It’s becoming more apparent that Will is on the verge of one, or a few, developmental milestones, and we’ve got the interrupted sleep patterns to prove it. While not horrible, he’s frequently waking up multiple times during the night (I had cozily grown accustomed to once in the middle of the night). In the daytime, when I’m awake and things look better by the light of day, he’s learned to grab his own toes and is trying his hardest to roll over.
I feel more drained at the end of the day, though, and its having an effect on my ability to rally around dinner at times.
Here’s what I’m eating and reading this week:
WEEKLY MENU PLAN
All the options below are dairy-free and soy-free recipes now that we’re managing a dairy- and soy-protein intolerance in our little one.
Sunday: Braised chicken thighs with apples and wild rice (I omitted the cream from the sauce and would recommend reducing it by a lot as it made a ton of sauce & rice, but so, so flavorful).
Monday: Leftovers (again, this made more rice and sauce than chicken to go with it)
Tuesday: Pan-seared salmon and roasted broccoli paired with leftover wild rice
Wednesday: Lemon and garlic shrimp scampi with roasted broccoli
Thursday: Chickpea and kale curry (David liked this more than me. I also bumped up the portions of everything, like a whole can of chickpeas, a whole bell pepper, a whole can of coconut milk, and so on).
Friday: Chorizo and bell pepper frittata with hashbrowns and avocado and roasted cauliflower
Saturday: Sweet potato falafel bowl (from Power Plates)
Note: I made the shrimp scampi with a garlic-heavy lemon and white wine sauce, so no cream, no butter. I really missed a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top, but I found a creative substitute that scratches that itch: a quick swirl of olive oil in the skillet, add about 3/4 cup of panko bread crumbs and a pinch of salt. Sprinkle this toasted bread crumb mixture over the pasta just like Parm cheese.
WHAT I’M READING AND ENJOYING THIS WEEK:
I’m kind of curious about introducing mindfulness to parenting, especially as I see Charlotte struggle with a short fuse and frustration.
This is kinda gross but also kinda interesting.
First we’re not going to protect them, then we’re not going to listen to them, now we’re going to troll them? Unbelievable.
I can see why there are so many sides to the issue.
BOOK REVIEW
Title: The Essex Serpent
Author: Sarah Perry
Date: 2017
Format: Book, then e-book
This book got a lot of buzz last year, especially in England, but I found it to be a bit of a meh book for me. In fact, I was so slow in picking up the book again and again that I had to check this book out of the library a few times. I was never pulled in enough to finish it by the due date. It reminds me a bit of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness in that way.
The book had a lot of promising elements, but none of them quite shook out in a way that really hooked me. In short, the story centers around Cora, a woman who travels to an Essex village following reports of mysterious happenings and sightings of a creature in the waters. She’s an adventurer, and while the women-upending-gendered-expectations trope is usually one I get behind, this again was just a bit meh.
There could have been a million ways to go with this: lush, dramatic depictions of the countryside, atmospheric descriptions of the feared and unknown, fissures in relationships and philosophies as people struggle with clashes between science and religion, and an urban landscape that calls Sherlock Holmes to mind… but nope. Instead, I felt the visual picture painted by Perry was clunky.
There’s also a cast of characters, and while many of them have promising origins and back stories (her son is likely autistic and we do get glimpses of the world through his eyes, her friend realizes the grim outcome of a tuberculosis diagnosis, her travel companion is a vocal advocate for housing reform in the city, a doctor experiments with early heart surgery techniques), none of this gets developed satisfactorily. There’s so much more there to work with, and I got the sense that much was left behind.
It could have been a mystery, and instead it was just a bit meandering.
