I came to the realization this week that I really don’t like asparagus. It’s never been one of my favorite vegetables but I buy it from time to time when I am wanting to switch up my veggies or it’s on sale. I bought some last week because it was on sale at Whole Foods and ate it roasted two nights in a row…and didn’t find it especially appetizing on either occasion.

One of the things that I dislike the most about asparagus is the way that it makes your pee smell! This might not be a great lead-in for a post that’s going to be covering what I’ve been eating lately but oh well! 🙂

I did some reading about why asparagus makes your pee smell and learned that somewhere between 20-40% of people don’t smell it! Scientists are split on whether the vegetable doesn’t affect these people or whether they just can’t smell it. Fascinating.

And this would probably be a good time to tell you that when I was growing up we used to eat canned asparagus (gosh, I can imagine the texture of that stuff clear as day!) and put mayo on it! Yes, you read that right. I just googled “canned asparagus with mayonnaise” and it’s definitely not a thing so I’ll have to ask my mom where she got that from. (We don’t eat it any more….)

Quite the tangent there. Here are last week’s eats!

BREAKFAST

Plain 5% Fage with Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Butter swirled in, bananas, Purely Elizabeth Original Granola, cherries and peanut butter.

There were two mornings this week where it was in the 20s when I woke up…I had a smoothie both of those mornings and even went outside in the 20 degree weather to take this photo. I don’t understand myself sometimes.

LUNCH

Before I left Florida last Monday, my mom and I went out to lunch. I had an avocado stuffed with chicken salad and it was super delicious. Keep this in mind for an idea of how to serve things like tuna salad, egg salad and chicken salad.

I just can’t stop with the turkey sandwiches. This week’s combo of choice was mayo, avocado, smoked turkey, pepper jack cheese and a thin spread of apricot preserves. I put it under the broiler to melt the cheese and warm the sandwich.

I haven’t bought pepper jack in a while and it was a great switch-up this week. The spicy cheese with the sweet apricot preserves was so good!

PJ&J and apple slices on the way to an appointment.

One more turkey sandwich, same as above, but add arugula.

DINNER

Sriracha lime salmon (I do a variation of this recipe but add some seasoning and soy sauce or coconut aminos) with roasted asparagus and roasted acorn squash. For the squash, I just sliced it in half, scooped out the seeds and sprinkled the flesh side with salt and put it down on a baking sheet covered with olive oil. I roasted it at 400 and once it was pretty soft, I flipped it over and added a pat of salted butter and a splash of maple syrup inside and let it cook about 5-10 minutes longer.

This was a desperation dinner. I had leftover squash and asparagus but no protein. Finn was having a meltdown after his six month shots so I scrambled up some eggs really quickly and shoveled this down while holding an inconsolable baby. It was a rough night.

This was weird but it totally worked. It was like a hybrid salad/grain bowl. I tossed arugula in lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt and then topped it with quinoa, feta, a veggie burger and half an avocado. I finished it off with Tessamae’s creamy ranch dressing. I used a Dr. Praeger’s Mushroom Risotto veggie burger.

ETC

Chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting for lunch dessert when I was out with my mom. They called this “chocolate velvet” cake.

Lemon blueberry cheesecake from my new favorite bakery in Charlotte, Villani’s. Everything they make is to die for and they are open until 10 p.m.!!!!! I stopped in thinking I was going to get a piece of cake but the cheesecake just looked so good. I’m not a huge cheesecake fan (I like it but only occasionally) but the staff talked me into trying it. A husband/wife team owns the bakery and the story is that he makes the cakes and she makes the cheesecakes. I have to say it was some of the best cheesecake I have EVER had! It was so, so light and fluffy…almost like a whipped texture and not heavy or dense at all.

Okay, that is all. I hope to actually try some recipes and do some cooking this week rather than throwing random things together…but we shall see!

Do you like asparagus?

Are you one of the lucky ones who doesn’t smell the smell? 

Would you choose cheesecake or cake? 

Favorite cheese for sandwiches?