Meatless Monday on a Wednesday, a Snowy Day in May, and Two Crabby Parents

I worked the night shift on Monday so we are finishing up our month of Meatless Mondays today.  As I mentioned last week, this week was more of a decadent dish but lighted up using spaghetti squash instead of  pasta.  But more on that later.  Let me elaborate more on the title of this post.

We had  snow today, 3-6 inches in the forecast.  We didn't get near that and nothing stuck but it did look like this outside.

  

I'm hoping that's all the snow for a while and we can finally get a spring. I'm so sick of winter!  The weather had an impact on why there were two crabby parents in our house.  We had a tease of spring and it was so fun to get outside as a family.  Today was my day off so I was bummed it was crappy weather.  Plus I was stressing about all the things I need to get done at work when I go back tomorrow.  I was trying hard not think about it and let it ruin my day off.

In addition to the weather, Mike was crabby because he was having printer issues with his computer and he spent a good portion of the morning trying to figure it out.  With both of us being crabby it led to an argument about the proper way to mop the kitchen floor.  Lesson learned, if my husband is going to mop the floor, who cares how he does it, at least it's getting done.

That's when we decided we needed to get out of the house despite the weather.  We wallowed in our crabbiness over a lunch of nachos and beers.  Yeah yeah, I know, turning to junk food and alcohol to make you feel better is not setting a good example for my child.  But he's still young so I think we're safe, plus he had grilled chicken and fruit.  I do have a few good parenting skills.

A mood lifting lunch.

After lunch we were less crabby and went to Toys R Us to look for some outside toys and shoes for E.  E was in heaven!  I'm worried what he'll be like when he gets older and can actually put things in the cart.

So that leads us to the original point of this post, Meatless Monday.  By the way, yes we did cheat and had chicken on the nachos.  Dinner is completely meatless though. I've been wanting to make this recipe for a while, Spinach Artichoke Pasta.  It's from The Pioneer Woman's website and it was delicious!  I cut the recipe in half because the original serves 10.  I also added chopped red onion to the spinach and garlic mixture because I love the smell of garlic and onion sauteing in butter.  I also chopped a tomato and added it.  Since I used spaghetti squash instead of pasta, the mixture was a little runny.  I baked it for 20 minutes at 350 so it would set up more.  I sprinkled bread crumbs and more parmesan cheese on top which turned a wonderful golden brown.  Both the boys liked this meal and I will be making it again.  Next time I will use less artichokes, 1/2 a can instead of a whole can.  They overpowered the dish and I wanted to taste more of the spinach and spaghetti squash.  

Spinach Artichoke with Spaghetti Squash

As our month of Meatless Mondays ends, I found 4 great new recipes to incorporate in my meal planning.  And Mike learned that he can be satisfied without having meat at every meal. I look forward to cooking  more meatless meals for my family.