The weekly menu

It felt like Friday when it was only Wednesday, so to say this week dragged on would be a nice way of putting it.  The combo of rainy days (when will it ENDDDDD) and Kyle being out of town somehow makes 9 hours seem like 90(000).  I know we need rain, but seriously it is RELENTLESS.  The rest of the country is blasting social media with their unseasonably gorgeous blue skies and we’re stuck inside here in Nor Cal and I’ve forgotten what the sun looks like.  Want some waffles with that whine?  Great transition Elise.

Breaking the fast with leftovers topped in sun butter.  We had a busy Saturday morning with swimming and preschool open houses (scoping out the sitch for next year for my big three year old).  It was pouring for most of the day so it’s good we were forced out of the house otherwise we may have gone stir crazy inside.

Lunch was another kale-less plate.  I had another after these were gone because I was still hungry.  I must be omega deficient because I’ve been craving smoked salmon.  Or I just tired of kale for a second.  It was bound to happen eventually…

I used the leftover pulled pork from the previous week to make a Caesar salad reminiscent of the one by my favorite farmer’s market vendor “Our House”.  Oh how I can’t WAIT for Wednesday evening markets to return.  It’s only a couple of weeks away!

Totally delicious.  Kyle and I are Caesar lovers.  No such thing as too much Caesar salad on our menus.

While P finished up his meal I made cookies for a play date the next day.  And by “play date” I mean a joint birthday celebration for V and her friend.  It was super mellow because neither of us wanted to do a big thing for a first birthday but we wanted the toddlers (older sibs) to not think we were neglecting the babes.  But then our simple picnic park plan got rained out, so we moved it indoor to my friend’s house.  More on that later, for now a shot of my dessert chocolate plate.

So Sunday.  We had a double whammy on the birthday front.  First off, food.

A fresh round of waffles for mama (and bacon for the boys).  Gotta keep 200 bananas on stock in this place.  You should see our fruit basket right after our weekly shopping trip and then 5 days later.  It’s legit ridiculous.  Like, I witness the grubbing first hand and even I find it baffling.  We need a fruit stage at this point because even our double layered basket doesn’t hold enough.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY little munchkin!  My sweet <3s.

After we played and sang and played some more, we came home to eat lunch and nap.

As much as I would have loved it, I partook in only the lunch part, not the nap part.  As you can see above, I spent some of their lunch time massaging kale.  And eating heaps of baby carrots.

Then once they were down for the count I served up my portion and added avo and macadamia nuts.

YOU GUYS!  We cleared BOTH pistachios AND macadamia nuts this weekend with P (we started on Friday and ended Monday so the testing was separated by a couple of days)!  This is hugely exciting.  As in, rocking my vegan minded world.  I’m now back to bookmarking anything with “nut cream” because I feel confident that replacing macadamias for cashews (which he’s still allergic to) is a totally feasible way to proceed from here.  I. AM. SO. EXCITED.  Bring on more vegan recipes!!

Anyway, after naps we had birthday party number two of the day.  This was at a pizza place, and so we didn’t stay super long because we weren’t eating there.  I brought (allergy free) cake for P and was tempted to let V gnaw on her first bites of pizza, but in the end we came home to feed everyone.

Since I was feeling lazy I made (gluten free) chicken nuggets which I added to a Caesar salad.  I told you we were Caesar people.  😉   WF doesn’t seem to carry Applegate’s GF nuggets any more, so I tried a new brand that was also organic, antibiotic and hormone free and all that jazz.  It was fine, but I realized it wasn’t pre-cooked so it took longer to prepare which I wasn’t anticipating after getting home on the later side.  No matter.  P hasn’t had nuggets in ages so he was thrilled to be reminded that (a) they exist and (b) he loves them.  Ha.  Sometimes you need a little junk food on the weekend.

And chocolate always.

MORE WAFFLES.  Because Mondays.  And rain.

I made a lot.

Lunch du jour.

Over the course of the day (yes, it took hours and different naps) I managed to make a massive amount of pancakes for the littles to share over the next few mornings.  Or so I thought.

