Brusha brusha brushaaaa.
Kyle and I were trying to plan a date night this weekend because he’s going out of town all next week (so he’d be gone for Valentine’s Day, if we celebrated it). The babysitter we used twice last year hasn’t been available lately, so we are back to square one with babysitter hunting. Sigh. Which means we didn’t get a date night. Instead, we decided to do a family breakfast. Not quite the same, but still a meal out, so that’s fun and different!
We went to Crepeville as soon as we had worked out and showered.
I impulse bought this at the register for a later date. I’ll let you know how it is, but blueberry maple pecan seems hard to mess up!
I brought pumpkin muffins for the kiddos, but V swooped on some of Kyle’s bacon.
I FINALLY deviated from my standard order (Midtown Benedict) and got a crepe! Imagine that! I’ve been to Crepeville a dozen times and I only just now got a crepe. I got the banana nutella crepe, which is basically dessert…
It was super sweet, I only made it through 3/4 of it and then had to steal some of Kyle’s eggs to get a savory fix and balance my taste buds out.
It started pouring rain while we were inside so rather than go across the street to farmer’s market, like we had planned to, we just headed home.
That ended up being great though because Kyle got QT with the littles while I did mega vacuuming and mopping and food prep.
I sautéed squash in bacon fat for P for lunch since I felt bad that he had bacon paraded in front of his face at breakfast. He is so cool about not being able to eat the things that other people can. I try not to give V things he can’t have in front of him, but the restaurant things is tricky. We go out so infrequently so it’s rarely an issue, but still…I want to avoid him feeling left out as much as possible.
They had other stuff for lunch too, but I don’t remember what it was. Probably a smoothie.
I checked more things off my to-so list during lunch. We finally got all the boxes in the garage organized. Annoyingly, a few Christmas decorations got left out (makes sense since we packed it all up in such haste while also packing to go to Florida). So they’ve been sitting around for a month because getting the boxes back down from the storage wall ‘o crap is 100% easier to keep on the back burner.
Snack break!
Home-made bars for P as we loaded into the car to go get some groceries for Super Bowl food. I was too lazy to get the rest of our groceries because I hadn’t planned our next week’s meals, but I was reallllly regretting that once the rain storms hit on Monday and our fridge and pantry were EMPTY AS F*#@. Since I hadn’t planned a meal for Saturday night and hadn’t yet gotten my act together to buy fresh food, I made do with what we had on hand.
The kale was literally the only produce left in the casa. I was inspired by a Gwyneth dish from her first cookbook, and made an Asian kale and brown rice dish to serve with some salmon.
I baked three filets, thinking P and V could share one, but she is definitely ready to take down a whole filet by herself. She was so pissed I didn’t have more to offer her. I gave her some of mine because I felt bad.
Can’t go wrong with salmon, rice, and greens.
Hers and his…polished off.
After party.
See all those TJs goodies? All winners.
True to my promise to myself, I didn’t go back for more!
Banana bake breakfast with cashew buttah before church with my little man. Kyle and V were up to no good while we were gone, but V spilled all their secrets because she can talk now and Kyle was shocked at how much she gave away and I was cracking up over it.
I made them smoothies for lunch with leftover raw squash (sneaky!!) and raw strawberry chia jam. I made this “jam” over a year ago after picking pounds and pounds of strawberries with P and not knowing what to do with them all. I ended up destemming them and blending them with chia seeds and then jarring and freezing them. Now I’m down to one more jar. It’s an easy way to add fruit to things – either smoothies or oatmeal or pancake batter or whatever – during winter when fresh berries aren’t an option. Also, it hides squash flavor. The rest of the smoothie was almond milk and a banana. They split it and then had some turkey roll ups and cucumber slices too.
Cucumber smile.
Nap time for the kiddos and lunch time for me and Kyle.
I didn’t take photos of my meals for the rest of the day, but I ate a salad for lunch which obviously means I had license to eat every trashy snacky thing ever once the game was on.
I have made this potato salad with Sabra cracked pepper and sea salt spread twice now, and it’s so good! I made it again to bring to a Super Bowl party along with cole slaw. The boys requested the cole slaw.
Gaga half time show.
And then a follow up concert. 🙂
Foosball fun.
And princess time.
WHAT a game! I didn’t really know who I was rooting for. I just wanted a good game, so thanks to the ending I got my wish. For the first time, I actually got to watch a fair amount of the game. The kids are finally getting old enough to occupy themselves quite a bit. I read to P during several commercials, but he and V and the other kiddos were playing together for so much of the time too. I had to grab P a few times to make sure he didn’t see the screen for some violent commercials, but guess what he made out of blocks first thing Monday morning!?!? A tank! A tank that he “saw on the TV yesterday” that knocked everything over. Sweet. Frickin’ media.
Dying for your banana breakfast bake recipe and also the recipe or P’s bars….when you have time. Loving your posts. You are so creative.
I’m sure I’ve posted a recipe for the bars at some point or another…I make them weekly and never follow a recipe, just throw dried fruit and seeds and oats in the food processor and add liquid as needed to get the right consistency.
I first found your blog years ago when looking into the fodmap diet. I have stuck around since because I love seeing what you eat and always get great ideas for recipes. And now suddenly it has a new layer of relevance because my 10 mo was just diagnosed with allergies!
She is allergic to sesame and egg (so we are lucky to not have as long a list of allergies as P!). Egg seems not that hard since it’s labeled on everything (although my husband and I are big egg eaters, so will have to adjust), but how hard did you find sesame to avoid when he was still allergic? I had some hummus in the kitchen the other day, didn’t eat it or touch it, just spread it on a sandwich for work with a knife, but she ended up with a minor reaction later, so I have realized we need to be very careful with sesame (rip my hummus intake).
I have big plans to search for “sesame” and read every one of your posts that comes up, but just wondering if you have any general advice?
Thank you!
Oh Carrie, I’m so sorry about your little one’s allergies. It’s so hard to adjust at first, but it does get better. And hopefully she will outgrow it, but in the meantime it’s just plain scary… sesame was especially hard because it’s not in the “common 8” and is hidden in so many things and people just don’t realize it. You will soon find out about all the places it is hidden – crackers and bread and burger buns and UGH all asian food. I don’t want to freak you out, but I definitely feel for you. It’s a tough allergy. If you ever need support, I will always be glad to listen to anything you want to share – email or commenting here. Being an advocate for your child is exhausting and makes you feel like you are “that parent” which is so stressful on top of the stress you already have in keeping your kid safe. Unlike peanut (where the protein is the most dangerous and what the body responds to), with sesame it is the oil that is the most dangerous. Truth be told, P had an accident with my parents when we went to NYC a year ago and left him with them – they fed him a cracker with sesame in it – and it passed through undigested and he didn’t react. So my (unofficial and not remotely scientific or medically advised) assumption from that is that if the seed is eaten whole without the teeth breaking it down and exposing much (or any?) oil, sometimes it can get through the body without a reaction? That means hummus or anything with tahini or sesame oil is in the highest category of danger….but yeah, we’ve had two accidental allergy exposures, and sesame is the one that didn’t cause us to go to the ER, so there’s that. Good luck! You got this!
Pingback: What We Ate – Hungry Hungry Hippie