What I Ate Last Week – Week 3

What I ate last week

Here’s the third installment of what I ate last week. If you are interested in checking out week’s one and two click here. This week you will notice that I ate dessert, lots of it. Last week was not normal for me in the dessert department.  I love a sweet at the end of the day and this week proved it. Last Monday was National Chocolate Chip day so I celebrated by making my FAVORITE chocolate chip cookies. You seriously have to try these cookies folks. They are the bomb! Em, I thought of you this week with a few items I ate, let me know if you can figure out what they are! OK, lets get this party started!

Monday:

Lunch:

Remember last week when I told you I loved using whole-wheat naan bread as a base for mini pizzas? Last week I topped mine with spinach, red onion and egg whites. This week I was craving something a bit sweeter so I topped the naan bread with some fig jam, mozzarella and arugula. It was amazingly sweet, but not too sweet, and the mozzarella went perfectly with the fig. I threw some arugula on top to add some color and nutrition. I photographed only half of the naan pizza below because I trying to be good and just eat 2 pieces, but it was so good that I went in the kitchen and ate the other half, and I did not feel guilty! That’s one of the perks of working at home; you can have seconds (or maybe its not the best perk). I also had a fuji apple, which was the perfect compliment to the pizza.

Pizza and sliced apples on plate

Dinner:

It was a typical manic Monday at the Grandy house so I solved our dinner dilemma by picking up my free lasagna from Paradise Foods. Our local neighborhood grocery store sends out these monthly coupons for a free item in the store (you have to spend $25 to get the free item, but that is so easy to do). This month’s coupon was for a family style lasagna (freshly made with high quality ingredients). I picked up their turkey lasagna and it was amazing, all cheesy and gooey. I paired this with my favorite springtime vegetable side, roasted asparagus. It’s funny because most of my friends were picking up their free lasagna as the same time. Great minds think alike:)

Pizza and roasted asparagus on plate

Dessert:

Yippee! I had dessert!  I told you I love dessert, not that you could tell from last week’s post. I made these cookies around the time the kids were coming home from school. You should have seen their smiles as they walked in the door and smelled the cookies baking. I think I’m going to make this a new Monday tradition, as it really made their Monday end on a happy note. BTW, I did not eat all 4 cookies, (as shown below) these cookies were staged for my photos. I just had one and half of another because they were so darn good. You just have to make these cookies, you will thank me when you do.

Chocolate chip cookies stacked

Tuesday:

Lunch:

You’re probably looking to see where my smoothie and burrito are, right? I mean it’s hot lunch Tuesday at the kid’s school and that is my usual fare. No smoothie or burrito today, as I wasn’t in the burrito & smoothie mood. I was craving fig jam again (must be all that sugar) so I made a toasted almond butter (no Jiff here Em) and fig jam sandwich on this amazing dark multi grain bread! I paired it with a fuji apple and some coconut water. It was a happy lunch and I enjoyed every bite.

Almond butter toast and sliced apples on plate

Snack:

Snack, say what?  I decided I would add this feature when I came across a snack that is worthy of posting about. Typically I eat a handful of almonds, cashews or banana when I get hungry in the afternoon. I was especially hungry this day since I ate lunch at 11:00 and I was eyeballing one of my chocolate chip cookies, but I was good and decided to nibble and gulp on the two items below. OMG, this Mermaid Munch is the bomb!  I picked it up at the Farmers Market on Saturday and I am so going back to get more. It tastes like candy! Literally! It is made with brown kelp, (Em, you would love that) almonds, sesame seeds, maple syrup and coconut oil. There are no GMO’s and it’s all organic.  Annie, the woman who makes this, made this snack for a friend when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  I guess the brown kelp helps to reduce hormones linked to certain cancers and the high iodine in kelp helps protect the thyroid. The bummer is that you can only get it at the farmers market now. I also am back and loving my green kombucha. It actually fills me up when I am hungry in the afternoon and it gives me a bit of a lift!

cooking ingredients

Dinner:

I had just written up a recipe post for my local grocery store’s blog featuring my broccoli lemon pasta. I featured this recipe on their blog because organic broccoli was on special for the week. I took advantage of their special and made my family’s favorite pasta dish.  We love this pasta and if you want to know what dish gets cooked the most in this house, besides my kale salad, this is it! Family favorite and kid rated 10! Try it folks!

Broccoli lemon pasta

Dessert:

Get use to this photo because it was the dessert of the week. I honestly felt like cookie monster. Give me cookies!  Yum, Yum, Yum!

Chocolate chip cookies stacked

Wednesday:

Lunch:

I found a new kale salad recipe that I wanted to try for lunch. It’s a vegan Caesar salad. I made the most amazing croutons with that dark multi grain bread that I picked up on Tuesday. Wow, I loved this lunch and it was filling because as you can see below, I had plenty of croutons in it.

