Only two cups of sugar

I made dinner with an insane amount of butter recently. It's rare that I bust out the recipe box these days, but once in a while I'm inspired to whip something up besides spaghetti. On Tuesday, I made  Brussels sprouts braised in butter, along with lemon chicken doused in butter, and 90-second microwavable Uncle Ben's rice, likely created in a factory with chemical butter flavor (but those food scientists did a pretty good job). My friend Erin gave me the sprouts recipe and I eat them out of the pan like they're French fries.

That's fiber-ful spaghetti, but she doesn't know it.

Speaking of chemically processed food, Edie ate chicken nuggets and her body weight in mandarin oranges for dinner. I realize nuggets aren't healthy, but don't tell me how they're made. They're kind of a kid-dinner crutch and they work, for now anyway. A former colleague made chicken nuggets from scratch - I wondered, aren't you negating the point? They're cheap, they're easy, they're not  made by humans. Same with mac n' cheese. I used to only buy white cheddar Annie's. Now I'm not too proud to put some yellow-ass Kraft in my grocery cart, depending on how thrifty I'm feeling.

Again, spaghetti. Notice a theme?

I've had periods of food snobbery, like when I made fancy dishes from my Cook's Illustrated subscription, or when we tried eating Paleo for a while one week. Those two former versions of my life may be healthy, but I just don't have the budget, time to go to peruse the aisles of a grocery store, or the will/availability to chop veggies and turn on the oven for every meal. I realize it's kind of a sad testament to our busy lives, but time is of the essence so I feed my kid instant oatmeal or Gorilla Munch for breakfast. At least we eat at the table together and I toss in some raisins whenever I can. Okay, Edie eats her cereal in front of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, while I get Emmeline and myself ready...is that so bad?

Edie feeds Emmeline breakfast while I run upstairs for Edie's toothbrush...and hopefully hairbrush!

Edie and I baked bread and made lasagna while Emmeline napped on Sunday, a gorgeous fall day. I had a bunch of produce and meat to use up. I got my best appliance friend, the Slow Cooker, out of storage to make turkey-zucchini lasagna. We needed to eat some butternut squash and bananas before they went bad, so I found a recipe for squash banana cranberry bread (damn I love Google!). It may sound random, but it is delicious, and  I'd done some stealth parenting by sneaking veggies and fruit into a kid-approved bread. Furthermore, I eliminated one of the recommended three cups of sugar. Really, three cups of sugar - is that ever necessary? I gave the leftover pureed squash to Emmeline - she's almost six months, and ready for her first solid foods. Her review? Her face says it all.

I could seriously just eat her up!

I feel an absurd amount of satisfaction when I cook fresh food just before it expires. If I create a meatloaf the day that the ground pork's about to go, I give myself a high five. An internal high five. In general, I might've lowered my family's dietary standards, as time and energy are at a premium. But I still aim high when possible, and once in a while I'll even puree my baby girl some food.