P loved them but V found them more fun to play with.  Sweet.  I tried them with her another day and the same thing happened.  She basically ate 3 bites and then mashed them between her fingers forcing me to come up with another breakfast of substance (oatmeal) that would hold her over.  So P got a few days of pancakes.

Good thing she’s cute.

My mom came Monday night so Kyle and I could go to see Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder talk at the Mondavi Center.  Can’t get enough of the behind the scenes of Serial.  We had a(nother) preschool open house beforehand so we decided to grab dinner after the open house and before the show to make it a legit date night.  I love date nights.  🙂

We went to a couple of places that were full before setting up shop at the bar at Paesanos.  Who would have thought downtown Davis would be so crowded on a drizzly Monday evening?!?  Weird.

I ordered the market salad but nixed the chicken.  It’s hard to tell from the photo but the salad was huge and I didnt even finish it all.  The cornbread croutons were massive and oddly sweet.  The dates, almonds and goat cheese were what sold me on the dish in general though, and it didn’t disappoint.

A quick stop at WF for some chocolate that we snuck into the theatre (but actually we didn’t sneak it at all because they didn’t care enough to check our bags or anything like that).

Such a lovely night with my main squeeze.  I could get used to this babysitter thing.  Thanks again mom!!

Tuesday morning I had…you guessed it….waffles with sun butter.

You sexy thing.

Then it was off to library.

Leftover nuggets from Sunday on my salad.

P is super into veg juice right now because I let him have sips of mine, so I got him his own (above) as a treat.  He looked at every. single. label before deciding on carrot beet celery.  I let him have a few sips right after we bought it at WF and then we brought the rest home.  Since then he’s had 1/5 of the bottle at a time (watered down) and thinks he’s died and gone to heaven each time.  It’s funny (but not surprising) how such a small thing thrills him.  It was definitely more $$$ than I’d spend on myself but it has lasted a week so whatever.  We went to WF specifically for him to get HIM a juice because Kyle was out of town and I promised him we’d get a special treat when Kyle was out of town.

I should probably bust out our juicer once the weather gets nicer and start making us all veg combos.  Truth be told I’m not sure DIY juicing with bulk produce is actually cheaper though.  It takes a freakin’ forest of greens to get an ounce of juice so that’s def a deterrent.  Beets and carrots are my favorite things to juice…add apple kale and ginger and it’s a dreamy little cocktail.  I bet I could prep that stuff fairly easily.  Maybe do a bulk chop and then tupperware up each by serving so it’s ready to throw in the juicer when I want?  Anyone have good ways to juice easily and keep it affordable?  The price and hands on time are the biggest factors keeping me from doing it regularly.

While at WF I considered getting a hot bar treat for myself, but realized I actually just wanted a kale salad.  So P had leftovers (above) with random tidbits and I had a kale salad (below) with avo and macadamia nuts.

The rest of the chocolate from the previous night and some barnana bites in bed with The Voice.

I had to wait THREE LONG nights after the finale episode of Downton before watching it because Kyle was out of town.  Talk about torture.  Sigh.

Isn’t it funny how I always make such massive batches but then they only actually last two days!  Ha.  I don’t mind thigh because they are better hot off the iron, so prepping the batter the night before (every other night) is so easy.

I keep thinking I should measure and write out the recipe but I keep being lazy.

It’s basically this:

• 2 bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1 scoop Vega One vanilla protein powder
• ~1/2 – 3/4 cup almond flour
• 1 tbsp coconut flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• pinch salt
• ~1/2 cup almond milk to reach desired consistency (depends on amount of almond flour I add)

Sometimes in the morning I add a few more drops of liquid if it needs it.

Because Kyle was out of town, it’s like the kids knew it.  Pequeña niña was up at 5 am.  Ooooof.  I stopped for Starbucks on the way home from music class, naturally.

Anyway, lunch.  Massaged this baby up while making food for the niños.  I really love hanging out at the table with my loves while they eat and I just sip on my coffee and we chat about anything and everything.  Of course there’s a million times that I have to refocus P on eating his meal, because he would sing his way through a four hour lunch if I didn’t.  But eventually they go down for naps.  And then she gets up and nurses and then, finally, I get lunch.

