Penguin Girl

I need to bring better food balance to our week. Two consecutive late nights is difficult for both of us.

On Monday I purchased that 1.5 quart slow cooker for $10 at the drug store. With it I have enjoyed breakfasts and lunch all week. For my morning meal I toss in a handful of peanuts, at noon, sauerkraut. I need to learn to make kimchi or find a better varied pickled blend of vegetables (we’ve had them, I’ve just not see them on the store shelf this week).

Thursday (the next night I cooked) I made a most marvelous pasta “sauce”. I was inspired equally by this NYT article and an urgent need to empty the crisper. It ended up a bit of this a bit of that (asparagus, yellow bell pepper, grape tomato, onion, garlic, grey squash), and it all ended up melding together wonderfully into a very nice addition to our pasta. E really enjoyed it with his penne (shuddup). I had it over some corn spaghetti and found it quite enjoyable. I hope I don’t continue to have veges languishing in the drawer until they are about to go bad, but it is nice to try things and have them come out ok.

With high expectations I approached shabbat dinner. I wandered through the union square market looking for inspiration. I found it in a slew of baby and fingering potatoes, some purple, some completely red, and others I don’t recall. I was determined to make a delicious gluten-free meal. Once armed with my colourful potatoes I had a hard time figuring out exactly what I was going to do with them. I returned home after stopping at two different grocery stores with many items and no firm plan in mind. In the end I put half of my final proposal into place, mostly because it had started raining and I wasn’t running back out just for goat cheese. I cut up all the potatoes to be roughly the same size and boiled them for about 15 or 20 minutes. In the meantime I created two sauces for a “sauce it yourself” adventure. One was a melted herbed butter (parsley and pre-mixed italian seasoning), the other was a slightly spicy dijon mustard with mayonnaise concoction. My plan had included peas, but I forgot to add them to the water so they sat in the freezer. It was an ok meal, I’ve done better, but after the success of Thursday, it was a major let down.

Overall I’ve improved on my staying gluten-free. Spelt is now definitely out. Which doesn’t upset me too much as the taste is quite heavy. I’ve found a bunch of quinoa including a mix, so that should help on the convenience factor. We’ll see how I do with the millet.

The breakfast hot cereal is quite tasty, but not instant. I need to find a better way to prepare it on days I’m at the office.

The last dilemma facing me (as I prep for Rhinebeck) is the size and weight of all the lunch containers both before I’ve enjoyed my meal, but especially after. I’m trying hard to slim down what I carry, but more on that another day. I need a container that can keep food warm for at least six hours. Has anyone tried these?