15 Recent Eats

I’ve always been someone who genuinely enjoys eating and as an adult, that has translated into someone who also enjoys cooking, baking and spending time in the kitchen. This unusual time of social distancing has given me more time at home and, therefore, more time to play around in one of my favorite rooms in our house!

Though baking and making sweet treats will always have my heart, I love finding new savory recipes to try and during quarantine, I’ve turned to some of my favorite blogs, cookbooks and my trusty old recipe folder to inspire me in the kitchen. For today’s blog post, I wanted to share a peek into some of my recent eats — 15 of them to be exact!

Below you will find quick and easy meals I’ve made for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as some desserts, sweet snacks and even a few awesome to-go orders from local restaurants and bakeries we love.

15 Recent Eats

• Whipped Coffee (Dalgona Coffee)

Have you guys seen the whipped coffee trend taking over the internet? I had to hop on the bandwagon and give it a try and have mixed thoughts. The actual whipped coffee is actually kind of awful but when you mix it with milk (which is what the recipe absolutely says to do), it somehow becomes quite delicious. Plus, it looks pretty darn beautiful! It’s definitely more of a treat coffee than a daily coffee based on the work involved in whipping up the coffee and the sugar content but it’s been a fun drink to make on a weekend morning on occasion.

• Egg White Protein Pancake

This breakfast has been a go-to for me lately because it’s filling, large and so, so tasty! I’ve been modifying my original egg white protein pancake recipe slightly and it now always includes a tablespoon of ground flaxseed, a sprinkle of cacao nibs and a sprinkle of whatever nuts or seeds I’m feeling that day. Love this simple protein-packed breakfast so much!

• Coconut Milk Frozen Fudge Pops

Chase, Ryder and I had fun making these together and they turned out so well! I found this recipe in The Healing Kitchen Cookbook and loved the simple ingredient list. Plus, these fudge pops seemed like a decently healthy treat I thought the boys and I would all enjoy. (Though Ryan shares my passion for ice cream, he doesn’t like chocolate ice cream which is complete blasphemy.) The pops came together fast and I quickly learned these are an “outside treat” for Ryder because they can be quite messy! I made them in some zip popsicle bags that my mom gave us last summer which makes them easy for the boys to handle and the smaller size is a nice alternative to my other favorite silicone popsicle molds.

• BBQ Pulled Chicken + Easy Veggie Slaw + Mashed Sweet Potatoes

This combo came together thanks to a recipe I found on the Ambitious Kitchen blog. I’m finally over my BBQ aversion this pregnancy and now I find myself craving it! (There’s no rhyme or reason around here with what I want to eat these days.) I loved the way this recipe paired BBQ pulled chicken with a crunchy, vinegary veggie slaw because I adore cabbage and non-mayo based slaw recipes. It was fantastic and I’ve actually made the slaw a few times since as a side and even as a salad base, topped with edamame, avocado and corn.

• Bakery 28 Goodies

Bakery 28 is a local bakery that opened up right around the time the stay at home order went into effect. I feel so much for small businesses striving to make it in this current environment, especially those that are not established. We’ve tried our best to support this bakery which hasn’t been hard to do because all of their goodies are so delicious! The boys love their cake pops and the chocolate croissant is one of my favorites. We also cannot seem to place an order from Bakery 28 without getting a couple of macarons for each of us. (Clearly the macarons were inhaled in the car and didn’t make it into the above photo.) If you’re local to the Lake Norman area, definitely give this place a try the next time you’re in the mood for something sweet!

• Sauteed Tempeh + Braised Cabbage with Apples and Onions + Roasted Acorn Squash

I’ve been on a huge acorn squash kick lately and I don’t see it letting up anytime soon. It’s so easy to make and pairs well with so many different foods. This bowl I made for lunch included leftover roasted acorn squash, braised cabbage with apples and onions (I love Jen’s recipe) and tempeh that I sauteed in olive oil and coconut aminos. It was an odd trio but somehow worked and I’ve made this exact bowl for lunch a few times over the course of the past month.

• Apple Juice Jello

I think this was my first attempt at making Jello from scratch but it certainly won’t be my last! I followed a recipe for Fruit Juice Gelatin Shapes from the kid-friendly section of the Against All Grain Cookbook that called for only two ingredients: Fruit juice and gelatin! We used apple juice and while the Jello certainly wasn’t as crazy-sweet as “real” Jello, the boys loved it and thought it was really fun to check on the Jello in the fridge as it gradually became nice and jiggly!

