Eating in & out

This past week has been work heavy, which is why I’ve been doing more recipe posts.  But my sister hates recipe posts prefers other material (and isn’t afraid to let me know it), so here’s a recap of my weekend.

Starting with Friday…

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I made peanut butter.

I made a spinach and pumpkin seed pate.

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I made bread.

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I made pancakes.

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I ate pancakes.

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I made seitan.

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I made tofu.

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And after spending most of the day in the kitchen, Kyle and I opted for a dinner out. 

We walked to Tender Greens, a favorite of ours, but I didn’t bring my camera.  I got two dishes, so I had leftovers for lunch the next day.

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Roasted butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, and potatoes and tabouli.

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I combined those leftovers with spinach and half a (steamed) sweet potato.  The tabouli was pretty oily so after shaking everything up together, no dressing was necessary.

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Usually weekend shifts are pretty mellow, but this Saturday was soooo busy. 

I was up at 4:30 am to get my yoga on. 

Post down-dog I sipped on coffee and got ready to head into the hospital.

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I tried this bread at my parents house and then I saw it at Whole Foods here in Santa Monica.  Hooray!

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Greenlee’s Bakery is located in San Jose, so it makes sense that they sell their breads at Farmer’s Markets in Nor Cal, but apparently they are expanding to LA too.  I had two slices of cinnamon bread in the car before I started my shift.

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My work breakfast was a overnight oat mix with Linwood’s ground flax and home-made peanut butter.  It was uncooked with nearly equal portions of oats and peanut butter, which made it decadent and borderline inappropriate perfectly indulgent.

Because of how busy my day was, lunch time came quicker than I was ready for.  Time flies when you’re changing dressings and inserting rectal tubes…

And if that doesn’t whet your appetite, then maybe this will.

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Or this?

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62% cacao is the perfect darkness level.  Kyle made a big mistake in sharing this Scharffen Berger mocha dark chocolate with me…after which I stole it and told him it was no longer his.  It has little flecks of coffee in it.  Such a wonderful treat!  It makes for a nice pick me up and like most dark chocolate, it pairs with candied ginger so well. 

The banana was my afternoon snack, and I had the carrots on my commute home.

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For dinner I whipped up a simple egg & veggie scramble.

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  • kale & carrot mix
  • butternut squash
  • 3 eggs

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With a side of home-made bread.

I had more dark chocolate for dessert.

On Sunday morning Kyle and I woke up early to watch football, sip coffee, and then join some friends for brunch. 

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I’ve only been to Real Food Daily for lunch and dinner, but their brunch menu trumps both. 

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Ummm…wow! 

I couldn’t decide what to order because I wanted four different dishes.  And I will probably return to try them all

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Especially now that I’ve tried seen everyone else’s orders.  Drool. 

If you’re not familiar with RFD, it’s an organic & vegan restaurant, well known for it’s fantastic fare. 

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I chose the Ava B ‘n’ Cheez Scramble, made with tofu, avocado, crumbled tempeh bacon, sun-dried tomatoes, and cashew cheese.

It came with a side of toast (I chose hemp bread) and the option of hash browns or fruit (I chose hash browns).

The entire plate was delicious, but the scramble blew my freakin’ mind.  It was so so savory.  The cashew cheese was from another planet it was so good and the tofu was seasoned like nothing I’ve ever had.  I was beyond impressed.  The has browns came as a cute crispy cake, which was neither greasy nor bland.  Yum!  I completely cleaned my plate. 

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Both our brunch buddies got breakfast burritos with scrambled tofu, tempeh bacon, spanish rice, black beans, onions, and peppers stuffed in a whole wheat flour tortilla and topped with ranchero sauce, cashew cheese, guacamole, and pico de gallo.  They chose fruit over hash browns and nixed the cashew cheese, and although neither are vegan, they seemed to enjoy the food.

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Kyle ordered the RFD Benedict with savory herbed tofu, sautéed spinach, tomatoes, sourdough bread, corn, hollandaise with tempeh bacon, and hash browns.

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I tried a bite of his and I think my cashew hollandaise was better, but otherwise it was great.   My scramble was better though.  🙂

Like me, he cleared his plate and felt satiated but not stuffed at the end. 

After brunch, Kyle and I walked home to enjoy football and downtime together.

And there you have it!  My weekend of dining in and dining out.

Next up, Sunday night family dinner #2.

Do you dine out more on the weekends?  Or does the day of the week have no impact on your restaurant attendance. 

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Comments (30)

  1. Leng

    Lately our night outs are more for celebrations and outings with friends. Most of the time they end up on the weekend, but if we are too busy to cook during the week we’ll order some take out then too. So no real pattern right now.

