Things are moving along. The kitchen is now 93% done! We really can’t pack up any more of it, as I need that last 7%. You know, a few cups, plates, bowls, 1 pan, etc.

Chris wanted to thank you for all of the birthday wishes. He appreciated all of the sweet comments :) And thanks for all of your compliments about my dress! You guys rock.

I made one of my best bowls of oatmeal ever today!

Peachy Keen Protein Oats

3T Scottish Oats
2-3T Oat Bran
1 1/4c water
1/4c almond milk
3/4t cinnamon
1 egg white, whisked in the last 2min
1/2 banana

Since the oat bran cooks really quickly, I wait a while before adding it in.

Boil water.
Whisk in Scottish Oats + reduce heat to simmer for about 5-7min.
Once it starts to thicken, add in sliced banana, cinnamon, oat bran + almond milk and whisk.
Let simmer for about another 2-3min.
Whisk in egg white and let cook for 2min.

Egg whites just make oats, so amazingly creamy. When I whisk in the egg white, I let it sit for 2min. It gets nice + puffy. Then I just dump it all in the bowl. YUM.

Homemade peanut butter looks SO much lighter than store bought. I wonder why that is? I even roasted the nuts! I don’t think I’ve ever put peaches in oats. It rocked. Along with a little Love Grown Foods granola!

After breakfast, I got back in the kitchen. Not to pack, but to cook. I wanted to use up as much of the fridge and pantry as possible this week. We’re only moving an hour away, so obviously we can pack up most of our food. However, sometimes it’s nice to just try and finish a few things up. My point in doing this was also to basically prepare all of our meals today, so they are quick + ready to eat this week.

First up, a triple batch of Protein Scottish/Oat Bran oats with banana + cinnamon. In the morning I’ll just microwave this with a little almond milk. I’m excited, for a few days, to not have a pot + whisk to clean!

I bought two amazingly delicious bell peppers at the Cherry Creek Market this weekend. They were green/orange and are extremely sweet + crisp. I figured chopping them would make it more likely I would actually finish them this week!

Organic bells were only $1.25/pepper!!

Perfectly crunchy.

I forget what this type of zucchini is called. It has a thicker skin and is sooo pretty with it’s light yellow + green skin. Chopped this up so it is ready to throw in a sauté pan.

Chopped carrots + cucumbers for snacking or wraps!

I had a 1/2 bag of this awesome grain mix from Trader Joes, that I picked up last time I was in Ohio. It has red quinoa, Israeli couscous, baby garbanzos, and a few other things. I also cooked it with about 1/2c of millet that we had left. Since they cook in the same style, this worked perfectly! Soooo much amazing texture going on here!!

I also roasted the end of our red skin taters for Chris and 2 big sweet taters for me!

I even made enough dressing to last the week!

This had: tomato paste, olive oil, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, and apple cider vinegar

Kind of looks like a lot of stuff, but it actually only took me 1.5hrs to do all of that and then about 20min for cleanup. I’m soooo excited to have all of this food ready to eat! I also boiled an open package of soba noodles.

The dogs are hanging in there. Going on walks and beating up on each other. They are attached at the hip!

Fancy footwork from Kenna beans!

Lunch was 100% leftover and 110% delicious. Ahhh, I want this again, but I’m all out of the burgers! Mama Pea is really on to something with this recipe! I would say it’s the closest in texture to a real meat burger! I think it’s the texture from the pasta. I topped it with ~1T nutritional yeast, 1/2 avocado, tomato paste, and pre-sliced pepper :) A LOT of ‘loupe on the side too!

And the end of a salad container. Save a bowl and use the container! I love using the container because you can shake the dressing around for even coating!

Dinner was fresh + delicious and took 8min to throw together.

grain mix
sautéed zucchini
1/3 block sautéed tempeh
2 sweet tater slices
~3T ricotta cheese
~1T tomato paste

Nothing revolutionary. But so glad to be eating good food this week! I’ve never tried this method of pre-cooking a bunch of food, but I think I quite like it. Especially for this scenario. Dining on take out all week, would leave me very unhappy!

I can’t believe we’re down to packing all of the little crap. I know it’s going to take awhile though! I also want to move everything from upstairs downstairs [minus the bed] and everything from downstairs to the main level. This will save SO much time on moving day and save our legs a little pain as well.

Managed to squeeze in a little noon-time swim as well. Felt great today! Strong + speedy.

Swimmin’