Five to nine weekend

My parents are remodeling their kitchen (slash living room slash dining room slash house slash annoying) so it’s a good thing it was gorgeous and sunny this weekend. 

 

Because we had a birthday party for my dad!!  He’s 59 years young! 

I’ll get to the party details later.

 

I have lots of photos of people from this weekend and I know that’s all you guys my sister wants to see anyway.  Food schmood right? 

P disagrees.  He’s digging the solids.  We had a slow start with carrots, but bananas and avocado have been a whole other story.  He’s a big fan.  Opens his mouth happily when he sees my fingers coming with a little bite. 

[For those who have asked and are wondering we are doing baby led weaning.  I’m not going to write anything about it specifically though because several other bloggers have done excellent jobs of such already.] 

 

There’s nothing that makes me happier than my little hippie enjoying wholesome real food.

But back to the weekend!

On Friday morning I went on a walk with my mom friends.  We met at Whole Foods because we heard Fabio was going to be in the store for a promo event and we thought it sounded funny. 

 

Too bad we were there before it started…I was going to ask for some hair growing tips for P.

 

I wanted to grab some tamales to take home for lunch after our walk but they didn’t have the tofu kind I bought last time.  Pumpkin intrigued me, but I wanted something with protein.   The other kind that had tofu was vegan but not gluten free, so I came home with nada.

 

I had toasted Udi’s millet chia bread with almond butter and a fried egg.  And decaf.  The refills from the WF coffee bar are a whopping $1.  Kinda steep for just a small decaf, but oh well. 

 

A smile photo!  Finally!

After (my really late) breakfast I did errands quietly around the house while Kyle slept (he was doing his robot stuff the night before so he got home around 6 am).  Once he woke up we went for a family walk.

I had a pre-walk snack that could be called lunch but since I had breakfast an hour before, was really not too substantial.  Roasted sweet potatoes, daiya cheddar, carrots, ketchup.  I had FSTG crackers on the side because the potatoes weren’t carby enough to fill me up.

 

I had another snack plate in the afternoon, with lots of similar things.

 

And for dinner I had some of a zucchini frittata I made the day before.  Recipe coming.

We watched more Orange is the New Black after dinner and then Kyle headed off for a night shift and I cozied up to some dark chocolate.

 

Since I can’t watch OITNB without Kyle I switched shows once he left…to something decidedly more dumb.  Kombucha and PLL for the win.

 

The next morning I had a big of oatmeal covered with roasted salty nuts & bananas. 

 

I split the banana with my little guy (meaning he had 1/8th of it) and then topped my bowl off with extra almond milk and a dash of cinnamon.

Kyle was sleeping in again so I entertained P in the yard.  He likes grabbing the tomato leaves. 

 

I spent P’s very short nap time making a salad for my dad’s birthday party.  It had quinoa, kale, and other summer veggies with a kefir based dressing.

 

I somehow failed to get a final shot of the dish.  I brought them to my parents’ house separately so I just never took a pic once I mixed them for the party.

It was a winner in my opinion.  And a decent portion was eaten so hopefully others liked it too.  As I set it out three different people asked if it was lactose free and/or gluten free.  Yes and yes!

I’ll post the recipe in a bit.  Once Kyle woke up I went on a run.  I have been trying to squeeze in one run a week lately and even though they are pathetic in comparison to my previous pre-baby fitness level, they make me feel great and they’re better than nothing.  20 minutes around the neighb gets the endorphins flowing.

 

From there it was go go go to get out of the door and on our way to my parents’ house.  Everything is timed around nursing pacman, so I showered and packed my own lunch for the road.  As you can (kinda?) see above, I used an old to-go container from restaurant leftovers.  There were no leftovers though.  I brought FSTG crackers, hard boiled eggs, carrots, goat cheese, vegan teese cheddar (yuck) and a baggy of nuts and banana on the side. 

