Happy Monday! If you live in Houston or have friends here, you are probably tired of people talking about the sunshine, but seriously – it has been so nice to see the sun poking out from behind the clouds after what feels like an eternity. Sasha and I took advantage of the warmth on Saturday and Sunday and spent as much time outdoors as possible. We went to Memorial Park for Isla and I to run and for Sasha to play tennis with his friend. On Sunday, we spent the afternoon at my parent’s house by the hot tub. Isla rocked an itsy bitsy bikini, which our cousin bought for her before she was born – and I adore it.
One of the low points of the week was filling out the insane application form to travel to Russia, and then getting the passport photos, and then going to the bank for cashiers checks, and then going to one office that pointed us to another office, which had a sign pointing us back to the first office. Slightly confused, but praying we get it all worked out this week, as I am so excited for our trip to St. Petersburg!
Besides the visa confusion, the week went really smoothly. Some of the highlights included:
- Being a featured segment on Great Day Houston! It was live and I was pretty nervous, but I loved doing it and would totally jump at an opportunity to go on the show again.
- Triple-dating it at Jonathan’s The Rub with Amanda, Scott, Taylor and Luke – it’s an amazing restaurant just a stone’s throw from the house, so we walked (super rare in Houston!)
- Celebrating Jessica’s birthday dinner at La Vista – love their Spinach salad so much!
- Catching up with our good friends, Patrick and Betsy, over lunch at Dish Society on Sunday – we are terrible and haven’t seen them since our trip to Mexico City in September!
- Eating at Island Grill and running into our friends, Lindsey and Casey, and their sweet kids, Walker and Hollis (whose birthday party we celebrated just a few weeks ago!)
- Meeting my mom and her friend, Ona Rae, at Le Petit Cafe for lunch – this was a staple spot we’d eat at when I was working on a project at BP before maternity leave
- Having Sunday night ‘Family Dinner’ with my parents and two sisters at Russos – always lots of laughter involved with these dinners!
- Trying out the core class at Life Time Fitness, and needless to say, my stomach still hurts and my ribs feel broken? Strange but true.
- Birthday shopping for Jessica with my friend, Brittany, and then meeting the birthday gal at Memorial Park to walk the three mile loop (with Isla strapped to my chest!)
- Having Sasha’s mom over for lunch on Friday – Isla took an unusually long nap, so we got to have some quality chats before eating together
- Getting a short but sweet visit from our friends, Matt and Paige, and their daughter, Ellery, who is seriously just the happiest and cutest little girl ever (how was this over a year ago??)
- Spending Saturday morning with Sasha’s dad, his wife, Olivera, and her mom, who is here visiting from Serbia
- Finding the world’s cutest sandal ever at Old Navy – these glitter Birkenstocks truly melt my heart. I want them for me.
- Visiting Sasha’s aunt, Zlata, who is so good with Isla, and of course, Isla adores her because she gives her with candy and biscuits!
- Getting the prettiest package in the mail from Claire Martin Designs – she is so talented! You definitely need to email her for an order!
1 
3 
I’ve been a vegetarian since 6th grade, and I’ve been cooking my own meals for many of the last 16 years. I would have to use the word ‘cook’ very loosely, as I started off my veggie years by microwaving a couple of black bean burgers for dinner. Over time, I started to look for more exciting recipes to ‘change it up,’ as there are so many meals you can eat, you just need a little inspiration from time to time. I have a number of amazing recipe and cookbooks (some shared below), and have used the internet to find a number of recipes that we use regularly, including 
