Pumpkin Salads & Ice Cream In Bed

Bonne samedi, mes amis! How are you all? Is your weekend off to a nice start? I know I make it a terrible habit of disappearing on the first day Ari’s back, but I’m here now.

Hmm, so… Thursday’s breakfast was based around YouBar’s The Best Trail Mix.

I plopped half the bag on top of a big mound of pumpkin and an even bigger mound of steel-cut oats, and covered it all with cinnamon and agave nectar.

It felt quite festive.

This was the morning that I had my bone density test (the results of which were called in to my orthopedist… who did not return my call and share the findings with me before the weekend but that’s okay).  I had an apple when I got out of the hospital…

… came home, read InStyle took care of some chores, and went back to sleep for a few hours.  When I woke up, so did a hungry beast. I was inspired by the previous day’s salad dressing adventures, so I played around in the kitchen a little bit.

Behold: Pumpkin- Miso Vinaigrette!

Pumpkin- Miso Vinaigrette

Serves 1

• 2 tablespoons pumpkin purée
• 1 teaspoon white miso paste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• sprinkle of nutmeg
• squirt of fresh lemon juice

This was delicious. I vow to never have a boring salad again!

Into the salad itself went:

• 1/3 block tempeh
• 1 apple
• red onion
• carrots
• red chard
• pumpkin-miso dressing

I followed it up with a cup of Trader Joe’s Organic Greek Nonfat Vanilla Yogurt.

After a few hours of job searching, I snacked on a piece of Pumpkin-Banana-Date Tea Loaf with peanut butter and raspberry jam.

Other than walking and cleaning, I have done almost nothing physical in almost two weeks.  It’s slowly driving me crazy.  Emily alerted me to these workout videos you can watch instantly on Netflix (if you have an account), which is great. Unfortunately, my will power is not.  I did about 10 minutes of this yoga class, then made dinner and went to the airport to pick Ari up.  Blegh.

I’m going to wager that my dinner is not going to ignite any food jealousy.   I had no idea what I wanted for dinner except that I had to have an Ezekiel English muffin.  On one half I had a TJ’s Masala Burger with mustard, on the other egg whites with salt, pepper & ketchup. Boring, but got the job done.

We found the band at the airport, piled all the gear in the car and squeezed in like sardines.  Everyone was a little jet-lagged, so we just watched a short movie and In Treatment.  While doing so, I had another piece of Pumpkin-Banana-Date Tea Loaf with almond butter and jam and a small glass of Merlot.

We slept in a bit yesterday, although I woke up a good hour before the boy.  This is usually the case even when he hasn’t just come back from a tour in Europe.  No matter! I made myself a bowl of brown oatmeal: steel-cut oats with 1/2 banana, cinnamon, brown sugar and peanut butter.

By the time Ari woke up and decided he wanted chicken parm for breakfast, I was ready for lunch.  I made a salad that was almost a repeat of the day before’s, but why mess with a good thing?

In the mix:

• red chard
• carrots
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/3 brick tempeh
• 1 pear
• red onions
• pumpkin-miso dressing

I also had a cup of Trader Joe’s Organic Nonfat Honey Greek Yogurt.

We went into the city and took care of a bunch of errands, including chopping what Erin refers to as Ari’s “alterna-hair.” We stopped by my old restaurant for a glass of wine before going to dinner at Friend House, one of Ari’s favorite sushi restaurants.  Something happened to my camera and it would only take really blurry (and incredibly frustrating) photos.

I ordered the sashimi entrée… I promise that’s what’s in the picture!

It came with miso soup.

We went down to the Lower East Side for some Upwelling work, got caught in the rain, and practically ran all the way home.  After showering away the acid rain, we settled in for the night with our cartons of Ben & Jerry.

I went for Light Phish Food (but demanded asked nicely for the peanut butter cups in Ari’s Everything But The…), and did my best to put it down after I plowed through 1/4 of the carton.  I guess I have a little bit of will-power.

What are your plans for the weekend?