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Day 26: Chickpeas and Kale. And cake!

Today is my mom's birthday, and we're having a BYOC (bring your own cake) Zoom birthday party.  Our contribution was a Spring appropriate coconut cake, requested by my dear friend Kathleen.  Tomorrow is a milestone birthday for her, too, so tomorrow I'll be doing a contact-free cake drop off (with a couple of other treats).  I highly recommend the coconut cake recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction.  A trick that I learned, here in the pandemic? You definitely don't need to buy sweetened coconut-- you can make your own!  I took unsweetened dried flakes from Whole Foods, and made a sugar syrup of 1/4 cup water and 4 teaspoons white sugar for each cup of coconut I wanted to hydrate.  It is fluffy and deliciously sweet, without the weird grainy texture that pre-sweetened coconut sometimes has.  I don't think I'll ever go back!
Besides the little cake, today we ate:

Chickpeas and Kale
This is an old grad school standby, and we have it probably once a month.  Sometimes more.  My roommate Simone used to make this on the regular-- saute lots of garlic and a big shake of crushed red pepper in olive oil to flavor the oil.  Add in a drained and rinsed can of chickpeas, and cook until they are soft and warm.  Add in torn kale (we usually do one head to one can, but this time the kale was HUGE), and wilt it down.  Season with salt and black pepper, then squeeze on a couple of tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.  Finish with cubed feta, warmed until the cheese just starts to soften.

The first time I shared this with Jeff, way back when, he was very skeptical.  And then he asked for more.  His version adds sliced baby bella mushrooms to the garlic oil, before the chickpeas.  We did that today, too.

"Bagged" Salad and a Frozen Burrito
The greens in my bagged Southwest Salad were definitely a no-go today--wilty and brown--despite the fact that it had not expired.  Womp.  Good thing I had a head of iceberg that I could use with the toppings-- tortilla strips, pepitas, cheese, and chipotle ranch dressing.  I also added a few halved cherry tomatoes, some diced red bell pepper, and some torn cilantro.  The Trader Joe's frozen burrito was quite good, actually.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch 
As part of a complete breakfast.  With apple.  And a latte.  It was delicious, but I was starving by lunch.  I was tempted at the grocery store, and not disappointed, but it's definitely a sometimes food.

Today's food ran the gamut-- and that's part of the fun.  I do miss my morning bagel, and especially the lovely folks at Bullfrog Bagels.  Thus far, we are still eating food fully prepared at home.  But I may cave for a bagel.  So delicious!


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