Celebrating a mother-to-be friend

My dear friend, Melissa, is pregnant and expecting a baby very soon. Melissa is one of my best friends and I am so excited for her as she is about to become a first-time momma.

Selfishly, I am looking forward to her having the little guy soon so I can hold him! :)

This weekend, my other friend and I got to honor Melissa by throwing her a baby shower. Our shower had all the festive ingredients you would expect from a baby shower – decorations, friends, food and ‘oohing and aahing’ as she opened gifts and help up teeny-tiny onesies. Simply adorable.

Curry Chicken Salad with Watercress

I have been traveling quite a bit these past months. I spend my days working for a wellness company for older adults and I get the opportunity to travel the nation visiting our partners.

In doing so, I also have many food-related experiences. Some healthy and some not so much. My travel eats inspire ideas about how to make dishes healthier.

This dish was inspired by a trip in which I enjoyed lunch with the team at a senior living community. The menu was much like a restaurant menu and offered several common lunch-time fares, such as tuna and chicken salad.

“Dinner is ready”

A morsel of culinary wisdom was once shared and has stuck with me for several years. This wisdom did not include impressive food knowledge, the inclusion of fad food ingredients or fancy knife techniques. Rather, it was simple: Learn to cook 5 good dinner meals and commit the recipes to memory.

While I’ve always valued this wisdom, only recently have I developed a full appreciation of it. As life gets busy, it’s nice to have a few ‘go to’ meals in your repertoire. This is especially true if you’ve ever found yourself wandering the aisles of the grocery store having forgotten your shopping list.

Chicken Parmesan is on my list. It is so easy that it doesn’t even have a formal ‘recipe’. It calls for a little-of-this, little-of-that approach to cooking. I simply brush the chicken breast with a bit of olive oil and season generously with garlic, S & P, and herbs of province. I grill it (healthier than the breaded variety) and serve with spaghetti sauce and shredded parmesan cheese on top. This time my side dishes were roasted butternut squash and sautéed spinach and garlic. Enjoy!