Time slipped away there a bit…as it is wont to do…and now I’m back to being a week or more behind… Sigh. Prioritizing the blog is obvs not possible and most of the time I don’t even think about it when I’m busy doing everything else, but I miss it juuuuust enough to attempt to play catch up and pop in. It’s important to have some kind of outlet when the rest of your life is chaos. I had 2.5 hours without kids yesterday and I have never been so productive (which is saying a LOT because I am a machine most of the time, barely letting myself sit down). Part of the craziness stems from the fact that my big boy turned SIX yesterday and we have had various events related to that, but for now I’m going to back up to last week.
The kids were so good at using up the bok choy last time, I decided to make a similar dish for them again this time. I swapped the edamame for tofu (again from the bulk bins because it is so easy and means no waste) and sautéed everything in sesame oil and tamari.
I finished off the lentil salad with chevre and hazelnuts from the previous day along with kale massaged in a tahini dressing.
I was craving tahini in a major way but also wanted the lentil salad so I ended up going with both. I feel another tahini phase coming on…
If I didn’t have SO MUCH chocolate to get through I’d create a tahini dessert, but it seems totally superfluous to make something sweet when I still have pounds and pounds of cookies, bars, etc. in the pantry and freezer. It’s kinda insane.
If and when I take a day off of salad, it’s usually for smoked salmon and cream cheese. I’m all out of seedy bread now though. 🙁
Every day I’m roasting.
And every day I’m fighting over Brussels with my kids.
Who created this monster?????
I have only myself to blame. 🙁
I used up the rest of the smoked salmon on this little salad dish with candied walnuts and Brussels…and then I had another handful (or four) of candied walnuts. Addicting. Very addicting.
Leftover coconut chocolate layer bars from the freezer…why not? I have to eat the non-sharable portions while Kyle’s gone so he doesn’t know about it. Good thing he doesn’t read my blog.
GIVE. ME. LIFE.
I ran out of decaf drip so I had to make myself espressos for a couple of mornings. You know what? I’m not mad at this foam situation one bit.
Yes please!
Usually Kyle makes himself an espresso (caffeinated) in the morning and makes me drip coffee (decaf), but I was too lazy to go out grocery shopping (it was rainy! no thanks!!) and since he was gone I figured I may as well claim the espresso machine. It was a little scary at first, but it’s actually idiot proof so even I could figure it out. And because it comes out all frothy, you hardly need to add any milk. Yum.
Guess who just discovered the amazing combo of almond butter and apples?! This girl.
When life gives you lemons…put nine in a bowl!
JK. Make a lemon ginger concoction.
I did this last year when the same friend gave me a bag of lemons so I did the same thing again this year. It’s basically 50% lemon juice and 50% water (plus a knob of fresh grated ginger) so now instead of my afternoon tea or kombucha I’ve been pouring this in a mug and adding hot water. It’s the perfect warming cup to sip on…warms me up and soothes my stomach (which has likely just wigged out from lunch).
In addition to lemons, I had a few heads of cabbage to get through. I will show off a yummy slaw we had for dinner later, but for now this shrimp and cabbage saute was the kids’ lunch one day. I used bacon fat to cook it in and added sesame seeds before serving it and they were big fans.
I’m sure you can recognize both of my favorite kale salads by now, right!?!
Above is my Thai combo with Nugget’s soy sesame dressing massaged onto two kinds of kale, avo AND smoked salmon (because the avo was tiny), cilantro, and salty almonds.
Below is my vegan Winter salad, which I had approximately 150 times last year, with kale massaged with balsamic vinaigrette, roasted butternut squash, avo, candied walnuts, and dried cranberries.
If I could eat just these two meals for the rest of my life I’d be okay with it.
Every night. Every. Night.
The Guittard was good paired with candied ginger, but it’s definitely a rich dark chocolate that you have to enjoy slowly. I think it would be good with a coffee nightcap. The TJs dark chocolate almond toffee was sweeter than I thought it would be considering it was coated in dark chocolate and I found myself only able to have a few at a time. I guess that’s good that they’ve lasted longer, but it basically meant I ate more dark chocolate to compensate. 😛
Let’s just shine a light on the real story here: that See’s candy up there is the last one from my Christmas box. Meaning I managed to make it last until mid FEBRUARY. Wow. I hardly know who to thank for this award, but honorable mention goes to all the chuao bars that distracted me, as well as the stocking stuffers from Santa and my parents…really it was a team effort.
Happy birthday to P! And happy birthday to you too, mama 🙂 Ever since having kids I feel the need to congratulate my mom on my birthdays as well, lol.
And I know I have said it before but I will say it again, thank you so much for blogging! I can’t imagine how difficult it is with 2 kids—I certainly couldn’t do it—but it is appreciated. I find the meal inspiration super helpful for feeding my own family. Thanks for all that you do!
MUAH!
PS I feel the same in showing love to my mom on my birthday. Why aren’t the moms the ones celebrated!?
V has some great dinner ideas! After too many delivery dinners while working that freelance gig i totally understand kyle’s enthusiasm for a veggie heavy home cooked meal
Your lemony drink sounds so good! And I totally just bought myser lemons at trader joe’s and i have ginger :)) definitely making this.
Oh- Btw, i did make lemon maple kombucha! It was freaking delicious….. i ended up letting them ferment in thr hottle extra long cuz the first one i opened was a smidge too sweet for me. I probably won’t use maple on the regular since it’s $$ but it was really tasty
So did you add the maple in the beginning for the initial fermentation or did you use reg sugar for that and then add the maple and lemon for the second fermentation?
Oh, i used regular sugar for first ferment, was kinda afraid i would kill the scoby with the maple?? Added maple and lemon the the bottles for second ferment only. You know that classic crazy spicy maple lemononade? It’s prob even better with a smidge of cayanne added too… although I’m very wimpy i might give it a try with the tiniest amount
A friend of mine says “happy birthing day” to the moms.
That’s EXACTLY what I was thinking. Also, side note, once I tried a mix of half cane sugar and half honey (it was a ginger honey from Hawaii that I was gifted)for the first ferment and it was fine but not worth wasting the $$ on something that cane sugar accomplishes nearly the same.