Deli at home

Spring brings the blossoming of road construction in our area. We are in the outer suburbs of Chicago, and distances are not measured in mileage, but in time. Bob serves at one church 30 minutes away , and another 20 minutes in the opposite direction. When the commute to the 30 minute church is impacted by road construction, that route can expand to an hour commute each way. If that happens on a Saturday it means rather than having him and the car until 3 pm, we only have the opportunity till 2 pm, so you have to re-think some things. This was the first week of construction, and we decided to air on the side of caution, streamline as much as we can to afford him an ample enough window of time to deal with whatever road construction tossed his way.
We started the day with pumpkin oats- one of my personal favorite oat mixes. For 3 people I combine 3 cups of water, 2 T raisins, a small can of solid pack pumpkin, 1T cinnamon and 1 1/2 cups rolled oats. Cook till the oats are thick , place in a bowl with a spoonful of peanut butter, a tablespoon of flax, tablespoon of coconut, tablespoon of cranberries and tablespoon of slivered almonds.I think I am a kid at heart, because I love to mix things together in a bowl. It's like playing with food !

Then it was off to handle grocery shopping. Three stops, a list that suggested it would be easier just to move to a farm than shop, and three people. We have become a very efficient shopping machine ! I print out a list for each person to follow , and we all head off to gather our items. We come home and everyone has their own rolls in the putting away process. Normally we eat lunch at our produce market, but this day in the interest of time we decided to create a deli at home, using the last of the salads from the previous week and a few additions

Turkey pastrami with provolone on a pretzel roll ( these in NO WAY classify as healthy , but something Bob ADORES, so better to incorporate them in some way than avoid them and bring on a binge). It was met with a Beet Salad ( cabbage, shredded beets and carrots) Colorful Salad( broccoli, corn, red and orange peppers) and Quinoa Bean salad, a few remaining celery and carrot sticks and a handful of garlic pita chips. This was my first time trying these , and I love them ! Chip satisfaction with a lot less fat and sodium . I kept thinking these paired with hummus would be a great contribution to an time a munchie was called for.

The afternoon found me chopping, chopping, chopping ( another 3 hour session), and then finally dinner
Romaine and watercress topped with papaya,pineapple, mango, honeydew, strawberries and cantaloupe. Main course was roast veggie pizza on a high fiber wrap ( green peppers, broccoli, carrots and mozzarella cheese. Somehow I neglected to put mushrooms on the list ! I thought it was very odd that we were buying no mushrooms, but decided to trust the list I made. I hope I do not find some meals to be seriously lacking in flavor because of this !