February Resolutions

1) Exercise 5 times a week. This was harder than I expected. I figured I set the bar so low (walking, dancing, home video) that it wouldn't be a problem at all. Then I quickly realized that a) it's winter and it's not all that pleasant to walk places, and b) babies get heavier and therefore harder to carry while dancing, walking, etc. Even so, I managed at least 4 days each week in February. (March, so far, is a different story.) And it's even harder to keep track of. Turns out chasing a toddler while trying not to drop your baby doesn't leave a lot of time for writing in my planner or even keeping track here. 

2) Keep up with the housework. This is still going ok. There's a little more clutter than I would like, and the dishes from dinner don't usually get done until the morning, but in general things are fairly tidy. 

3) Cook dinner once a week. Honestly, I don't remember how easy or hard this was. I kept track of a couple recipes along the way, so I obviously managed to do it a bit.  

One thing we've discovered that we absolutely love are slow cooker sauces and simmer sauces from Rick Bayless. You can get them at the grocery store and just follow the recipe on the pouch. They are really good, really easy, and really cheap. One of our favorites is the green chili enchilada sauce. I just pan seared a couple of pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and rolled up some shredded chihuahua cheese in tortillas, covered with the sauce, and baked it.

We've really liked using the slow cooker with scratch recipes as well. Cooks Illustrated has a really great chicken tikka masala recipe, but it's pretty complicated, takes forever, and uses a broiler (ours doesn't work great and is tiny). Recently I came across this slow cooker version, and it is incredible. 

I also made the Perfect Potato Soup from The Pioneer Woman. It really is perfect. We made a big batch and froze half of it to enjoy a couple of weeks later. I would highly recommend this soup.