Let me see how fast I can share my foodie adventures from the non holiday part of the week…
Breakfast on the go. Plus a banana.
A new Urbany Remedy salad, compliments of the Fremont WF.
The noodles were on the mushy side TBH. Not sure I’d get it again.
But I made it extra good with the addition of…
PEANUTS!
Oh my gosh, you guys, I can’t even tell you how exciting this was for me.
I forgot how GOOD they are!?!? Ever since we got far enough into OIT I feel okay bringing peanuts back into the house. Now, I’m not sure I’d eat this meal with P around (he was napping), but he eats almost three peanuts worth of protein as his dose every day, so that’s pretty close to the safe zone that graduation brings (aka “bite proof” status).
For dinner I made the classic bean and beef chili from Melissa Clark’s cookbook.
It was easy, but (to be perfectly honest) VERY time consuming. There was a lot of chopping. And sautéing in separate pans.
I’m not sure if the instant pot really saved time or enhanced the flavors more than doing it in a slow cooker, but to be fair, I’ve only made chili once in the slow cooker and didn’t do it from dried beans, so I have no way of comparing.
This recipe makes the pinto beans from scratch.
Which was super fast and I didn’t even have to think about it (I was at library with V while the instant pot did it’s thing).
The only tweaks I made were using half pork and half beef (instead of all beef) and decreasing the amount of jalapeño to 1/2 instead of 2 (!!!). Seriously, it was the perfect amount of heat with half of a jalapeño, I can’t imagine what kind of palate Melissa Clark is cooking for. Not mine!
When it was time to eat, I served it with avo and cilantro (and green onions for Kyle) on top.
Delish! And it made SOOOOO MUCH! Like, we will be eating this for the next month unless I freeze half of it. It’s perfect though, because Kyle will happily eat this for lunches every day. This was also the kids’ first time eating chili and I wasn’t sure how they’d feel about it, but they both loved it and had seconds and asked to have more a different day. So it looks like chili is going to be a more regular meal up in here.
Another “first” for the kids…faux bacon! Considering how much P looooooves bacon (it’s his favorite food – just ask him!), I was pretty skeptical about how this would be received. But I told them it was bacon made out of tofu (two things they love, what’s not to like!?) and they took to it immediately.
I baked it in the oven, and they both had some with their breakfast (cantaloupe, banana, and home-made coconut flour muffins).
I had a piece with my breakfast too (cashew butter on Nourish bread).
Thanks to my weekend prep, I had a bunch of soggy (massaged) greens with tessemae’s Caesar dressing. I mean, I made it for three consecutive days over the weekend, so it was a safe bet that I’d want it again during the week.
With chicken, coconut bacon, and carrots. I added it all to the huge tupperware, but only ate half, thereby eliminating the need to dirty a bowl. I didn’t want to eat too much anyway, because it was actually 3 pm when I finally got a second to eat (UGH) so I didn’t want to ruin my appetite for dinner.
Because I’d had such a late lunch, I switched dinner plans between Wednesday and Thursday to have a lighter meal option.
I made this salad on my birthday a few months ago – it’s a Cookie and Kate recipe. It was met with mediocre reviews last time, but for some reason, this time they inhaled every last bite of the kale before even getting to the chickpeas and sunflower seeds (which are usually their favorite). FYI, I didn’t serve them separately, but they pick things out to eat in whatever order they want (and I don’t care how they eat it, as long as they do).
Kyle’s version had cow parm, but mine had pecorino romano.
And then the kids asked for more kale. And I died and went to heaven. The End.
Dessert day 🙂
The next morning was a breakfast on the go kind of day…I took V to a Spanish class (for me!) which are offered at our local Elementary school (where P will go next year) because it’s a two way bilingual immersion school. They want the parents of the kids to be able to support their students as they learn a new language, so they have group meet ups with instructors a few times a week. I figured I may as well get started now because my Spanish is RUSTY! I had coffee and this seasonal Sun and Soil juice while there. The Flash tastes like spicy pineapple juice and it is awesome. It’s pretty sweet, but thanks to the turmeric and cayenne, you definitely sip it slower than you would otherwise.
I had the rest of this salad for lunch plus the rest of the coconut bacon.
Time to get to work on dinner.
I made yet ANOTHER one of Melissa Clark’s recipes.
This was the Vietnamese chicken and rice soup. I took a pic before filling the bowl more because it’s not very photogenic when all you can see is broth because everything else sinks to the bottom.
Knowing how her spice palate differs from mine, I tried a very small amount of jalapeño on top. But that was more than enough. Really, much more.
This recipe was good, but not a wow like her salmon was. Still, it was easy and the kids went nuts for it, so there’s that. It also made enough for lots of extra meals, so leftovers FTW.
What I really liked about this recipe was that it made it approachable for me to use new things, like star anise, cloves, and sushi rice, in a very easy way. I’ve wanted to make my own pho but the idea of making a dashi broth from scratch was intimidating. With such a simple soup, the stock is everything, so it has to be good. Using the instant pot with Melissa holding my hand and telling me all I had to do was throw it in a pot with some home-made stock gave me the courage to give it a go. And it was easy! And now I have star anise in hand, as well as the confidence to try another brothy recipe in the future.
