Cooking Update
I've been too tired to post cooking updates, but this has been a vegetarian week, with Brad doing the bulk of the cooking.
Menus:
Delicious Everyday Dal (still delicious) with brown rice and idli from an idli mix that I've been meaning to use up. Asparagus and mushroom salad with a buttermilk dressing. (This was adapted from a recipe that used green beans, but bizarrely asparagus was cheaper than green beans.) Dosai from a dosa mix I also wanted to use up, and sambar, also from a mix. Phew! Many boxes cleared from the pantry. The dosai were adequate; I can't get them to spread thin enough after the pan's heated but they were still good hot, especially with chili sauce. The sambar mix was good but I tried to stretch it a little farther than it wanted to go by packing more veggies in! The idli were great and I want to learn how to make those from scratch. They were definitely at their best fresh but they reheated surprisingly well.
Broccoli and cheddar cheese frittata with chives. I also used up some beet greens in this. This is a very veggie-heavy frittata but it tastes quite rich because I took the cheese and cut it into cubes, which I tucked into the top of the frittata when it was about halfway set. They melted right where they were so there's a cheese concentration that makes it taste cheesier than it really is without being, well, entirely made out of cheese. I also balanced the fat out somewhat by adding extra egg whites and a little cottage cheese. We adapted an escarole and white bean soup recipe to use frisee. This uses parmesan rinds for flavor. This came out a little sweet (probably because escarole is more bitter) so I added some sherry vinegar to it. This was eaten with mixed vegetables and the dip I just posted. I found some summer squash in the crisper and steamed that and some butternut to fill out the frittata.
Fruit this week: we are in berry heaven, and have been eating strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries all week. Also, Rainier cherries for me! I love 'em and Brad is meh, so I gave him more berries and saved the cherries for meee.
I also found a brand of gluten-free English muffins which are delicious, toast well, and don't make me explode, so I've been having eggy muffins and muffins with labneh and muffins with almond butter all week. On one day when we were between salads and I was just too tired to make one, Brad got sunbutter toasted English muffins in his salad container. Oh the shame! The delicious, not even slightly green, shame. These should not be an everyday treat (since grains make me want to eat more grains than I really need) but they are good enough that I think I should get another set and freeze most of them for easy snacks.
Brad is doing volunteer work tomorrow so I'll pack him a bento for that.
Menus:
Delicious Everyday Dal (still delicious) with brown rice and idli from an idli mix that I've been meaning to use up. Asparagus and mushroom salad with a buttermilk dressing. (This was adapted from a recipe that used green beans, but bizarrely asparagus was cheaper than green beans.) Dosai from a dosa mix I also wanted to use up, and sambar, also from a mix. Phew! Many boxes cleared from the pantry. The dosai were adequate; I can't get them to spread thin enough after the pan's heated but they were still good hot, especially with chili sauce. The sambar mix was good but I tried to stretch it a little farther than it wanted to go by packing more veggies in! The idli were great and I want to learn how to make those from scratch. They were definitely at their best fresh but they reheated surprisingly well.
Broccoli and cheddar cheese frittata with chives. I also used up some beet greens in this. This is a very veggie-heavy frittata but it tastes quite rich because I took the cheese and cut it into cubes, which I tucked into the top of the frittata when it was about halfway set. They melted right where they were so there's a cheese concentration that makes it taste cheesier than it really is without being, well, entirely made out of cheese. I also balanced the fat out somewhat by adding extra egg whites and a little cottage cheese. We adapted an escarole and white bean soup recipe to use frisee. This uses parmesan rinds for flavor. This came out a little sweet (probably because escarole is more bitter) so I added some sherry vinegar to it. This was eaten with mixed vegetables and the dip I just posted. I found some summer squash in the crisper and steamed that and some butternut to fill out the frittata.
Fruit this week: we are in berry heaven, and have been eating strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries all week. Also, Rainier cherries for me! I love 'em and Brad is meh, so I gave him more berries and saved the cherries for meee.
I also found a brand of gluten-free English muffins which are delicious, toast well, and don't make me explode, so I've been having eggy muffins and muffins with labneh and muffins with almond butter all week. On one day when we were between salads and I was just too tired to make one, Brad got sunbutter toasted English muffins in his salad container. Oh the shame! The delicious, not even slightly green, shame. These should not be an everyday treat (since grains make me want to eat more grains than I really need) but they are good enough that I think I should get another set and freeze most of them for easy snacks.
Brad is doing volunteer work tomorrow so I'll pack him a bento for that.