Scenes from the weekend

 I’m pretty lucky I think. I own my home outright, so I don’t have to worry about a mortgage payment.I do still have to work, at least for another year or two. But, because I own my home, and because my boss approved it, I can work a four day work week and enjoy a  three day weekend, every weekend. Before the pandemic, I was out and about for most of the weekend. These days I’m seldom out and about. Most of the time I am at home. 

Being home means I have time to cook and bake and most weekends that’s exactly what I’m doing. This weekend was no exception.

 

Friday I made a delicious breakfast of roasted sweet potatoes, mashed avocado and sunny-side up eggs. Lunch was a delicious salad made with farro, spinach, chickpeas, cucumbers and feta cheese. Dinner? Lentil soup with celery, onions, carrots and tomatoes. 

Saturday was more baking, less cooking. I made a Polenta Apricot Pudding cake and a pan of Polenta Honey cake. I also took half a tube of sugar cookie dough, added some chopped pistachios and dried cherries and attempted to bake cookie sticks. The sticks spread so I have oblong cookies instead. Not as attractive as I had pictured in my head, but still delicious. 

The Honey polenta cake I use for one of my favorite snacks. I grill the cake and then top it with sliced, fresh pears, Greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey. 

Yesterday I made breakfast for dinner in the form of a delicious pumpkin oatmeal. It’s a recipe from Aarti Sequeira. I caught it on an episode of her show "Aarti Party". The recipe turned out well, super easy to make and worth looking up and trying. I hadn't realized Indian cooking used so many spices that I know and love. I have earmarked several recipes I want to try. Watch this space for Indian recipes in the future!  

The last cooking for the weekend I did was just a little bit ago. I roasted some Brussels sprouts with a little salt, pepper and olive oil. I love roasted veggies of all kinds. I often roast some and use them as meal prep. Last week it was carrots. My dinner this morning was homefries made with red potatoes cooked in a cast iron pan with onions, green pepper and some chopped bacon. Then, to go with the homefries, I sautéed some shallots, tossed in some spinach and then added a couple of beaten eggs and cooked that all together.Topped with a few pieces of feta cheese. Not very pretty, but quite satisfying. Some red grapefruit was perfect for cutting the richness of the dish. 

 

And that was pretty much my weekend. Did a little cooking. Cleaned up the mess made doing said cooking. Repeated the whole thing again. Very relaxing. Very peaceful. Also very productive because most things I cook or bake make multiple servings, and I freeze the extra into portions for my meals at work. It's a "win-win" situation.