I enjoy a Saturday morning where I can wake up naturally, without an alarm, lay in bed, leisurely drink my cup of coffee, watching the news. It quickly occurred to me this morning, however, that I didn't have much else planned for my day. While I consider myself to be especially talented at wasting time, I'm not very good at being intentionally lazy. It's even hard for me to sit and watch TV without doing something else at the same time. Maybe that just speaks to my attention span...

Anyway, in order to give myself a task and some focus for the day, I asked Lisa if I could make dinner for her, Lucas, and Joel. I so enjoy cooking, but it's infinitely more fun if you have PEOPLE to cook for.

I don't have any pictures from tonight's meal (that's what happens when you leave your camera's memory card in your computer...), but here's what was on the menu:

Sloppy Buffalo Joes

These have been on my list of recipes to try for a little while now. I am always drawn to food with buffalo sauce. They were pretty delicious, but I did wish the ground chicken would break up into smaller pieces. Also the sauce seemed a little thin. I ended up simmering it longer than the recipe says to in an effort to cook it down a little, and that helped.

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower with Lemon and Garlic

Wow. Let me tell you. This is THE way to eat vegetables. Roasting veggies turns them into something I WANT to eat, rather than just something I feel obligated to put on my plate. And the addition of thinly sliced garlic and lemons = GENIUS.

Chocolate Ricotta Mousse

I absolutely loved how easy this dessert was to prepare. The hardest part was cleaning the food processor after it was done. (Do you like how I said that as though it wasn't still sitting dirty in my kitchen sink...?) The flavor of the mousse was good, but the texture was a little dry. This might have been because I used part-skim rather than full-fat ricotta. Also, the ricotta was cold when I put it in the food processor, and I think I would bring it to room temperature if I tried it again. The melted chocolate seemed to harden some when it met with the cool cheese.
I topped the mousse with fresh raspberries and mini semisweet chocolate chips...which was a pretty good choice.