I’m so excited to share this recent eats post with you. I have several new, creative and fun meals to share with you…but also a word of advice (read on for more!). I have been having a great time in the kitchen playing around with summer produce. I feel like I waited so long for this food to come and it’s absolutely amazing to have things like squash and zucchini, peaches and nectarines, blueberries, tomatoes and more. My taste buds are doing the the happy dance.
Speaking of having a great time in the kitchen, I put down the deposit on my new granite install today and met with my contractor yesterday about a few kitchen projects that will extend my counter space and give me more natural light in the kitchen. Win, win, win! I can’t wait to share the whole process with you guys.
Here are the recent eats.
Breakfast/Brunch
I love blueberry season and have big plans to go blueberry picking soon. In the meantime, I picked up a big container of NC blueberries at Whole Foods last week. The extras were begging to be used in muffins. I whipped up a batch of straight up blueberry muffins on Sunday for brunch. They were simple but amazing…bursting with big juicy blueberries! I won’t be posting this recipe but I still totally recommend my Blueberry Banana Muffins.
So…this was supposed to be an omelette with basil, goat cheese, spinach and cherry tomatoes but it became an egg scramble when I couldn’t get it to flip for the life of me. I have GOT to invest in a new high quality nonstick pan. Let me know if you have one you love.
One of my sweet friends is due any day now with a baby girl and we met for breakfast on Monday. We spent two hours at Luna’s Living Kitchen enjoying breakfast, coffee and conversation. It is really amazing to see so many of my friends going through these big life transitions into marriage and motherhood. I am over the moon happy for all of them. 🙂
Lunch
I discovered homemade massaged kale salads this week and it’s been a blessing and a curse. When you start your day off with a green smoothie packed with raw spinach, it’s a lot to ask of your digestive system to further handle a bunch of raw kale just hours later. I did fine with this salad last weekend that featured kale massaged with lemon juice, salt and olive oil, chick peas, carrots, avocados, cucumbers, goat cheese, tomatoes and salmon.
But my stomach gave me a big N-O after this salad today of kale massaged in lemon juice, salt and olive oil, spinach, a Morningstar Chickpea Burger, avocados, tomatoes, almonds, dried cranberries and feta. After a fiber-filled green smoothie this morning, my stomach felt kind of off, bloated and gross for the rest of the day. Too much leafy green stuff to digest.
Word to the wise…be careful with the raw veggie consumption and for the record, I compensated by making dinner cheese and bread…just remember, ALL THINGS IN MODERATION! 😉
Dinner
Dinners this week have been AH-MAZING! This was my honey balsamic glazed chicken with a big portobello prepared in the same glaze along with copycat brussels sprouts from one of my fave restaurants here in Charlotte. I roasted brussels sprouts and tossed them with a vinaigrette of lemon juice, dijon and olive oil and then topped with sliced almonds and parmesan cheese.
This was the most seasonal meal I’ve had since last summer. I seared a local chicken breast in a cast iron skillet with a lemon herb seasoning and then topped it with goat cheese and a lemon slice and finished it off in a 400 degree oven until the temp was 160 inside. While that was happening I sauteed farmers market squash and mushrooms and served it all alongside a new green garbonzo and lentil blend from TJ’s and a sliced tomato.
And the raw veggie recovery dinner was a pita pizza with tomato sauce, sundried tomato chicken sausage, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil. I can honestly say that I don’t think I can ever give up bread.
Have you every had a “too much raw veggie” experience? Can you live without bread + cheese?
