Football is off to a tough start

I did a decent amount of prep this weekend but nothing like last weekend.  I have found that if I go big once every month or so, the rest of the weekends don’t have to be as intense.  The whole chicken from last weekend lasted me all week – mainly in lunches for the kids and Kyle.  This weekend I made chili.  The kids (and Kyle) loved the black bean quinoa chili I made before so I basically made the same thing again.  This time I swapped in Lightlife vegan gimme lean ‘ground beef’ for the ground beef.  It’s such a simple thing to make thanks to the instant pot.

I sautéed shallots with garlic powder, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaves, before adding in the lightlife “meat” crumbles.

Then I added water and black beans and cooked it for 11 minutes.

After pressure released naturally I added canned tomatoes and quinoa and cooked it for another 11 minutes.

Smelled like heaven throughout the cooking process, so hopefully they all like it.  I bought this lid for the IP so that I can put it directly into the fridge (in the same pot it cooked in).  Makes re-heating super easy.

Anyway, if you haven’t gotten your hands on an instant pot by now, you could make it on the stove, but it will take much longer.  All in, the process took under an hour and 90% of that time was hands off.  The other 10% was just me dumping stuff in!  SO EASY.

Ok, moving on.

I made carrot cinnamon raisin bread for the first MOPS meeting of the year.  I have a few different leadership roles, so I will be out Sunday and Monday night, and knew I needed to get as much done before the start of the week to help with those first couple of days. After that, I’ll have a little breathing room (FINALLY) and time to get my ducks in a row while the kids are in school in the mornings.

The carrot puree I used was from the carrots I boiled from the garden a while back. I cooked and pureed them and then put them in a jar in the freezer to use later.  Once again I made the recipe gluten and dairy free to accommodate the people with food sensitivities and allergies.  If I don’t do it, I’m not sure who will…

What else happened this weekend?  Hmmm…

Kyle and I did our usual Saturday morning run/tennis/starbucks routine with the kids in the double stroller.  I packed them breakfast for the road so they were busy the whole time and didn’t mind that we were taking our sweet time.  It was a lovely slow morning, which I needed very badly after a busy week.  I feel a bit oversubscribed at the moment, which is entirely my own doing, but I will still be glad when we settle into the rhythm of the school year and all the meetings slow down.

I had a strawberry banana smoothie once we got home, which I made with the coconut meat from the young fresh coconut that my friend gave me last week.  I topped it with some granola too.  Mmmmmm.

Such a pretty color!   I was a bottomless pit all day, which I think is because I didn’t eat enough the day before.  That’s usually what seems to be the case whenever I have these ravenous kinds of days.

This was the previous day’s lunch…

And this was dinner…

Cabbage leftovers which I jazzed up with cucumbers and cilantro and extra almonds.

Followed by a night out with some girl friends.

Even though breakfast isn’t shown (I had TWO coffees with chocolate almond milk and granola), I can still tell it was probably not enough food, especially considering I exercised a bit more than normal (running P to and from school drop off and then stroller strides afterwards).  So I guess that did it.  I was also out late so maybe it was that too…I rarely drink these days.

The rest of the day was so chill.  The kids made sushi for lunch.  We watched UCLA get destroyed and then Kyle BBQed steaks for dinner.

I made a cauli gratin kind of dish.

For the sauce I used: 14 oz Nasoya extra firm tofu, 1 cup raw cashews, 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp mustard, 1 tbsp tamari, 2 cups water.

Pulsed everything in the blender until it was smoooooooth and creamy.

Then I poured it over a head of chopped cauliflower…added a bit of salt and pepper on top…

And baked it for 45 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees F.

Cheeeeesy.

Look at these steaks!!!

We got a 4 pack of NY steaks at Costco so he just grilled them all.

The kids split one and then I froze the fourth for a rainy day.

He did a PERFECT job on them.

And the cauli was an excellent side.

These kids are so spoiled they have no idea.

I had dessert that night too (because like I said, my appetite was beastly from morning to night).

The Green & Black ginger dark chocolate tastes darker than the 60% cacao content that it is.  Maybe because it was paired with white chocolate which is basically milk and sugar.  Not complaining!!

My sister and Chris came over the next day to hang out and watch football after church and we went crazy at the Nugget prepared foods section for lunch.

So much so that we ended up having the same thing that was leftover for dinner.

The chicken nuggets are so salty and addictive.

Once everyone’s lunches were prepped I headed back to church for a meeting so Kyle got to do the whole bedtime routine solo.  Fun fun fun for him!

Both UCLA and the 49ers (and my fantasy team) lost this weekend.  And Aaron got injured.  Tough start to the football season.  🙁