Weekend Update

I want to get back to showing you the start to my weeks! Sundays and Mondays are usually the days when I get the most done and do the most cooking. I know Monday isn’t part of the weekend technically but hey…during funemployment it is. This weekend my brother was in town for his spring break!

I can’t believe he’s almost done with his freshman year in college! Makes me feel old, man. Ashley was away at a robotics competition yesterday, so we invited David over on his own for dinner. It’s always fun to have another vegetarian in the house! We’ve all been hearing a lot about House of Cards, so we decided to marathon watch the first few episodes. It’s a really good show, I think we’re hooked! Then for dinner I made a green salad, brown rice and cuban black beans, fried sweet plantains, garlic bread, and roasted chicken for Jason. Delish!

This morning we woke up to cold, rain, and gloomy skies. I really thought we had some sunny days ahead but I guess not! I left Cynewulf all comfy in bed (he’s NOT actually allowed in bed but he always jumps in when we’re not looking) and headed to drop Jason off at work and then go to the farmer’s market.

The farmer’s market I go to (you locals will know where I’m talking about) is open every day and is CRAZY busy on the weekends. As in, it will take you 30 minutes to get a bunch of cilantro busy. I used to just brave the crowds because the prices and quality of the foods are so worth it, but it’s so much easier to just go early in the mornings on the weekdays. Everything is freshly stocked and I can browse the aisles with leisure. This morning I went and did ALL our shopping for the week in less than $90! I used to be able to do in in $75 back in law school, but I’m a little out of practice. Lately it’s been upwards of $100, so I’m pretty proud of how I did today and want to get it even lower.

I got mostly produce, including those thai coconuts up there which I discovered last week. They are SO good! The coconut water inside is so pure and delicious tasting, I think I’m going to be buying at least a couple a week just for the water. I didn’t get my usual haul of fresh fruit because I still have some left from last week, and I wanted to get some frozen stuff for smoothies instead.

Got some pretty mums for the house this week!

And here’s our meal plan:

Sunday: salad, rice and beans, plantains

Monday: pad thai

Tuesday: homemade linguine with pesto trapenese 

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: green salad, spicy thai soup

Friday: dinner out

After getting groceries I was feeling a little tired soooo I stopped by Starbucks. I’ve tried to scale back my habit to once a month, but it’s hard to resist. Cinnamon dolce is the best on cold days!

I only had a Clif bar for breakfast, so I was starving when I got home. I roasted up a spaghetti squash for lunch, filled it some leftover veggie marinara, and topped it with some nutritional yeast and a little olive oil.

I spent the afternoon job searching (found a couple new positions to apply for!), and while I did that I made us our bread for the week.

More bagels!

I made them for the first time a couple months ago, and have been looking forward to trying again and really perfecting a whole grain version. This time I used this recipe and was happy with how they came out. I’m still not satisfied with the final shape of the bagels, though. They spread out when I boil them and end up a little flatter than I want them to be. They taste great though! I plan to keep practicing.

I got a lot of new ingredients at the farmer’s market so that I could make an authentic pad thai for our dinner tonight!

For Jason’s version I used the traditional ingredients like dried shrimp and fish sauce, and for mine I bought mushroom soy sauce.

I used this recipe, and while it was quite time consuming to get everything together, it was QUITE worth it in the end!

I could not believe how good it came out! Not to toot my own horn or anything…but this was better than the pad thai we’ve had at the last few restaurants we’ve been too. I can’t wait to fry up the rest later this week!

Hope your week is starting off with more sunshine!

-Lauren