Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Striker's Guide to Dinner

After weeks of not cooking, I finally got into the kitchen, chopped a few vegetables and made something happen.

In all honesty, I haven't felt like cooking.

In my old life, I had a lot of go-to recipes but I've been too lazy uninspired to adjust the recipes and, frankly, I find looking through cookbooks exhausting and, if it's a cookbook without pictures, spare me...

Did I tell you all that I was a picky eater as child? Big visual, temperature and texture issues. Big drama. Like, you're not leaving the table until you eat drama. I sat with my legs dangling until I was excused. My 'rents had long caught onto me slipping the dog my undesirables. Did my parents ever once consider that it might have been their cooking? Nooooooooooo.

To this day, if something tastes good but is mushy, I'll taste it but won't hang with the dish for long.

When I do find a recipe that calls my name, it usually involves a lot of chopping. For some reason, the labor intensive recipes beckon me.

I was flipping through the March Prevention when I saw a recipe, More-Vegetable-Than-Egg Frittata that I instantly liked. The recipe was a contribution by the one and only Mark Bittman.



I used a red bell pepper, spinach and squash for my frittata. And my verdict -- not bad at all and quite clean tasting. I wasn't doing that Al Green moaning thing but I liked the frittata and will make it again. The frittata doesn't stand alone and it doesn't make a lot. If you have more than three folks to feed, double up on the ingredients.

What I ate while on strike:












Steamfresh Veggies with Trader Joe's Marinated Chicken Breasts


Ironically, that same Prevention featuring Mark Bittman also had an article, 50 Healthiest Everday Foods, which had a very nice chart for folks, like me, who need visual cues.

For example:

Natural State, 1st Choice: apple
Somewhat Processed, 2nd Choice: strawberry preserves
Highly processed, limit: strawberry gelatin dessert
What is one of your favorite go-to recipes and what food do you resort to when the cooking comes to a halt? If you don't halt, kudos, and may I come over?

P.S. Another promising Bittman recipe in that Prevention was Chicken Not Pie.

Bon appétit, you all...

7 comments:

  1. mmm that frittata looks tasty! :) YUM!

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  2. I bow to the queen who frequently makes tasty-looking concoctions. ;)

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  3. My go-to is a Subway turkey breast sandwich. It's not bad. Quickie at-home cooking is usually a tuna fish sandwich, or an omelet. I always have a few bags of frozen vegetables on hand for situations like that. Sometimes I'll make egg drop soup (I also have chicken stock on hand) with the frozen vegetables, and Wasa crackers on the side. I also keep a bag of frozen berries to eat with cottage cheese for a dessert.

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  4. Ugh...I haven't felt like cooking either. It's just hasn't been in my mind lately. So I haven't. HAH! But, really, I should.

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  5. Cooking is a big commitment. For me, the hardest thing is cooking when I'm hungry. I just wanna eat already. But that can be a good thing - inspiring me to eat more raw foods. Cos then I don't have to wait! :) But it's definitely good to have some frozen stuff in the freezer. We all deserve a break from time to time! :)

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  6. I'm impressed you cook at all! When John and I were first married I thought it was way too much trouble to cook and I was horrible at it anyway so we went out to eat almost every night! Literally!

    That sounds like a really tasty recipe you made! I'd probably have to quadruple it!!

    My favorite thing to cook these days? Probably Fricasse' de Pollo, chicken parmsean, spinach linguine, and strawberry smoothies!

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  7. @gingersnapper,

    I make wayyyyy better sandwiches than Subway. Just kidding. Kind of. But I do have a turkey sandwich almost daily.

    I haven't tried egg drop soup before and it's been so long since I've had cottage cheese. I don't know why it falls off my radar. The CC and the berries sound very good.

    And you know I'm always down for Wasa crackers...


    @sarabeck,

    Hee-hee. Looks like we're on the same page. I'm going to try my best to get in the cooking zone though.


    @Farty Girl,

    Good strategy with the raw food. :) And I really appreciate your reminder that we all deserve a break. I forget about that at times...


    @Diane,

    I haven't gotten on the smoothie train yet and they always look so good.

    All of your dishes sound delicious. I need to check out your recipe section on your blog more often. :)

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