Hi folks!

The plan for this week is that there is no plan except to make birthday chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting for my birthday on Friday.

birthday clean cupcakes

See the ones with the tan frosting: those will be mine!

Believe it or not, these are CLEAN cupcakes and they are my favorite recipes from the cake section of my cookbook, Homemade Snacks and Staples, which will be published on May 7, 2013. Did I mention you can pre-order your copy today? Go to Amazon or just click here so you can get your copy as soon as it comes out.

So why the lack of plan? This reason is two-fold. First, I have ton of recipe testing for Lombardino’s to do. Recipes that include breaking down a duck which means I will also be breaking down a chicken first for some practice. Among other things, I will be making duck stock, seared duck breasts, and duck ragu. Have I ever told you that when I was growing up, one of my neighbors had a pet duck? This pet duck roamed through our neighborhood until it met its untimely demise via an owl, but that’s a whole other story.

Second, Manatee and I have hit the ‘oh-s*&@’ moment of my pregnancy. The ‘oh-my-gosh-the-baby-will-be-here-in-May-and-now-it’s-April’. Our nursery is still a guest room. Our freezers are filled to the brim with food that may or may not be good. We missed last week’s baby-care class because Manatee is sick and we both have a lot of work-work we want done before the baby enters the scene.

You could argue that this is the perfect time for meal planning and I would agree with you. I can tell you that we will not be eating out this week, but relying on the freezer. I know I have some meatloaf in there and hopefully some barbeque. And I’m pretty sure I have a frozen pizza crust and marinara sauce. And with a broken down chicken, I won’t be surprised if we make some chicken salad for lunches. It’s a week for creativity, flexibility, and ends with my birthday and the aforementioned chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. Check out my Facebook page and Twitter to see what I make out of my freezer goodies. I will post pics each night. 

To make up for it, I will also post a recipe for my creamy, spicy (fresh) spinach dip.

clean eating crmys spinach dip09

It’s totally worth it, I promise.

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How do you handle cooking when life gets busy?

Any advice for new parents getting ready for a baby?