Today was a MONDAY, one of ‘those’ Mondays. After a really busy day at work plus the heat and 
humidity, I came home feeling sticky, cranky and crabby. I kept thinking of all the things that I should get done and it my mood turned even darker and more sour. I stood in the middle of my apartment unsure if crying or throwing something would make me feel better. Yes, I needed an intervention.
And that intervention started with a cantaloupe. A cantaloupe that needed to be cut up and refrigerated before the heat turned it into a biology experiment on my counter. Knife in hand, a deep breath and the pungent sweetness of the cantaloupe and the movement of slicing into the ripe fruit began to shift my focus. Doing a little QA (quality assurance) by eating the pieces that missed the container from the cutting board brought awareness that I was hungry. Low blood sugar=crankypants.
The last thing I wanted to do was make it any hotter by cooking but a well stocked fridge from weekend shopping yielded a Quinoa Salad on a bed of lettuce lightly tossed with basil olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar. Figs from Trader Joe’s along with some chevre and prosciutto filled my plate.
While giving the Quinoa Salad 30 minutes to chill I threw together some dessert that I am bringing over to a friend’s house. Again, going with the “cooking cold” idea I was inspired by some sliced, frozen chocolate covered bananas that I had at a retreat and the Detoxinista’s Healthier Peanut Butter Eggs. I figured I was melting dark chocolate anyway, why not do double duty dipping? My adaptations to the original recipe included using raw almond butter rather than peanut butter, making them a bit smaller (yield 8 + a QA tester rather than 6 in the original recipe) and double dipped the almond butter eggs taking into the account the feedback I got from coworkers about wanting more chocolate.
End result? Had dinner, QAed the chocolate covered almond egg, successfully cooked cold, re-balanced blood sugar while doing cooking meditation, no more crankypants! Oh, bananas passed QA too.
Tagged: Almond butter, Chocolate, Quinoa
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Oh, that meal sounds perfect….and could you be more gorgeous?!! x
so the figs from trader joes. these are the wrinkle raisin like ones. not the
fresh figs. correct? i can never find the figs in season. that is why i am asking
i have always wanted to try those too.
love all of this!
Kelly – I am not a fan of dried figs in general, fresh figs? I am all over them! For a small window of time (3 weeks max) Trader Joe’s currently carries fresh black mission and green figs. I wonder if their distribution may only be west coast since they are rather fragile?
The figs I have this time are the black mission figs, they are sweeter, drier in texture and not as juicy as the green figs but go great with a creamy chevre. My personal favorite are the ‘brown turkey’ figs but they are hard to find up here. I even like those dried.
Ah. The crankypants selfie. Perfection. Love. Delicious food too! Chocolate makes most everything better!
Thanks Kirsten, I find myself completely amused by the crankypants selfie now. And you are right, I think dipping anything in dark chocolate could be a miracle cure. ❤