Journal

2020 - Week 5 Cooking Results

Roasted Chickpeas and Broccoli Burritos p165 (Thug Kitchen)

Though I changed it a bit, because I didn’t have chili powder but I had chipotle powder. It was easy to put things together and I actually had leftovers for breakfast for a couple of days. Roasting the spiced vegetables was a way to build flavor, without to much effort. This is what I generally like about the book. Process is easy, generally. I got tired of the swearing in text pretty quickly. I may curse a lot in my speech, but it doesn’t often make it to the page, as I think a bit more then what comes out of my mouth. Good meal, relatively low effort and a nice flavor profile. I admit, we removed the vegan meal label by adding sour cream and cheese.

Tex Mex Shepherds Pie p114 (Power Vegetables!)

I started this around 4, we ate around 7. So it takes a bit. There’s a bit of effort to dice a bit of vegetables, but after getting a general start with up to the garlic, and was able to keep ahead. Had I bought 3 zucchini instead of 2, I probably wouldn’t have been able to. I didn’t want to buy a bag of masa harina, I used corn meal instead. This may have messed the dough up a bit as it didn’t absorb as much water as I thought it might. I added a bit more meal to thicken it up a bit. Even so I never got it to the play-dough like texture that was mentioned in the recipe. That being said, it came out as a flavorful dish. A good weekend cook.

Lemony Chicken and Orzo Soup

Easy in process, I added more orzo, which is a mistake for leftovers, but fine for the night of. The net day it looks more like a rice dish with a touch of broth as the orzo grows in size and soaks up the broth, but the night of, fine. I added quite a bit of pepper to it to have a underlaying pepper bite. It was pretty nice.

Ginger Scallion Ramen Noodles

I always have trouble converting from fresh to dried, when involving ginger. I think I about have it right for garlic, but I don’t use ginger that often. So this ended up being a bit more gingery then it probably should be. I used fresh udon noodles, instead of dried ramen (I didn’t even look for fresh ramen). It was a bit spicy, ginger-wise, but that’s on me.

Turkey Burgers

Added some spices, cooked lower then I normally do, done and good.

2020 - Week 4 Cooking Results

Pumpkin Bolognese p385 (Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables)

This took about 2 hours to do, even though I was able to skip part of of the directions, since I already had some pumpkin puree on hand (it was frozen). This was a very slow cooking event. The lower temperatures are used to mesh up the flavors.This was certainly the most meat I’ve used in a dish in a bit. I think it was quite enjoyable and this would be in the “once in a while” category of foods to cook. I think I could probably start with a bit more pumpkin puree, since I was guessing as to what it would convert to (I also used pumpkin last week, and wanted to not open another frozen block of pumpkin puree). Anyways, I will have to make this again.

Sweet Corn and Green Chile Baked Flautas p62 (Thug Kitchen)

I used some of my co-worker’s corn to make this..it was easy to do, though had a few steps. Finished off in the oven, I, again, broke then vegan, by adding cheese and sour cream. Even so, by itself, it was nice. I used chipotle powder. which added a nice smokiness to the dish, plus a bit of heat. I enjoyed it.

Caramelized Cream Eggs

I may have to try this again. This was a suggestion from Jenny as something that was quite good. reading the article you get the idea that the head breaks up the cream into milk fat solids (butter) and water, which leads for a nice finish…though I have just cooked eggs in butter, which I suspect is fairly similar, though this was interesting watching it finish.

Fish (see what is around)

Yellow fin tuna, salt, pepper, olive oil, sous vide, finished in a pan.

Bison Burgers

Good as always. I combined with some chili powder that my aunt brought back from Mexico. made for a nice, mildly spicy grilled burger. Cooking it lower then you would for a fatter meat, but for longer to get that done edge, while keeping it just a little pink in the middle. it’s an odd balance to try to maintain.

2020 - Week 3 Cooking Results

Spiced Chickpea wraps with Tahini Dressing, pg. 32 (Thug Kitchen)

Pulled out my tiny blender attachment for my stick blender to make the Tahini dressing, which made it very easy to do. The rest came together quite will as they are simple directions and simple ingredients. A bit spicy, but filling. We topped ours with some baby spinach and some carrots. Even after leaving work at around 6, I was still able to get this on the table shortly after. Several hours later, I’m still feeling a bit full (not stuffed, just not hungry).

