The weekly menu

Another gorgeoussssss weekend of sun and outside time as a fam bam.  Happy days for sure.  Spring in Davis has me all up in the best mood ever.  And guess what!?!  Farmer’s market returned on Wednesday nights this week!  It continues year round on Saturday mornings, but the Wednesday night sessions are the absolute best.

Evening picnics with babies and food and music and fun makes me adore the town we live in more than any other place ever.  OK, ok, the dinner menu.

Saturday night Kyle grilled chicken (again) and we all hung out outside (he manned the BBQ while I fed P and made the side salad).

Guess what’s baaaaaaack!!!

My favorite salad of all time that basically reigned supreme all last summer.   Aka my mom’s famous poppyseed cantaloupe avocado salad.  So goooooood.

Kyle grilled a family pack of chicken which included 2 bone-in skin on breasts and 4 drumsticks, and I assumed it would be way too much meat for our little three some.  Ummm…nope!  P ate all the drumsticks, except for a tiny bit of one!

Plus melon and avo from our salads, and leftover cornbread.

Here’s my delicious dinner.  I couldn’t finish the chicken (saved leftovers for P) but went back for seconds of salad.

The marinade was the same as last week’s – all stuff from the garden including lemon juice, rosemary, and thyme (and olive oil not from the garden).  😉

The next night was al fresco action…complete with Udi’s GF baguette, fig jam, hard boiled eggs, Spanish goat cheese (Murcia Curado from WF), Toscano cheese with black pepper (for K), smoked salmon, grapes, and (in the box) leftover focaccia from lunch with my dad (also for K).

P had the salmon, eggs, grapes, and Udi’s baguette with fig jam.  I got salami and roasted green beans too but forgot to bring them out!  Fail!  Obviously they’ll make an appearance next week since al fresco is back for-eh-ver.

Aren’t weekends just the best!?!

And even though it doesn’t relate to the dinner menu this post is meant to share, I figured I may as well…

Share our family breakfast from Sunday.  Saturdays are too chaotic with swimming in the morning so Sundays are the one shot for a leisurely morning thang.  I first heard about Namaste Foods from HEAB (she recommended their pizza dough mix).  The price was decent and the ingredients are safe for P (and the facilities are free of every allergen, including gluten, wheat, soy, corn, potato, peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, and casein).  It was slightly crunchier than my idea of a perfect waffle, but for a boxed mix it was good enough.  P liked it too, so that’s a win.

This was my first helping.  With Earth Balance piled high.  No syrup.

P had Earth Balance and syrup on his because he asked and sometimes I’m a sucker.  What can I say.  He owns me.

Back to dinners!

I was soooo not in the mood to cook the next night, but I pulled it together for the sake of my fam.  Kyle had pork ragu leftovers with polenta (above) but I wasn’t in the mood for meat.

I sautéed collards with wild rice and shared it with P.  I served mine with a pair of fried eggs on top.

The next night was St. Patrick’s Day so I made a pseudo colcannon using chard from the garden.  This is literally 5% of the current yield.  Our greens will not quit and it is awesomeeeee.

My boys were quite pleased with this dish because it involved pig in the form of both ground meat AND bacon fat.  I used bacon fat in the colcannon (dairy would have made it authentic but that’s not an option for my gut or Mr. P’s allergies).  The potatoes were boiled in water until they were soft enough to smash with a spoon.  Then I drained them, added in the chopped greens, and waited until they steamed before mixing it all in together.

We had market the next night and I got my old favorite from Buckhorn Grill, but the broccoli slaw wasn’t the same as last year’s and I was kinda bummed.  Next week I think I’ll go with something new…maybe fare from The Hotdogger or Our House, which are also stand by’s for moi.  Kyle got pizza that I wanted to shove in my face too, but again, dairy.  Sigh.  I brought food for P because I still don’t trust anything I don’t prepare.  I also baked cookies and brought them with some wine because I wanted to do something special for Kyle’s birthday.

We had more after P went down back at home while getting our TV time on.

Kyle’s birthday dinner request was fried chicken and Caesar salad, so here’s my version.

I don’t deep fry or use buttermilk or any of that jazz, so it’s not exactly the “fried chicken” that the South would embrace, but it’s one of the ways I cook chicken that he loooooves and so that is all that matters.

I told P they were nuggets and of course he wanted in on the action (battered in corn flour, unsweetened shredded coconut, and salt – pan fried in olive oil).  Enjoyed while watching March Madness.

No shakshuka this week because I accidentally used up all the eggs on baking projects this week.

I made muffins and donuts twice because P finished off everything above in a mere four breakfasts.  Plus I had mega browning bananas.  Serendipity!  I didn’t take pics of the rest of the baking but I made pancakes for me on most days too, plus another plantain baked thing.

Dessert situation…

Oh buddy, this ice cream…

Kyle asked for mocha something or other so I went all out and made mocha almond fudge…with 2 cans full fat coconut milk, 1 cup decaf coffee, 1/2 cup sugar (dissolved in the coffee before it cooled), 1/4 cup slivered almonds, 1/4 cup chocolate brown rice syrup.

The syrup sunk to the bottom so when I served it I added a ton to the top before serving it too.  I will not tell you how many servings this was (hint, not four).

Which is why I am glad I made cookies too (gluten free, dairy free, etc.) AND brownies.

Oh and then I had the idiotic idea to go to Target at 40 weeks pregnant, which led to this.

I have no words.  Just happy taste buds.