Some links in this email are affiliate links- if you click through and purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.*

Hi Reader,

It's been below freezing here this week with some days of freezing fog that never let up - and some days with beautiful winter sunshine. All the news is about the big storm this weekend for much of the U.S., though I don't think the west coast is in the path of any of it. If you have been impacted, I sure hope and pray you are doing okay!

Happenings

Last week we bought tickets to fly to England at the end of April!! I've long dreamed of visiting and Brian would like to revisit where he lived in 5th grade while his dad was on a research sabbatical.

So far we only know we are flying into London and will take a train to Bath and will visit Oxford and the little village Brian lived in. We plan to rent a car and travel more around southern England.

👉This is where I ask for tips and advice on places to visit and stay if you've been to this area before! 😀

Healthy Protein-Packed Lunches

You may or may not have noticed (do people pay attention to these things?) that I don't have a specific "lunch" category on the site. It wasn't intentional, it's just that I've never even thought of cooking a whole meal at lunch.😳 And any easy salad or dinner recipe works for lunch, too.

Lunch is one of two things in our house now: leftovers (my preferred because less prep time!) or a salad. My kids would often make a sandwich or a quesadilla, but they started making their own lunches by the 4th or 5th grade and I don't gravitate to sandwiches. I see lunch as a way to pack in the veggies, which is hard to do with two big pieces of bread. If I need something portable, I prefer to wrap salad-type fixings in a tortilla.

But I do have recipes I go to when there aren't leftovers and I'm wanting something different than a basic green salad. They work both for lunches and light dinners:

• One of these two tuna salads: Greek Tuna And Tomato Salad (summer) OR Greek Tuna Salad with Artichokes, Olives & Feta (winter)
• ​Tex-Mex Salad with Ranch-Style Beans & Homemade Dressing (a favorite since college!)
• ​10 Minute Chickpea Wraps - A Pantry Recipe​
• Fritters (though they are usually made earlier and reheated in an air fryer and I do have a small salad on the side): Zucchini Feta Fritters with Lime Recipe OR Quick Sourdough Vegetable Fritters (My Favorite Way to Use Up Discard)
• Chicken Salad (made with canned or rotisserie chicken): Quick & Easy Caesar Chicken Salad – for Wraps, Sandwiches and More OR Cranberry Feta Chicken Salad with Chutney Dressing​

Lunches still hold to my tip to eating healthy, real food: repeat meals and keep them simple. But to lunches I'd add - think about how many veggies you can get in there. 😀

Do you have any go-to lunches?

From The Blog

​Crispy Parmesan Baked Fish – 20 Minute Recipe​ This baked fish recipe with a golden, crispy Parmesan herb crust works with any kind of fish. It's a fast 20-minute dinner great for family dinners as well as guests. RECIPE HERE!

​My Grandma's Amazing Tasty Baked Butter Rice​ Baked butter rice is made with minimal prep, five ingredients, and either white or brown rice. So simple to make and so flavorful that it will become your family's favorite like it has ours! RECIPE HERE!

A few more things

#1 - Thank you if you left a review and rating this last week over on the website!! I'm not sure if you know how much that helps - not only to give your take on a recipe for others who come to see it, but mainly to let Google know this is a recipe people have tried, which carries a lot of weight to being shown to new people in search.😀

#2 - I wanted to give a little update on the affordable walking pad I bought last year. While it didn't work for me to use it while at a desk like I had hoped (hello, motion sickness), it's become key in me keeping up with my 26 minutes a day walking goal for this year! I don't usually have a hard time walking daily when the weather is nice, but I'm a whimp in the cold. The walking pad gives me the option to get my walk in no matter what the weather (or what the time). I have it near a window so I can look out and I put in an audiobook I'm reading, which passes the time quickly.

#3 - My mom and I saw Song, Sung, Blue last week, and while it was good (Kate Hudson just got an Oscar nom for her role!), we both felt a little blindsided by the last half of the movie. It's like the trailer only showed the fun love story and music and didn't warn that it was going to take a bittersweet turn (and then just bitter). It's based on a true story and the things that happened were real, so I guess I could've read about it first? But we felt pretty misled by the happy-go-lucky trailers. Just a little warning.😀

Thank you for reading and following along - stay warm!!💜

Know someone who'd appreciate this? Forward it along!

Remember it's easy to save recipes on An Oregon Cottage! Just click the heart when browsing to save your personal favorites! TIP: when you click on the link, it will take you to my site - click the heart like you see here to the left - it will be on the bottom right on the site. A pop up form will come up for you to create an account (or sign in if you already have). You need to create a password for this account (no info is kept besides your email) and then you can save all recipes and articles to this account and access it anytime to remember what you want and choose what to make!

*You can read An Oregon Cottage's full disclosure policy here.

Do you love these emails? To get an email whenever I post a new recipe or article, click here.