This week on Catching up with the Kelnhofers I’m sharing two new posts that I am so excited about! One features the absolute best chocolates and the other allows you to make a grocery list for a whole week’s meal plan with one click!
Maybe you can relate: sometimes I feel so uninspired in the kitchen.
I work in the food world.
I have three hungry kids who need breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks.
I’ve written 2 cookbooks.
I love cooking.
And still, there are those times I almost dread thinking about the next meal or opening the fridge and looking aimlessly at the contents.
Side note – why do I have SO MANY CONDIMENTS? Anyone else?
That’s reason 1 million I use Home Chef every few weeks. This past week I had forgotten I’d scheduled a delivery and it showed up. I cooked a meal (chili with dippers which were rolled up tortillas filled with cheese). Yes, I could have made my slow cooker chili recipe and cheesy naan for dipping, but it was nice to not have to think about it and to have all the ingredients I needed to make the meal delivered to me.
That also got me thinking about meal plans. I love them. They always give me ideas, but I usually only want to make a few days of things and then I have to go through the process of making a shopping list of the ingredients for the recipes I want to make. But I love seeing meal plans to spark creativity.
SO!! To make life a little easier, I’ll be sharing a weekly meal plan every Saturday!! You can click the recipes you want to make, and it’ll generate a shopping list for you. There will be 5 days of breakfast/lunch/dinners and 1 snack idea. I hope you enjoy!!
- Weekly meal plan – This is the meal plan that I mentioned above. It makes weekly meal time so much easier!
- Butter and tomato poached white fish – this is a great fish recipe to try if you’re new to cooking fish – easy and tasty!
- Spinach salad and dressing – a repost of a favorite salad recipe on the blog
- Love List – sharing a week full of fun finds from around the web.
- Ben wanted a purple smoothie, so we made this chocolate cherry one and he showed Frankie how to push the buttons on the blender; it was too cute.
- With no access to the grill because of all the snow, we made some Instant Pot beer brats!
- I’m getting ingredients to make these cookies – they’re so wintery and cozy.
Warming meals for the cold temps (soups!)
It has been freezing here in Wisconsin, so I’m all about soup as often as I can make it!
- Instant Pot creamy chicken gnocchi soup – I love making soup in the Instant Pot; it’s so easy!
- Healthy slow cooker lentil and vegetable soup – this has been a reader favorite for years and is a great vegetarian soup.
- Instant Pot sausage sweet potato soup – another Instant Pot soup that’s hearty and delicious.
- Freezer butternut squash soup – I love to prep a big batch and keep it in the freezer for lunches for the kids (they love it!)
Since we’re talking soups, this reader shared a sweet, simple comment on my slow cooker lentil vegetable soup:
- “Excellent soup. Everyone at home loves it”
But just one more since we made Instant Pot beer brats this week:
- “Brats were excellent! I thought the only way to have good beer brats was on the grill, but this recipe really hit the mark and was so quick and easy!!”
A loyal and lovely reader shared her re-creation of my 5 ingredient beer bread recipe. Thanks for sharing Nancy!
- This one is for all the men out there. My husband Nick has been working from home. As such, he’s been walking around without shoes. His feet started hurting him and his doctor mentioned it could be from the lack of structured shoes. So for Valentine’s day, I got him these slippers and they look really nice. He’s reported that they’re super comfy and he’d recommend them (personally I think they look nice enough to go in public with, lol).
What a sweet book, I just finished The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins and loved it – it’s for you if you’re looking for a lighter, more slow paced book that has a cute story.
As part of a 2 for 1 audiobook sale, I got Kevin Hart’s book I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons and I’m really excited to listen. I saw a docu-series once about Kevin Hart and was frankly shocked at his intense work ethic and how he had shaped his life to where he is today.
Cookbook of the week:
- Remember last week I told you I was getting Nick this cookbook All About Roasting? It arrived and it’s wonderful!
- Just like the title says, it’s all about roasting, and I couldn’t be more excited for the recipes Nick is going to try for us. First up is a brisket this weekend!
- We celebrated Valentine’s day. The kids each got a new towel (they have outgrown the baby ones!!) and we made pancakes from my 5 ingredient cookbook. Earlier in the week we got curbside from a local steakhouse. The best thing was the relish tray which had a green goddess dressing (the one I based this recipe off on the blog!)
- I also got the kids this washable dot dauber set which I highly recommend. They sat and did artwork for an hour!
- Frankie likes to pick her own outfits in the morning. She picked the most girly outfit and then Nick was twirling her; such a precious princess memory.
- I bit the bullet and spent too much $ to try Jeni’s ice cream because I had kept hearing about the weird flavors. If I saw it at the store, maybe I’d buy it again, but I definitely wouldn’t get it shipped again. Maybe we’re spoiled because we have such great custard here in Milwaukee. Ben was a fan though, lol.
- It was so cold we didn’t get outside much at all this past week, so lots of indoor family time!
EAT
- All the credit for this amazing meal goes to Nick. Oven roasted asparagus with Everything Bagel seasoning, bacon, 7 minute boiled eggs, and a slice of whole wheat honey oat flax bread.
WATCH
- We needed a light show/series to watch and had never seen 30 Rock. I’m wondering why I never watched it because it’s so funny!!
PURCHASE
- Our beloved toaster oven died. I even wrote a post about how a toaster oven is the most underrated kitchen appliance we own…well, I had Nick get a replacement and he bought this behemoth. It came with a pizza stone and has a convection/air fryer setting, lol. But it works so beautifully. No complaints here, but if you’re looking for a toaster oven, I might suggest this more reasonable one for $40, lol.
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