God, I love Parks & Rec.

So anyway. Food. You know it’s been a struggle for a while, and I made it a New Year’s goal to improve the boys’ eating, so last night was Day 1 of Family Dining. We all ate our dinner together, and I’m happy to say the boys ate a bit. It was frozen cheese pizza, something they’re a bit iffy on, but hey, at least they ate something. And I gave them one bowl of strawberry yogurt at the end of the meal. I didn’t want them to think they could eat a whole quart of it like they are capable of doing. Otherwise, they’d just eat nothing and wait for the pink goodness. Not this time, boys.

Tonight will be tougher. Shepherd’s Pie. Hopefully they’ll eat at least some of the meat out of it. We’ll see.

Speaking of food, I forgot their lunches at home today, so I had to run to Walgreen’s to get stuff to make them. I sat in the parking lot and smeared peanut butter onto crackers. Sigh. At least they sell apples at Walgreen’s!

And in another food related item, I made this delicious recipe last night, for breakfast today and tomorrow (and maybe the next day.)

You should make it the night before, because, let’s face it, who wants to assemble a casserole, then wait 35 minutes for it too cook, on a weekday morning? Not me. A drizzle of maple syrup and a tiny pinch of kosher salt (I may not have put in enough when I cooked it – I’m not huge on measuring) made it perfect. Yum!

Oh, and I used a tablespoon of this lovely stuff from Penzey’s instead of measuring all the individual spices.

Well, I thought I had “stuff” to talk about, but I guess not. Just food. Sorry, Ron Swanson.

Don’t forget I have a $50 giftcard giveaway over on my Olay review post!

There are some women who don

I shall not use the word “resolutions” because there is too much potential disappointment wrapped up in it, but “goals” sounds okay to me. So here are my goals for 2012…

1. Cook more meals. Related to this, start instituting “family meal” time. Right now, the boys eat around 6pm, and George and I eat after they go to bed (around 8.) I think they’ll eat better if we all eat together, and it’s important to me that we eat as a family. It’s time to start.

2. Inspired by Angela, try to phase out parabens in my personal care items. I’m not going to chuck everything in my bathroom and start from scratch, but as I replace items, I will try to buy paraben-free alternatives. That should hopefully be easier, financially.

3. I am going to try to write more on the blog, not just post photos. I was not going to do a 365 in 2012 project, but I decided I want to try (it’s a habit now anyway, may as well continue!) but I’ve let the photos take the place of words, and I need to do more writing here.

4. Go to the gym more. Lose weight. Etc, etc, etc. I would like to do another half-marathon, and actually train this time.

5. Keep working at photography. Save up for a new {camera} body.