50 photos of the week

When life gives you heaps of apples (leftover from a get together)…you make apple sauce.  No food waste when I’m around.

I’ve made applesauce in the crock pot several times, but the instant pot was (you guessed it) even easier.  Mainly because it was so fast.

I had dessert every night this week.  I didn’t realize it until I uploaded the photos.  Oops.  It wasn’t necessarily a harder than normal week, but it did feel disjointed or fractured or something…I think it’s because I had a bunch of other stuff going on and Kyle and I only overlapped on one night together.  One night!?!  The kids were like “what is going on?  what happened to family dinners??”  And then on Friday they were so excited that all four of us sat down and ate together.

I made steel cut oats in the instant pot once way back when I first got it and didn’t like it.  It seemed like more of a hassle than the slow cooker or stove top was, so I never made it in the IP again.  But then I had fresh applesauce that I’d just made…and I wanted to use a cup or so of it in the oats (I only use fruit as a sweetener in oats – usually mashed ripe bananas or applesauce).   So I figured I should give it a go.  Only THIS TIME I used the slow cooker setting (with a delay start).  And voila!  I loved it so much more!  So I think I’ll do it this way from now on.  Also, the fresh home-made applesauce in the oats was a huge hit.

Ever since Califia changed their mocha almond milk to a more cold brew heavy recipe I have been looking for a stand in…I used to use it as “creamer” in my first cup of coffee before switching to plain almond milk for my second cup (if I had a second cup).  So I did the walnut milk thing for a while, and I really liked that, but then I kinda started missing the chocolate treat that the mocha gave me.  So I tried the silk chocolate almond milk and that was kinda high in sugar and seemed a little indulgent…so then I switched to a combo of canned coconut milk and almond breeze chocolate almond milk and that’s been a nice combo. That’s what the iced situation is above.  What’s your favorite plant milk to add to coffee?  Bonus points for inexpensive and low sugar/gum/additive options…unfortunately I can’t spend $9 on small batch local cashew malk that will last me 4 days.  😛

Good, but missing something. My salad game was off this week.

Veggie roasting fest.

Whenever I’m craving tahini, I turn to Gena’s cauli and lentil salad.

It’s always a hit.

I purposefully made a ton so that I’d have extra for the next day.

This is one meal that I will happily have as leftovers.

Soggy salad lover right here!

I also double the dressing because I’m one of those people who wants a semi drenched salad.

Whenever I order salads I ask for extra dressing.  And tossed.  Always tossed.  Never on the side.

I added sunflower seeds to the dish.

I froze some of the nectarine cobbler to give us a summer flashback when we are whining about the rain later this winter.

I don’t even know where these chips came from?  Kyle prob brought them home from a work lunch that had leftovers…and then I found them in the pantry and finished them.  Oops.

I promised another pesto recipe before the end of summer didn’t I?  Gotta pick all that basil so nothing goes to waste.

I went simple with this one…just walnuts, olive oil, salt and lots of basil.

Paired with cauli gnocchi for me (and wheat pasta for the kiddos).

Also in the dish…the rest of this block of manchego cheese (yes really) and arugula.

The pesto was so good and I was super full after this meal.  Probably because I ate the entire bag of gnocchi in one sitting…

Oddly enough, I made a smoothie on the coolest day this week.  The temps are starting to drop and the crisp feeling in the mornings actually sticks around for most of the day.  I like it!  I almost feel ready for pumpkin to take over.  Until then, I will sneak in a few more smoothies.  Maybe.

This one had blueberries, banana, spinach, plain (forager) cashew yogurt, strawberries, collagen and coconut milk.

I made sweet potato noodles for the kids for lunch.  They were so so on them.

Kyle said this was the best meal ever, so I gave him the leftovers for lunch the next day.  I cooked the brown rice in a miso dashi broth and then added frozen spinach to the rice cooker once it was done.  The meatballs were aidell’s but then I made a miso soy sauce to pour over it all.

I worked out twice this day and needed a big dessert after coming home (late) from the second work out (a special body back class that was half on land and half in the pool).  We had such a good turnout!  There were at least 20 mamas there and it was sooo fun.

There are the non-food pics of the post, ha!

For the LIFE of me, I couldn’t assemble a salad this day.  And by some miracle I pulled this together – with kale massaged in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, roasted pecans, fresh figs, and carrots.

Now that I’m not in the state I was then, I realize goat cheese may have been a nice addition.

More veggies for roasting!

This dinner was like an ode to the end of summer.  I roasted things separately for the various family members who don’t like certain things (ie Kyle with squash and P with tomatoes).   There was also asparagus and green beans.

To make it a meal, I added quinoa and feta and all the tomato-y olive oil-y juices from the roasted veg.

SO PRETTY!!!

Here’s the four of our bowls before the feta came into play…

And while that would have been plenty on it’s own…I actually roasted a rack of lamb (!!) too.

First time doing this!!

I found the recipe in the True Roots cookbook and Kristin made it sound so easy I just went for it!

I got the rack of lamb from the meat lab on campus.  It’s for teaching and research for the UC Davis animal science students.

You can read about more of the details on the website linked above, but they sell beef, hogs, sheep and goats, in addition to extra-lean ground beef, homemade pork sausage, and other retail meat products (carcasses) at very affordable prices and you know it’s all super high quality.  It’s cash only, otherwise I may have left with more than I went in for…like the pre-marinated frozen tri-tip that was 20% off (the already very low price).

The lamb recipe was, in fact, super easy (and a big winner).  And one rack was the perfect amount for all four of us.

The side was a nice compliment too…could have thrown in some dried oregano and fresh parsley to make it fancy.  Maybe I’ll remake it and post a proper recipe because it was really really good.

The marinade for the lamb was a mustard, maple syrup, smoked paprika combo that I’d never come up with on my own, but worked GREAT.

And like I said, everyone was into it.

I unearthed these raw brownies from the deep freezer and was thrilled about it.

Especially now that I finished off the chocolate coconut bombs.

They are basically walnuts, coconut, dates, and cocoa…and divine when eaten straight from the freezer.

Final meal of the week to share involves my two favorite things – kale and salmon.

Put em together with a Caesar dressing for a happy ending.

Kyle and P were out on a dudes date, so this meal was just for me and my gal.

And the I set myself up for a good evening with chunks of each of these.  TCHO lover for eh ver.