Black Bean Tortas with Coconut Chipotle May, pg. 143 (Thug Kitchen)

So I have a mild complaint about the book. So they recommend using their own bean recipe, which is fine, however they do provide the alternative to used canned chickpeas or beans. In that case it should be specified if they should be drained, drained and rinsed, or not. It seems like in some recipes this would be fine and in others not so much. This one was clearly a drained. I had to spend some extra time simmering getting it to the described guacamole consistency that they talking about. That being said, it still came out pretty good. The mayo didn’t get quite enough time to solidify, as it was the next day, but still was nice. I used the leftover beans to make myself bean burrito lunches.

Pumpkin Chili, pg. 97 (Thug Kitchen)

I have a “bit” of pumpkin puree leftover from the several times that I have made it. That being said pulling it out of the freezer to use it feels pretty good. I thought about making this Friday, but, since I pulled it out late, the pumpkin puree was still quite frozen. Even when I made it on Saturday it was a mixture of mostly ice shards and liquid.

As a note, I didn’t drain the beans here.

This came together pretty easily. though I did have to simmer it a bit longer, because it took a bit for all the ice to melt. I did ruing the vegan-ness by topping it with sour cream (sour cream’s not vegan?), so there is that. What this does show that it is possible for me to stay full without meat (or fake meat).

Sloppy Chicken

The chicken I didn’t used, ended up in a sloppy joe like mixture and it was nice.

Indian Pulled-Chicken Sandwiches

I got home late, and was mentally exhausted, so after pulling the chicken off the bones, I went with a standard chicken salad instead. It was nice.

2020 - Week 2 Cooking Results

Chicken and Rice Meatballs With Hummus

Gonna set this aside for now, over planned for how the week turned out. Two snow storms and a bit of driving about kind of disrupts things.

Brothy Pasta with Chickpeas

This was quite good. Simple, easy to do. I even boiled water unnecessarily, cause I didn’t read all the way through. But it had a nice flavor and vegetarian. I’ve got half bag of pasta left to make this again. I ended up using diced tomatoes (whole can) and it just came together pretty easy.

Buffalo Burgers

Friday, a big snow storm blew into town. As it had stopped, sort of, and the wind was coming, after we got back from picking Shannon up, we cleaned the walks and driveway together. (A bit more came and some ice, that I cleaned up later). After that, clearly putting effort into a meal was out of the question. I mixed a spice mix my aunt got me from Mexico and some salt into the buffalo then made some patties and slowly cooked them (trying to create a sear, while cooking through). They were filling and a good thing after working to clear the snow.

Fish (Salmon, tuna? we’ll see how it looks)

Brushed tuna with olive oil, a little bit of salt on both sides, dashed with a bit of red pepper flakes on one. I should’ve cooked it in a metal baking dish, instead of the lasagna pan I did (ceramic?), that would at least have maybe seared it on one side a bit. Even so, it turned out ok. Served with some salad greens and dressing,

Taco Salad

This became an excuse for me to eat a number of spicy things to try to help clean my still lingering cold. It started in my nose, and seems like it’s mostly gone, but is vaguely lingering in my lungs. I’ve had leftovers of the bison based mixture with spicy add ons several times until it was gone. Hopefully it’ll be done for me soon, however Shannon seems to just be starting her round.

2020 - Week 1 Cooking Results

Chicken and Rice Meatballs With Hummus

Visits and other things, Delayed!

Brothy Pasta with Chickpeas

Visits and other things, Delayed!

Beetroot Risotto With Goat Cheese

I made this on Saturday. It took a bit (1:40, Includes a break to medicate Freyja). That being said it was quite good. Earthy, a little sweet and savory. The combo of the fat and flavor from the goat cheese added at the end, Holy smokes that was good. I remember buying beets at the last winter market, but I can’t remember whom I purchased them from. It was a bit drawn out, and peeling beets is a bit annoying (especially the little ones). My hands were a little bit pinker then normal.

Pasta

Simple pasta, added some green pepper to it, half the meat.

As I got a delivery of some of the most delicious bread, I went to make some Grilled cheese sandwiches. I used Comte, La Quercia prosciutto, and some Jam made by a friend from his tree in California. Wonderful. Certainly didn’t fit in my current general behavior, but when given a gift, why no make a delicious choice.