Wow, here we are in the second week of August! Time is flying, which is a good thing b/c it's hot as Hades in Texas and I, for one, can't wait to get to Autumn. Still focusing on a lot of meals that don't require cooking. For example, last night, feeling too worn down after going running in the morning and being with kids all day to do the grocery shop, I made do with what we had in the fridge. This resulted in a dinner of fresh organic egg salad, steamed broccoli dusted with nutritional yeast, fresh cherries, fresh grapes and veggie straws. Also, lots of cold ice water for all. And since I am eating more vegan these days, I eschewed egg salad to fill up on what was left of last week's lentils and field roast sausage.
Since we do have an out of town guest, we also did eat out a bit. On Saturday we joined friends for lunch at Enoteca after watching a live stage version of Peter Pan at the Scottish Rite Theater downtown. I had a super yummy salad and roasted tomato soup (yes, in August, in Texas!). I want to get my hands on the restaurant's recipe for creamy vinaigrette and will be hitting up my friend Heather for the goods. The girls adored eating plain rigatoni with parmesan "sprinkles," as R referred to them. The little one, btw, had a pretty good nosh through some zucchini fries (win on the veggies!). And yesterday, we followed up a visit to Book People with a drive out to Lake Austin for lunch at Hula Hut (yum to their chopped salad/mango quesadilla combo!). Thanks, Grammy, for taking us out for some weekend fun!
Last Week's Retrospective: We did well, not many breakout shops in the middle of the week. We stayed pretty true to the plan except for Thursday. I had the good fortune to have a girl date with two friends to see Attack the Block at the Alamo Drafthouse, which meant that I had an Asian Tofu Salad for dinner accompanied by a strong IPA! I left pizza and applesauce for family members staying home. We didn't have pizza two nights in a row, though, I went ahead and made a quinoa salad for Friday night and I served a snack plate built around simple black beans for the girls for dinner, since they were not too thrilled about quinoa salad. I often do snack plates for the girls in a vaguely Mediterranean style, filling compartmentalized plates with items such as whole beans, nuts, fruit, hummus and pita chips. This is also a good way to use up small remains of assorted leftovers.
This Week:
Monday: I'll confess, this one's gone to be a bit of winging it. I remembered to cook a batch of chickpeas last night about 9 pm (they'd been soaking since mid-afternoon but I got distracted watching Sherlock and forgot to go ahead and cook them). So, I'm either going to make a fresh batch of hummus (btw, I make a really awesome hummus, if I do say so myself - it's important to know what you do well, right?) or roast some chickpeas. To this, we can add a fresh greens salad, fruit (we still have cherries and grapes) and roasted pita bread. The other option is that, since I skipped it this weekend, we are likely doing our grocery shop this afternoon which gives us the opportunity to eat at Central Market Cafe or from the CM deli/salad bar. I always find this a fun outing with family in town so we'll play the evening by ear.
Tuesday: post-swimming lesson tacos. I am hopeful I can get a lentil taco filling made tonight so that we don't just have to rely on plain beans. But we also have fresh tortillas, avocado and greens. I am also hoping to get a side of Spanish rice made since R eats it by the handful.
Wednesday: Heidi's lentil soup with saffron yogurt sauce. I've been dying to make this soup. So, here goes!
Thursday: A chickpea "tuna" salad, served either over greens or on toasted bread. I can't find the recipe readily on the 'net. Thankfully, I printed it out a few weeks ago. It's basically chickpeas, cashews and sunflower seeds, spices, vegan mayo, etc. all mashed up together with a little kelp powder. It's addictively good.
Friday: I'll confess, I'm planning to go out. The girls have a swimming lesson at 4:30 and they are always hungry after. I see a Friday afternoon of changing out of wet clothes and hitting up Mr. Natural where I can go ahead and stock up on tofu and sunflower seed tamales (my very fave!).
Weekend: Also, a bit up in the air. I'm getting a hair cut Saturday afternoon and we may take a day trip on Sunday, so there's possible picnicking in our future.
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