It cannot really be Sunday again, can it?

How time flies when everything in your life is changing. This upcoming week marks the last week of my “maternity leave.” We’ll call it that because when you “work for yourself,” you define what leave is, which for me was a lot of baby with a decent amount of projects on the side. I’m going to continue interjecting this post with “inappropriate” quotation marks.

This week I’ll be heading out to Kansas City for Chopped—my first food blogging conference! It’s exciting stuff, and I’m really looking forward to the food photography workshop and the meeting of “fellow” bloggers. (Alright I’m dropping this joke now). But while that’s going to be a blast, I think it’s safe to say that it will not change my life. So there’s more to tell you.

…and that is…I got a new job! Like a really really exciting new job. But let’s back up. In addition to this little space on the internet that I own, I’ve also been running my own business for the last two years. It has been both incredibly liberating and infuriatingly challenging, and one of the things I realized when I had the chance to step back was this: I miss working with other people. I miss having smart, ambitious teammates. I miss the energy. Working alone has so many benefits, but it can also get really lonely. So, a couple months after Theo was born, I decided that instead of going back to my business, I would start looking for other work.

I’ve worked at huge enterprises and I’ve run my own show, and I knew exactly what I wanted: a small software startup that had a product I could stand behind. Enter Zapier, a tool that helps you connect different web apps and move data between them so you can automate boring, tedious tasks and spend time focusing on things that actually matter. I discovered Zapier when I was solving a problem for a client and my head pretty much exploded. This was the smartest, most useful piece of software I’d seen in a long time, especially for small business owners. So imagine my surprise when they had a job opening that was a perfect fit. I applied and was quickly rejected.

Onwards went the job search. I rejected some positions that just didn’t feel right and got rejected from a few more. Then Zapier had another position open up, which I didn’t get, but did start doing some freelancing work for them. Then a third position opened up. One of the job requirements was that you had to be persistent… And here we are today.

I’ll be starting with them next week, working from home (they’re fully remote) and tapping into the tech side of my brain a little bit more. This was, quite honestly, the hardest round of job searches I’ve ever gone through. I was so laser focused on getting the exact type of job I wanted that the opportunities were few and far between. In the meantime, I was a stay-at-home mom, which on one hand was ridiculously joyful and on the other hand full of the mundane. And I’m so ready for this next phase of life to start.

But what does that all have to do with vegetables? At this point, nothing. I’m hoping to continue to give you the same volume and quality of recipes as I have in the past. But bare with me as we adjust to this new schedule. In the meantime, some ideas for this week’s basket:

Kale

• Sesame Noodles with Kale and Mushrooms
• Hearty Kale, Apple, and Pancetta Salad with Walnuts
• Ginger Kale Gratin

Kohlrabi

• Kohlrabi, Apple, and Walnut Slaw Salad
• Spicy Thai Kohlrabi Salad | Wisconsin From Scratch
• Kohlrabi Carrot Fritters with Avocado Cream Sauce | A Couple Cooks

Broccoli

• Coconut-Braised Chickpeas and Broccoli
• Garlicky-Sesame-Cured Broccoli Salad | Lottie & Doof
• Ridiculously Good Roasted Broccoli | Bowen Appetit

Butternut Squash

• Coconut Butternut Squash Soup with Rice
• Butternut Squash, Chicken, and Orzo Stew
• Butternut Squash Soup with Apple Cider Cream

Potatoes

• Paprika-Spiced Roasted Potato Salad
• Farro, Brussel Sprout, and Potato Bake (sub young potatoes for fingerlings)
• Roasted Carrot and Potato, Lentils, and Miso Parsley Sauce | Cookie and Kate

Beets

• Golden Beet, Halloumi, and Walnut Salad
• Spinach, Beet, Bacon, and Blue Cheese Salad
• Quick Pickled Beet Salad with Blue Cheese and Crushed Hazelnuts

Parsley

• Nutty, Garlicky, Herby Lentils with a Fried Egg
• Salsa Verde Brisket | The Crepes of Wrath
• Roasted Carrot and Potato, Lentils, and Miso Parsley Sauce | Cookie and Kate

Carrots

• Roasted Root Vegetable and Chicken Tacos with Chili Mayo
• Carrot Almond Cake with Ricotta Cream
• Roasted Carrot and Potato, Lentils, and Miso Parsley Sauce | Cookie and Kate

Red Onions

• Prosciutto, Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, and Gorgonzola Pizza with an Egg on Top
• Brussel Sprout, Red Onion, and Feta Stuffed Chicken
• Harissa Roasted Chicken with Chickpeas and Red Onion | Sassy Radish

4 Comments

• 10 / 11 / 15 / 1:29 pm

  Congrats girl! I’m so happy for you! That does sound like a great fit! And knowing you and your “laser focus,” posts will be spectacular as ever.

  writes LaurenReply
  • 10 / 12 / 15 / 5:03 pm

    Thanks girl, let’s hope I keep it all together :)

    writes VickyReply
• 10 / 15 / 15 / 8:48 am

  […] I’m out in Kansas City these next two days soaking up everything I can at the Chopped Conference, and heading out to Silicon Valley next week for my first week at my new job (!). […]

  writes Smoky Beet and Lentil Salad - Things I Made TodayReply
• 01 / 12 / 22 / 6:06 pm

  3artists

  writes 1difficultReply