The week in a (food) flash

I was doing so well keeping up with my posts last week!  When Kyle’s out of town I have more time at night to blog, so that’s how I stay on top of it.  But when he’s home, I’d obviously rather chat and catch up with him than with the internet.  I’m sure you understand 😉

Anyway, TCHO and Ghirardelli’s are my late night boyfriends.  Don’t tell Kyle.

Leftovers from Pushkin’s (blueberry coffee cake) for the win!

And again (bulked up with smoked salmon, carrots, and the rest of the Miyoko’s cashew mozzarella).

I hadn’t had a multi green GT’s kombucha in a really long time and it wasn’t all that I remembered it to be.  Kinda didn’t like it.  :/

You know what that melon means right??

I finally posted a proper recipe for this guy since I have it so often.  Although this is the FIRST TIME OF THIS SUMMER!

Don’t worry, I will be having it a lot in the next few weeks because melons were on sale “buy one get one free” so I now have heaps of cantaloupe to get through.

It’s been a while since I had the “candy bars” from It’s All Good…thank goodness for my hoarder freezer stash of desserts.

Just as good as I remembered!

The other treats are chocolate coconut bombs, which are basically the best dessert ever.  And those candied ginger rounds are from TJs (back in stock after years off!) and they are SPICY!  I love them!

Another lunch, another kale salad.

Both the salad above and the salad below were eaten in tandem with these barnana plantain chips which I already told you were the saltiest things ever.  I basically have to guzzle liquids for the rest of the day to keep up with my body’s hydration needs after eating them, but I couldn’t stop!

Anyway, I finished off the bag and I’m not sure if I’ll buy them again.  I may give the other flavors a try just out of curiosity, but if I’m craving plantain chips (which is not a typical craving…), the TJs ones are fine (and way easier to find).

I also had maybe a cup or more of candied walnuts that weren’t shown as well as a half a pound of baby carrots.  Just to be accurate.  😛

Mexican themed night!  P wanted tacos and I just happened to have the items on hand to make that happen!

The Mexican shredded beef (barbacoa) was leftover from my parents’ anniversary party.  I froze it way back when and simply threw it in the instant pot to reheat, making the house smell amaaaaaaazing.

The taco shells were the key to the meal that I (luckily) randomly had in the pantry.  Probably from a previous trip to the store in which P begged me for tacos and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to leave the store without a meltdown unless I just put them in the cart.  Right fellow moms?  Does that sound about right?

To pair with the tacos, I made a Mexican street corn salad (deconstructed elote).

This was the only part of the meal that I had planned (I was going to keep it veg and add quinoa to make it a meal).  Alas, the tacos became the thing every else wanted the most, so this became a side dish.  Ah well.

There are plenty of recipes out there, but I used:

• 4 ears corn, removed from cob
• 1/2 cup mayo
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves
• 1/2 cup cotija cheese, crumbled
• pinch of salt
• (optional) cayenne

I looooove me some salty cheese.  The cotija was so good.

I didn’t end up eating all the beef I served myself because my eyes were bigger than my stomach.  It was probably due to the intoxicating aroma that filled the house all afternoon long.

You guys, we are STILL unable to leave the house in the afternoons.  The air quality climbs to unsafe levels by noon so we are pretty limited in how we spend the second half of the day.  I feel bad complaining because we are lucky to be a safe enough distance from the fires, but man is it hard keeping kids indoors.  It feels like last summer all over again with V is a body cast.  It’s almost been a full year.  Wow, re-reading that post was a doozy of a trip down (a bad) memory lane.

Here’s another kale salad with balsamic vinaigrette, candied walnuts, avo, and dried cranz.

I added smoked salmon later because I feel a little low energy and wanted something extra.

Still on that smoked salmon kick 🙂

This was plate numero uno.  I finished off the crackers (there were a few more left in the box) and then had extra cream cheese too.  I forgot how good the Green Valley organic cream cheese is.  It’s almost sweet.  Probably because it’s made from cream.  It’s super rich and creamy and thick and basically the perfect pair with salmon.

V and I had some special time this week while P was in kinder camp every morning.

Instead of stroller strides we went on a long run together (and in order to do that without 100 interruptions I gave her a discman with the Frozen soundtrack).  Winning!!!

I parked near a sbux so I could reward myself afterwards.  I also wanted to run in a new place with fresh scenery.  Then we hit up a park…and V played while I had a Sugar Plum sesame tahini paleo cookie.  They were out of stock for a while but I finally found them again – phew!

Tea parties!  They actually liked the weak herbal tea I made for them!

I guess I should be thankful that we could at least get outside in the morning, but by the end of the week I was cursing the fires and the poor air quality…anddddd finding my parenting creative juices drying up.

We made it work.

When life gives you ripe bananas…you just gotta bake.