Vegan Caesar salad

Dinner:

For some reason I was craving a burger today. I crave them from time to time and I just go with it. I take it as my body’s way of telling me that I need some meat.  Anyway, we love using buffalo in lieu of red meat when it comes to burgers and tacos.  You really don’t taste a difference and buffalo is so much leaner (even leaner than chicken) and has all those great omegas. I topped the burger (or should I say John topped the burger since he is the grill master) with some cheddar cheese, added my cilantro-lime mayo and the mini brioche buns. I liked the cilantro-lime mayo with the buffalo burger, (because I love this mayo) but John was not a fan of it on the buffalo burger (he loved it on the turkey burger though). I am going to make a chipotle mayo next and try that on this burger. I paired the burger with the kale Caesar salad and some roasted cauliflower. My kids had the burger with the roasted cauliflower but not the kale salad. This is another one of my kid’s favorite meals, buffalo burgers and roasted cauliflower!

Buffalo burger with roasted cauliflower

Dessert:

This is the last photo you will see of these cookies (unless you make them of course). This was the last cookie I had this week, that is until I baked a new batch on Saturday!

Chocolate chip cookies

Thursday:

Lunch:

Below is a typical no-nonsense lunch, an almond butter sandwich and kale salad. This almond butter is slowly replacing my love for Jiff. I was rushing around this day so I needed something that I could throw down the hatch quickly.

Kale salad with nut butter toast

Dinner:

This afternoon was a bit hectic. I had a student photographer here photographing me making my kale salad, my roasted red pepper pizza as well as the asparagus, so that is why I have 2 vegetables on the plate below.  It was also Zoe’s open house at school so I had to get dinner on the table early and the pizza’s crust came out a bit underdone. Some nights you just go with the flow and eat the food as it’s prepared. I was exhausted by the end of this day and ready for a break in the kitchen on Friday.

Pizza, kale salad and roasted asparagus

Dessert:

Boo hoo! No dessert for me tonight or the kids!

Friday:

Lunch:

I am a big believer in leftovers as you have seen, so I had some leftover pizza and kale salad. Friday is my favorite day of the week because I am finished with all my posts, so it’s my free day to do something just for me. Sometimes I bake, have lunch with a friend or go shopping. I just go with the flow and whatever I feel inspired to do, I just do.

Pizza and kale salad

Dessert:

Sometimes you have to have dessert in the middle of the day. Friday was super warm and both kids had a play date after school, so we went to the local gelato place and each had a cup. I had the s’more gelato and it was rich and creamy and oh so yummy!

Gelato

Dinner:

Fridays are a toss up, sometimes I cook and sometimes we eat out, it really depends on my week. This Friday I was wanting a break form the kitchen, so we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant, DJ’s!  DJ’s is the bomb! We have been going there weekly for about 15 years. DJ’s is our kitchen away from home. The owners and staff are like family to us and they always greet us with a smile and huge hug. They have the best service and the best food. Seriously, you have to try this place. We celebrate every birthday or special event there and I even think that we will have Zoe’s rehearsal dinner there. They also have this beautiful and peaceful patio in the back of the restaurant, and that is our favorite place to sit. It has a zen-like quality and it’s protected from the wind. It’s like eating dinner in your own backyard. Everything is served family style and there are always plenty of leftovers. We love that because it takes care of lunch the next day.

Some of our favorite dishes? For appetizers we switch off between the pot stickers and the onion pancake, (which is shown below).

Onion pancake

For dinner our favorites are the empress chicken (I ate this every week when I was pregnant with Zoe), Mongolian beef, pork or chicken, szechwan chicken, lemon chicken and fried rice. Tonight we shared some empress chicken along with fried rice, DJ chicken and Mongolian pork. I love to mix all the dishes together on one plate. I also had a nice glass of wine and some tea.

Mongolian pork

This photo was taken after we helped ourselves to the dishes. You can kind of see John and Eli in the background or at least their arms.

chinese food

What did we learn this week?

I really do eat and love dessert.

I eat way too much kale and need to find another vegetable to obsess over. Thoughts anyone?
I truly am a PB&J kind of girl!

With love Jackie
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10 thoughts on “What I Ate Last Week – Week 3”

  1. Firstly, I love you anyway .. but then I read these posts and think I love you even more because they are so darn adorable. Anyone who thinks Monday is the best/ most important day to bake chocolate chip cookies is girl after my own heart!

    Secondly – I am SO intrigued by the kelp snacks. I like seaweed… but Ive never had any that tasted like candy. Thirdly. Almond butter > Jiff – yay!!!! Fourthly – I totally want a fig pizza now. Fifthly – I cant wait to see you sooooon! and chat/ gossip.

    Happy Memorial Day wknd to the Grandys! Us Gills are cuddled up with a pizza, on our Mac’s, about to watch a movie. How did my Friday nights get so crazy …?! 😉

    1. Oh Em! I love you girl! I will pick you up a bag of that kelp when I see her next. I was hoping to hit the farmers market this weekend but life got in the way.

      Our Friday night was the same. We had tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and snuggled up with some popcorn to watch an X-men movie. Whoo hoo! I much prefer those type of Friday nights.

      Hope you both has a splendid weekend in Santa Cruz.

  2. Jackie, I think we have the same mindset when it comes to eating– I love eating my kale for lunch but even more than that I love having some form of a sweet at the end of a day. And every once in awhile I crave a burger too, you just have to go with it. I have yet to try buffalo meat though, I really want to check that out now after your praise of it!

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