Since Darlington started eating solids in December, I’ve added making baby food to my cooking repertoire. If Dan and I get to eat homemade food every day, then so should our precious baby! But it’s not easy adding one more thing to the Monday Menu agenda. So, I had to play around with our schedule to design a menu and plan that works best for our family.

On Fridays, I come up with the menu for the following week. Right now, the menu revolves around Darlington’s solids, and then over the weekend I work on the list of ingredients. Monday mornings, we buy the groceries and prepare all the food for the entire week—juice, dinners, and baby food. I make sure the ingredients cross over. This helps cut down the cooking time for my little helper and I.  And there’s nothing better than seeing those tiny hands caressing the tops of mine, as if she’s doing the work herself!

For this Monday Menu, my little sous chef and I cut some fresh mint from our garden. Each piece goes through the Darlington taste-and-smell test before making the final cut. And what a refreshing elixir this juice is, the perfect complement to the month of love. I can’t help but feel nostalgic over February, our anniversary month. It’s hard to believe that this year will be our fourth anniversary and the first year we get to share it with Darlington.

Do you have a special recipe that means love to you? If so, we’d love hear about it in the comments below!