The beauty of weekends seems to be the lack of structure. Structure guides our lives monday through friday (or at least my life!), and I do enjoy it from a productive stand point. The weekends, however, provide a nice change of pace. Rather than having to eat what I find time to pack in the morning for my busy days, I have the luxury of eating the food I crave WHEN I crave it. There is also more time for food presentation fun:)

“didn’t your mother ever tell you not to play with your food…?” ummmm…yeah.

Kabocha Squash Fries (yes, I eat ALOT of kabocha!) w/ Ketchup + Tobasco dip

I sliced the leftovers from a whole roasted kabocha squash into “fries” and roasted them at 350 while broiling until crispy (20 min?)

Roasted brussel sprouts + tofu (400 for 20 minutes) seasoned w/ginger powder, garlic powder, tamari, chili powder, onion powder and soy

of course ketchup + tobasco dip

Ak-maks + parm slices

Protein power snack: Sun Warrior Protein Powder + PB + almond milk and water, all topped with dark choc chips (looks like a cookie!)

Plus a plain greek yogurt and dark chocolate chips

Plus pumpkin puree

All eaten together and used as a dip for a Honey Crisp apple

Next up: MORE kabocha fries! + raw broccoli, cauliflower, a carrot, celery, cherry toms, and nori

Dipping sauces= peanut butter sauce + pumpkin butter + pumpkin and of course ketchup + tobasco for the fries

Apple + carrot + celery dipped in almond butter + PB2 (yes dark chocolate chips managed to make their way into this snack)

Another delish veggie snack plate

Dipping sauces= pumpkin butter + peanut butter

How do you eat on the weekends? Breakfast + Lunch + Dinner, or all day grazing….

If I had my choice, I would opt for snacking consistently throughout the day as opposed to meals everyday. For me, large meals (especially during the day) weight me down, make me sleepy, and lower my level of productivity. I tend to eat my largest meal at dinner time for this reason.

I hope you enjoyed this snacky-post!! What is your “go-to” or favorite snack??

Snacks for school:

This tortilla pizza contained mushrooms, zucchini, bell pepper, broccoli, 1/4 cup part skim mozzarella and spices! The veggies were literally piled a couple of inches high! The boy and I split this and each had a salmon burger + asparagus!! Delicious:)

He even took a picture of HIS plate for you all!

Here is my plate:

Those are Whole Foods Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon Burgers and they are TO DIE FOR!! We ate them with horseradish and doused our pizza in Tabasco!

While preparing dinner I snacked on this!

More seaweed salad!!! SOO good! If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend that you do ASAP!

And here is some motivation to try it! I found these seaweed facts on this website

Health Benefits of Seaweeds :

Kelps correct mineral deficiencies.
A good protective food, valuable in overcoming poor digestion, preventing and overcoming goiter (because it is the richest source of iodine), and rebuilding and maintaining the proper function of all glands.
Reported to aid in brain development.
Offsets deficiencies of an inferior diet.
Kelp helps prevent osteoporosis.
Beneficial for those suffering from impotence, anemia and emaciation.
Helps to detoxify the body.
Helps to increase metabolism.
May help in controlling obesity because it dissolves fatty wastes through the skin.
Seaweed bath helps maintain hormone balance for a more youthful body.

Seaweed suddenly sounds quite delicious huh? Well, IT IS!!

Here is an amaazing dessert creation of mine, which is Raw and fabulous! Recipe to come soon if you wish!

Farmer’s Market loot:

6 bell peppers
1 kabocha squash (YUMMM!)
Carrots

I am off to bake my squash now! Later in the week I am hoping to have some product reviews + raw dessert and vegan dessert recipes for you all!

Enjoy the rest of you Sunday!

xo,
Dara

I knew I had some beautiful pesticide free grown apples from my and the boyfriend’s adventure this weekend! ( I am saving the adventure for a separate post!) So I washed and chopped some of those up!

Do those look amazing or what?! I grabbed the rest of my zucchini + onion from earlier (last one!) and then found some broccoli in my freezer… well it was completely freezer burned and my mom always tells me that that ruins the flavor however I HATE wasting food! I decided a broccoli stir fry was in order, to this I also added some collard leaves for wilting.

I sautéed a tsp of sesame oil with the onions + zucchini + freezer-burned broccoli + collards. At the end I threw in a couple tablespoons Newman’s Own Lighten Up Sesame Ginger Marinade.

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I had a bad “mom is always right” feeling about the broccoli (which was making crazy mushroom type noises!) so I made a “back up” plate which consisted of: Kale Chips + Seaweed Salad (from the weekend adventure!) + the apple! And Hot Apple Mustard Sauce for dipping (tastes like spicy apple sauce! soooo GOOD) Doesn’t it kind of looks like Peanut Butter??

Oh and a glass of pinot noir of course!

The boyfriend thought the stir fry was “bomb,” but after a few bites it started to become wierd to me! I blame the freezer burned broccoli! It was for sure a texture/flavor thing that got me. I ended up not eating too much stir fry. I knew the time had come to say goodbye my freezer-burned broccoli (I had a HUGE bag), but no worries, I compost everything!!! ps: that is where the rest of the stir fry went too

Does anyone have any tips on how to prevent freezer burn to your precious veggies???

OH, and after I did have my last two gluten-free cinnamon thins! I will be reviewing these later!

Bed-time! I have to get up early and clean up around the house and tomorrow I am taking my grandma to do some shopping/errands!! (she is 87!! and of course does NOT drive!!) should be a fun adventure! I will post what we decide to eat together!

xo,
MVFK aka Dara (pronounced like Sarah with a D!)