Creamy Honey Mustard Dressing + end of pregnancy rambles

This week I officially started maternity leave. I think it’s had the opposite effect on me than is intended by the word leave. The end of working and teaching has brought on a low level of stress and just enough downtime to start really thinking about what’s ahead. Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly excited to meet our baby girl but I’m also feeling nervous, emotional and anxious, which I hear is pretty natural at this point in pregnancy.

To channel my anxiousness I’ve tried to keep busy by organizing the new house, getting outside and pouring over recipes online while envisioning cooking. I can’t seem to get around to the actual cooking of anything right now. My energy, which has been really steady throughout most of my pregnancy, has begun to wane. A trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond yesterday left me simultaneously wanting to scream and lie down. Maybe it’s nature’s way of getting me ready for the end of the journey. At 38 weeks and 5 days I’m hitting my limit.

I know I just said my energy is waning but the freedom in my schedule and the unseasonably warm weather we’re having in Colorado right now has made it nearly impossible not to get out for my walk runs. I’ve been out three times this week, once on Sunday (which truthfully was snowy but unbelievably peaceful and white, just look at these photos), once Tuesday and once today.

I run about 2-2.5 miles each time with lots of walking and stretching in between. I am finding yoga to be rather uncomfortable right now. Forward folds are more like half folds and I just can’t get into anything deep enough to make it feel like I’m reaching anything. There’s a part of me that is also sort of over going to class at studios. Maybe it’s that nothing seems to fit anymore, I wear this poor Athleta running jacket pretty much every day now and even with it’s stretchy fabric it’s having trouble covering my belly.

So, as mentioned above, when I’m not dealing with my emotional ups and downs or out walk running, I’ve been perusing food sites. Part of me feels like I should cook and freeze some meals for the coming weeks but that sounds like a lot of work and I can’t see us grabbing these freezer meals for dinner. I may live to regret not having done food prep but I just can’t be bothered right now.

What has been catching my eye on the recipe boards though and are easy enough to make right now are salads. So when it came time for this afternoon’s lunch I knew I had to mix up something healthy and green. I wasn’t feeling any of my go-to salad dressing though. That’s when I thought about mixing my ranch dressing with my yet to be shared honey mustard dressing to make a creamy honey mustard. The results were amazing. The tang of the mustard cut through the creaminess of the mayo and the honey made it just a touch sweet.

For the salad, I just threw a bunch of things together that sounded good: brussels sprouts, asparagus, avocado, some leftover red lentils and chopped apple. I loved this salad and will likely make it for Michael when he gets home from work tonight. I also have my eye on a quinoa casserole but we’ll probably end up having salad with grill cheese sandwiches instead. Like I said, the intentions are there but the follow through is lacking.

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