What's cooking? part 4

Vegging out today -- fresh snap beans, new potatoes with dill butter, sauteed yellow squash, cornbread.

Signed up for a bi-weekly CSA, I'm psyched!

Our CSA started up two weeks ago and it is much appreciated.

Maybe a bit late in the day but this is my go to chicken pot pie recipe:

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/chicken-and-leek-pot-pie.html

i made this stir-fry tonight: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/05/stir-fried-pork-chives-recipe-chinese-wok.html

used it as an opportunity to hit up the asian market nearby and to practice stir-fry technique, i don't have a wok but got a skillet pretty gd hot which i'm happy about.

pizza - quartered artichoke hearts, blanched broccoli, torn up kalamatas, grated provolone and italian fontina, topped with a bunch of chile flakes, diced tomatoes, and a scattering of onion slices. pretty good. wish i'd let the dough proof overnight - it rose a helluva lot....

made a load of vegetable chow mein today. essential ingredient i wouldn't have used had i not once worked with a kid from China via Thailand - Pearl River Bridge Light Soy Sauce. not "light" as in low sodium, but a light Chinese style soy that helps stir fry type things just kill. had a wee bit of mushroom soy in there for bottom end. was really happy the way it turned out

last night I made Ina Garten's corn salad for the first time

holy damn is that ever a tasty dish
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fresh-corn-salad-recipe.html

Tried to make spare ribs in the crock pot today. Put them in at 9.30am, set to low for 8.5 hours and then 'warm'. They were on 'warm' for about 1.5 hours. Totally charred when I got home :( I can't use the crock-pot overnight because the cooking smell keeps one of my housemates awake.

On the upside I made Nigella's old-fashioned chocolate cake, with sour cream and golden syrup in the icing, for a lab celebration. Had three pieces on 2 separate days. Rather than 3/4 of a duplicate cake I'd baked to keep at home within the course of 2 hours. That is what used to happen before I allowed myself to eat sugar regularly when I was faced with an opportunity to have a really good cake.

I've been craving frozen desserts SOMETHING BAD and every single fruit bar I've checked uses guar thickener. FUCK THAT SHIT. So I blended a bunch of strawberries into a quart of orange juice, thew in some whole pieces of berry, and I'm freezing it in stages and mashing it with a fork every 40 mins or so. Kind of like a granita? I figure when it's more uniformly icy I'll put it into solo cups to fully freeze/eat. Very pleased with self.

Also, Lechera's recipe for vinegary pulled pork was so easy and amazing and suited to making in the slow-cooker in hot weather without heating up my kitchen that I'm doing it again! 7lb shoulder in the fridge crusted in spice rub rite now.

grilled plantain and tomatoes with seared salmon steaks, caramelised red onions and poached eggs. We cholestrollin in this beyotch.

io I've been similarly craving various cold summer pies although if you've got issues w/ guar gum you don't even want to know what I've been doing with Cool Whip.

made a pomegranate baklava this morning. think it's only the second time i've ever worked with filo and it wasn't as bad as i'd been fearing; minimal rippage..... topped it after baking with pomegranate syrup. letting it rest overnight before we go to town on that baby

i made beans. getting better at them. still working on getting a saucy result. and though i can get them soft enough now i don't know if i'd say they're tender; beyond-soft insides and noticeable but totally edible husks is more like it.

ungh, i upped the liquid (beef broth from a powder) and added a little black olive brine, the result was just a touch too salty but the kind of too salty that makes you feel like a dissolute hedonist instead of the kind that spits your food out; it was GOOD

not sure if this helps but assuming you are pre-soaking the beans, it may help to add your beef broth midway through the cooking process if possible. ~allegedly~ sodium plays a part in the cooking and softening of beans and i'm thinking specifically of the husks becoming more chewing friendly. just a thought....

lately i've been a) soaking about 4-6 hours, b) boiling->letting sit lidded for an hour, c) cooking with add-ins and broth at a simmar for about 45 in-hr. with salt in (c). not sure i could defer the salt any further, but i think i've found a pretty sweet spot now. just kind of weird to me to have to process a food for SO LONG.

