Cooking with Ellie Bellie: Menu Plan, April 13

This is our last week of extra Easter rehearsal’s at church, which means I don’t have to have both Wednesday and Thursday night meals cooked in advance. What a relief. Although, J.T.’s spring band concerts will be gearing up soon, they will only consume one night a week and they are not occurring in the same week. J.T. and I both really hate having anything planned after work and we value our evenings spent together. Dinner together every night gives us time to communicate, which is very important in our marriage. The television is always turned off and we have time to catch up on each other’s day. Sometimes I think that people are so attached to technology – smartphones, televisions, etc. – that they forget how to have a real conversation. We don’t eat at restaurants often, but it is heartbreaking to see a couple having dinner while both people are starring at a cell phone. It can be quite difficult to listen and read text messages at the same time. Sometimes, I am guilty of being on my phone, while J.T. is talking and then having no clue about what he just said. Maybe we should all slow down, put our cell phones aside, and share a meal over genuine conversation. It is amazing what you can learn about the other person - off soap box J. I am obsessed with granola lately. Over the past several years, I have eaten I big bowl of creamy oatmeal for breakfast but I have been on a granola kick for several weeks. I think granola with almond milk is a lighter breakfast, which is better for my stomach since I work out about 30 minutes after eating. Below I experimented with a play on my original granola cereal recipe. Two containers are oatmeal raisin granola and the other two are maple raisin granola. I would love to try a maple date granola, but only had raisins on hand. Both turned out really well and I am excited to experiment more.