It’s time for some non-Instagrammed food photos! As unaesthetic as these are, I find them a refreshing change of pace from all the set-up and touched-up food photos I see on a daily basis. I love those, and I create plenty of them, too, but every so often I like something raw, untouched. Something you’re eating on a Monday night when your fridge is almost empty. Something you’re quickly packing for lunch when you should have walked out the door five minutes ago.
If you like those, too, you’ll love all of these. Bon appetit!
Three main components of my diet - greens, sweet potatoes, and goat cheese. I’ll add avocado occasionally, but it isn’t essential for me. I toss the sweet potato cubes in avocado oil, garlic powder, sea salt, and chili powder, then roast them at 425F for 30-35 minutes, tossing halfway through. They come out absolutely perfect every single time!
This banana bread is an essential component of my morning routine - it’s that good. I especially love it with Icelandic Provisions Skyr (plain) and creamy peanut butter. This and some more coffee after a morning workout - MMM doesn’t get better!
Here’s just another variation of my favorite breakfast. If I’m out of either ripe bananas or time to make banana bread, I’ll buy these sprouted bagels from Alvarado Street Bakery and gather up the same team members - skyr, peanut butter, whatever fruit I have on hand, and cinnamon. I don’t know why it’s so good, why I love it so much, but it is and I do and we just need to leave it at that.
The very best, juiciest, sweetest oranges I’ve ever sunk my teeth into fall from a tree just 20 steps away from my kitchen. It’s wonderful! They’re best enjoyed when eaten directly over the sink, all cares about cleanliness pushed aside for just a moment to soak in the flavor, and the fact that I have a beautiful, fruitful orange tree in my backyard.
Is it possible to make chicken thighs actually look appetizing? No? Oh, okay. Then I don’t feel as insecure about the gross-looking (but delicious!) chicken thighs tucked between the best crispy roasted broccoli and spaghetti. Wait - what? Yeah, I made spaghetti! ‘Twas a delightful and simple meal I will certainly be whipping up again soon.
The bagel is back. And this time, he’s savory - not a bit sweet. Homemade egg sandwiches don’t compare to bagel-shop egg sandwiches, but for a quick weekday lunch, they will certainly do the trick. This one is hummus, avocado, crushed red pepper flakes, nutritional yeast, a fried egg, and some mixed greens.
Am I the only who has always felt like homemade wraps aren’t as good as sandwich-shop/cafe-style wraps? Well, up until now, at least. With only ten minutes to prepare a lunch to eat in the car while I drove down to LA a few weeks ago, I spread some hummus on a whole-wheat lavash bread, sprinkled nutritional yeast and crushed red pepper flakes, greens, and sliced tempeh and rolled it up tightly. It fit snuggly into my tupperware container and was, I must say, one of the easiest to eat car-lunches ever! It’s also delicious, so even when I’m not eating with one hand, driving with the other, and singing my favorite throwback songs, I make this.
The True Food Kitchen burger. I can debate between this and other items on the menu as much as I want to, but I always end up with this messy hunk in my hands and I’m not mad about that. It’s balanced out with a satisfying kale salad on the side, too. You probably aren’t looking at that, though… I mean, after all, look at that cheeeeeeese.
A deconstructed peanut butter cup? Sure. Nestle is releasing new chocolate morsels soon, so I asked my friend to grab a sample form Expo West. Let’s just say…. we should warn all the other chocolate chips. These are coming in hot. I scooped a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter to act as the creamy vehicle on which to bring the chocolate chips to my mouth. Gotta’ keep life exciting in the midst of studying chronic kidney disease, respiratory complications, and metabolic stress, ya’ know?
I finished the last bite off this plate and, for the umpteenth time, asked myself WHYYYY do I not make this Banza mac n’ cheese more often?! It easily could have stood on its own, sans steamed kale, but it was the only veggie I had in the fridge on Monday night (I went grocery shopping the next morning), so… yeah. I may or may not have eaten the entire box. I don’t know. It was just unbelievably good.