Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Simple meals


Lately I've been eating very simple meals. Friday night's dinner is a good example of that. Salad. It was actually warm here this weekend so a salad seemed like a good choice. I do have to admit that I felt very much like a caricature of a single woman when I went to the store that night. I bought salad ingredients (avocado, carrots, lemons), salad dressing, cereal, and soy yogurt. If I'd had chocolate or ice cream in my cart as well it would have pushed me over the top. It's so not what I usually buy at the store (strictly green veggies and hummus).


Saturday night we made pizza and mostly got it done before Earth Hour. We ate it in candlelight and it was delicious. I buy frozen crusts (I know, cheating) but they are really good and from a local restaurant. Then we added a caramelized onion sauce, cauliflower, Swiss chard, walnuts, and grated carrots. Plus roasted sweet potato chips and a salad.


Sunday was pancake day. As per usual. For dinner we had an authentic stir-fry, actually made in the wok!


Last night was soup night. Butternut squash with barley and lentils. Plus our infamous garlic brussels sprout dish. Dense little balls of green goodness.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Provincial


Today's meal was Dandelion the Bitter Green's take on "Provence" (as in "herbs du") but we didn't really have any and I was uninspired in other ways. We made enough brown rice to have some leftovers. I'm hoping to make some rice balls to take as snacks at work. (Let's see if it really ever happens.) Then we steamed some veggies in the pressure cooker. (I guess that means they weren't really steamed so much as pressure cooked, but the end result tastes the same.) The the provincial moment came with the adzuki beans. No, not any of the beautiful heirloom varieties I have collected (see pictures below) but from a can. Adzukis are nice, kind of sweet, very cleansing, a great combo with rice. He made these in the cast iron pan with onions, our equivalent of cooking wine (mirin and apple cider vinegar), and dried herbs. It really was quite tasty and felt very French (minus the cooked duck and heavy sauces.)






Yesterday was pasta night because I had yoga class. This week's pasta was joined with seitan instead of our usual tofu. But otherwise a standard from our repertoire (carrots, cauliflower, chard, oh my!)

Monday, March 23, 2009

Recap


Here's the weekend recap. Friday night was leftovers from Thursday (crashed potatoes and all). Saturday night was a simple soup of leftover brown rice and lentils, Anasazi beans, carrots and cauliflower. Enough to settle my stomach for a night of cookies and popcorn while watching Twilight. (Hooray Twilight!)

Sunday I spent most of the day sewing an apron. So once it was time for dinner I felt the need to try it out. I made savory Sesame-Scallion muffins, a side of garlic brussel sprouts, and the Anasazi beans with greens.


Tonight another simple meal of roasted veggies and brown rice with lentils. I roasted them on a cookie sheet instead of my standard glass baking dish and I think it helped make them crunchy on the outside.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Too much crashing


I wanted to try a new recipe tonight that I've seen on a lot of blogs lately: crashed potatoes. Apparently it was recently invented by an Australian food writer. (Hoorah for food writers.) You basically boil the potatoes (which I did in the pressure cooker because pressure cookers rock!) And then you "crash" them on a cookie sheet by smashing with a potato masher. I discovered it was hard to gently "crash" the potatoes. I found I was squashing them into the sheet a little too much. So once you put it in the oven you bake it for a while and then it gets all crispy. Loved it.


I also made a simple stir-fry with broccoli and cannellini beans. It was a nice combo.

Last night was a left-overs dinner. Used up the last of the rice, with veggies, and the final bit of tahini-miso sauce from last week.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Soup kitchen


Monday seems to always be soup night. I have no problem with that and it's a great way to use up leftovers. Tonight: Creamy Cauliflower Soup (with leftover rice and beans).


Last night was a faux-Mexican meal (because that's my favorite food in the world probably). Pinto beans fried up with onions and miso. Tofu-rizo (because my local fav burrito place includes an awesome soyrizo on their burritos which I like but it would probably scare me to know the ingredients.) Brown rice with toasted sesame seeds (to fancy it up). Greens and leftover roasted veggies (a burrito is just not a burrito without veggies!) Admittedly there was no tortilla outer wrapping but I always end up taking it off anyway. Even the whole wheat ones are too much. So a burrito sans-burrito-ness.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Fast Food


We've been eating a lot of what I would call "fast food", things that can be made quickly and easily. Sometimes that means it's a very simple meal with only one or two ingredients. Sometimes that means we order out.

Thursday night was Thai food. We avoided the peanut sauce dish (which is always my stand-by) because it really is just a ton of sugar pretending to be peanut sauce.

Friday night we didn't want to waste any time cooking so that we would have more time to watch Buffy. We made rice and lentils in the pressure cooker (20 minutes!) and the awesome brussel sprouts dish that I've mentioned before. It was great and I highly recommend doing it in the broiler. Nothing caught on fire this time so I count that as a huge success.


Tonight Dandelion the Bitter Green has a show so I made some roasted veggies based on a recipe from a Vegetarian Times article: Sesame-Roasted Sweet Potato and Broccoli.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Over-indulgence

I wish the pope sold indulgences for food rather than sins. I'm trying really hard this week to not over-indulged in all the Girl Scout Cookies that have arrived at my office. I survived today but it's bound to get worse. I was planning on making some cookies for myself but due to yoga tonight won't get to it until tomorrow at best (or maybe Sunday at worst). Can I survive the Girl Scout invasion?