ah simmar them aftir bringeng them to a baiul

I want to rehydrate some dried tomatoes with olive oil, salt, garlic, basil

How scared should I be of BOTULISM

Should I keep it in the fridge afterwards

rehydrate with boiling H20, then marinate, yes fridge

careful and use 'em within a week. normally botulism would not be a concern, but mold will occur what with the residual water in the tomatoes even though they're covered in oil and refrigerated. it's not a anaerobic environment no matter how much you dry the soaked tomatoes. basil will get funky fairly quickly too i think. don't wanna add basil to the dish as you need it? not as convenient but i think you'd get the most of its freshness that way. i've had this issue and only buy s.d.tomatoes in olive oil on account of the fact

just made a big chilli plus home-made guac AND a huuuge chocolate Guinness cake and now I am tiiiired

that's a lot of work for one day!

I'm going to make palak paneer and shrimp tikka masala for the first time tonight. Or maybe I'll get tired after just one and will leave it at that.

oh wait I forgot to get spinach! No palak tonight!

i'm gonna make a pasta thing with garlic-wine-butter sauce and i don't have lemon but i was thinking of using sumac as substitute. it seems weird but also possibly delicious.

also i planted lots of herbs today so that is kind of exciting. i've never had this many herb plants before. fingers crossed that i can make them all live at least a month.
i've got three kinds of basil! (thai, purple, regular)

spanakopita - my Greek coworker insists now that i'm one of his brothers. never made 'em before but they came out super.
serving with what i call a Israeli salad on account of the fact that that is where i first encountered a finely chopped salad of cucumber, tomatoes, hot peppers and onion with a load of minced parsely and simply dressed with lemon juice, some oil and salt n pepper.

i'm learning to replicate the biscuits and mushroom gravy that my favorite greasy spoon makes

their biscuits are much denser than mine (bisquick for now), but they're vegan i think, so not sure what they're doing, mashing vegetable shortening into the flour maybe

barley (w/tofu) stuffed cabbage rolls and mashed celeriac/potato

Proper salad niçoise. Heatwave food. Glass of rosé on the side.

that sounds so civilised.

It would have been had un certain bébé not interrupted it. But the second half was just as good as the first.

today this provided a buncha vitamin A and awesome flavor
http://scandifoodie.blogspot.com/2011/08/japanese-inspired-sweet-potato-with.html

Chicken with a garlic & orange juice & tomato paste sauce, with a little cinnamon and oregano for seasoning? It basically came out like mole, kind of? I went Lechera-esque with a shredded carrot & radish slaw and pumpkin seeds. Feta and avocado for creaminess.

A delightfully different taco!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/p552x414/10580208_10152364739602599_2754118606157772489_n.jpg

i put soy sauce on my leftover pasta from last night (artichoke, garbanzo beans, spinach & chicken) & now i feel like a wizard!

ha! i was gonna say it looks like crazy tacos i'd make :)
they look delicious!

these days the thing i need to have on hand at all times are pickled red onions, ie sliced red onions that have been sitting in lime juice for a while
i put them on all kinds of things

~hi 5 to all mutant foods~

I wasn't sure where else to post this -- kinda looking for constructive food suggestions from nice ppl who eat nice food and this seems like a good place :)
I had a bit of a diabetes scare - ie started getting symptoms (super thirsty, weird tingly feet, etc) - long story short I went to the doc & I don't have diabetes but my blood sugar is 'high-normal'. I'm overweight, sedentary, so obv some weight loss + exercise is in my immediate future. But I want to better manage my eating habits + cooking. I wondered if anyone else itt has dealt with/dealing with diabetes/prediabetes and what cool stuff they have cooked as a result, or even just anyone who has overhauled their kitchen magic with a view to healthier eating.

My big areas of concern are breakfast esp on weekdays, and work lunches.

sorry for unwieldyness of question/topic, still kinda not sure if this is the right place. thx!!!

Seems like the right place to me! Sorry about the scare. That's not a nice thing to go through.

