Our flight landed at 6 pm, so we got home just in time for a quickie dinner before the kids totally lost their ish. No photos, but it was random as all get out, because there was next to nada left in the fridge.
I definitely had chocolate for dessert though. Vacation Elise has two servings rather than one…and since I woke up in San Diego that morning it counts.
The randomness continued the next day with this soup. I found this leftover short rib gravy (?) and added it to the instant pot with the rest of the chickpeas (and more water) to cook them. Then I added noodles and leftover chicken stock for another quick session in the IP and voila! Soup!
To serve, I added frozen broccoli, and green onions (THE ONLY VEGGIES IN THE HOUSE)!
Honestly, I was kinda impressed that I finagled this out of my pantry and freezer stash.
It was like an Asian brothy bowl but instead of ramen or soba noodles I used Italian style noodles and instead of pork belly or beef I used chickpeas. Soooo, all kinds of weird! But both the kids and Kyle slurped it down with delight.
I ran to the store for essentials while they were napping so I could make myself something that I actually wanted. I needed a few things for my Thanksgiving dish anyway, and we needed basics like milk, carrots and kale, so I grabbed an avo and came home to put together a beautiful salad.
Balsamic vinaigrette massaged into kale, roasted butternut squash, candied pecans, and half an avo. Dreamy as can be after a vacation of more chips than I care to blog about.
Dinner was equally simple, thanks to more staples like shrimp (freezer) and sun dried tomatoes.
Oh, and cauli gnocchi!
I think I am finally nearing the end of my stash!
I added frozen spinach to get something green in the mix and called it a day.
I was debating adding nuts or cheese but it was so good it didn’t need anything else!
And that’s how I bridged the one day gap until Thanksgiving!
PS I need to reign myself in…I keep going back for seconds and thirds…and I can’t actually recall the last time I took a night off. Eek!
Happy Thanksgiving from my crew!
We spent the day at my parents’ house with the usual crew.
And the usual spread.
I made the chopped Winter salad from ATK that I made the week before.
Instead of romaine I used leaf lettuce so there was no excuse to skip salad. And as you can see by my plate above, it made up 50% of my meal…AND I went back for more. I don’t even care if I seem lame, I like salad!! I like it more than turkey and gravy and stuffing and mashed potatoes. The only thing that beat it out was Lynda’s sweet potato casserole (made dairy free with Earth Balance and soy milk – boom!) and the roasted root vegetables. Because I don’t get rutabaga and parsnips nearly as often as I’d like to.
But the REAL star of the show was my mom’s chocolate pecan pie.
I’ve posted it before, but here it is again. I think this pie has been featured on HHH more than hummus at this point…
We may as well just change the name of thanksgiving to chocolate pecan pie day. It’s my favorite 🙂
So are they.
We spent the next day at my parents’ house too doing nothingness in PJs while the rain DUMPED down on us. Thank goodness because the fires needed it big time.
Living that leftovers life…
Peek a boo niña!
Stuffing face.
Per tradition, we went to the children’s performance of the Nutcracker in Walnut Creek the day after Thanksgiving. This was Valley’s first year going! We have taken P the past two years (he is still 100% obsessed) and decided our little girl was ready to join in on the fun this year. They were both captivated the entire time and I soaked up every second of it through their eyes. Tchaikovsky is beautiful, after all, especially if you haven’t heard it for months on repeat already.
One more hurrah!
Followed by another slice of pecan pie. You can just roll me back to Davis, okay?
What a fantastic Tday celebration! I’m way more about the veggies than the rolls and stuffing too- don’t get me wrong i have some, but i want seconds and leftovers of the veggie sides.
I brought a salad to the Tday gathering i went to too! Mine was very different, lots of super thin raw fennel and celery with pumpkin seeds, dried figs, radishes, butter lettuce and a dijon black peppery vinegrette.
Your meals from nothingness before Tday are on point and totally impressive!! My pantry and freezer are sorely lacking in comparison 😉 then again, there’s a 24/7 bodega across the street and I don’t have to feed a family….
Please learn your mom’s pie! When my grandma passed we had her recipes and yet they’ve never been the same- never will be for a thousand reasons but i wish i had baked with her side by side more to learn tiny tricks of technique
That sounds SO GOOD, but alas, I think I’d be the only one to eat it. Radicchio alone is a stretch…
Haha- even better reason to make it!! ;))
If nothing else try the shaved thin raw fennel in your lunch salads, it really gives a nice crunch and flavor