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Weekend Check-in: March 2

What I'm Cooking
Orzo and cheese. Rather bland for the adults, though helped considerably by the addition of salt. Not a big hit with the littles, unfortunately.

Spinach cake muffins. Quite tasty. Spinach is basically unnoticeable, besides the green color. Might make these again the week of St. Patrick's Day! (Yes, these were supposed to be a veggie-based snack for the children, but Isaac and I have been eating them rather shamelessly, too.)

Graham crackers. Much better than the last recipe I tried. The consistency of a store-bought graham cracker is quite difficult to achieve, and while not perfect, these are great. And while I probably shouldn't admit this outright, the unbaked dough was very good. No eggs, so no reason not to eat it, right?

Roasted chicken thighs. Funny thing about this week: I didn't meal plan at all, and I haven't been to the grocery store. On Tuesday at about 3pm, with the bowl of leftover orzo (see above) in the fridge, I decided I needed a meat entree to go along with it. I pulled some chicken thigh/leg sections out of the freezer and went searching on pinterest for recipes. I got lucky: this recipe was really good. Crispy skin, tender dark meat (my preference), nice salty kick to help the orzo along.

Applesauce-barbecue pork. If you click through this link, you'll find a recipe called "applesauce barbecue chicken." But what I pinned originally most definitely said "pork," so I'd already decided to use this for a pound of pork loin when I realized that's not what the recipe called for. No sweat, I thought; I'll just throw it all in the crockpot; it'll be fine. That's when I discovered I was almost entirely out of barbecue sauce. Determined not to give in, I supplemented with ketchup, minced onion, some extra garlic and chili powder. Turned out great! Bonus: today for lunch, I spread it on a tortilla with some shredded cheese and made quesadillas. Equally yummy.

Two Minute Mug Brownies. Isaac and I both had extra calories on hand one night, but we were (sadly) all out of ice cream. (That has since been remedied.) Mug brownies to the rescue!

What I'm Reading:
Finished The Heretic's Daughter just this morning. It was very dark. Poignant, at times, but dark.

What I'm Doing:
Arguing with my husband over whether it's okay to jazz up things like rice krispy treats and puppy chow. He's a purist. I am not.

Weekly Snapshot:
"I can smile and paint at the same time." Well . . . almost.

Favorite blog post: Salt Baked Potatoes from Our Best Bites. I did not grow up with a salt shaker on the table, so it's taken me a long time to understand why people salt their foods. Apparently, however, I've recently been going through some sort of salt deficiency, because I cannot get enough of it (as you may have noticed from the "what I'm cooking" section). Accordingly, these potatoes sound fantastic.

Favorite pin: I think these oatmeal cookies with cinnamon and butterscotch chips look positively scrumptious. Unfortunately, they don't appeal to my husband at all, so I'd end up eating the whole batch . . . and that's why I won't be making them any time soon. Young Adults Bible study folk -- do these appeal to you??

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