More subtly, I've also had less of an excessive kitchen-sink approach to cooking. The stir fry I made last week had only 3 vegetables in it--usually I'm prone to throwing in anything I think will taste good. I refrained from adding corn, tofu, water chestnuts... I'm sure there were more. This habit of mine usually ends up making the flavors in a dish a bit muddy--it all tastes just fine, but nothing really stands out. Plus, I think everything I make kind of ends up tasting pretty similar, because I use all the same ingredients in everything. In the stir fry, the savory, meatiness of the mushrooms really stood out against the sweetness of the carrots. And while I couldn't really taste the cabbage, I still appreciated its nominal contribution to the nutrition of the dish.
Annnnd... I spent less at Trader Joe's! My grocery bill for this week's shopping came in just under $31. Since I quit my job back in June, I've been grocery shopping more often and buying more each trip. I think I was trying to fill some sort of void, and buying new stuff at TJ's always made me feel better. Super cliche, but totally true. I think I may have found some sympathy for people who buy a lot of clothing. Not saying that everyone who buys excessive amounts of clothing are trying to fill a void, but shopping therapy is totally a thing. In the back of my mind, I was aware I was doing it, but was so not interested in examining it. Surprisingly, not being able to spend as much time in Long Beach snapped me out of a funk I'd been in, and I finally acknowledged this grocery shopping therapy I'd been indulging in. I almost went crazy when I went shopping, but then I realized I was putting stuff into my cart that I just really didn't need. So I committed to a $30 limit, and stuck to it! Maybe I'll get it back down to $20, which is the goal that originally gave this blog it's name. Even still, I'm cooking more, spending less, exercising more, reading less (in my case, this is actually a good thing) and writing more!
This week's plan does a pretty good job of utilizing what I already have in my pantry. I (compulsively) bought a delicata squash at TJ's (see what I mean??) a week or two before Thanksgiving, and still hadn't used it. So I found a yummy recipe from Big Girls Small Kitchen that stuffs it with curried basmati rice. Although from what I've found on the interwebs, delicata is the new (?) butternut. It's easy to prep, since it doesn't have a tough skin that requires peeling, and roasts up just as deliciously as butternut. If I like it, maybe I'll get it again and try it out just straight roasted.
I'm also going to use up the smoked mozzarella that I also bought from Trader Joe's, but found absolutely disgusting. I was going to bring it with some bruschetta to a work potluck, but then I tasted it. Yuck. It was super dry and had a very unpleasant smoky flavor. I couldn't bear to throw it away, so I stuck it in the freezer (my version of procrastination). I'm hoping it'll be much improved if I shred it up on a bbq chicken pizza. Or maybe I'll just ruin my pizza.
Last on my list is a classic pantry dish: washoku (Japanese) curry! I was really craving soup, but something not tomato-based. This was perrrrrrfect. If I've got leftover potatoes, I'll either roast them up or toss them in another favorite, corn potage. And any leftover red onions from the pizza are getting pickled.
I have some leftover chili that I brought back with me from Jim's, so I think 2 main recipes will suffice for the week.
Meal 1 - BBQ chicken pizza
Recipes
Oven baked drumsticks (★★★★★)
The smoked mozz was great on this pizza! I used the whole package, which was a little too much cheese, but I figured I wasn't going to use it for anything else so what the heck. Also, I can appreciate cilantro on this pizza now. Lisa would be so proud. The drumsticks I did in the oven using a recipe from Cooking Planit. It was super fast and easy--oven at 475, oil and some salt and pepper on the drumsticks, flip once during cooking, done after 20 minutes. And the oven was already preheated for the pizza! The frozen pizza crusts I got from TJs were another story: they didn't quite cook through. The crust was not crusty, and it was a little gummy in the middle. The toppings were just on the verge of burning, so I had to pull it out. A bit disappointed in the crusts, but I think I just have to settle for subpar pizza until I get a pizza stone.
Pantry
smoked mozzarella
Oven baked drumsticks (★★★★★)
The smoked mozz was great on this pizza! I used the whole package, which was a little too much cheese, but I figured I wasn't going to use it for anything else so what the heck. Also, I can appreciate cilantro on this pizza now. Lisa would be so proud. The drumsticks I did in the oven using a recipe from Cooking Planit. It was super fast and easy--oven at 475, oil and some salt and pepper on the drumsticks, flip once during cooking, done after 20 minutes. And the oven was already preheated for the pizza! The frozen pizza crusts I got from TJs were another story: they didn't quite cook through. The crust was not crusty, and it was a little gummy in the middle. The toppings were just on the verge of burning, so I had to pull it out. A bit disappointed in the crusts, but I think I just have to settle for subpar pizza until I get a pizza stone.
