It sure feels nice to be home again after our whirlwind trip to Southern California. I feel like we just moved back into our house, only to pack up and leave again. Wait. That’s exactly what happened. In fact, when we got home on Monday, the house still had a new-floor smell.
The boys are camp-free this week, so I enjoyed the rare luxury of a leisurely morning. For breakfast, I made myself a kimchee and smoked turkey breakfast wrap (with Pure Wraps). My brother-in-law had sent us home with a big bag of home-smoked turkey thighs (along with other goodies), and I plan to nibble on them all week.
I also cut up a watermelon…
…and packed up the pieces we didn’t finish.
Big-O is bonkers for watermelon and kept sneaking off with slice after slice, but even a hungry 7-year-old boy can’t polish off an entire melon.
Since we’d been out of our house for so long, my most pressing errand of the day was to restock our fridge and pantry. Our first stop was at the Mountain View Costco, where I piled my cart high with organic greens (e.g. baby kale, spinach, salad), duck confit, bison hotdogs, organic chicken thighs, mushrooms, and macadamia nuts.
Costco is a veritable treasure trove for Paleo shoppers – I even spied copies of Everyday Paleo and Paleo Comfort Foods on display in the cookbook section. Woohoo!
I also made a special trip to Sigona’s in Redwood City for more goodies, but when I pushed my cart to the cash register to pay, I discovered that: (A) Sigona’s doesn’t take American Express, (B) my other credit cards were at home, © I didn’t have any cash on me, and (D) a yellow Post-It note inscribed with the initials “I.O.U.” and adorned with hearts and smiley faces is not considered legal tender. I had to make a return trip, this time with actual money in hand.
By the time we came home, I was too hungry to make anything complicated for lunch. I quickly browned some sliced mushrooms in melted butter, and added a handful of baby spinach to the mix.
Then, I tucked the veggies in the middle of a three-egg omelet.
I topped the eggy dish with cherry tomatoes. Who says omelets are only for breakfast?
I spent the rest of the afternoon trying my darnedest to be productive, but I ended up catnapping on Big-O’s bed. Sometimes, it’s best to just give in. Also: naps are healthy!
At five, I finally dragged myself back into the kitchen to spatchcock and salt a freshly processed chicken from Primal Pastures. (If you’re looking for the recipe, I’ve got step-by-step photos and instructions in my iPad cooking app.) We left the house for about an hour for Lil-O’s swim lesson – the perfect amount of time to bring chicken up to room temperature.
When we got back, I combined a teaspoon of Sunny Paris seasoning…
…with two pats of softened butter…
…and massaged it all over the bird and under the skin.
I popped the chicken in the oven and gave the stinky/sticky kiddos a bath.
To kill time while the chicken was cooking, I vacuum-sealed and sous vided a batch of smoked poblano sausages (another gift from my brother-in-law!) at 150°F.
By pre-cooking these sausages, I’ll be able to quickly sear the links when I’m ready to serve them.
Once the chicken was done roasting, I let it rest for 20 minutes while I prepared a side salad.
Tonight, I was too lazy to make a complicated veggie side dish. Instead, I threw together a simple salad dressed with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.
Here’s my dinner plate…
…and one of the kids’ plates.
As I mentioned on the Balanced Bites podcast recently, we’ve finally reached the point where Lil-O will eat what everyone is eating. No more scrambled eggs for our four-year-old at the dinner table! Persistence pays off – or perhaps he just liked the moist, flavorful bird from Primal Pastures. If you live in SoCal and want to eat sustainably-raised and great tasting poultry, sign up for Primal Pastures’ waitlist. (Full disclosure: I was gifted a couple of chickens when I was down south, but my opinion is my own. I give my thumbs-up only to the stuff I truly love. I’m not that easily bought off, yo!)
