cooking

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I am officially at the point where I don’t know what to cook anymore. This is serious. I, the person who pretty much always knows exactly what she wants to eat, suddenly doesn’t care what’s on my plate each night, as long as it fills me up and doesn’t take too much time.

Blame it on winter’s lingering presence making me want to hunker down and do just about nothing. (Yeah, that workout routine I started on the one nice day we had, that’s not been very successful.) Or maybe it can be blamed on the 12 hour workdays, back-to-back-to-back, travel to visit family, events, and other worries. All I know is that food has taken a back seat, and I am hoping my passion for cooking or even just eating, rather than getting meals over with, returns soon.

Convenience foods have been a saving grace during this time. I know, I know, they aren’t usually healthy, and it’s probably just as easy to make something from scratch. Still, knowing that I have a delicious chicken pot pie in the freezer is like meal insurance.

We’ve been living off of semi-homemade meals, and to be honest, many of them have come out quite good.

Trader Joe's spinach ricotta

A couple of convenience foods that go perfectly together are Trader Joe’s frozen ricotta and spinach ravioli, pairing perfectly with chicken sausage. I am getting to the point where I am not super interested in eating meat or any protein for that matter, but I always enjoy chicken sausage for some reason, especially since it comes in so many varieties. Frozen ravioli, chicken sausage, and some of my favorite sweet peppers plus a salad with the best creamy balsamic dressing ever (The dressing recipe is from Food Network Magazine; I definitely want to share it. It has us wanting to eat piles of veggies just so we can have more dressing!)

chicken sausage and peppers

Instant whole grain rice, tofu, and frozen veggies topped with sriracha also come in handy when it comes to looking for quick eats. The box of goodies that Oldways sent me for Whole Grain Sampling Day has been a huge help and a great reminder that foods that are convenient can be delicious and really good for you.

 

Do you ever get in an eating slump? What are your go-to convenience foods?

Tags: convenience foods, cooking, Food

Eating Lately

Simple, comforting, and sometimes healthy, our at home meals in 2013 have followed the precedent for no-fuss that we set early in the year. I’m happy to say that in a lot of ways, we’ve tried to slow down to appreciate the small things. I’ve also tried, in between events and work, to get better about meal planning and making simple but complete meals. As a result, we’ve been eating a lot of meals that I wouldn’t even call recipes, things that are really satisfying and delicious but without lists of ingredients and steps.

yogurt marinated pork

{Pork loin marinated in yogurt, garlic, pepper, and mint, served with Tzatziki salad, sautéed kale and red cabbage}

lentil sloppy joe's

{Vegan Sloppy Joe’s with Cabbage and Cilantro}

buffalo butternut squash mac and cheese

{Buffalo Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese – made with buffalo sauce, butternut squash, Greek yogurt, and blue cheese and topped with cheddar. . . }

spicy ginger chicken

{Ginger Chili Chicken, inspired by a recipe in Carla Hall’s Cooking with LoveThis might be the first time I made something too spicy, even for me!}

kale

{Kale! In smoothies, chips, omelets, chili, soups, and salads, I can not get enough of this healthy, hearty green. I heart kale.}

All the while, I have been thinking my cooking this year has been pretty basic and uninteresting, but writing it out makes me think it’s not too bad, after all.

Have you been keeping up with your New Year’s Resolutions?

Tags: cooking, dinner, Food, meals

Cooking up a Storm

Edited 10/30/12 – Hoping everyone in the hurricane’s path is safe and sound. Sending thoughts and prayers to everyone affected. . .

 

Oh Sandy. . .you’ve really made a mess of things, and you haven’t even arrived quite yet. A run on bread and batteries, closings all over the place, and a threat to my flight home for the NYC Marathon on Wednesday. We will all be happy to see you go. I wouldn’t totally mind a marathon postponement though. . . I could do with another year of training.

espresso marinated steak

What to do when a storm is looming, it’s Sunday, and you are tired for too much Halloween partying? Cook up a storm!

In addition to a pumpkin chocolate chip bread, I also made a pretty epic dinner which included espresso marinated steak tips and tomato bread pudding.

To make the steak tips, I simply made six shots of espresso using my new Philips Syntia espresso machine and marinated the steak in it for about eight hours. About 10 minutes before cooking, I removed the steak tips from the fridge, dried them off and tossed them in a mix of cacao powder, chili powder, and hot paprika. I cooked them up on a very hot grill pan, and they were absolutely amazing. I had wanted to make steak marinated in coffee after our anniversary dinner at City Landing, and I was so happy with how this turned out. The coffee and cacao added a richness to the meat, and the coffee really tenderized it. The paprika and chili powder added a nice little kick.

cacao and chili powder

The second and even more amazing part of dinner was a savory tomato bread pudding that was inspired by my newest Wine Road cook book. I’ll share the complete recipe in another post; we’ll be eating this bread pudding for days, and I think it will only get better.

tomato bread pudding

If you’re in a storm-stricken area, how have you been preparing?

Tags: cooking, dinner, Food, Hurricane Sandy

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