Snacks & the City

That last post had some pretty scenery from the weekend, but not a lot of eats.  Here’s a recap of last weekend at home, in food format.

To start the road trip off on the right foot, I got a big kale, spinach, beet, carrot, and ginger juice.  Pink pee is especially fun when you’ve been holding your bladder for 4 hours.  We stopped twice on the drive home and arrived in L-town just in time for dinner.  I had a pumpkin Bolani and salad.

The next morning we slept in, which meant coffee and brunch on the later side for moi.  I really don’t understand the concept of waking up hungry.  I am never ready to eat first thing in the AM. 

After an hour or so I start getting the itch for some caffeine, but I still don’t have an appetite until much later.  I know there are studies upon studies drilling in the importance of starting the day with a substantial breakfast…it just isn’t my thang.

 

Anyway.  Eating my first meal at noon meant I was having a seriously impossible time picking a sweet or savory direction.

 

I made oats, but then changed my mind.  So I made a salad.  With oats.  So weird right?  It totally worked though. 

• whole rolled oats (1 cup cooked with 1.5 cups water)
• arugula and spinach
• cherry tomatoes
• avocado
• 2 microwave poached eggs (I want one of these devices!!)
• plain greek yogurt (basically the dressing tying it all together)

There was also toast with avocado on the side. 

After lunch we also headed to my parents country club for 9 holes of golf.  It was a ton of fun.  I borrowed my mom’s driver for a few tee offs and definitely noticed the difference.  That said, I have much room for improvement.

We couldn’t get drinks in the clubhouse after because my shorts were “too short” (no comment) so we went home and made cocktails on our own.

 

Did you know that you can make sparkling wine in the soda stream??

 

Carbon footprint reduction and 24 hour fizzy water…that’s all well and good.  But making your own champagne!?  Where do I sign up! 

 

Dinner was a team effort. 

We stole my mom’s rice cooker V-card with the quinoa.

 

She got a Zojirushi too (that’s the brand I have), but hers has a larger capacity (10 cups) and a bunch of other settings plus it comes with a steam basket.  At first, I couldn’t find the measuring cup that comes with the machine. 

[Side note: the measuring cups that come with rice cookers aren’t a standard cup.  The full amount of 1 “rice cooker cup” is actually equivalent to 3/4 cup.  This may explain why some readers have been having trouble with the ratio of grain to liquids.  I always use my rice cooker cup and then fill the liquid to the line inside the bowl based on how many rice cooker cups I used.  For instance: if I use 1 rice cooker cup I then fill the water to the “1” line in the bowl.]

 

Anyway, we made three cups quinoa and steamed chard from my mom’s garden in the rice cooker steamer basket.  At the same time.

 

Some of the quinoa popped up through the steamer holes, ha.

Then we added a 1/2 cup of chopped cherry tomatoes, stirred it all up, and left it on warm until the rest of the meal was done.

The salmon recipe was from Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook.

 

And then we had artichokes on the side.  They are actually a FODMAP food, so I stuck to half of one.

 

We made extra glaze to drizzle on the quinoa.  It was mostly maple syrup & soy sauce, and it was fantastic.

Quinoa for the win.

 

The next day Kyle and I headed off to the city first thing.

People think it’s crazy to wait in line for such expensive coffee, but once you’ve tasted Blue Bottle you get it. 

Worth. The. Wait.

Soy cafe au lait.

I’ve already covered the rest of our Ferry Building adventures here, so I’ll just skip straight to lunch.

 

I know I have said it before, but seriously, The PLANT Cafe Organic is one of my favorite spots in SF. 

I started with the Kombucha on tap, pineapple sage.

 

So refreshing!

 

Kyle got a strawberry almond milk smoothie and the California plant burger.

 

This is basically the most classic item on the menu plus avocado and cheese. 

Kyle got the cheese on the side so I could “help” him with the burger.  I don’t know how they make beets and cashews taste so delicious, but this burger blows my mind every time I have it.  My memory doesn’t inflate it one bit either…it’s just as awesome as I remember it.

I got my own dish too though.  I’m a huge kale phase (ok, I’m always in a kale phase), so I got the Dino Kale Salad. 

I love when items are already FODMAPs friendly and I don’t even have to tweak them.  The salad had dino kale, red quinoa, tomato, avocado, almonds, cucumber, and a lemon cumin vinaigrette.  I added baked tofu too.

 

How divine does that sound/look?  It was exactly what I wanted.  I loved every single thing about this salad.  I even used the dressing as inspiration for a recipe I made the following evening. 

 

Above, pre-mixed.  Below, post-fork-and-knife-attack. 

 

After stuffing ourselves silly, Kyle and I rolled ourselves home for some down time. 

Later on we took the dogs for a walk around the Reservoir.  Walking is such wonderful exercise.  Any excuse to be outdoors and doing something active makes me happy.  Whether it’s golf with my family, shopping with my husband, or walking the dogs…it’s great to be doing something physical (that’s not running) in the sunshine.  I’m not ready to break up with running, but we are definitely on a break right now. 

 

This is how Thai food for 5 people arrives.

 

Amarin Thai is the local favorite.  As you can see we got quite a few dishes, both vegetarian and non-veg.

I had a few favorites, including the Himapan Tofu (black sweet roasted chili sauce, cashews, broccoli, bell peppers and yellow onions).

 

And the Tofu Pad See Ew (I love this dish for always and ever).  We had to get a few orders of this because it’s everyone’s favorite.

 

My taste buds also went gaga for the Tofu Red Curry (the house’s medium spicy red curry with coconut milk, kaffir lime, zucchini, bell, bamboo shoots, Thai basil).

 

Curry on a plate, rookie mistake. Doh!

Honorable mention goes to the Tofu Fried Rice. 

The Pra-Ram Tofu (steamed veggies, ground peanut, homemade peanut sauce) was just so-so.

Here’s my first portion.

 

I went back for more Pad See Ew and chunks of Himapan tofu.

A la mode there was white & brown rice, (plus some chicken dishes for the non-veg people [skewers, spring rolls, yellow curry]).

The last day in L-town is still to come. 

 

Kale teaser.

When you go home do you have a favorite restaurant that you HAVE to go to?  Take-out spot? 

There are several new places in the town I grew up in that weren’t around when I was there, so it’s fun trying those out (Patxi’s, Chow, Metro, Kane Sushi, Va De Vi, etc.).  But I still love the classics (Millie’s Coffee Shop, Casa Gourmet, etc.).  I do feel very lucky having parents that live so close to SF …the plant burger has become a must each time I hit up Nor Cal now.