Hello and I hope you had a nice weekend! Mine included a fun seven mile hike, lots of good food, sleeping in late, football and an Elf viewing so it was pretty much perfect.

I have quite the collection of recent eats to take us into this holiday week. I’ll move right into them because there’s a lot to cover!

BREAKFAST

I brought back sweet potato breakfast bowls last week and they were a nice change of pace. I mashed together banana, baked sweet potatoes and cinnamon and warmed that mixture in the microwave. I topped it with granola, cranberry sauce and Wild Friends Cashew Almond Super Butter.

Dave’s Killer Bread Boomin’ Berry bagel with salted butter and cream cheese. I have converted many of you to the butter AND cream cheese combo on bagels. If you haven’t tried it yet, you’re missing out! A cut up orange on the side. I love citrus season!

Related, Finn loves Dave’s Killer Bread bagels and asks for one almost every morning for breakfast along with “eggies.”

LUNCH

I food prepped massaged lacinto kale tossed with quinoa to keep in the fridge for a salad base. In this salad I topped it with avocado, pepitas, a can of Blue Harbor salmon, feta and caesar dressing.

Same salad base but topped with avocado, tomatoes, pistachios, kalamata olives, hummus and tzatziki.

Ham, white cheddar, avocado, mayo and cranberry sauce. I heated this sandwich under the broiler to toast the bread and melt the cheese.

Grilled cheese with white cheddar and avocado on sourdough and roasted red pepper and tomato soup. It’s the Pacific Foods brand.

Another warm and melty ham sandwich but this one with sweet pickles instead of cranberry sauce. A Lucy Rose apple and the roasted red pepper and tomato soup on the side.

Salad with a tender greens mix, a can of Blue Harbor salmon, gouda cheese, tomatoes, cashews and avocado with balsamic dressing. This was a really delicious mix!

I picked up this turkey melt from a deli after a long hike and it totally hit the spot! It was super simple with turkey, provolone, lettuce, tomato, spicy mustard and mayo on sourdough. I also loved the pickle. Unpictured is the one billion Ruffles potato chips that I ate along with it.

DINNER

Air fryer tofu over steamed basmati rice with hummus, spinach and artichoke tzatziki and lemon pepper green beans. I got tons of questions on Instagram about how I did the tofu so here’s a quick breakdown.

• Press extra firm tofu for 15 minutes or so
• Cut into cubes and toss with olive oil and seasoning of choice
• Air fry at 400 for 15-20 minutes, shaking the basket a few times while cooking

It’s that simple!

I cooked a big pot of my dad’s basic chili recipe (which I am posting here in the next day or two!) for dinner one night. I don’t think I’ve made a batch of traditional chili in years. I made a sriracha ranch chopped salad and cornbread on the side. This was a perfect dinner for a cold and damp Saturday night and for watching the SEC football championship game (even though I wished both teams could have lost, haha).

Another tofu bowl but swap the green beans for roasted carrots and mushrooms.

Pan seared bone-in pork chops with roasted acorn squash and a pumpkin seed vinaigrette. I made garlicky green beans on the side. This recipe was from Epicurious and the only change I made was to brine the chops for an hour before cooking and to sauté the garlic for the vinaigrette because I don’t like raw garlic. The vinaigrette was a mix of roasted pumpkin seeds, cilantro, lime juice, garlic and olive oil and it was such an awesome compliment to the sweet roasted squash. I would definitely make this one again!

For the green beans, I blanched them in boiling water and then finished them in a skillet with salted butter over medium-high heat to get them a little browned in places. I added a clove of pressed garlic the last two minutes of sautéing the beans.

And on the COMPLETE opposite end of the spectrum from bone-in pork chops is this veggie burger bowl. It’s an air fried kale and quinoa crunch veggie burger from ALDI over rice with roasted delicata squash, roasted broccoli (from frozen), avocado, hummus and tzatziki. I’m sure you can tell that I opened containers of hummus and tzatziki this week because you’ve seen them on so many of my meals!

The tzatziki was from ALDI and it’s a greek yogurt based spinach and artichoke flavor. I get it every now and then because I like it but then I have a whole container to use in a week! The hummus you see in this post is either Roots Lima Bean Hummus or Hope Foods Original Hummus.

ETC

Gingerbread cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, salted chocolate chip cookie and a latte. This is from Lavender and Honey Kitchen.

And let it be stated for the record that mini cupcakes are dangerous. 😉

QUESTIONS 

How often do you eat meatless meals? 

Do you like tofu? 

Have you ever tried brining your meat?