Last night we finally made up for the meal plan snafu earlier in the week. I actually remembered to take out the meat for meat loaf. I can’t even remember the last time I made meat loaf. Luckily I remembered the basics. It came out well enough.

Nothing fancy. Simply mix all of the following together:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• lotsa black pepper!

Then, top it off an even spread of tomato paste and bake in a 350 oven for 40 minutes. Not the prettiest thing you will eat, but simple and tasty.

We ate ours with some lima beans I heated up with a small bit of butter, salt, and pepper. I feel like this meal was a straight flashback to my childhood! It completely reminded me of my mom’s cooking.

I can for sure say I picked up my mom’s cooking genes. Neither of us are all too creative in the kitchen. Just like mom, I love having staple meals with a few new recipes thrown in for good measure once or twice a week.

I think it’s so funny how growing up so many people say they will never grow up anything like their parents. I know I did! Turns out, it is pretty inevitable. Don’t you think? I know I’m like my parents in many, many ways.

Besides my cooking, I’m also just like mom in a few other ways -

• I have become super emotional and cry easily, especially when it relates to my kids at all.
• I have a cheesier and cheesier sense of humor.
• I have the most ginormous sweet tooth.
• I can’t keep my eyes open in pictures. Say cheese, Mom!

I have also found I’m a lot like my dad too…something I used to want to avoid at ALL costs. Now, I see the good in the man and am thankful for learning these things from him:

• I will go after my dreams and my passions.
• I have good organizational skills.
• I love quotes.
• Forgiveness.

I’m sure there are plenty of others, but these are just things off the top of my head. I won’t lie though. Sometimes I really hope I don’t turn into my parents in some ways. One of my biggest fears is ever having my kids feel second best, like I did for so many years.

You know I now understand where my father came from in his hard work and the anxiety he suffered. Regardless, it makes me fearful of ever caring too much about my passions and things like organization at the sacrifice of my family. We all have our faults. I just hope my faults will err more on the overly mushy, embarrassing side of my mom’s ways.

What are some ways you said you would NEVER be like your parents? How are you like your parents now?

After all the craziness of last week, I feel good that this week has gone relatively smoothly so far. Nothing too insane. Well, besides this morning’s workout. Ha! I still don’t know how I survived it. <--- There’s that exaggeration we talked about.

Good thing I did survive, though. I had a stellar day today! Once I caught my breath this morning, I dropped Makenzie off at school and came home HANGRY and ready for some breakfast. I made myself shower first, then dug into another bowl of pumpkin oats. This time topped with Justin’s Maple Almond Butter that the lovely Janetha got me hooked on  last year.

For the record, I just bought three more cans of pumpkin. I will have pumpkin oats for breakfast for many days into the foreseeable future. Can’t stop. Won’t stop.

Count your lucky stars I’m not a food blogger. Things would get very old around here fast. Besides having another repeat breakfast of pumpkin oats, I also had a repeat lunch.

More English muffin pizzas!!! Best way to use up leftover crushed tomatoes. And you know Makenzie loves them. She told you so herself in her guest WIAW post!

Makenzie opted for apple slices again, but I was feeling a little spice. I went with half a cucumber sliced up and a couple large handfuls of baby carrots to dip in salsa. I adore salsa.

Both of those meals fueled me right through my prime work times and I knocked out a good bit of things I needed to get done. I hope this productive streak lasts!

After work time came play time. An afternoon play date with my friend Ann and her two kids – a friend for Makenzie and a friend for Braedon.

I love play dates and think it’s so important to connect with other moms. Not only does it give the kids social interaction, but it gives you the chance to “talk shop” with someone who understands. Who else would I turn to to discuss overnight potty training woes? Ann helped me feel better about giving up on trying to overnight train Makenzie. We gave it a shot, but it wasn’t worth the stress.

Don’t worry. We also have lives of our own too. We spent a lot of time chatting away about adult things…including her recent trip to Chicago to support her husband in the Chicago Marathon! It makes me want to run it. Mostly because I really, really want to go to Chicago. Maybe I should just book a trip and scratch that whole running 26.2 miles part? Either way, I loved hearing about her trip!

Thanks for the fun afternoon, Ann!

By this point dinner time quickly approached. We had planned on honoring another meat craving of Peter’s with meatloaf, but I forgot to get the ground beef out of the freezer. Oops! So I went with a baked sweet potato, more roasted green beans, and a Morningstar Farms garden veggie burger.

I stole an idea from Courtney and rubbed the sweet potato with a little bit of butter and some Garlic Gold from my Healthy Living Summit sample.

Ohhhh…what a good idea.

If I wasn’t such a cheapskate I would order some for myself in a heartbeat. But I am a cheapskate, so I just savored tonight’s dinner. Just like I plan to savor an early bed time. T minus 2 hours and counting. Later gators!

• Where do you turn to “talk shop” about things like work, motherhood, etc? I would say Peter and good friends, including you all!
• Do you ever forget key things for dinner prep like taking something out of the freezer or picking up something at the store?