Lazy Dinner & Comfort Dessert

I am so relieved this week is over! With being on call for work, running on a lack of sleep and juggling tons of stuff, I thought it would never end! Plus my Chi Ceramic hair flat iron decided to die in the worst way possible, the plastic power switch assembly broke off for no particular reason, I babied that thing! So presumably the iron is still in perfect working condition, I just have no way to turn it on or get to the switch to fix it. So frustrating because they’re not cheap and what a waste! Grr, guess I’ll be rocking the all-natural curly look for awhile because dropping the $$ for another one isn’t a great idea with all the holiday expenses … and new tire expenses. Because things are so crazy, I put in for two vacation days to take before Christmas just to play, catch up on gift wrapping and shopping and do whatever. I’m totally looking forward to them and already feel more relaxed. :-)

For lunch yesterday, I took the tons of leftovers I had from my Lentil Quinoa Chili recipe to my mom’s to share with her and my little nieces. It was just as good and maybe a little better the second day after marinating in the sauce flavors overnight.

My nieces liked it, but they tend to like anything with lots of corn. :-)

When I got home from another long day at work, both hubby and I were a bit cranky and burned out from the week and decided to have a lazy dinner at home. So this seemed like a wonderful way to end the day.

For a cheap zinfandel I picked up at Trader Joe’s, it was very nice with bright flavors and no bitter after tastes. It went well with the Sweet Potato Bisque I also picked up.

Realizing this dinner was still lacking, I pulled out the oddly-shaped romanesco broccoli we got in our last CSA box even though I had no idea what to do with it.

It looks and tastes a lot like cauliflower with a prettier shape more festive for the holidays, don’t you think? Can you imagine one of these steamed and seasoned whole and placed like a little Christmas Tree on a plate? Or it can be chopped up into little “trees” and seasoned with chopped red peppers for decorations. Too fun!

For this one, I chopped it up, steamed it in the microwave and tossed with a little smoked olive oil for a simple side.

Yeah, it’s a lazy dinner, but at least healthy. And I was saving all my effort for dessert, I felt such a crazy week merited a splurge. I threw the equivalent of two bananas, peeled, chopped and frozen, into the small 4-cup container of my food processor.

Then added a couple of tablespoons of cacao powder.

[amtap amazon:asin=B001E5E0Y2]

A couple of tablespoons of lucuma powder.

[amtap amazon:asin=B00168WPA8]

And a couple of tablespoons of raw almond butter.

And ran the food processor for a couple of minutes until it looked like this.

It was thick and gloppy, not exactly easy to scoop into a bowl or a work or art.

But oh so worth it! What I ended up with was a raw, chocolaty, nut-buttery ice “cream” with a fudge like texture and caramel flavors mixed in. That was my first time working with lucuma powder and it won’t be the last!