Meal Planning: October 30th - November 5th

Review from last week:

Back from vacation and ready for a few healthy meals:

Spaghetti squash turkey tacos:

Paprika white wine pasta with Italian sausage:

Greg wanted to grill on Friday, so we pulled a piece of cod and a couple burger patties out of the freezer and I made zucchini noodles with slow roasted cherry tomatoes to go with it.

THE MOST EPIC BRUNCH PIZZA OF ALL TIME.  Okay maybe not, but so amazing and a hit all around!  Can't wait to try different variations of this.  Also, my new baking stone is so pretty isn't it?

Again.

Tried a new recipe: black bean, sweet potato and kale enchiladas in my other new baking dish!  Great combination of flavors and I have SO many leftovers to freeze.

Plan for next week:

Monday: Out to eat

Tuesday: Papa Murphy’s Pizza and Salad 

Wednesday: Tomato Soup and Green Monster Salad

Thursday: Turkey Chili Stuffed Acorn Squash


Friday: Chicken Parmesan Meatballs

Saturday: TBD


Sunday: Grilled Chicken and Kale Caesar Salad

LA trip: Day 3 + Weekend with Grandma

The last day really just consisted of packing, grabbing lunch at Shake Shack, and drinks at the airport before we all headed home to our babies!

 

In flight:

 

 

Home.

And while we were away, Ben had a blast with Grandma and his friends!  He got to go to Sammy's birthday party at the farm:

To the family fun center:

 

Check out all of Grandma's state quarters:

He got our Maywood Hills tiger gear!

Pick out some new rain boots!

LA Trip: Day 2

On Saturday morning we were slowwwwwwwwwwwwww moving.  Some of us slower than others ;)  We started the day by going out for coffee and McDonalds (necessary substance) and gatoraide!  At some point when we had the energy, we walked down to the theater 3/4 miles away to check it out.

After more lounging around, I convinced the girls to go grab lunch with me!  I had a delicious salmon salad:

Finally - it was time for the main event! 

I was sooooooooooo pumped to go to Beauty & Essex.  It was a restaurant that had been recommend to me in NYC that Greg and I didn't get a chance to go to.  When I heard one had opened in LA, it was on the top of my list to check out.  I had to get online and get a reservation exactly 30 days before and I'm SO glad I did:

And the fooooooooooooood.  I tried and failed to take a picture of every dish, but oh man everything was so good:

And after that, HAMILTON!  Our seats were near the back of the theater, but they were still good seats!  And the show.  Well, you know how I feel about the show.

Had to buy some merch:

So grateful to be able to share this show with these guys! :)

LA Trip: Day 1

Earlier this Spring, I learned that Hamilton LA tickets were going on sale.  When I had bought them for my mom and I to go to San Francisco, I ended with 4 tickets....and the sale of the extra two basically paid for our trip.  So naturally, this time around, Greg declared that we would be buying AS MANY TICKETS AS POSSIBLE in the hopes that I would sell them off for profit.  

But unfortunately for Greg, that's not what happens when you are a HAMILTON SUPER FAN.

Instead, we bought 6 (the max) seats up in the balcony and decided to take a trip to LA with our friends :)

I quickly recruited Maureen (my first Hamilton convert) and Rachel and we decided to bring our husbands along for the ride ;)

Maureen (fellow Harry Potter fan) and I really wanted to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter one of the days, so we decided to fly down on Thursday evening to spend the day on Friday at Universal Studios.  We had SO MUCH FUN!  Total bucket list adventure!  The weather also was perfect.  We managed to be in LA during the 3 cool days during a few weeks of 95-100 degree temps.  So happy we avoided that!

 

Beers on the 9:30 studio back lot tour, because #nokids:

Dragging Vitaliy along on all the rides:

Ubering to or from to the Air BNB:

While we were at the park, Rachel and Peter were flying into LA and spending their child free day exploring!  By 4pm, we all needed a nap to prepare ourselves for a night out.

Once we were ready, we headed straight to SUR - another bucket list adventure for me and Maureen!  It was so fun and so embarrassing to stalk the employees while they worked.  (For those in the know, only Max - Lisa Vanderpump's son, and Kristina Kelly from the show were working).  

But it was super fun to go and have dinner and drinks and take all the photos:

After SUR, we made our way over to another bar in West Hollywood: Bar 10.  On our way home, Maureen and I made the guys stop at PUMP for a quick drink before heading back to sleep!