Fooood
I've been working hard at buying few ingredients and making them work for multiple meals, but I keep forgetting to take pics, and the food is so amazing I wanna cry. I love food, and I'm a decent cook.
Also Steve and I have a kind of a bet going, though it doesn't really qualify as a real bet. First, we had mental limits on the amount we'd pay for various food items when shopping - I try to buy local and organic as much as possible from our co-op, and then I supplement our food at the end of the week with Imperfect box. This week my goal was to spend $50 or less on Imperfect, and I totally did. Normally I have the privilege to not think about how much I'm spending, but I'm working on sticking to a budget like an adult.
Then, he teased me about using all the produce before it goes bad. So I'm getting proactive AND creative. Last night I saw the summer squash was getting bumpy and the remaining green beans were going brown/spotty, so I cut em up and steamed them quick. I am a firm believer that cooking produce going bad extends its life by at least another few days (probably there's science behind it and it's not a belief at all). I WILL use all the produce, AND we will eat amazingly while doing it.
Third, more a personal challenge, was to find ways to make it so when I make these meals (because I'm NOT "prepping" weekly meals - I'm doing some small things to prep like soaking noodles, etc.) that it doesn't take more than 30 minutes start to finish (minus dishes). I've been doing well so far. Sometimes though I get really into it and want to pre-cut or prepare something ahead of time while I'm at it. I DO really like cooking; I just don't like how much of my time it eats up (no pun intended).
Instant pot pulled chicken thigh with spices; spiced beans and rice in the rice cooker; simple salad (local greens) with hummus, lemon juice, salt and pepper
An experiment I had NO expectations for: Refrigerator pickled foods! Several days on, my favorite is the carrots. The parsnips taste good but smell strongly like wet farts. The cabbage is okay, and the cucumber pickles themselves are quite good. Rice vinegar, white vinegar, and pickling spices.
Okay so this is a sesame dish with rice noodles but I'm extra and love packing in salads and all the veggies. i steamed the veggies in the slow cooker but then while I was cleaning everything up I left them in there and while the pot was off, the heat was still there so they were a bit overcooked - still tasted great! The salad this time was basically dry with cassava "croutons" and a bit of parmesan.
Giant salad with tomatoes, pickled carrots and parsnip, avocado, and nuts.
Yesterday I made this Masoor Dal that was to DIE for in the instant pot. Red lentils, a ton of spices (was very happy I had all of them), green chili, ghee, tomatoes, onion, lemon. I added vegetarian curry "chik'n" because that went best. Also I love shorter grain, stickier rice so much more than dry rice so I make most foods with Japanese rice :P
The directions said to put the rice right into the instant pot so the rice and the dal would be done at the same time. I was skeptical, but it totally worked! The stainless steel metal thing to put food or other items on didn't sit above the dal, so the rice pot was submerged a bit on the bottom. This rice cooker is a Zojirushi 3-cup, and the manufacturer's info says it's made from aluminum coated with something "like teflon" but isn't. I'm going to look into getting a stainless steel bowl just for the instant pot.
Right now I have a bean soup cooking in the slow cooker that I meant to hit start on last night but forgot when tired, so we'll have it for dinner. It calls for dried black beans, but I forgot I used all mine and didn't realize it until I had prepared everything else, so I guess it's pinto bean soup!
My friend Courtney is strange, in my eyes. I don't think she describes herself as a picky eater, but there are so many vegetables and fruits she doesn't like, or has refused to try. FRUIT!!!! I literally don't know what that feeling is like.
I like almost every single vegetable and every single fruit I come across. I don't like to eat fruits with a ton of seeds (ie blackberries) because of the impossible crunch/grit and getting stuck in my teeth, but that's about it. The flavor itself is still good though...
Do you guys have any specific fruits or veggies you don't like? Entire categories (example, Steve doesn't like melons because he says they're bland. WHAT!)?
Do you consider yourself a picky eater?
Also Steve and I have a kind of a bet going, though it doesn't really qualify as a real bet. First, we had mental limits on the amount we'd pay for various food items when shopping - I try to buy local and organic as much as possible from our co-op, and then I supplement our food at the end of the week with Imperfect box. This week my goal was to spend $50 or less on Imperfect, and I totally did. Normally I have the privilege to not think about how much I'm spending, but I'm working on sticking to a budget like an adult.
Then, he teased me about using all the produce before it goes bad. So I'm getting proactive AND creative. Last night I saw the summer squash was getting bumpy and the remaining green beans were going brown/spotty, so I cut em up and steamed them quick. I am a firm believer that cooking produce going bad extends its life by at least another few days (probably there's science behind it and it's not a belief at all). I WILL use all the produce, AND we will eat amazingly while doing it.
Third, more a personal challenge, was to find ways to make it so when I make these meals (because I'm NOT "prepping" weekly meals - I'm doing some small things to prep like soaking noodles, etc.) that it doesn't take more than 30 minutes start to finish (minus dishes). I've been doing well so far. Sometimes though I get really into it and want to pre-cut or prepare something ahead of time while I'm at it. I DO really like cooking; I just don't like how much of my time it eats up (no pun intended).
Instant pot pulled chicken thigh with spices; spiced beans and rice in the rice cooker; simple salad (local greens) with hummus, lemon juice, salt and pepper
An experiment I had NO expectations for: Refrigerator pickled foods! Several days on, my favorite is the carrots. The parsnips taste good but smell strongly like wet farts. The cabbage is okay, and the cucumber pickles themselves are quite good. Rice vinegar, white vinegar, and pickling spices.
Okay so this is a sesame dish with rice noodles but I'm extra and love packing in salads and all the veggies. i steamed the veggies in the slow cooker but then while I was cleaning everything up I left them in there and while the pot was off, the heat was still there so they were a bit overcooked - still tasted great! The salad this time was basically dry with cassava "croutons" and a bit of parmesan.
Giant salad with tomatoes, pickled carrots and parsnip, avocado, and nuts.
Yesterday I made this Masoor Dal that was to DIE for in the instant pot. Red lentils, a ton of spices (was very happy I had all of them), green chili, ghee, tomatoes, onion, lemon. I added vegetarian curry "chik'n" because that went best. Also I love shorter grain, stickier rice so much more than dry rice so I make most foods with Japanese rice :P
The directions said to put the rice right into the instant pot so the rice and the dal would be done at the same time. I was skeptical, but it totally worked! The stainless steel metal thing to put food or other items on didn't sit above the dal, so the rice pot was submerged a bit on the bottom. This rice cooker is a Zojirushi 3-cup, and the manufacturer's info says it's made from aluminum coated with something "like teflon" but isn't. I'm going to look into getting a stainless steel bowl just for the instant pot.
Right now I have a bean soup cooking in the slow cooker that I meant to hit start on last night but forgot when tired, so we'll have it for dinner. It calls for dried black beans, but I forgot I used all mine and didn't realize it until I had prepared everything else, so I guess it's pinto bean soup!
My friend Courtney is strange, in my eyes. I don't think she describes herself as a picky eater, but there are so many vegetables and fruits she doesn't like, or has refused to try. FRUIT!!!! I literally don't know what that feeling is like.
I like almost every single vegetable and every single fruit I come across. I don't like to eat fruits with a ton of seeds (ie blackberries) because of the impossible crunch/grit and getting stuck in my teeth, but that's about it. The flavor itself is still good though...
Do you guys have any specific fruits or veggies you don't like? Entire categories (example, Steve doesn't like melons because he says they're bland. WHAT!)?
Do you consider yourself a picky eater?