V has to bring in something for the letter of the week and they were on “i” last week and she wanted to bring in “ice cream” so I decided to make that into a craft rather than send her to school with a frozen carton. It turned into something that occupied them for the entire afternoon! I love when arts and crafts work out like that for both kids (because he’s usually content to pour over something for hours on end, but she’s not quite there yet).
That’s completely unrelated to this post, but sometimes cute kid photos are a nice cheery reminder of what’s good in life. Oddly enough, as the 25th approaches, I’m finding the stress of the holidays to be decreasing and I’m able to sit back and enjoy the season. The beginning of December was crazy!
Food prep is one thing I can control and helps cut through the chaos.
I made a big batch of lentils and kale for the week for easy lunches. They were slightly overcooked (I guess I messed up the timing or water ratio in the IP?) but it was fine once I added dressing. I used it as a base for several meals, which I’m going to share now…
This bowl had some with roasted Brussels and pecans and manchego.
This one had some with smoked salmon, chevre and hazelnuts.
REALLY REALLY loving this Cypress Grove fresh goat milk cheese. It’s local (from Arcata, which is on the coast a little North of us) and is delightfully tangy and clean tasting. All their cheeses have fun names too. Anyway, I’m a big fan. I used the Ms. Natural flavor for this bowl.
I added some to this bowl after the photo, which had Brussels sprouts and sautéed red cabbage as well. Veganism can be so delish and so simple, ya know?
Once the lentils were gone, I went back to my yummy kale Thai salads.
Above with almonds and below with peanuts.
Both heavenly.
Finished off the rest of the Cyrpess Grove chevre with this nice little plate of smoked salmon, roasted Brussels sprouts, candied walnuts, and carrots.
And then to close out the week I went back to the Thai salad, but since I was out of avo, I added grilled salmon.
So there are my latest lunches. 🙂
It all comes down to food prepping…roasting butternut squash and Brussels, chopping carrots, washing and de-stemming kale, cooking lentils in bulk, making dressings, roasting nuts, etc.
What are your weekly prep musts?
