For this particular syrup I partially followed the recipe in Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide by Rosemary Gladstar (I did not measure the thyme) and decided to add a squeeze of lime (like I usually do).

This week my meal plan went a little haywire and things did not go as planned (unfortunately my nights and days have been running longer than they’re supposed to lately, something that I have not been able to remedy as of yet no matter how much I try).

The day went like this, I missed my run yesterday, so I was determined to get it in this morning. It was too cold. Ok, so I will go ahead and do my Pilates. I had something to do at 12 and then I said I would go somewhere with someone after the thing at 12. Meanwhile I’m also preparing for Shabbat and doing laundry in a washing machine that requires the smallest load possible and a prayer before you use it.

I head out to go where I said I would go and state that I can’t be too late because I need to get my run in when we get back (already I knew it was going to be late). I’m out and about enjoying the outing, but don’t get back home until around 5pm. Next up, use the bathroom, go for a run, say a prayer and put in another laundry load, then shower. Then an impromptu dinner.

After my shower I realize that I had also planned to do some prep for dinner tomorrow (geez, gotta make that work too).

Specialty kitchen appliances to the rescue.

Pause that thought.

I have never really bought into the hype of kitchen gadgets making things so much easier and/or quicker, some of them do but that’s not generally why I want them. I wanted a food processor to make dips, sauces, etc., and because a lot of vegan recipes utilize one, using it to chop stuff wasn’t really a selling point for me. (My thought process was “why would I make more dishes for myself?” If I just chop, I only have to wash a knife, if I use the food processor, I have to wash the whole food processor).

This line of thinking also extended to the Instapot. While I enjoy and utilize my Instapot I never bought into the “this makes dinner so much easier and faster.”

But now I kind of see.

I have literally been beating myself up for not using the mini processor to chop up vegetables, especially diced onions. Yes, it means I have to wash the processor but good Lord is it faster and seems to take much less energy.

Today, it really hit home. I knew I had some carrots and half a potato I needed to use up. I knew I had some rice, and I knew I had some zhoug. I chopped up the carrots, the leftover 1/2 potato + 1, and 1/2 an onion. (Roasted onion is always delicious). I threw on some olive oil, some salt & pepper, garlic & red pepper flakes, and threw it in the air fryer. (Love that air fryer). Then I threw 2 cups of rice and 2 1/2 cups of water into the Instapot and hit a button. And left those 2 things alone while I started to whip up a quick tahini sauce (tahini, garlic powder, salt, & water) and do the prep I had originally planned for tomorrow night’s dinner.

Once dinner was done, I grabbed some rice, topped it with veggies, and did a little 3 sauce magic: zhoug, tahini sauce, & chili crisp: delicious.

And the prep for tomorrow is complete.

Vegan yogurt with blueberries, walnuts, & maple syrup, oranges, apples & sunbuttter, dates, and a couple slices of pineapple.

So today was kind of a continuation of the clean out the refrigerator process I began yesterday. I had a bunch of frozen veggies that I wanted to use up, some frozen gluten-free bread, I needed to re-up on my chili crisp, and I still had leftover vegan parmesan, et voilà dinner.

So I was all set to use up a leftover jar of marinara, lo and behold, it had started to go bad. Had to improvise, luckily had just bought a couple extra cans of diced fire roasted tomatoes. I sautéed some shallots & garlic, threw 1/2 of a leftover red pepper and some capers that had been in the refrigerator longer than I wanted them to be into a food processor and chopped them up, and then added them to the pan. Threw in the diced tomatoes, some seasonings, and let it simmer for a while. Pretty tasty.