First post... ah!

For those who might already know me, I am pretty obsessive about things looking nice and precise when viewed by the public (ie, the text being the same, everything correct, etc.), so jumping into the blog water with no floaties could be interesting.

That being said, here we go!

I am Lili... I'll be the primary blogger, as this sort of thing is not entirely up my husband Brandon's alley. I used to keep journals back during those AWESOME high school days (sarcasm) and have had fun looking back in them (mostly due to the stupidity of the contents!) more recently. I thought it would be fun to look back on our glory days (no sarcasm) when we're older.

Brandon and I met when we were in college. He went to UAB and I went to Auburn (WAR EAGLE!). One of our friends had a birthday party and we met there... long story, short: the rest is history.
We were engaged a little over a year later, and after a two year engagement (phew!) we FINALLY got married in December of 2009.

He is in graduate school, about to graduate with his Master's degree in Exercise Physiology. I am a second grade teacher at Chalkville Elementary.

The blog title that I found to be pretty witty (Meat & Potatoes) is in honor of the fact that Brandon is a big meat eater and I am a vegetarian. People normally find that one of the more interesting parts of us as a couple and often ask how we handle that.

Believe it or not, it's a pretty easy undertaking - at least it is for us. Brandon happens to really like vegetables anyway, so I'll usually make a hearty vegetarian dish and then make some sort of meat for Brandon to add to it. Simple, huh?
Hopefully, I won't blunder or drown in these blog waters and can figure out how to post a picture (sad, I know) ... but tonight, we had a dish that ranks up to a HUGE Brandon and Lili favorite dish. A couple of weeks ago, we bought a cook book called New Vegetarian Cuisine. I really liked it when I looked at it because it is primarily vegetable-heavy recipes rather than unusual tofu/supplement/vegan-esque recipes that Brandon and I don't care for.
Anyway, tonight I made broccoli and arugala pasta. Essentially, you make a nice little marinara sauce that simmers to thicken for a bit, and then you boil raw broccoli and torn off lasagna in the same pot (HUGE time saver.. you would think that would occur to me at some point). At the end, you mix the pasta, broccoli, and sauce with some arugala (confession: we couldn't find arugala immediately so we just got spinach, still good!).. and then we enjoyed!

How do you please your meat eater? Add chicken! Pretty easy, huh? I sautee chicken with EVOO, garlic, and pickle juice (promise, you'll like it).
It was awesome. A definite "Meat & Potatoes" favorite.

I guess this is a pretty anti-climactic post, but I promised pictures! Yay!

Thanks for sticking with me!

Lili/Potatoes