Recent Eats: Hospital, Hotel + Home

Let’s get back to some food-focused content, shall we? The most exciting food related news that I have to share with you is that Duke’s Mayonnaise started following me on Instagram today after I tagged them in the following photo of my lunch…

Toasted homemade sourdough, a healthy slather of Duke’s mayo, basil from my plant, Cherokee Purple NC tomatoes, two soft-boiled eggs and Rainier cherries. It was a delicious lunch.

I’m mostly kidding about the Duke’s/Instagram thing but I am a big fan of the brand! I know people are typically pretty love/hate about mayonnaise but I have always loved it. I think Duke’s is the superior brand – unless I make homemade mayonnaise…to which nothing compares. I need to do that more often!

Okay, here’s a look at more things that I have been eating recently. You’ll see some different kind of things in this post because a lot of these meals happened while I was in Florida for my dad’s surgery.

BREAKFAST

The only breakfast I have is scrambled eggs and fresh fruit. I scrambled the eggs with a little bit of cream cheese in salted butter.

LUNCH

Airplane sushi. Pro tip: there is actually a very decent sushi spot in the Charlotte airport right in the main atrium. They do a ton of volume so everything is always super fresh. I grabbed a tuna avocado roll to eat on the plane on my flight down to Florida. I’ll probably do the same thing when Finn and I fly back tomorrow.

Subway at the hospital. Turkey on wheat with pepper jack, banana peppers, pickles, lettuce, tomato, black olives, mayo, oil and vinegar.

While the Subway sub was fine, I MUCH prefer a Publix sub with Boar’s Head meat and Publix bakery bread. I left the hospital one day at lunch to grab one because it was the weekend and most everything in the hospital was closed. Same toppings as the Subway sub but tasted a whole lot better!

True story…there was a guy in front of me who ordered a footlong sub with chicken nuggets tossed in buffalo sauce and MACARONI AND CHEESE! He said a friend of his told him it was a good order so he wanted to try it. I want to know if you guys would eat that?

Frozen veggie hemp bowl from Tattooed Chef. It had sweet potatoes, kale, chickpeas and hemp seeds over riced cauliflower and red quinoa with a turmeric almond butter dressing. I added some avocado to it. This was really not bad at all, and for a frozen meal, the sodium was really reasonable. (Note, I did not pay $10 for this as the website states, I can’t remember what I paid but it was less than $5 at Publix.)

Ham and cheese sandwich on the flight back to Charlotte. I packed my lunch before I left my grandmother’s condo.

Now, for some lunches from my own kitchen.

Quinoa, queso fresco, avocado, basil, mint, parsley, an air fried Dr. Praeger’s black bean burger, Trader Joe’s Pepita Salsa, sour cream and a squeeze of lime. This was a “don’t have any fresh veggies” on hand kind of lunch but I would absolutely repeat it. The combo of flavors was great! The basil, mint and parsley were from my herb plants and really brightened up the dish.

Spinach and arugula tossed in lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt and then topped with smoked salmon, avocado, cherry tomatoes, dried cranberries, feta, pepitas and a drizzle of balsamic.

Arugula and spinach tossed in lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt and topped with brown rice, chopped tomatoes, feta, avocado, the TJs pepita salsa and a fried egg.

Similar to the lunch above but I sautéed the spinach and arugula in olive oil until it wilted and topped it with brown rice, feta, leftover sautéed veggies, avocado, pepita salsa and a fried egg.

DINNER

Florida dinners first…

We had quiche and salad the night before my dad’s surgery. They told him to have a lighter meal.

Indian delivered to my hotel room his first night in the hospital. I ordered a vegetable korma curry with butter naan from Taste of India in Pensacola.

Hotel dinner on night two was a spaghetti primavera with shrimp from Carrabba’s. Story time…I grew up in a small town in middle Georgia. There were not a lot of restaurant options. We would drive to Macon, Georgia on the weekends for shopping and dining out. One of our favorite places to go was Carrabba’s. I have many, many fond memories of family Carrabba’s dinners. There was a Carrabba’s a few blocks away from my hotel and it sounded like a comforting dinner on the night that my dad was in the ICU on the vent after the second surgery.

I didn’t take a picture of my dinner on the third hotel night but it was a cup of chicken noodle soup leftover from my Carrabba’s dinner and a heat and eat chicken dinner from the Publix deli.

On the fourth night after surgery, I started driving back and forth to Fort Walton Beach at night. I never got home before my grandmother went to bed but it was a comfort just to be home and not in a hotel…and we got to visit in the mornings before I headed out.

I stopped at Publix on the drive from Pensacola and picked up a frozen entree for dinner. This was a Purple Carrot Sweet Corn Elote Bowl – mixed vegetables and grains in a creamy lime sauce. I added chopped tomatoes, shredded cheese and avocado to it and dipped some pita chips in to the mixture. It was surprisingly good and I would eat it again.

The second night back at my grandmother’s, I reheated my dad’s homemade pizza. He had some frozen in his freezer and gave me all the details on how to reheat it before I left the hospital. He makes the best crust and I have got to get that recipe posted here ASAP!

The third night back in FWB, I stopped for sushi at Soi Bistro. My dad had had a great day and I felt like celebrating and taking myself out to dinner.

And on my final night in Florida, my dad was home! I put together a simple dinner of steamed shrimp from a local market, lemon feta potato salad, crusty bread and a side salad.

Lastly, here are a few meals I’ve eaten back in Charlotte!

Frozen Trader Joe’s turkey meatballs cooked in marinara sauce and served over orzo with a frozen Provencal veggie blend from Whole Foods.

Sautéed scallops over succotash with crispy prosciutto. Ate this during dinner with some friends. Love, love a good scallop dish.

Brown rice topped with sautéed Applegate chicken Italian sausage and a mix of sautéed zucchini, squash, cherry tomatoes and onions.I put a little bit of the TJs Pepita Salsa on top of it because I have a jar open (if you can’t tell) and it’s very tasty stuff. Highly recommend.