I’ll keep this short and sweet since the real eating is going down tomorrow. We had our second Thanksgiving this past weekend and it just made me even more appreciative of the life we have here in Davis. Our friends are fun and the kiddie chaos was all kinds of cute. Plus, the food was legit.
Here’s my bestie the hostess. [My misspelling just autocorrected that to hottest. Ha]
You can only see half of the food in the above photo but here’s my plate…
Good stuff! Our friends are (beyond words) amazing with their conscientiousness when it comes to cooking with allergens and I was fielding texts with questions and labels and recipes all day but the result was a meal I felt safe feeding my big boy. Seen above: Sweet potato casserole with the sweetest oat crumble topping, spaghetti squash, roasted beets, carrots, kale salad, gluten free stuffing, and turkey. I missed the cranberry chutney and a broccoli slaw salad, among other things, but left full and happy nonetheless.
She wants in.
I was in charge of drinks (wine and bubbles please!) and mashed potatoes. And then I made roasted carrots too because I figured you can’t have too many veggies and the carrots looked so pretty when I was doing the shopping.
How did I not take a final photo of them? I guess it’s because we were running out the door (and they were still hot!). I coated them in with maple syrup, olive oil, tangerine juice, thyme, salt and pepper.
It was a way fun night, and totally worth pushing V to the edge (and beyond) in terms of bedtime shenanigans.
Going backwards, here’s Saturday’s food…
For breakfast I had banana bread muffins (Elana’s recipe again) with sun butter on top.
Full disclosure, I had double the amount of sun butter shown because I ate all of what you see with the first muffin and couldn’t leave the second hanging in butter-less sadness.
Meanwhile Kyle and P were at swimming, so I relaxed (ha!!!!) with V until they got home, and then we all went to market together. I practiced self control and got neither Starbucks nor Flour Chyld treats while out. Big steps.
Came home and made this beauty.
With home-made crackers because I am back on that wagon.
Dinner was the classic trio that the whole family devours – broccoli, wild rice, and salmon with Asian flavors. As you can see above, P had apple pie waiting for him at the end of his meal because Thanksgiving is a never ending season in our world.
I baked this fatty piece of salmon in a tamari, ginger, miso, honey glaze which provided leftovers for my week day lunches and another dinner for P later.
Kyle likes the charred bits.
We had pie and ice cream for dessert later too. I had an extra scoop of ice cream after this was gone. Vanilla seems boring, but it’s actually really frickin good.
The next morning I got a more realistic portion of sun butter the first time around…and yet I STILL ended up going back to the jar for a little extra. Those are the last of the raspberry muffins btw.
Sunday’s lunch was kale salad, natch. And then dinner was Friendsgiving (see above) potluck style. This was the second year we did it (last year I came down with a stomach bug the day before) and it was so so much fun. Our group was a bit smaller this year with ten families of P’s friends (last year it was like 14 or 15). We were the first to leave (womp womp), because V has an earlier bedtime than the toddlers so we took dessert to go. I didn’t take a pic but there were so many delicious options. Cake balls and a yule log and chocolate cheesecake…oh my!
This island is usually pristine with a fruit basket and nothing else and now look! Holy art projects!
A fun surprise package from Jamba Juice!! After blogging about their almond milk based smoothies they sent me this adorable little kit to make my own! And a gift card!! What a fantastic company. 🙂 And holy crap you can order online so it’s ready to go!!! Moms will appreciate this more than the average person I think. I am STOKED.
I already have a nut milk bag but you can never have too many (when you’re a hippie…). But in all seriousness, if you have a kid with allergies and make your own nut/seed milk, then you should definitely have a few to keep them separate to avoid contamination. We have ones I use for hemp milk, but now this is the reserved almond milk one.
I got the almonds soaking right away so I could enjoy some fresh milk the next day. [Yes I already had almond milk and soy milk in the fridge but home-made is in it’s own league of yum.]
Stay tuned for this…
Mmmmmilk.
Back to dinner for now. On Monday night I wanted something lightish because oof Thanksgiving.
I roasted acorn squash rubbed in olive oil and salt and thanks to some googling discovered the skin was edible, but then when I went to eat it that night it was super hard and gross. The flavor of the flesh was SO GOOD but I doubt I’ll make it again now over a squash like delicata or kobacha with edible skin.
Anyway, the squash was great, even though I had to separate the flesh from the skin as I ate it. P loved it too but of course he did, it’s browned and caramelized sweet goodness. The salad was a simple one with baby kale, pom arils, and goat cheese. Pattycakes’ portion was cheese-less and dressing-less (ours had an apple cider vinegar/olive oil combination).
Unexpected review. I didn’t love this.
Maybe this is a weird thing to say but I think coconut butter (or coconut manna, as it’s sometimes called) makes me slightly nauseated. ???? Anyone else experience this? I have no such reactions to coconut oil, obviously, since I use it and eat it daily, but the few times I’ve had it’s butter form kinda left me feeling queasy.
I couldn’t finish these! I had pound plus chocolate instead. I’ll try again later.
Breakfast on Tuesday was more of the same but slightly different. Muffins (chocolate coconut flour and banana almond flour) from the freezer stash that I’m attempting to make a dent in (before making more fresh baked goods even though I want to). Topped with sun butter galore.
I actually made this almond milk creamer first, but whatever, the photos loaded out of order, c’est la vie.
I always feed P and V breakfast first, while I nurse my (first) cup of decaf. He takes forever to eat, whereas she is basically ready for a nap the second her meal is done.
So with these fresh soaked almonds, I drained the water, added them to my vitamix with one cup of warm water, and blended until smooth. Then I added another one cup and blended again with a splash of maple syrup and salt.
I reserved the pulp from the nut milk bag in the mason jar, after draining the liquid through the nut milk bag. I wanted a thick creamer type of milk for my coffee and I got exactly that. Mmmm…beautiful.
Tuesday’s dinner was not an easy one to prepare despite it being a super basic meal.
Which is due to this sick babe.
I used the ring sling for the first time since V’s been a tiny thing in order to get some stuff done in the kitchen.
There’s nothing quite like handling raw chicken in a safe way with a kid on you. Awkward.
This recipe came from a pinterest recipe I saw that used BBQ sauce and orange marmalade in the crock pot to create a sticky orange chicken kind of dish. I didn’t have orange marmalade, but I did have kumquat jam that I made last year.
So I used that. With BBQ sauce. And then thickened it with arrowroot (because I haven’t been having success with cornstarch lately).
The arrowroot worked great and then I added broccoli at the last minute to steam.
Served over white rice. Perf! P liked it all too. And for the first time ever, I got the portions EXACTLY right! Everyone was full and happy and there weren’t any leftovers which is great because I am trying to so hard to clean out the fridge before (our third!) Thanksgiving.
Speaking of leftovers…
This was my bowl for Wednesday’s dinner.
Kyle had random other things and P did too. All in the name of fridge cleaning. Success!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. 🙂
