Evening walks are an important routine at our house, all three dogs start letting us know when the magical walk time is getting near. And get insanely excited when I start getting the leashes out. After the walk, Miko is always ready for another walk or at least an intense toy throwing session.
While Skipper is ready for a rest! He usually crashes in the front hall froggy style as soon as we get into the house.
That was almost me yesterday after having a fun filled Mother’s Day that started with a scenic drive to Auburn with my mom for lunch at Nectar Cafe. And we were able to take the scenic route just before that road was closed for the AMGEN Bike Tour of California.
I got the Southwest black bean wrap and she got the Yum-which with sauerkraut, avocado, and gluten-free bread.
The wrap was great, especially with a little added sriracha and the sandwich was tangy, creamy, and hearty with spicy kale chips – yum! For dessert we split the raw vegan raspberry chocolate tart which was also fabulous!
After we had a few minutes to walk around town and shop before the AMGEN race blew through and what a sight it was!
Yesterday was Stage 1 of the race that was a 120 mile loop that started and finished in Sacramento. And it’s a hilly insane loop that winds up into Auburn and the foothills – wow! It was an impressive operation with staff arriving in town before the racers did to put signs up, block off roads, etc. After the parade of police and official race vehicles drove through town, the bikers zipped by at about 25 MPH with a fleet of team support cars behind them carrying spare bikes and bike parts. It was a fun sight to see and a local bike shop in town was having a huge party to celebrate the race.
For the rest of the day, we had a scenic drive home, shopped, and toured model homes just for fun. My mom even scored a free bouquet of flowers from one of the builders, nice! It was just a fun, smooth, and relaxing day.
Thankfully it wasn’t too crazy at work today too. And when I got home, I grabbed some kale from our garden for a huge salad to try a crazy new dressing recipe.
I found a variation of this recipe online recently and had to try it. Only the original recipe was loaded with oil and sugar – 1/2 cup of oil alone! I replaced all that badness with banana because it’s sweet without needing sugar and has a creamy texture that doesn’t need oil.
Balsamic Chocolate Dressing
- 1 cup of chopped banana chunks (about 1 large banana)
- 3 tbsp. of cacao or carob powder
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup water, as needed
- salt and pepper to taste
Place all ingredients into a blender and blend to a smooth texture. Makes 4 servings.
The dressing is an interesting dark brown color and it has a wild and punchy tangy balsamic chocolate flavor with a slight sweetness and chocolaty richness.
Because of the stronger flavor, a little goes a long way and it’s great for countering the strong kale flavors. Crazy, but the flavors work together, really!
Froggy Style! LOVE it~
WOW on that dressing! Sounds super incredible and creative!
And the rest of the FOOD – YUMMO!
The race and other festivities sound like a FUN time! I posted not too long ago about the Fiat Fun!
Thanks on the dressing, it’s a bold flavor com a that worked well. Poor Skipper is always hot and sleeps foggy style all over the house. I need to find him a cooling dog bed!