Pantry
smoked mozzarella
bbq sauce (from TJs)
red onions, thinly sliced
frozen pizza crusts
cilantro
red onions, thinly sliced
frozen pizza crusts
cilantro
chicken
(none)
Meal 2 - Washoku (Japanese) curry
Recipes
Bone-in drumsticks for soup
Brown rice on the stove
Such a wonderful favorite. This is my comfort food. There is nothing like a hot bowl of warm, savory curry, with a side of rice and fukujinzuke. I don't know that I'll ever have the courage to make this from scratch, because I'm so used to the boxed stuff, no matter how terrible it is for you. I loosely followed Mark Bittman's guidelines for cooking drumsticks in a soup, and they turned out great. After the curry finished, I pulled the drumsticks out, stripped the meat from the bones, discarded the bones and put the meat back in. Much as bone-in meat may remind me of my childhood (my dad was totally lazy about removing carcasses from dishes before serving them to the extent that almost every meal he served included a poi-pot: an empty bowl that would fill up with the family's discards--ie bones, cartilage, etc--throughout the meal), I've learned that I prefer to do all the work at once, and then enjoy the fruits of my labor.
My second time making rice on the stove wasn't a huge success, but it wasn't a catastrophic failure either. It was a bit mushy and overcooked, but it wasn't soggy. I did 3 cups of rice to 4.5 cups of water (a 1 : 1.5 ratio of rice : water), soaked it for an hour, brought it to a bubble on medium heat then turned it down to a simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. To be honest, I wasn't timing it exactly, so that was probably where I went wrong. I used my Lodge porcelain enamel cast iron that I got for my birthday last year. Love the pot but it's sooo heavy. I think next time I need to be better about timing. The water ratio was probably fine. I could probably skip the soaking (I don't usually do that anyway), and just cook for maybe 1.5 hours total. I may have left it on medium heat for too long, I wasn't paying close attention to the sounds coming from the pot because I was making curry and corn potage at the same time.
Bone-in drumsticks for soup
Brown rice on the stove
Such a wonderful favorite. This is my comfort food. There is nothing like a hot bowl of warm, savory curry, with a side of rice and fukujinzuke. I don't know that I'll ever have the courage to make this from scratch, because I'm so used to the boxed stuff, no matter how terrible it is for you. I loosely followed Mark Bittman's guidelines for cooking drumsticks in a soup, and they turned out great. After the curry finished, I pulled the drumsticks out, stripped the meat from the bones, discarded the bones and put the meat back in. Much as bone-in meat may remind me of my childhood (my dad was totally lazy about removing carcasses from dishes before serving them to the extent that almost every meal he served included a poi-pot: an empty bowl that would fill up with the family's discards--ie bones, cartilage, etc--throughout the meal), I've learned that I prefer to do all the work at once, and then enjoy the fruits of my labor.
My second time making rice on the stove wasn't a huge success, but it wasn't a catastrophic failure either. It was a bit mushy and overcooked, but it wasn't soggy. I did 3 cups of rice to 4.5 cups of water (a 1 : 1.5 ratio of rice : water), soaked it for an hour, brought it to a bubble on medium heat then turned it down to a simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. To be honest, I wasn't timing it exactly, so that was probably where I went wrong. I used my Lodge porcelain enamel cast iron that I got for my birthday last year. Love the pot but it's sooo heavy. I think next time I need to be better about timing. The water ratio was probably fine. I could probably skip the soaking (I don't usually do that anyway), and just cook for maybe 1.5 hours total. I may have left it on medium heat for too long, I wasn't paying close attention to the sounds coming from the pot because I was making curry and corn potage at the same time.
Leftovers to use
chicken from pizza
Pantry
onions
Shopping List
carrots
potatoes
potatoes
(none)
Side 1 - Corn potage
Recipes
Simple corn potage (★★☆☆☆)
Ooookay... so I've actually tried using this recipe in the past and it just doesn't work well for me. Maybe it's because I don't have chicken stock, and I use dashi instead, but dashi is not that flavorless. It's supposedly so simple, but I just can't get the same flavor using the same proportions. However, the end product turned out well after much tweaking, so I've created my own corn potage recipe for the future.
Simple corn potage (★★☆☆☆)
Ooookay... so I've actually tried using this recipe in the past and it just doesn't work well for me. Maybe it's because I don't have chicken stock, and I use dashi instead, but dashi is not that flavorless. It's supposedly so simple, but I just can't get the same flavor using the same proportions. However, the end product turned out well after much tweaking, so I've created my own corn potage recipe for the future.
Leftovers to use
potatoes
Pantry
creamed corn
Pantry
creamed corn
milk
stock
stock
(none)
(none)
Side 2 - Pickled red onions
Recipes
The Kitchn's pickled red onions (★★★★★)
(Update: this recipe now has it's own post!) I don't know what Kenji was smoking when he created this recipe, but it sounds crazy to me. I went with the ingredients from The Kitchn's recipe (using rice vinegar) and the the basic method that Kenji uses: Combine sugar, salt, and vinegar in small saucepan, bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, add onions, simmer for a minute or two, then turn off and let cool. Done! So easy. Looking forward to garnishing salads with these babies.
The Kitchn's pickled red onions (★★★★★)
(Update: this recipe now has it's own post!) I don't know what Kenji was smoking when he created this recipe, but it sounds crazy to me. I went with the ingredients from The Kitchn's recipe (using rice vinegar) and the the basic method that Kenji uses: Combine sugar, salt, and vinegar in small saucepan, bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, add onions, simmer for a minute or two, then turn off and let cool. Done! So easy. Looking forward to garnishing salads with these babies.
Leftovers to use
red onions from pizza
Pantry
sugar
Pantry
sugar
salt
vinegar
vinegar
(none)
(none)
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