Spring into February

I know that everyone seems to have an opinion on global warming and climate change but man the weather here in Minnesota recently is unseasonably nice - very nice; it was 31 degrees today and the sun was shining. That doesn’t mean we won’t get anymore snow and cold it is after all February and March is unpredictable as hell. At the moment, I’ll take the nice weather and I’ll enjoy it. 

Generally when we get to February I’m searching for hot and warming soups and stews, roasting a big batch of root vegetables or cooking a nice spicy curry - anything to kick up the heat. But lately I’ve been thinking about salads and lighter fare. I can only attribute it to the weather. 

I was driving home from yoga last week and as I drove past Chipotle - I thought - oh taco salad sounds delicious. In most restaurants taco salad involves some kind of spiced beef, which of course we don’t eat. We do however give the Beyond Meat product a go every once in a while. They have a ground “meat” product that has a nice consistency and when spiced up with taco seasoning, combined with onions and peppers and then added to greens, tomatoes, olives, vegan cheese, corn and crushed blue corn tortillas well it’s pretty awesome. It’s even more awesome when you make a dressing that has avocado in it - I could literally lick the dressing off the spoon - if it has avocado it’s all good. 

This week was suppose to be movie night but it got cancelled because our friend Rhea Rhodan was not feeling well (so sorry to hear that). We had an awesome dinner planned - a Field Roast Foragers vegan roast, beet, carrot, onion and chickpea salad with a lemon & dijon dressing and quinoa with kale. We thought about doing something different but the groceries were in the fridge and we decided let’s go for it. We’ll do it again at another movie night don’t worry!

Unfortunately we didn’t take a picture of the beet salad - OMG if you love beets you need to try this dish. The flavors pair perfectly and the dressing adds a wonderful dimension - next time I might even add a few crumbles of feta to give it a sharp flavor. You can check out the recipe here. 

We’ve made it to Sunday, which makes me happy and of course sad. I love that it is still the weekend but I can’t help but want one more day off before I head back to work. One of my favorite Sunday activities is pottery class. For 2 hours you think about nothing other than forming the clay, no social media mania, no political pandemonium, just me and a mound of clay - its relaxing. 

We had a great pottery class today - I learned how to make wine/sake/tea cups (no handles) let’s just hope they sealed up nicely so that when I pour a beverage in them I don’t find the beverage running down my arm. That’s the danger with hand built pottery, you have to make sure you seal the seams. If it doesn’t work out for cups I can always use them for pencils, dried flowers or something else - who doesn’t need a cute little cup right? I think my project next week will be the triple cone succulent vase I’ve been thinking about ever since I saw the picture on Pinterest. 

Valentines Day is Tuesday be sure to spend the day with people you love. 

Thanks for stopping by!