What this is all about...



Monday, July 19, 2010

Day 14: Cooking mania!

Hello everyone!  I couldn't even remember what day I was on so I had to count on my calendar.  I am feeling great!  I am especially pumped because I lost 3 pounds last week...which, estimating with my ghetto scale, means I've lost approximately 10 pounds over the past 2 weeks.  I keep tripping over my pants because they're hanging so much lower now.  (My husband would tell me to get a belt, but really, I hate belts.  I just need to learn how to hem pants.)

I cooked so much this weekend.  It was nuts.  I went to the farmers market on Saturday morning with my little guy and got cucumbers, zucchini squash, yellow squash, blueberries, and peaches.  The blueberries are the best I've ever tasted.  Saturday afternoon I finally made tofu scramble.  Well, it was more like smooshed tofu, but it was still good.  I sauteed the tofu in olive oil, added nutritional yeast, turmeric, garlic, and a little salt, then added green pepper, yellow squash, zucchini squash, and snow peas.  My veggies to tofu ratio was a little high, but it was still delicious.  It was enough for a filling lunch (mixed with brown rice) and I had enough leftovers for 2 more meals--I had some for lunch today.  On Sunday I made a turkey breast with gravy (I didn't read the label on my chicken bouillon before I tossed it in the gravy--it had cane sugar in it so I couldn't eat it, which was probably for the best anyway), my roasted potatoes in french fry form, sweet potato and lentil soup from The Kind Diet, and chocolate peanut butter cups from The Kind Diet.  My son was my little helper, putting the cut-up potatoes in water and "mixing" them.

I've been asked for my roasted potatoes recipe, which I adapted from Betty Crocker's cookbook.  I hardly measure when I cook--only when I bake--so let me know if you want exact measurements.

ONION-ROSEMARY ROASTED POTATOES 
-Potatoes (I've found that organic potatoes are the best)
-Rosemary (dried or fresh and chopped)
-Thyme (dried or fresh)
-Dried minced onion (if you like to chop onions, I'm sure they would be fine...but I HATE chopping onions so I never use them if I can manage)
-Sea salt (regular salt works in a pinch but I love freshly ground sea salt)
-Freshly ground peppercorns (regular pepper is fine)
-Grapeseed oil (the original recipe calls for vegetable oil, but I like grapeseed better--just make sure you use an oil that remains stable at high heat)

Scrub potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes (or into french fry form, like I've been doing).  As you cut the potatoes, place them in a bowl filled with cold water.  After the potatoes sit in the water for awhile (anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours, depending on what else you've got cookin'), drain them and either pat dry with a paper towel or toss them in the salad spinner.  Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place the potatoes in a large bowl and add enough oil to coat.  Then dump in a lot of minced onion, a palmful of rosemary and thyme, and sea salt and pepper to taste.  Mix well.  Place the potatoes on a greased or oiled cookie sheet.  Make sure the oven is at temperature and then place the potatoes in the oven.  Cook to your desired crispness, turning over a few times.  (My husband likes crispy potatoes, so I roast mine for about 40 minutes.) 

The sweet potato and lentil soup turned out okay.  I didn't have several of the spices the recipe called for, so it was a little bland.  I also used too much water.  However, the soup smells so good and the combo of sweet potatoes and lentils is something I had never thought of before.

I had to tweak Alicia's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup recipe.  I couldn't find maple sugar so I used brown rice syrup, and I didn't even try to find graham crackers without sugar, so I used brown rice crisps.  I had one this morning, and they were tasteeee.  However, next time I'll crush the rice crisps up more and also add a bit of vegetable shortening to the chocolate so it sets better.

I'm hoping to try a kale recipe sometime this week, and I am getting tons of super yummy recipe ideas from everyone else's blogs.  I took pictures of everything, so I will post them when I get them off my camera.

2 comments:

  1. I will have to try those potato's! I think Zach and Riley are tired of eatting the same meals all the time!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The turkey dinner last night was awesome!

    ReplyDelete