Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Ours was really nice. Without much soccer on the books, it felt like weekends we used to have, full of a nice balance of work and play. We kicked off our Friday in the usual way, by assembling rented scaffolding in our living room.
You, too? 😉
We’ve been wanting to add can lights in the room for some time, and finally made it happen. More on the project tomorrow once we have the room put back together.
Anyway, that took up most of our Friday. I took Kaitlyn to her game while Hailey and David worked on lights. We ate burgers for dinner and stayed up until almost midnight in the attic working on getting it wired.
Saturday we returned the scaffolding, got in a work out, and had friends over for football! College football fans… what a weekend for football right?! There were some incredible games… and some incredible snacks.
The kids ran around outside in full spy gear trying to find neighborhood mysteries. It was pretty cute.
Sunday I made a Costco run while David and the kids tackled the yard. He limbed up trees, Hailey cut the grass (she is now a lawn mower driving pro and pulls Kaitlyn around in a towable wagon for “hay rides), and I kayaked around a bit when I got home; it was such a beautiful day.
I also baked a loaf of bread (in the bread machine), boiled and peeled some eggs, and made some simple oat snack balls, too.
We got in a leg workout, I walked a couple miles with a friend, then came home to make dinner. On the menu was one of my favorite simple dinners- lemon dill salmon and smashed potatoes. Apparently “smashed potatoes” was the second most searched term on my site last month (I share them a lot of IG), so I decided I needed to share a breakdown of this delicious meal!
Print
Lemon Dill Salmon
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
With a certain technique and simple seasoning, this salmon will become one of your favorite go-to methods for salmon preparation. It’s delicious!
Ingredients
4 salmon fillets (deboned)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 lemon
2 Tbsp fresh dill
salt and pepper
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil. Do not spray the foil. If you place the salmon skin-side down, the skin will stick to the foil when you bake it, making it perfect for serving.
Place your salmon on the foil-lined baking sheet and pat dry with a paper towel.
Drizzle olive oil on the salmon, using your hand to coat it thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle dill evenly on the fish. Thinly slice half the lemon and place it on the top of each salmon piece. Sprinkle on any remaining dill.
Bake for 12 minutes, until it flakes easily when pierced with a fork.
First up, lemon dill salmon. It’s pretty straight forward. Pat dry, coat with olive oil, season with salt, pepper, fresh dill. Top with lemon slices. Bake. Serve.
I was inspired to make this after my dill exploded in my herb garden and nothing says “I’m 38” quite like giggling with joy as I harvested fresh dill to go into dinner.
The potatoes are really easy, too. I like to use the small, golden potatoes for this because they’re creamy and the edges get so nice and crispy.
Print Smashed Potatoes
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4 side servings 1x
Description
Simple seasoning and crispy edges make these smashed potatoes a family favorite side dish.
Ingredients
1–2 lbs of golden potatoes.
olive oil
salt and pepper
garlic powder
half a lemon
fresh parsley
Instructions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add potatoes. Boil until fork tender. For tiny potatoes, this could be about 15 minutes; for larger potatoes, it could take 20-25.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees while the potatoes boil.
Once fork tender, drain the potatoes and place them on a baking sheet. I usually use parchment paper to prevent sticking, but you can also spray the sheet with a nonstick spray.
Using a potato masher, or a fork, or a jar, smash each potato flat.
Generously drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Put in oven and bake for 30 minutes until the edges are crispy.*
Remove from oven. Squeeze lemon over potatoes and sprinkle with parsley.
Notes
Baking time will differ depending on your oven, so check them every 10 minutes or so until they reach your desired level of crispiness.
Well this post has been long and too full of pictures, hasn’t it? We ended the weekend with a game of Catan and I had tea with CBD. I’m usually a soft gel fan, but the tincture in tea is a fun switch up.
Ok, goal check in!
More presence and patience? Yes.
More time outside? So so on Saturday, but Sunday was a lot outside- walking, kayaking, burning yard debris.
Less phone? Definitely. I used my real camera instead of my phone camera a lot, which helps, too.
Read a novel? No reading. Whoops.
Less alcohol? No drinks on Friday, but Saturday, yes. None on Sunday. 2/8 days
Meditate? Shoot, nope, not at all. Back to it today!
Track groceries? $82 at Costco, $16 at Publix, and $63 through Nespresso. I started tracking October 19 and am currently at $991. When I make it a whole month, I’m going to to do a post on some of my observations.
Crystal says
I am impressed you can only spend $82 on a Costco trip. I am very interested in your grocery budget post. We spend a lot on groceries and are willing to as we focus on organic, local, grass fed etc. However, it is such a huge part of our monthly expenses I would like to start being more mindful. Other grocery budget blogs don’t normally apply to my type of shopping. It will be nice to get a budget post from you as our budgets seem to be similar. I know we’re lucky to be able to budget so much towards quality food so there is some guilt with spending so much.
Brittany Dixon says
I really should be calling this a grocery spending “observation” post instead of budget. I went into it curious at how much we spend if I’m super mindful about it and it’s been interesting to see just how much we spend on food. It is definitely one of our priorities too, so I don’t have a lot of guilt about allocating funds to it, but wow, it’s crazy to see how much money and effort (shopping, prep, cooking, clean up) it takes to maintain this way of eating.
Kelli H says
I am also shocked you made it out of Costco at $82!! That’s unheard of — haha. Our biggest expense is groceries/food and I even cook at home 95% of the time! It’s even more than our mortgage! That dinner looks SO delicious.
Brittany Dixon says
It’s probably because you do cook at home most of the time! I think that’s the tricky part about comparing costs (also location, diet, etc), that unless you’re factoring in meals out, it’s a pretty uneven comparison. I cook most of our meals at home, too. I was talking to a friend last week because I was amazed that she only spent $125ish a week to feed her family but then she said they eat dinner out about 3-4 times a week. That made me feel better because I was like HOW?! Ha 🙂
Stacey says
I LOVE this smashed potato idea! Beats the heck out of cubing up the potatoes prior to boiling!
Brittany Dixon says
Yes! It’s so nice just to dump them directly into the boiling water 🙂