• Mashed Sweet Potatoes Topped with Mexican Quinoa and Lentils, Shredded Cheese and Cilantro

This was a throw-together dinner I made on Monday night and it surprisingly worked well! I baked sweet potatoes to mash up and used them as the base of this dish before topping them with Mexican quinoa and lentils (prepared similarly to the lentils + grains in this recipe), shredded cheese and fresh cilantro. I am convinced cheese and cilantro make everything better!

• Homemade Cookies ‘n’ Cream Ice Cream

Ice cream is my all-time favorite food and yet for years I resisted buying an ice cream maker because I assumed it would be another kitchen gadget that would take up space that I would rarely use. Well, apparently Ryan knew me better than I knew myself because ever since he gave me this Cuisinart ice cream maker for my birthday last month, I’ve been an ice cream-making machine!

The above picture is of last Friday night’s creation and it was fantastic! I used my go-to base which is a combination of 2 cups of heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 2 (pasteurized) eggs, 1/2 to 3/4 cup cane sugar (depending on desired level of sweetness), a splash of vanilla and a pinch of salt. (And yes, I have this memorized by now!) After mixing everything up in a mixing bowl, I poured the base into our ice cream maker and let it churn for 25 minutes before adding a ton of crushed Oreos for the last 5 minutes of the churn cycle. I love being able to control the amount of cookies in a bowl of cookies ‘n’ cream (the more the merrier!) and this one was a slam dunk!

• Chinese Chicken Salad

I loosely followed this recipe from The Real Food RDs for a Chinese chicken salad and we loved it! It was fresh and flavorful and the dressing added the perfect amount of flavor to the crunchy cabbage base. I also loved the addition of mandarin oranges in this recipe because they took me back to childhood when I used to looove eating the sweet little orange segments straight from a can! (And yes, I will always and forever prefer making my salads in giant mixing bowls. Less mess and more room for the good stuff!)

• Yasso Fudge Brownie Greek Yogurt Bar

I’ve been a fan of Yasso Greek Yogurt Bars for years and my latest flavor favorite is the fudge brownie bar. It satisfies my sweet tooth in the afternoon and I love the chewy brownie pieces swirled into the creamy, chocolate base.

• French Dip Sandwich from Table 31 + Pizza from Novanta

This is a pretty awful picture of a pretty fantastic meal! We stopped by these neighboring restaurants for takeout on our way back from our Stone Mountain Mother’s Day hike and thought everything was fantastic! Ryan has been talking up the French dip sandwich from Table 31 ever since he ate at the restaurant for a work event and since I LOVE a good French dip sandwich, I couldn’t wait to give it a try. It absolutely lived up to the hype and I also must give a shout out to the buttery garlic broccolini I had as my side. So tasty!

As for the pizza, Novanta didn’t disappoint. Their wood-fire pizzas were great (we got the margherita and salsiccia e rapini — a combination of broccoli rabe, sausage, grape tomato, mozzarella & extra virgin olive oil) and both boys loved them as well. We will absolutely be back to both of these local gems soon!

• Mixed Berry Ice Cream

Yep, more ice cream! I made a batch of mixed berry ice cream on Monday night loosely based off this recipe for strawberry ice cream I found online and it was such a nice way to kick off the week! Instead of using only strawberries, this ice cream included a combination of strawberries, wild blueberries and cherries. It tasted like summer in a bowl even though I ate it in sweatpants and a sweatshirt since it was a little chilly on Monday evening!

• Paleo Marinated Chicken Thighs with Mashed Sweet Potato and Sauteed Squash

You’re shocked to see these Paleo Marinated Chicken Thighs pop up on the blog again, aren’t you? What can I say, I cannot help myself. They’re a go-to dinner for our family because they’re so simple to make and we all love them so much. I baked these chicken thighs but love them even more on the grill!

• Vegan Caramel Popcorn

We’ve been really into making popcorn on the stove top in our house because it tastes SO good and the boys think watching the kernels pop is the coolest thing ever. I’ve been having fun making flavored popcorn (who knew kettle corn on the stove top was a breeze!?) and I am on a mission to make a batch of vegan caramel corn with a nut butter base that tastes great. I made a vegan caramel with tahini that was pretty darn good but had almost too much of a tahini taste for my liking so next up is trying the same thing with something with a little more mild flavor like almond or cashew butter.