I also over-indulged at the farmer's market today. Some stuff will just have to stay here until I have more room to carry it home. Everything just looked so good! I couldn't help myself.

Last night was a new creation: Curried millet/lentil/cauliflower soup. It was delicious! Though obviously it needs a catchier name.


This is some bread that a woman brought to my yoga class. Apparently her roommate is a bread baker and she had some extra loaves. We all took some home.


Tonight is pasta night. Soba noodles with tofu, cauliflower, and mushrooms. All my creativity was used yesterday so I'm back to the basics now. It tastes good so I can't really complain.

Monday, March 9, 2009

A simple meal


Tonight due to time constraints and other factors, we are having a simple meal. We already had rice prepared and D made a hummus with the heirloom beans during the day today. Tonight's dinner consists of blanched kale and broccoli tossed with lemon juice and the hand harvested olive oil our friends brought us back from Italy (thanks guys!) served with rice and hummus. Not super exciting but it will feed you.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Directions

Apparently this is my weekend for failing to follow directions. Though I did my taxes on Friday night so maybe it's just that my direction-following ability has been maxed out. (Or maybe somebody really should check my numbers before I turn them in.) I failed to follow the directions on my sewing project and had to start all over. I also failed tonight with a recipe I was trying for dinner. Alas, there's really no starting over with food that you want to eat.

To catch up, Friday night was falafel from our local (and favorite) falafel place, Taboun. It was nice to have something easy since D had a rehearsal and left right away and I had taxes. Last night I made some heirloom beans that I bought at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market. They were called "Yellow Indian Woman" beans. They were a beautiful golden shade of yellow. That color didn't stay after cooking, like most beans, but they are still quite good. I only soaked them for 3 hours too. That's a huge bonus for dried beans. And thanks to the pressure cooker I only cooked them for 10 minutes as well. The pressure cooker rocks.

So I made a butternut squash soup with beans and rice. I also made Bud's version of a delicious brussel sprouts recipe. I know what you're thinking-- brussel sprouts? No way. I'm usually in that camp too but this recipe is hands down the best (and in my mind only) way to make them.

Take a pound of brussel sprouts and trim the bottoms. Mince a whole bunch of garlic (3 cloves or so). Toss the sprouts in oil and then put them on a cookie sheet in the broiler. They will get super blackened so stir occasionally, but you actually want them blackened. This is a sign that they are cooked all the way through. Once they look pretty black, throw in all the garlic and let broil for another minute or so. Trust me this is over the top delicious.

Tonight I wanted to try a recipe for Ginger Glazed Broccoli. You essentially blanch the broccoli (I added carrots too) and then toss them with a ginger glaze. Alas, I didn't really pay enough attention to the recipe when it said "drain the broccoli". Once I added it to the glaze it watered it all down. So it's not really glazed anymore, but it does still taste good.

I also made a bean dish with the heirloom beans. I cut up some garlic and fried them all together until it got a little thicker. And naturally some brown rice to round out the whole meal.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Broccoli

We've had lots of broccoli this week. Mostly because I forgot that we hadn't used up all the broccoli I bought last week at the farmer's market and so I ended up buying more. As of last night we had 6 heads of broccoli. Now we're down to 3 which is not so bad.


Tuesday night we had pizza and beer so that we could watch Buffy. (Anything for Buffy!) It's from our local pizza place which probably thinks we're insane. Someone at work saw my leftovers the next day and asked if I was eating a forest. It's a cheese-less, tomato sauce-less pizza with pesto, broccoli, mushrooms, and arugula.


Wednesday is pasta night. We had soba noodles with broccoli, king trumpet mushrooms, tofu, and pecans. I also used up some miso-tahini sauce and a half a lemon. It turned out quite good.


Tonight, Thursday, we are having brown rice with a pinto bean dip (canned pinto beans, onions, garlic, butternut squash, and miso), and sauted vegetables (broccoli- of course, carrots, baby bok choy, and onions).

Monday, March 2, 2009

The last junkie


I've been feeling like a junkie at work (a sugar junkie, let me be clear). I can't even see it without wanting it. I'm sure it didn't help that I had pancakes yesterday. It's kind of become a Sunday tradition.

Someone brought in a whole bag of fortune cookies today and I managed to open one for the fortune but not eat it. A great display of willpower. Perhaps helped by the delicious dinner we had last night. Rather than going out we made dinner. Brown rice, steamed veggies (bok choy, carrots, cauliflower), grilled seitan and onions, and a lovely miso tahini sauce (with toasted sunflower seeds!)

It's possible tonight will not be quite such a triumph since I will be home alone and would like to craft more than make food. (Always the dilemma!) I made a simple soup. Butternut squash with porcini mushrooms, leftover brown rice, and cannellini beans. Topped with some sauted kale and chopped parsley. Then I almost set the house on fire when I heated up a leftover pancake.


I also made a couscous cake from a recipe in The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics. You basically make a batch of couscous but using apple juice instead of water. Then you soak dried fruit in apple juice, cut it up, boil it with the juice and some kudzu and a tiny amount of brown rice syrup. Layer the two and you have dessert. Alas, I think I may have gone overboard on the apple flavor. I had some old dried apples that I wanted to use up so it's very apple, apple, apple.