Thursday, January 30, 2014

Making good food

Here are some of the things I made during the snow days. I like to cook in large batches so that I have food on hand for a few days and that way I don't have to cook each night. It maximizes my time. When I get home I like to write and read. If I can simply grab and heat then it takes less time away from the things I really like to do.

Tuesday when I got home at noon I made:
  • Black bean-quinoa patties
  • Asian slaw with hummus sauce (it's the filling in a soft wrap)
  • Orange-kiwi salad
Thursday I made:
  • Quinoa-oranges salad
  • Squash casserole
  • Roasted carrots
  • Roasted potatoes
I've used up almost all the veggies I received at the Bountiful Basket drop off two weeks ago. I have a few potatoes and a few stalks of celery left. Using the carrots and potatoes and squash was the last hurrah. Fortunately this Saturday is another drop off.

I had a lot of oranges from the BB too, that's why I made the fruit salad and the quinoa salad. I still have two oranges and several apples left. And a couple of bananas going brown.

It feels good to have veggies roasting in the oven all day, and to be comfy with good food in the fridge. You notice that there is nothing ready-made on that list. My goal of eating almost 100% homemade food is getting closer all the time. I ate a school lunch this week, which contained highly processed french fries, and I could immediately feel the difference.

Take the time to plan ahead and make meals from fresh ingredients. You won't regret it. Once you get into the routine it goes fast. For example, when I was making the quinoa for the black bean patties, I made extra. I knew I'd use it for either a salad or for hot cereal in the morning. Always make a bit extra as long as you have the stove burner on. And speaking of stove, I made the casserole, potatoes, and carrots all at once so the oven was full and I didn't have to turn it on the next day for 45 min just to bake or roast one thing. The carrots and potatoes are now cooked and I can use them as-is or make them into something else. And the fuller the fridge the less it has to work cooling down all the empty air.

Anyway, that ishte mid-day report, lol.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds delicious! I love reading your food/cooking posts - even though we're not vegetarian, I get a lot from reading what you prepare.

We also are a mostly scratch/homemade cooking household. Except for "when it's necessary" (eg: baking, where proportions matter), I don't really measure ingredients. So the same dish never tastes exactly the same each time, but always tastes good!

-Carolyn

Elizabeth Prata said...

Hi Carolyn,

Thanks! I like to cook. My mother was a product of the 50s and 60s and Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet. She was tutored at home by an Old World Italian Tuscan gourmand- my grandmother, who was more than happy to tutor her because her own three girls weren't interested in cooking. I was the happy recipient of her experiments, usually happy anyway. Sometimes a kid just wants spaghetti and not seaweed wrapped rice balls, but hey, it increased my palate.

They expanded it further by taking us kids to fancy restaurants and we tasted and enjoyed exotic food.

The frugality? I have no clue where that comes from! :)