This is an early post because it’s a short week – I am heading to Ohio today to visit my grandma! And my mom will be there too!
Pre-vacation highlights included…
This week’s coffee combo.
We brought home brigadero balls from Cafe Patoro and they were great. The caramel was my favorite.
I made a batch of milk crumbs and obviously put them on everything. Like an ice cream sundae with the last brownie.
And an insane yogurt bowl sundae with vanilla bean Greek yogurt, nut butter, and chocolate peanut butter granola.
Simple but great dinners this week. From the Trader Joe’s freezer section – veggie and sunflower seed bites and turkey corn dogs. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.
I spent 99.9% of the weekend cuddled up with the dog eating take-out sandwiches. Aka the last few days have been perfect aka I have very little to share in this post. Some non-sandwich highlights included…
And I did cook one dinner! Sautéed Trader Joe’s Cruciferous Crunch mix and green onions / nuac cham sauce / smoked turkey breast / dried cherries / toasted almond slivers.
And I used leftover poppy seed filling in a yogurt bowl with lemon skry, granola, blackberries, and cinnamon.
For dinners this week we made some old favorites (and got a lot of take-out!). Buffalo blue cheese black bean burgers. With roasted cauliflower and broccoli.
A very-berry smoothie. Frozen triple berry blend plus grapes, chia, brown sugar, and ube flavoring.
Some exceptionally good bars (plus mandarin oranges). Both were filling, sweet but not saccharine, and had a nice chewiness. 10/10, would buy both again!
Fun lattes from Grind House. This was raffaello-inspired, with coconut and white chocolate.
Still on my take-out sandwich obsession. This was a bbq chicken crunch wrap.
Homemade pasta. Whole-wheat spaghetti with sautéed mushrooms and ground turkey with smoked paprika, mace, and garlic plus sour cream and parmesan.
Taco night. Seasoned ground turkey on flour tortillas with sour cream and Whole Foods’ roasted chipotle salsa (our favorite). Plus tiny tomatoes and roasted cauliflower.
Caribbean-inspired snacks. Guava paste + mozarella cheese. And hibiscus things.
Breakfast for dinner. Avocado toast (on rye, with turkey bacon) and fruit salad (blueberries, strawberries, mandarin, and banana). Plus a Bloody Mary! P.S. No, this single slice of toast was not enough dinner. I had other items planned but I had my cocktail before I started cooking and I ended up eating the tiramisu ice cream instead!
Big salads. Trader Joe’s herb salad mix with balsamic fig dressing, baby corn, blue cheese, peanuts, chickpeas, and ground black garlic.
Pasta night. Udon noodles with sautéed shitake and oyster mushrooms with cream cheese, lemon, and gojuchang; topped with kelp granules. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.
A take on okonomiyaki with roasted cabbage and turkey bacon. Topped with Sriracha, Kewpie, furikake, and bonito flakes.
For a week of easing back into real life from vacation the past 5 days weren’t too bad! I even managed to cook a few dinners. That said, work has been insane and I am not sad that I’m heading into a three day weekend!
Highlights from the past week include…
Coffee combo – Hudson Roastery with sweetened condensed milk.
Layered halvah. P.S. We also bought halvah-crusted pecans and they were insane.
Leftovers and lettuce wraps converged for the perfect dinner. We used butterhead lettuce to wrap ground turkey sautéed with gojuchang with celery, peanuts, quick pickled cucumber and carrot salad, and pickled radish. Plus leftovers from great take-out we got over the weekend – kimbap and Korean fried chicken.
It’s possible we over-purchased fried chicken… we snacked on it all week long!
A quick and easy dinner – chicken burgers from the freezer with sautéed bell peppers and green onion, mashed avocado, a fried egg, and fantastic hot sauce from back home.
The best dinner of the week/month/new year! I made buffalo chicken meatballs (with ground turkey since we were shopping during a winter storm, hot sauce, cream cheese, and blue cheese) with sautéed carrot and celery, and homemade garlic bread (garlic, butter, spices, and tons of parmesan baked on everything ciabatta rolls).
The week after Christmas is still an acceptable time for eggnog coffee.
See also – I made a chestnut iced latte. Strong espresso plus half and half with chestnut paste, sugar, vanilla bean, cinnamon, and mace.
This grape kombucha was wonderfully juicy.
See also – rainbow sherbet Hi-Chews.
Whole Food’s peanut butter and jelly bites plus mandarins.
Christmas dinner leftovers – roasted brussel sprouts with duck sausage, sharp cheddar, and chili flakes.
We might actually be addicted to Roast Sandwiches. I’ve been getting take-out from them at least once a week the past month and I think about their roast beef sandwiches constantly. This was a bbq chicken crunch wrap.
Sautéed maple sriracha kale with an herby bean salad. Great Northern beans with green onion, turkey bacon, garlic oil, Sichuan pepper salt, and tons of fresh mint and cilantro.
An even fancier salad. Sautéed kale with garlic and balsamic vinaigrette topped with roasted beets, deglet dates, pomegranate, honey goat cheese, and crumbled beef bacon.
P.S. Starting tomorrow Adam and I are both on vacation together for a week!
Eating Chalk 