara Smith (her Insta and TikTok), and her videos are slow and lovely. I sometimes have to skip them because they make me feel less-than, which is my own hangup and not her fault. I just get caught up in the fact that I am not really like that, and then I have to remember that what someone shows on social media is a tiny sliver of their reality.

Another example of this, I think, is Amber Clark. She’s mostly on Insta, and one thing that comes up with her over and over is how she can romanticize the most mundane aspects of life. Doing laundry, making lemonade, her learning a new hobby, grocery shopping. She’s very good at making her life seem dreamy. I’m not naïve enough to believe these are the realities for these ladies, but I do appreciate the idea of making simple things more lovely, especially when so many other pages feel more go-go-go and buy-buy-buy, you know?

Weekly meal plan

Most weeks, I jot down a weekly meal plan - it takes me 5-10 minutes tops, mostly because we eat the same couple dozen meals over and over. I’ll explain how I meal plan, and then just share with you a plan you can use for yourself.

How I meal plan

1. Ask the kids. Is there a meal you really want this week? Annabelle requests spaghetti regularly, and Alexander requests a few different things. I try to include one requested meal per kid each week.

2. Vary the protein. Chicken’s easy, but I don’t want to make a chicken meal every single night. I try to include 1 beef, 1 seafood, 1 bean or pork, and then chicken for the rest. Cam can’t eat a ton of red meat, so this works for us!

3. Vary the cuisine. We eat Italian, Tex-Mex, Indian, Asian, and American, mostly. Last week, I made falafels, which falls under Middle Eastern, but we don’t often eat them. I do like branching out and trying new foods too, so whenever someone sends me an idea to try from their country, I do.

4. Think about the leftovers. There are some foods that are great for leftovers, so I plan to elevate or reinvent leftovers when I can.

5. Don’t forget breakfast and snacks. We love breakfast in our house, so I do try to throw in an interesting breakfast or two each week rather than the same things every day. And I do plan to bake a few times as well!

Okay, with all that said, here’s a meal plan you can use for next week! Some weeks, I jot down 5-6 dinners plus a few breakfasts. Other weeks, I write down Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack for each day, in order. Just depends on my mood!

Breakfast

• Sweet potato, carrot, apple, and sausage hash - You can take or leave any of these ingredients; sometimes I’ll just do the sweet potato and sausage. I chop it all the same size, then I cook the sweet potato and carrot first; once that’s almost tender, I add the apple and sausage and continue cooking. All in all, it takes 25-30 minutes, but it is great left over as well! Serve with eggs and fruit!

• Quiche - This can be quite quick and simple! You can use diced ham, shredded cheese, and frozen shredded potatoes, plus a pre-made pie crust. Mix about ½ cup each of the ham and potato, add in 8 eggs, ½ cup of milk, and the cheese, plus salt and pepper. Pour into a pie crust and bake at 375F for about 25 minutes! Make this the night before and then have leftovers for breakfast!

• Bacon and eggs - We tend to have bacon and eggs in some form, every day. Some days, it’s a breakfast quesadilla, burrito, or biscuit sandwich, or just fried bacon and eggs with a side of fruit.

• Oatmeal - We usually cook quick or rolled oats, then add in peanut butter, cinnamon, and maple syrup. Top with fresh berries or banana slices.

Lunch and dinner

• Butter chicken, basmati rice, and naan - I use this recipe for butter chicken! You can buy naan already made, or you can make this recipe. I often make the naan earlier in the day; it’s a lot to do the chicken and naan and rice all at the same time! It can be done, but it’s nonstop cooking for about 1-1.5 hours.

  

• Ramen noodle soup - Here’s a screenshot of my recipe for this! It comes together very quickly (well, for me, 30 minutes or less is very quick!).

  

• BBQ pulled pork sandwiches - I follow this recipe (instant pot version, crock pot version) to make my pulled pork!

  • Then shred the pork (you can shred it with a stand or electric mixer!), toss some of it* with BBQ sauce, and serve in a hamburger bun.

  • For sides, I like to make a carrot-apple slaw: julienne (or shred) 2-3 carrots plus 1-2 apples, then mix that with some lemon juice, plus 2 Tbsp mayo, plus salt and pepper.

  • We also make oven fries for this meal: peel and slice your potatoes into fry shape, toss in olive oil and salt and pepper, then roast at 425F for 25-30 minutes, tossing halfway.

• Meatballs and mashed potatoes - I call this our IKEA dinner.😅 

  • Mix 1 lb of ground beef with onion flakes or powder, 1 egg, and about ½ cup of breadcrumbs. If it feels a little dry, add a splash of milk. Otherwise, set that aside while you peel and chop your potatoes.

  • Boil (or steam) your potatoes. While the potatoes cook, roll the meatball mixture into balls.

  • Sear them for a few minutes (I do 2 batches) and remove them from the pan.

  • Then add 3 Tbsp of butter and 3 Tbsp of flour to the same pan, whisking to scrape up the cooked beef bits.

  • Once you have a pasty texture, add 1 cup of broth (whatever you have) and ½ cup of milk, plus about 1 Tbsp soy sauce.

  • Bring that to a boil and add back your meatballs; lower the heat to simmer and cover your pan.

  • Finish the potatoes: I add 1 whole stick of butter, plus some heavy cream, plus salt, garlic, and parmesan.

