The Other Day [gnocchi with potatoes, green beans, and mushrooms]

The other day, a friend of mine mentioned how she was completely and totally exhausted because of her busy schedule.  And then I thought about my own. It is, without a doubt, one of the two busiest times of the year for me right now.  And I am not exhausted.  Weird.

The other day, a friend of mine emailed and mentioned how much she enjoys perusing this blog when she’s looking for dinner options.  She’s paying more attention to what is in the food she’s eating, because she wants to be the one who decides what goes into her meals.  Love this.  When I got her email it made my day.

And then, over-analyzer that I am, I got to thinking about these two friends, and their situations, and my own kitchen.

The other day, I took a bag of Trader Joe’s country potatoes with haricot verts and mushrooms, and a package of gnocchi from the farmer’s market.  I boiled the gnocchi (fresh pasta cooks in like, two minutes), and heated the potatoes in a skillet (six minutes).  When the potatoes were heated through, I added several glugs of olive oil, and the gnocchi.  I took a picture, and then I realized, that duh, it needed cheese.  So I took another picture. (You know I added more cheese after that, too.)

And I thought a lot about how most of what I eat is not that bad for me at all.  Most of what I eat uses ingredients I bought from places I know, and gets prepared with my own two hands (and my oven).  I can spend way too much time frowning at the number that shows up on the scale as soon as I step on it, or I can chill on that, and celebrate that I eat stuff that’s pretty darn good most of the time, and that keeps me fueled through my busiest days.

Had I not gotten that email from my friend, I wouldn’t have posted this meal, as it didn’t seem anything special.  But then I realized that y’all need to know that I don’t always spend time before dinner with a knife in hand, chopping onions, garlic, and who knows what else.  Dinner can be simple and healthy at the same time.  You just have to know how to put the pieces together.*

*Also, yes, the pieces, in this case, are potatoes and more potatoes.