    I am still amazed at how well you manage to eat so well, while maintaining a busy work schedule Elise!

  2. laurasplanet

    thankyouverymuch! although, i really liked the recipe for the quinoa quiche…I plan to make it in the very near future (as soon as i buy some nutritional yeast)

  3. Sarah @blueeyedbarbie.blogspot.com

    I seriously wish we had restaurants like that here! It all looks so yummy.

  4. Joy

    We don’t really ever dine out… But we are more likely to have friends over on a weekend

  5. PB&Jenny

    pretty sure you’ve made more in the past day than I’ve mad in the past 21 years. You’re awesome. That is all <3

  6. Caroline

    My family tends to eat out more during the week since by the time everyone gets off work no one feels like cooking.

  7. Gena

    So, so, SO jeal of your RFD access. I’m dying to get there!!!

  8. Katie @ Peace Love & Oats

    I only dine out when I’m at home with family, or when I go somewhere with my brother. Lol mostly because I just can’t afford it, so in those instances someone else is paying!

  9. BroccoliHut

    Yum! Your homemade bread looks fabulously seed-covered.

  10. Courtney

    Haha–I *love* recipe posts! They are my favorite 🙂

    Courtney

  11. Casey @ Insatiably Healthy

    They have that bread at the Whole Foods in Denver and it is such a TREAT. Gotta keeps my eyes peeled for the blueberry flavor though!

  12. Jessica

    Real Food Daily! Ughh, so incredibly jealous right now. I dream about that freakishly perfect double decker club sandwich…and their root veggies, and tofu dishes, and cashew cheese, and…well everything! Cannot wait to return during my next visit to big LA! Maybe we’ll go together?!

    But as a college gal, I usually cook most my meals during the week to save $$ for eating (and drinking) out on the weekends with friends 🙂

  13. Prathiba

    After seeing you make nut butters the past couple times, I have decided to try it out! Some websites say that the nuts have to be roasted and then ground up semi-warm. Are your nuts warm or do you just toss ’em in the food processor straight out of the bag?

    Your butters look so damn good. I can’t wait to try it out!

  14. Prathiba

    Oh! Also, can you post your bread recipes? I assume your breads are vegan. They come out a lot better than my vegan bread experiments.

  15. K8

    tofu recipe!? looks super yummy!

  16. Elise (Post author)

    yup. its actually the most flavorful tofu i think ive made. ever. ill share the technique, because its now how ill be cooking tofu forever more.

  17. Elise (Post author)

    sure. i posted my basic one a few posts back if you missed it. this one will be coming soon, promise!

  18. Elise (Post author)

    you can use raw nuts for sure, but roasted ones are WAY more flavorful. i rarely roast them myself – i just buy the roasted ones in bulk – but they are easy to roast on your own.
    so no, the nuts arent warm or anything, i just toss them in the food processor and grind grind grind. dont worry if yours isnt getting creamy, have patience and keep pulsing.

  19. Elise (Post author)

    and yes, they are vegan 🙂

  20. Elise (Post author)

    we better!!

  21. Elise (Post author)

    you can yell at my sister then, haha.

  22. Elise (Post author)

    you seriously need to come visit so we can go.

    ps im coming to DC in april. ill be looking for restaurant recs that are good for veg, non-veg and flexi company if you have them (i have the reviews youve already done written down already)

  23. Elise (Post author)

    haha. i didnt even post on kyles meals that i made too. im a full time nurse, but sometimes i feel like thats only 25% of my job.

  24. Elise (Post author)

    do it!!! youll love it.

  25. Elise (Post author)

    im not normal.

  26. Emily

    How funny! I was at Real Food Daily for brunch on Sunday as well! I went with the Sausage Scramble with hash browns- basically the same as your meal, except my scramble had seitan sausage rather than tempeh bacon. So delicious!
    I completely agree that RFD’s brunch menu outshines their lunch and dinner menu. Although, I can’t complain about ANY of their food. I love it all.
    I don’t dine out toooo often but, with all of the amazing vegan restaurants in LA, it’s hard not to!
    Looks like you had an amazing (and busy) weekend!

  27. Elise (Post author)

    wow. crazy! i almost got that scramble too, it was my next choice, haha. were you at the santa monica location? did you see tobey maguire too?

  28. Prathiba

    Gotcha. Thanks!

  29. Prathiba

    Thank you! Looking forward to it!

  30. Emily

    Yep, I was at the Santa Monica location! I actually rarely go to that one- I’m much closer to the West Hollywood location. So, it was a nice change.
    And no! I didn’t see Tobey Maguire! He was there? I obviously showed up at the wrong time…haha

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