Weekend Things

Real Talk: On Friday, I told Joey that I was waffling back and forth between feeling irritable and melancholy or charged and joyous.  I want to blame a new season, or maybe the moon?  Or, maybe I’m just always like this and I’m just really noticing it right now.  If you are an even tempered person living life at a steady pace of emotions, please consider yourself very lucky.  The emotionally sensitive life ain’t easy!

All mood swings aside, this weekend was blissfully low key.  I’ve got a post-work commitment every single day this week and while it’s all fun stuff I want to go to, I know, come Friday, I might need some serious introvert time.  So while I didn’t plan for the weekend to be so relaxed, I think it was kismet considering the busier week ahead.

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Friday was my little sister’s birthday and we celebrated at La Loma with Happy Hour margs, fajitas on the fluffiest fresh-made tortillas and, of course, ALL THE CHIPS AND SALSA.  I made my sister pose for this picture outside and then we all pretty much ran to our cars because it was windy and cold in downtown Denver.  April weather is as moody as I’ve been 🙂

P.S. Weird how my sister turned 25, but I continue to think of us both as younger than that.

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Sometimes you gotta have a pep talk with your body that goes something like “look, let’s sleep in tomorrow, okay?”  I still woke up at 6:45 on Saturday but managed to fall back asleep till 8:30.  YES!  Upon finally getting out of bed, I made us waffles.  Was feeling so antsy while I made them — as in “WHY IS THIS TAKING SO LONG??  I JUST WANT MY WAFFLE!” antsy — but once this crispy syrupy beauty was on my plate and I was sipping coffee and watching Katie Lee make a really good-looking roasted chicken I forgot all about how long it took to get to that point.

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I had a 1 o’clock massage scheduled with my mom, but I was majorly early so I decided to take a little walk down memory lane, aka park in the neighborhood I grew up in and walk the little path to the park I spent SO MUCH time at growing up.  Old town Louisville might be busier, with newer restaurants and re-built houses, but this part of town seemed completely untouched.  I even peeped my old backyard and missed it so much!  Anyway, back to my massage.  Mom brought me back those little pins from her trip to NOLA and I love them SO MUCH.  Gonna pin them on my jean jacket probably!

Almost squeezed in a trip to the grocery store afterwards but decided to just relax before the Rockies game instead.  We almost never go to Saturday night games but they start earlier than Friday games and once we were back home, in our pajamas, planted comfortably on the couch by 9:30, we were wondering why we don’t go to Saturday games more often.  For the record, the weather was nicer than we’d expected and we won!  In conclusion, Saturday was sort of perfect.

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Sunday started with another 5-miler, cept Joey joined me this time and got to enjoy me setting our blazing pace of 10:30/mile 🙂  Afterwards, we cleaned ourselves up and headed to breakfast at Onefold.  I love that place (and that burrito!) so much, but dear lord, that thing is messier and messier every time I go.  I swear it was once a hand-held breakfast but now it’s unquestionably a knife and fork situation.  Life’s hard when you have high expectations and a zero tolerance policy to change.

Grocery, laundry, lunch prep, backyard reading/sun-soaking/napping ensued post-breakfast and then we made one of our favorite warm weather dinners (Green Mexican Rice with Corn + Fried Plantains) and pretended it’s not going to be cold, rainy and maybe even snowy (NOOOOO!) later on this week.  How was your weekend?

Make This Now: Creamy Things are the Best Things

Before we begin, I need to tell you some important things.

  1. My energy level is VERY low today.  I know it’s Friday and I should have weekend energy but I’m just TIRED.
  2. Joey surprised me with coffee from Little Owl this morning and I love that man so much.
  3. I saw baby radish sprouts in our garden this morning and I should have just skipped my workout because those teensy green leaves got me more amped than any running endorphins did.
  4. It’s my little sister’s birthday today!  Though I refuse to believe EITHER of us are over 24 🙂

Okay, back to the subject at hand.

I was making quick mental note of which recipes I wanted to share next in this “Make This Now” series and they all happened to have the word “creamy” in the title.  Is that a coincidence or do my tastebuds just gravitate towards that word and I’ve never noticed until now?  I’ll ponder that on my own later, but you should make and eat these creamy things (maybe even this weekend!) and be the happiest version of yourself.

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Dijon-Herb Crusted Salmon with Creamy Dill Sauce + Warm Buttered Radish and Edamame Salad

Spring is all about fresh herbs, spicy radishes and bright flavors so this meal IS spring.  If you’ve never sautéed radishes before, they get almost potato-like in flavor and texture and you’ll probably want to drizzle that dill sauce over everything from now on.  So good!

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Creamy Thai Sweet Potato Curry

Joey and I have three well-loved curry recipes in our arsenal but if this was a Goldilocks story, Creamy Thai Sweet Potato Curry is “just right!”  More of a challenge than our 5-Ingredient Coconut Curry but easier than our Ginger Cashew Chicken Curry and most importantly, it’s crazy flavorful.  I keep a jar of this homemade Easy Thai Yellow Curry Paste in the freezer just for this meal.  It’s very worth making!

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Creamy Carrot and Herb Linguine

I thought I’d sworn against zoodles for life but then I saw this recipe which was only PART-zoodle and still had actual pasta and now that I’ve tasted zoodles, I’ll admit they’re good.  Still not going to forego pasta entirely for spiralized vegetables, but recipes like this seem like a good compromise.  And the sauce on this one is drinkably good.  Shoutout to my fellow tarragon lovers who will love that licorice-y garnish on top.

P.S. Yes, I know the recipe calls for carrot noodles (carroodles? coodles?) but I can’t ever find those, so zoodles it is!

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Cashew Ice Cream

I kind of want to try every recipe in this post Cassie wrote about cashew cream, but I started with the cashew ice cream recipe and was majorly impressed.  I don’t have an actual reason to not just eat real deal ice cream (THANK GOD!), but I volunteered to bring Easter dessert for my half-GF/DF family because I like a challenge?  Have a thing for vegan recipes?  Just want everyone to be able to eat/enjoy dessert together, even if it means the gluten/dairy lovers have to conform?  Who knows!  I just know this ice cream was just slightly icy but otherwise SO CREAMY, SO RICH AND SO DELICIOUS.  I’d totally make it again!

P.S. Totally wanted to tell you to make these Creamy Mushroom and Kale Quesadillas, but I apparently already told you that.