Food this week

I haven't been home much this week--morning, afternoon, or night, so haven't cooked much. This is when it's good to have food in the freezer. And it was good I made all those smoothies on the weekend because I didn't have time to make them in the mornings. I had a smoothie every day, and I made a lot of salads like I showed yesterday. I was home Monday at lunch and made what I think is my favorite lunch: black bean hummus and lightly steamed (in the pressure cooker) vegetables for dipping. That sounds good, but it's really fantastic. The vegetables were carrots, broccoli, beet, rutabaga, broccoli sprouts. I finally steamed them the right amount of time: 1 minute on the 5 lb pressure setting. They continue to cook as they cool and are not too mushy, not too crunchy. I also tried a turnip but it was kind of bitter. We had that meal on Monday and Tuesday. Then today and tomorrow we're eating the refrigerator soup I made one day before going out of town (and froze). Tonight I had that on top of a big plate of collards. I made house-mate's with sweet corn and peas.

I did splurge one evening I was home, and just after I got my new blender, which I love! I ground up cashew nuts in the dry-container of the blender and played with desserts and came up with that blueberry cashew one. I also made a date-butter to go on a little essene bud. It's a good cravings-buster when you think you want an unhealthy cupcake or muffin. It tastes better than the mushy muffin and the over-sweet cupcake (well, maybe the cupcake tastes better but then I feel yucky afterwards). That's also when I came up with the sweet pea salad dressing. Even though I splurged and overate the nuts (unfortunately, ground cashews taste really good), I had fun experimenting with the recipes.