Weekends are for Working

Well, I’m battered, bruised, a shade darker than before and utterly exhausted – but I’ve made it through the weekend.

I’m starting to look forward to the weekdays more than the weekends. I always work harder on the weekends than during the week. What’s up with that?

You knew this was coming.

Of course I was planning on strawberry waffles this morning – you didn’t think otherwise, did you? I think I’ll call these party waffles, though. Don’t they look like they’re ready for a party with all that coconut?!

I used my “standard” oatmeal-millet waffle recipe but with dates instead of figs, and agave (or honey?) instead of maple. I also added in the juice from the microwaved strawberries again, as well as some shredded coconut. Yum!

Topped with the nuked berries, half a chopped date, cashews, more coconut, white chocolate coconut peanut butter , and irish cream agave.

And coffee, but it tasted funky. I think I had paint chips from my mug. That or it was because it wasn’t Green Mountain I’m out of good coffee!

This may turn out to be a condensed blog post tonight, because I’ve got a recipe of sorts to share with you guys! Though it may work out that way, anyways – I wasn’t much of a snacker today, for whatever reason! Maybe it was the heat? Either way – after breakfast I went out to the barn to see Teddie before it got too hot. It was already really humid, though – and luckily had figured I’d give him a rest day today, anyways. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that they need mental and physical breaks, too — I could just play with him every day! The hard thing about boarding far away is that even if he has a “day off,” I can’t just walk out my front door and dote on him. I have to drive half an hour. It’s nice to have Jigs and Mel here – I can just go out and play with them whenever! But, alas – it’s for the best.

When I got home, I tacked up Jiggy and just went for a light ride up and down the road for a couple minutes. I was dying to ride in the new saddle! It is so comfy – in love! It was so muggy and buggy out, though, that I didn’t want to ask him to do much. And my mom and I had fence to put up, anyways.

We drove in all the posts yesterday, and I put on caps and insulators, so today we just had to run the wire and pound in insulators for when we used a tree instead of a post. We got the majority done – but ran out of insulators and were, hot, sweaty, tired, hungry and getting bitten up – so we just called it off until tomorrow…and came in for lunch.

Part One

For whatever reason, I was not craving veggies in the least – and rather, had a raging sweet tooth.

I think it had to do with the heat and my hydration – I think I was actually really thirsty, and fruity, sweet things seemed more appealing? Maybe. Either way – I had a sammie with toasted whole grain bread spread with blackberry honey creme and white chocolate coconut peanut butter and some sliced banana. Weird? My mom thought so. Delicious? Absolutely. The banana got all melty, and the blackberry honey was the perfect touch. That and – they sell PB, Honey and banana in a cafe near here – so  I said she was the weird one

Part Two

A giant, fruit-laden yogurt and cottage cheese mess. What the Dr. Krackers previously shown were dipper in, too! Piled in the bowl was a chopped plum, sliced strawberries, the rest of the banana, plain Oikos , cottage cheese, chia seeds, honey roasted peanuts, and honey. I’m not really sure if those were plums or pluots, though. My mom picked them up, and she said the sign said plums – but they were very small, and very deep purple. And didn’t quite taste like you’re typical plum.

But I digress. Fast forward to dinner -

Not much to look at, but I promise this was a winner.

A wheatberry salad with a Veganomicon inspired dressing. My mom loved this. Maybe you will, too? It’s a kitchen sink wheatberry salad!

First, the dressing:

Makes approx. 1/2 cup. Maybe more like 1/3. Ish.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 T. olive oil (or more, depending on your saucepan)
• 1 clove garlic, pressed
• 2 chopped Turkish figs
• 1/4 c. + 1/4 c. water
• 1/8 t. salt, dash pepper
• 1/4 t. basil
• 3-4 medium strawberries, sliced
• 1.5 T. maple syrup
• 1 T. dijon mustard (I used .5 T. mple dijon and .5 T. dijonaise)
• 1 t. balsamic vinegar

Heat the oil over medium-low heat in a medium saucepan, add in pressed garlic. Saute 1-2 minutes, then add in the figs, salt, and 1/4 c. water. Allow to simmer, until water is mostly evaporated.

Once that happens, add in remaining 1/4 c. water, maple syrup, basil, and strawberries. Simmer 3 more minutes, and remove from heat. Stir in mustard and vinegar, and let sit until cool enough to blend/process until smooth.

For the Salad:

(apologies in advance for the sketchy measurements of half of this, half of that. I had half a sweet potato from last night, wanted to have some leftover roasted broc and red pepper, etc. Just adjust it to your tastes, anyways!)

• 1/2 c. cooked wheatberries
• 1/2 c. black beans
• 1/2 a medium-large sweet potato, cubed and roasted*
• 1/2 a medium head of broccoli, chopped into bite-sized pieces and roasted*
• ~1/4 of a chopped roasted red pepper
• 1/4 c. canned diced beets (note that next time I would leave these out because I discovered I’m not a huge beet-fan, but my mom liked them so I’m leaving it in the list)
• 1/2-3/4 a recipe of the aforementioned dressing
• 2 T. plain Oikos
• salt and pepper, to taste

Combine err’thang in a large bowl and serve chilled.

I chose to do so over some romaine – which was only a mediocre idea. Spinach would have been better. But the salad was a superstar!

And we all know how necessary dessert is when there's a house full of strawberries.