Cantaloupe – Broccoli – That is what I was craving.  Come to me cantaloupe and broccoli.  Ask and you shall receive.

Yesterday for Mother’s Day, my guys ate with me.  We all eat a lot together, of course, but the food I was craving and indulged in made the table extra special and the day throughout a perfect eating day!  So, what constitutes a “perfect” eating day for Mother’s Day?  Well, this one didn’t include fresh carrot juice, so it lacked that; no problem, not every day can be perfectly perfect ~ I settled well without it:  I started the day with a Mocha from Peet’s, (small, nonfat) and 2 chocolate caramel sea salt candies saved for later, not much later, but later ~ enough to hold me over through to late lunch …  by then, I was in good hunger!  I was able to wait longer because the day before had been a rich day and the day before too, starting Friday night with a shared pasta carbonara at Matteo’s.  So by this Sunday morning, though late in the day, I had a delicious brunch.  We went next door to Lenny’s Deli.  The meal of the year has been hash browns and sunny side up eggs since Marco ordered them New Year’s Day at the Deli ‘ ~ I began making the same dish at home, with TJ’s frozen hash browns, but Mother’s Day was the day to have it made for me!  I added a side grilled hot dog (maybe the only one of the year, a rare fare), which Marco shared with me, as he did one of the eggs, and broccoli!  My brunch: 1 egg, 1/2 hot dog, hash browns, and broccoli (w/lemon juice); their lunches included fries, and I sampled some of them too!  Absolute yum!  Water with lemon for thirst.  I used to love hot dogs and broccoli together!  I was happy for the reunion!

Since the Saturday road trip to Idyllwild with my son started with a Stan’s chocolate chip cinnamon roll donut, which I topped with a wonderful mocha with carmel sauce at the Idyllwild Higher Grounds coffee shop, which saw me through the whole day, till I shared a small pizza with the kids before before the drive home, when I ate the fresh blueberry scone they had made in the morning at the coffee house – a bread rich and not the healthiest day, but a good easy eating day on the road! – Sunday brunch was on top of all of that the following day to cap a 2-weekend Mother’s Day menu ~ the pasta carbonara from Friday night and pasta with clam sauce from Blue Plate Oysterette in Santa Monica the weekend before, with a beer, eaten on the patio, with blue blankets by our sides, and ginger ice cream for dessert, with espresso and cone crumbles, from the most darling ice cream truck I have ever seen   ~ after the French Film “Bicycling with Moliere” ~ so yum ~ (that we took the bus to, no parking hassle)

And with all of that great stuff in me, I bounced into a new groove of an old favorite of broccoli, tomatoes with spritz dressing and a side protein (peanuts, hard boiled egg whites) and cantaloupe on the plate.  And so it was.

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