lookin’ after the fam

Friday morning was spent tending to people.

Mom: check. Got up at 6:15 to take her to the airport for a friend’s daughter’s wedding. She’s staying in Cambridge, MA, and I told her she had to to go my faaaaaaaaavorite restaurant in Cambridge, The Helmand. Afghan food. Bliss!

I arrived home at 7:30 and still wasn’t hungry so I took a nice walk in the park while the humidity level was still… “pleasant” would be a stretch, but we’ll say “tolerable”.

Whilst walking, this was incubating:

This is why I haven’t been posting breakfast! It’s all the same! Today:

1/2 c. oats
1/4 c. plain yogurt
1/4 c. milk
1 T Ruth’s Chia Goodness, Cranberry ginger flavor
1/2 banana, mooshed

 

Topped with 2 T walnuts and a sprinkling of fresh blueberries. These blueberries- omg. I know I said I had my favorite blueberry people picked out at the Falls Church farmer’s market, but the blueberries my mom got from her vendor at the Ballston farmer’s market BLOWS THEM OUT OF THE WATER. They are uniformly gigantic and sweet.

So good. Ate that and immediately made the exact same thing for the next day.

Okay so next: the sister.

I usually drive her to to the Metro to take to work at 1:00 (she works 2-10 canvassing, ick). However, I was rushing to meet Sophia and Maya for an awesome blogger date! So I was going to demand that we leave the house at 12:30, thus enabling me to meet the girls right at 1 (they kept adjusting the time to fit my schedule, because they are *awesome*).

I knew Malindi would be more amenable to leaving “early” (homegirl sleeps til noon every day) if she had less to do in the morning- thus, the work food I packed her:

While our eating habits differ CONSIDERABLY, I was fairly pleased with the compromise this selection took between placating her taste buds and my need to fill food groups.

Soo, count ‘em, grains, healthy fat, fruit and dairy:

In the form of a bagel with peanut butter and wheat germ (she doesn’t have my passion for whole grains but for some reason loves wheat germ so I figured she was getting at least some of the B vitamins back); an apple; and chocolate milk and a string cheese (if that seems like dairy overkill, know that she likely added an additional string cheese. The girl is a cheese eating machine).

Aaaaaand vegetables and protein, courtesy of Costco.

The last of the Veggie Crunchers (know that since last I mentioned them, my finally finished that whole bag and now Malindi is getting the last of a second bag. They are WAY TOO DELICIOUS); and a “Pure Protein” bar yeurgh but she likes them.

So Sheila got her morning cat food, mom and sister were all good, and thus I could make food for my (future) self, for Saturday’s work lunch:

Lentils and rice won’t win any beauty contests but it is seriously one of my favorite meals. And I’ve felt a little protein lacking since I officially became Ms. “I Only Eat Meat When I Know Where It Comes From” and as we all know rice and beans are the PERFECT PROTEIN.

And actually I threw in a little local meat :D Mixing it up a bit, I started the pot with some chopped onion cooked in a drizzle of olive oil and a bit of chopped Amish garlic bologna for flava.

 

Then I added 1/2 cup brown rice and 1/2 cup lentils (this was for two servings) and cooked for 40 minutes. At around the halfway point, the liquid level looked a little low, so I added like another 1/2 cup of hot water.

Given a splash of lovely color with a green pepper.

(I’ll likely have a yogurt on the side for my growing lady bones. I watch food groups for my own lunches, too!)