I feel like I need some more breakfast and work lunch ideas myself, but at the moment I make these microwave muffins for breakfast and I think they're pretty good. I leave out the Stevia and I use greek yoghurt to top them instead of butter. I've given up all attempts at paleo despite what they're called on the website, but these seem healthy to me because the protein seems to keep me full for hours and stop me having to grab crap to eat when there's not much I really want available. I might experiment soon with reducing the fat by subbing applesauce for the oil, but if they taste terrible I'm going straight back to the oil :) They're also really good if you make them with banana and stir in a bit of peanut butter.

Workday lunches are tricky for me too. At the moment I do a kind of home-made Lunchables: carrot sticks, nuts, Emmenthal because it's one of my favourite cheeses, snow peas.

VG have you thought about making little omelette muffins for breakfasts? basically, if you can put it into a muffin tin and it tastes good, you can eat it for breakfast. i like spinach (fresh), feta, maybe a few lil bacon bits if i have bacon. Also those little oatmeal cupcakes are great for on-the-go snacks. I think getting into the habit of making something every week and knowing you're gonna eat it for breakfast every day is a good habit to start with. when the school year is in full swing, i basically eat the same thing every day for breakfast/lunch and then dinner is a special treat of my choosing. it makes grocery shopping easier too.

oh also i make granola and eat it with berries and yog for breakfast a lot -- i use an adapted version of this granola recipe (i use unsweetened coconut, reduce sweet elements, and sub pecans for cashews) http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/granola-recipe.html

I've been making a lot of spinach and cheese strata lately, subbing frozen diced potatoes for the bread tho. It's this recipe:

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/12/spinach-and-cheese-strata/

It's for real SO GOOD and just as good cold, I've even been taking slices on bus trips and stuff for when I can't get gluten-free foods on the road.

If you want to add meat, after the onion softens I add a few links' worth of sweet Italian sausage out of the casing and brown that up, THEN add in the spinach to wilt. (I tried using raw spinach but it's so voluminous that it makes the casserole too tall to fit in the pan and then cooks down to not enough. Turns out you kinda have to cook it first.)

oh yeah -- i totally do that with chorizo! i burnt out on making egg things for a while but i guess the season is here :-/

I've been making a lot of salads lately because even though it's a mild summer, it's hot enough that I don't want to cook any more than I have to. They are good because there's always leftovers for lunch.

http://www.budgetbytes.com/2014/07/crunchy-kale-chicken-salad/
http://www.budgetbytes.com/2010/04/tuna-pasta-salad-wpeas/
http://www.daringgourmet.com/2014/01/02/mega-healthy-wheat-berry-salad/

Also if you like eggs, hardboiled eggs make a good protein snack or lunch component.

speaking of salads i just discovered that my new local big grocery store has those huge things of spinach for $5 all the time
i go through one of those a week! on the grand scale of humanity this is a small achievement, but i was glad.

woo you guys are full of great suggestions!! imma try all these!!

thanks everyone!

I think the best thing you can do is experiment more with cooking in general. Trying to switch to a healthy diet is great but I meet so many health-oriented people who are baffled about how to implement it in their cooking long-term because they struggle to think of what to cook when they're tired of the one or two obvious ideas they have for a particular ingredient.

So, for example, maybe take a week of experimenting with how you can use one new ingredient. Like farro, for example. Make enough so that you can make something with it today and then have enough extra to make a farro-inclusive salad the next day or etc. Next week, swiss chard. Following week, green lentils. Maybe some weeks try making something very unhealthy but unfamiliar (a kind of cheese you've never had? lamb? veal stock? fish sauce? etc.).

if you are into steel cut oats at all (their a super low glycemic and filling brekkie, imo) you can just toss 'em in a rice cooker (if you have) and go about your morning routine, then they'll be ready whenever your ready for 'em. even sans cooker they take ~12minutes on the stove and i think they might be a nice option for you VG unless of course you hate the stuff. i like to add a bit of dried fruit, maybe some nuts, cinnamon and always a little butter, ymmv (?)