If you can’t take the smoke

Stay indoors!  We started the weekend with big plans – play dates, pool time, etc. and then I woke up to ash falling from the sky.  A quick look at the air quality index confirmed what I already knew…no outside time for us.

We still had a nice brunch at Pushkin’s though.  Even in Sac, there was ash everywhere and a haze in the air.  So sad.

P and V split the egg plate.

It comes with all this!  Easily splitable by two kiddos.  V got all the tomatoes though.

Kyle and I both got the benedict.

And then a blueberry coffee cake to share.

An entirely gluten and dairy free brunch that HIT THE SPOT.

We spent the entire morning doing crafts and such because we had to stay inside.

For lunch I had lentil salad leftovers on massaged kale.  I added a bit more chevre to make sure it was enough food.

Yummy.  The only downside is that the hazelnuts weren’t crunchy anymore.  It was still pretty perfect though.  Almost as satisfying as the salad, was the fact that I polished off yet another dish of leftovers.  At this point the fridge was officially down to e m p t y.  E M P T Y I T E L L Y O U.

Sooooo, you can probably guess what super fun indoor activity we did that afternoon.  All the grocery stores!

Before that though, I pulled a whole chicken out of the freezer to cook for dinner.  One last exercise in kitchen scraping – using my magic to produce a meal out of just the stuff we have on hand.

I chose to use the instant pot because (a) it was frozen solid and I didn’t have time to thaw it and (b) I didn’t want to heat up the whole house by turning on the oven.  Using the pressure cooker meant we could get by without turning the AC on, despite the 90+ degree heat outside, so I’d call that a win.

I actually used the IP to make a pound of pasta for the rest of the fam’s lunches an hour before, so it was getting quite a work out!

Do you know how amazing it is to cook a pound of pasta without waiting for water to boil!?!  Or without thinking about it once after the lid is on?  I’ll tell you what, it is revolutionary.  That amount of noodles would have been a pain in the butt to cook any time of year, but especially in the middle of summer.  Thank youuuuu instant pot.

So back to dinner.  I pulled all the meat off the bones (set some extra aside for later) and then added mayo, curry powder, chopped apples, and slivered almonds.

It’s a recipe from Nom Nom Paleo’s first cookbook.

It calls for scallions, which I didn’t have, so I just swapped in chives from the garden.

Looks good right?

I pulled these from the freezer too, to serve the “Madras chicken salad” on.

I started with two but ended up going back for two more.

I honestly don’t know what was better – the Siete tortillas or the chicken salad!  The tortillas are somehow soft and pliable, holding in even the most stuffed taco without cracking!  They are amazing!  I can’t believe such a thing exists.

Of course, the chicken salad was great too, but that’s no surprise.  I love chicken salads with fruit and nuts in them.  So does the rest of the family, too, apparently.  There were zero leftovers.  Chicken wraps for all!

And now that I’ve finally finalllllllly gone grocery shopping you don’t have to read through another post about me making ends meet with random things from the pantry and freezer anymore.  I’m sure that’s the best news you’ve read al day, huh.

How’s that for the world’s smallest dessert?  I’m trying people.  I’m trying.

Fingers crossed Sunday is less smoky and we can get outside.