My favorite protein breakfast, Americana Summer, and "timshel"
the weekly r.e.p.o.r.t. 06.12.26
What is the Weekly R.E.P.O.R.T? I wanted to create a fun weekly format to share food, reads, hobbies, items, shows and more that I’m currently loving or making my life easier. I see “Efficient Kitchen” embodying the whole home as well as the people in it. I also want to hear from YOU. What are you enjoying? Comment on the post anything you’re loving in a R.E.P.O.R.T category.
I spent the weekend trying to finish some reading and personal projects so I wrapped up my first “door stopper” book of the year: East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It’s a very interesting read and supposedly Steinbeck’s magnum opus according to him. I found the book a little bit all over the place because he’s doing this retelling of the garden of Eden, from my opinion, someone who is searching and trying to explain humanity and good and evil in the world. Timshel (thou mayest) or free will is the theme that he runs through the book in its entirety. Steinbeck also writes a bit of his own family history in the book for his children, so the story can whip you back and forth a bit, but ultimately are woven together.
I normally would have never picked up this book, and ultimately I am glad that I did. What I enjoyed about Steinbeck is his prose and narration. I thoroughly enjoyed him describing the Salinas valley in California as well as his commentary on humanity. Parts of this book were so incredibly rich and I highlighted so many lines. There were two characters that I absolutely fell in love with: Samuel Hamilton and Lee. The rest of the characters are complicated, but it’s supposed to be that way. I love reading literary analysis of classics after I read them, and I’ve yet to find a good one for this read.
I don’t think this book is for everyone, but it is a good slow read that took me almost two months of reading chapters here and there. I would recommend it as one you might read before bed slowly over a few months. It’s not a book that you read for the plot, but more character driven thoughtful prose.
Summer is in full force in our house, so I am making my kids snacks constantly. All my recipes this month are geared towards keeping the kids fed and I will do a special meal prep post for paid subscribers at the end of the month.
I’ve been working so hard on something really exciting for The Efficient Kitchen, so I wanted to take a break this weekend. I picked out a canvas that I got for Christmas and decided to work on it over the weekend. I’ve been saving this one to do when I had some time to sit down and think about how I wanted to stitch it. I ran over to my local needlepoint store and always ask for advice from seasoned stitchers. They helped me pick out a beautiful overdyed thread and taught me the Goeblin stitch to look like fur. There’s so many shortages right now with this hobby, so I’m going to have to order the thread for the background but I’m so pleased with how it turned out.
I know many of you probably don’t needlepoint, but I hope this section inspires you to just pick up some sort of hobby that you enjoy. I hear all the time from friends how they want something fun. I stopped doing hobbies for a long time, and I realized that I just needed to find one that fit with small kids and didn’t take up a lot of space. I enjoy needlepoint because I can keep it in a small bag and work on it in small chunks of time. Cross stitch or embroidery would also be very similar!
Canvas | Thread: Petite Very Velvet, Thread Gatherer in Southwest Sands, Essentials
I am loving the entire Rifle Paper Americana summer collection. There are so many good pieces for outdoor hosting. I do like using melamine for outdoor hosting and prefer using it over paper plates. I absolutely loathe paper plates unless it’s a large gathering of people. I don’t like spending a lot of time cooking for my food to taste weird or flop on a poorly constructed paper plate.
With the slower pace of summer, I’m working on age appropriate life skills with my kids. Tying shoes, loading the dish washer, laundry… It’s really amazing just having them do their part in picking up their mess and clearing their own plates.
I’ve been working on teaching the entire laundry process (supervised) to my eldest. I’ve really fallen in love with the Koala Eco Laundry detergent. If you’ve tried laundry swaps and they just aren’t working, this one is my favorite. It has a fresh smell that fades but leaves clothes very clean. I also got some of their stain spray that has worked really well so far on little boy grime. (Their clothes are always so much dirtier!) I also grabbed their oxygenated bleach for our white sheets and towels.
Cleaning + Laundry Favs | Laundry Complete Collection
I bought another bag of the Equip Prime Protein’s chocolate churro protein powder because it is that good. It truly makes the best protein pancakes. I know this is crazy, but I don’t really love smoothies. In the heat of the summer, sure, they are great, but most of the time I just don’t love them.
I really feel my best when I hit my protein goals, so I started coming up with other ways to incorporate a scoop of protein powder a day. You can find all those recipes here.
My personal favorite is making a pancake every morning and getting 32 g of protein in really fast and really sneakily. (The chocolate churro is my favorite because you don’t even need syrup on it!)
You can use the code JORDANEK for 25% off through TODAY as a special. It’s normally only 15% off, so be sure to stock up because the chocolate churro is limited edition.
Let me know any of your recommendations below! I would love to hear them.
*This post may contain affiliate links at no extra charge to you. All opinions are my own.