So much avo.  So many mac nuts.  So much yum.

I felt like I needed a salty something after but couldn’t find anything that fit the bill.  I grabbed these off the pantry shelf (a freebie from a recent Thrive order) but they weren’t that great.  I put them back after two chips and decided to save them for P as a treat since they aren’t very salty and are allergen friendly.  I ended up getting some plain tortilla chips (TJs brand I think) which were saltier and crunchier and great for my mouth buds.

This meatless number was Kyle’s welcome home treat.  He prefers tempeh to any other meatless options, but I don’t make it as often because (a) finding gluten free versions means going to a separate store and (b) P doesn’t even like it.  To keep me sane, I really try to make meals that everyone can eat without too much tweaking so tempeh gets put on the back burner a lot.

I made this pea salad minus the water chestnuts (couldn’t find any) and then added tempeh into mine and Kyle’s portion and gave P some plain tofu on the side.

Kyle’s dessert arrived by mail while he was out of town and since I am a very nice wife, I didn’t open it even though I knew what deliciousness lay inside.  I also haven’t sampled even a tiny bite of any of the cookies as he has been working his way through them every night since.  They probably had loads of dairy (and gluten) anyway, so it’s fine.

I had this good stuff.  And we finally got to watch the Downton Abbey finale!!!

Not sun butter?  I know!  We were almost out, so I decided to save it for P for lunch and use Earth Balance instead.  I melted it and then decided I needed more so I added more so that the waffles were darn close to saturated.  Heavenly.

You know the lunch drill.

I made bark too!  It’s been way too long.  With equalish (but unmeasured) parts coconut oil and Lily’s chocolate chips melted together…then with cocoa powder, almonds, and sea salt stirred in.

Not very photogenic but oh so good.  I was in a springy mood when I was doing menu planning which was before the rain hit.  We ate this BBQ style meal of burgers and potato salad inside while it dumped water down on us.

The potato salad was so easy.  I used Primal Kitchen mayo (from Thrive Market) which I think I like more than Sir Kensington’s.  It uses avocado oil and has a milder flavor that doesn’t assert itself in recipes the way sunflower seed oil does (at least for my palate).  Anyway, I baked two large russet potatoes, then added ~1 cup of mayo, a few gluggs of garlic infused olive oil, 2 green onions, a small handful of minced parsley, salt and pepper.

Bark for dessert.

Next morning was FRIYAYYYYY.  Final-freakin’-mente.

I found a squeeze pack of sun butter in the back of the pantry and it was a super sad portion.  Based on that I think I must consume 4000 kcals a day.  Or more?  No joke.

I ran out of both kale and carrots before the week ran out 🙁

Totally made me sad.  Ugh.  Since I was FORCED to deviate from my favorite ever I settled on the best runner up that exists.  Period.

The essence of greatness comes from avocado, and then I grabbed Green Valley lactose free cream cheese [UMMMM have you guys heard me rave about this stuff before??? It is sooo gooooood] and the party was under way.  So I just had to find a vehicle to get it into my face.

UDI’S BAGEL!!!!!  Freezer stash for the win.

And then I found hot smoked salmon leftovers!  No editing ability at all.

I have to admit (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) the avo wasn’t actually necessary.  The combo of cream cheese and salmon is just plain perfection.  I’m not sure who invented it but dayam.  It was almost as good as kale salad.  😉

I got my brassica love in for dinner, though, so don’t worry.

Gorgeous no?

I just discovered something.  I’m embarrassed to say it, but I’ve been using red miso paste for the past several years (the same jar has lasted forever) and as it turns out mellow white miso paste is WAY more delicious.  Like I want to eat it all in every sauce now.

I gave the brussels sprouts the Earth Balance, white miso paste, and maple syrup treatment, while sautéing a few breasts of chicken in tamari and olive oil.

DUDE.  What a sauce.  Kyle and P and I were all fighting over the brussels sprouts.  I should have doubled the recipe.  I will next time for sure.

Excellent Friday meal.

More bark (the rest of the pan) while meal planning for the next week.