• Shepherd’s Pie with leftover pulled pork - You’ll likely have a lot of *leftover pulled pork. You can use canned mixed veggies for a quicker version.

  • Cook some veggies (if not using canned) in a skillet until tender.

  • Combine the pork with a little tomato sauce (I’d use ¼ cup) and broth (1/2 cup), along with salt, pepper, garlic, and fresh or dried herbs.

  • While all that is happening, you need to make some mashed potatoes, unless you have some left over from meatball night!

  • Dump the meat/veg mixture into a baking dish, top with mashed potatoes, and bake at 350F for 20-30 min.

    

• Tuna cakes - Our kids love these. You mostly need cooked sweet potatoes and canned tuna. Here’s the recipe. We eat ours with oven fries and canned green beans.

  • The way I do my green beans is by dumping the canned beans into a medium sized pot. Then I add just enough water to cover them, plus 1 Tbsp bacon grease (if I have any), plus some onion flakes and black pepper. Then I bring it to a boil and let em go until the water is basically gone. This takes about an hour, so you want to start that first!

Other leftover ideas

• Bake up extra sweet potatoes (the ones you did for the tuna cakes!). They can be cooked up as a breakfast side dish. You can also make sweet potato pudding (my fav!).

  • To make the pudding, blend together 2 small sweet potatoes with 2 Tbsp almond butter and 2 Tbsp almond milk, plus a little cinnamon. Just blend until smooth! You can make as much or as little of this as you want! Pop it in the fridge and just have it as a snack.

• The tuna cakes are GREAT next to bacon and eggs!

• Use any leftover pulled pork to make quesadillas.

• If you happen to have extra mashed potatoes, fry them up for breakfast as well!

Funny animal videos

1. Dog scares away alligator

2. Cute little goose family

3. Dog dancing?!

4. Mama sloth grabs her baby

5. The way this monkey turns 😂

House update

Welp, they were really workin’ fast there for a week😅

Then we had the eclipse week, when we had a ton of water and wind, and they didn’t work all that week (last week). Then this week, they came 1-2 times, in the afternoon. And one day, they were here from 7am until the early afternoon.

I talked to the contractor because now I’m worried it will never get done (unreasonable concern, honestly, but I can be a bit dramatic). Anyway, he said that he has to get the new windows in. Then they can install them, then finish the siding, then finish the roof. And once all that’s done, the interior stuff should go pretty fast.

New estimate (according to me, not the contractor) is May 15 rather than May 1. Fingers crossed!!

Recipes I made this week (not all winners…)

Cam was out of town this week (he doesn’t usually travel for his job, but he had 2 conferences this year!). Anyway, a stress relief for me is BAKING/COOKING. Sooo that’s what I did. Key: ❤️ WINNER 💚 FAIL

1. Skillet cornbread ❤️

2. Mozzarella 💚 - I followed a video on IG, but mine was very crumbly, not stretchy. I need to try again!

3. Rainbow sourdough 💚 - I tried this from an IG video, and the bread was good, but the rainbow part wasn’t. And it was VERY technical. My sourdough loaves are usually pretty straightforward. This had steam and 2 different cooking temps, which took more babysitting than I’m used to. Still yummy bread!

   

4. Roasted tomato soup 💚 - I got this recipe from TikTok, but it tasted very …. fresh. I think I need to try again and roast the tomatoes WAY longer.

5. Choco date shake 💚 - I shared this in the last email. It had frozen cauliflower, does that ring a bell? Anyway, it was fine. Not nearly sweet enough for me!

   

6. Donuts ❤️ - I made the dough the night before, then rolled, cut, and fried them the next morning. Delicious!

   

7. Phyllo dough quiche ❤️ - No recipe! I just made my regular ole quiche, but I use phyllo dough for the crust instead of a pie crust. I brushed melted butter in between the individual sheets (I used about 12 sheets, I’d say).

Practicing the way

[Practicing the Way is a book by John Mark Comer, who created this course and website! I read his book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, which I highly recommend. (Psst, those are affiliate links.)]

Cameron and I have just started a Bible study together, and I want to share it with you. It’s meant for a small group of people (up to 8), so I may try to find a few new people to join us next week. Another idea I had was to finish this with Cameron, then in a few months, start up my own small group with a few interested folks who could commit to the work. So far, it seems like it will be pretty intense, so I wanted to give you a heads up first!

You can learn more about it here. But real quick…

That’s a picture of my dashboard. Each week, you watch the next video on the list, then you complete the accompanying pages in the Companion Guide (I’ve attached the Table of Contents below), which is a digital download or you could print a physical copy. We’re just starting out, but I’m excited about it!

Anyway, I’ll bring it up again in the future, so if you have any questions or thoughts about it, just reply to this email. ❤️ 

One more little thing

I came across this and liked it, so I figured I’d share it with you!

Until next time

If you want to see old emails, here’s a link to all of them!

I hope you and yours have a great week. Please let me know if you need anything from me: prayers or suggestions or encouragement or anything.

If you’d like to support me and my content, then here are two ways:

• My Amazon wish list! There are some baby-related items on there too. 🙂 My PO Box is still open, by the way!

  • Bethany King

  • PO Box 8152

  • Shreveport LA 71148

• Buy Me a Coffee - it’s basically a virtual tip jar!

Much love,
Bethany