  

We took back roads to avoid weekend traffic and Where’s Waldo passed out…things were looking perfect…we were making excellent time…and then we came up on a wall of smoke.  It was right on the freeway ramp exchange so we were between two freeways but stuck.  As luck would have it, we were the 6th car back from where the CHP stopped traffic to block off the overpass.  Dang it!  Had we been just 20 seconds ahead we would have made it through.  I am fairly impatient, especially when I don’t know what’s going on.  I wanted Kyle to off road and get back on the other freeway but he’s a law abiding citizen so he refused.  After 20 minutes of nothingness I got out of the car to ask the CHP what the deal was.  He told me they were planning on having everyone drive in reverse all the way back once they got cars to stop coming up behind us.  Seriously?  Bad plan dude.  We were already at least several miles of cars blocked in.  And since we were right in the front I knew it would be for-eh-ver until that happened.  So I asked him if we could offroad to get back on the other freeway…and he said yes!  So we did.  After some creative rerouting and multiple U turns we were back in action.

The delay meant P woke up form his nap (hungry) before we were even halfway home, but he was fine to just suck on his pacifier. 

 

Party time!

Marie made this spinach strawberry goat cheese salad.  My dad grilled sausage and salmon.  The salmon had this spice rub.

 

There was lots of food, but let’s be real, everyone was there to see my dad Patty-cakes.

 

He was kinda fussy…atypical of him to be honest…but nobody else really noticed it aside from my fam.  Let’s just say he was very vocal and enjoyed hearing his voice.  🙂

 

I kept him up longer than normal so more of my parents’ friends could meet him, but eventually we took him inside to do his bedtime routine.

 

Bath.  Book.  Bed. 

We were story-less so I read him a few pages of Cosmo.  I’m pretty sure he was into the lipstick ads.  He fell asleep immediately.  Hooray!  Time for mom and dad to par-tay!

 

B minus and plate numero uno.

That’s the only shot of the quinoa salad you’re gonna get!  Womp womp.

Quinoa & Greens with Creamy Kefir Herb Dressing [vegetarian, gluten free, lactose free]

Salad Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups uncooked quinoa, cooked and chilled
• 1 ear of (raw) corn
• 1/2 cup finely chopped (raw) green beans
• 2 banana peppers, minced
• 1 large handful baby kale

Dressing Ingredients:

• 1 cup plain lactose free kefir (I used Green Valley Organics)
• 2 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp dried parsley

Directions:

Cook quinoa and let cool.  Combine with chopped veggies and mix.  If you prefer to cook the green beans and corn first that’s fine too.  I liked the crunch they provided in their uncooked state. 

Make dressing by combining everything and shaking. [I recommend making the dressing a day ahead so the flavors can amalgamate.]

Everything was fresh from the farmer’s market except for the kale, which was from my own garden.  Farm to table,  Yay!

 

If nothing else, these photos say “Baby’s asleep!  Let’s get our drink on!”  Ha!

 

The night ended with candles and cake.  5 to the 9.  Woohoo!

Kyle and I went to brunch at Lark Creek on Sunday morning.

We split everything, including 2 orders of fried eggs, home fried potatoes, and a house-made veggie burger with waffle fries. 

Not bad.  I asked for runny yolks but they were hard.  Sad face.  By the time they checked on us I was too hungry to send them back, and even though they offered to get me new ones, I thought that would be a waste.  The veggie burger was fantastic.

After brunch we went back to my parents’ casa to pack everything up.  Instead of going home, we went to visit Elaine and Cooper. 

Every time we see them the boys are bigger and bigger!  Elaine came to Davis last month so we were due to visit their house. 

It makes me SO freakin’ happy that they’ll grow up together. 

  

I mean how cute are these guys?! 

Lauren came over to play too.  Me and my high school besties…now plus two babes.

After P pooped through all his diapers it was officially time to hit the road.

I got hungry on the road (even though I had a soy misto on the way to Elaine’s) and decided to dig in to the quinoa leftovers.  Only I didn’t have a single piece of silverware.  Doh!  I searched every nook and cranny in the car like a mad woman with no luck.  So I MacGyver-ed it and used my Barnes & Noble card as a spoon.  I figured that’s the card I can get away with tossing since (a) I have a kindle now and (b) I can give them my phone number for the member discounts.

After a short walk, we put P down and made ourselves some dinner nibbles.  Al fresco wasn’t happening since it was too hot, so we just brought the picnic inside.

Smoked trout, roasted nuts, carrots, (unpictured) GF crackers, brie & marbled merlot cheddar (for Kyle), goat cheese (for me), grapes, assorted wheat crackers (for Kyle).

Followed by another Kombucha and dark chocolate.

Phew!  Back to the grind…