Down Day with Simple Eats

Last night was an exciting night for us, hubby’s band had a pretty big gig opening for another band at a bar. It was their first biggish gig teaming up with another band in a public show and what an experience! It was also a long day for me, I had to dash home right after work, cram a protein smoothie for dinner, feed the dogs, and make myself look presentable in 15 minutes before dashing back out with him to the bar and hang out for two hours trying to help with equipment setup before the show. And just wow on the equipment setup, it’s a complex process that takes hours, especially with the other bands’ huge electronics show. And it was really cool watching the guys play to an enthusiastic audience.

Good thing I had a smoothie before the gig because there wasnovegan friendly food at the dive bar … I’m not sure the food served there was friendly foranyone, people were bringing in pizzas and takeout for the show! And we did not get out until close to midnight, too late to grab food. But it was a fun night of music, dancing, and friends.

After such a long night and hellish week, it was nice to take it easy today. I was gonna go for a run, but decided my legs were a little tired from last night and did the elliptical and Bowflex at home instead – run tomorrow. :-) And I had an easy salad for lunch using what we had in the house. I threw together a simple dressing in the Vitamix of:

• 3 peeled tangerines
• 2 tbsp. tahini
• 1″ thick chunk of fresh ginger

And coated a basic salad of carrots, cabbage, corn, sprouts, and hemp seeds in it.

Then topped with walnuts for a colorful lunch.

The dressing had a bright and tangy flavor with a creamy texture going nicely with the sweet carrots and crunchy walnuts.

Between lunch and dinner, and plenty of laundry and house chores, I made it to Trader Joe’s to load up for the week and grabbed this huge acorn squash for $1.29, worth every penny. :-)

While raw acorn squash is good in some recipes, I adore it baked too for the hearty and soft texture. I chopped this one in half, seeded it, and placed the cut sides down in a shallow layer of water in a glass baking dish.

Then baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, turned the cut side up and baked for another 20 minutes to crisp the edges.

To go with it, I heated a serving of Trader Joe’s Black Bean soup with corn mixed in for a lazy dinner.

See, very lazy. :-)

But delicious and comforting on a chilly evening.