Things are getting down to the wire with my studying (one month left until the bar exam that decides my fate!) so our weekends won’t be quite as fun-filled as they usually are. This weekend we spent most of our time at home, but yesterday I did get to hang out with Ashley a little bit while Jason and my dad went to go see a movie together.

Cynewulf is really high energy and tends to just constantly beg me to play while I’m studying at home, so it’s actually a huge help to have Ashley over. They LOVE each other and she definitely keeps him entertained. A tired dog is a happy dog!

First thing this morning I made our bread for the week. My mom made english muffins a while ago and told me they were awesome, so I took it a step lazier and tried my hand at english muffin bread. This is definitely one of my new favorites! It makes INCREDIBLE toast.

While the bread was baking I had breakfast. I made a whole wheat version of my mom’s buttermilk waffles, which came out really well!

Then I headed out on my weekly grocery trip. This time I needed some things at Trader Joe’s, so I split up my list between there and the farmer’s market. Here’s our meal plan for the week:

Sunday: Jason’s famous stir-fry (recipe coming soon!)

Monday: braised short ribs with egg noodles and broccoli for Jason, mushroom and kale stroganoff for me

Tuesday: cheeseburger rolls (ground beef for Jason, meatless crumbles for me), sister slaw

Wednesday: Creole chicken for Jason, black-eyed-peas salad, dirty rice

Thursday: thai red curry (chicken for Jason, roasted vegetables for me) with black rice

Friday: leftovers/eat out

I’ve been really inspired lately by the raw food community (have you guys seen Fully Raw Kristina?! What a beautiful and inspiring woman!) to focus on eating more raw plants. I don’t think I would ever go “fully raw” because I really believe that there are cooked foods that are nutritious, BUT just learning more about the raw food lifestyle has shown me that I need to eat MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES! We all do! There’s no such thing as too much!

That’s my fruit stash for the week! I would share it with Jason, but he won’t go near fruit (don’t even get me started on that). I have half a papaya, green grapes, cara cara navels, mangoes, a bunch of bananas, and persimmons. Persimmons are new to me and I can’t wait to try them! My goal is to try a new variety of fruit or vegetable every month!

Now that all the shopping and meal planning is done I can breathe easy and get back to studying.

Feel free to laugh at that photo.

-Lauren