Something so Simple
Now that I am no longer working full time, I need to be spending more time in the kitchen and less time out to eat. Planning ahead is a must to make this happen. I have not been doing a very good job of this, and we ended up eating out a lot over the weekend.
One of my tools to encourage me to cook more often is the membership in a local organic co-op. I figured that I would cook what I get rather than let it go to waste. This, too, has proven not to be so effective due to my lack of planning. I ended up throwing out some sweet peppers, an orange, an avocado and a few of the raspberries because we didn’t eat them fast enough. I still have two zucchini that MAY still be edible, but my second pick up was yesterday, so now I have even more goodies to fit into my menu!
Produce from July 7
It’s hard to see from the picture, but there is a HUGE amount of spinach in this week’s stock. Some of it went into a wonderful salad with the red leaf lettuce, cucumber,carrot, and fresh tomato (from the local farmer’s market). The strawberries are super delicious and remind me of the berry patch we used to go to when I was a kid. I ate one of the plums as a snack, but I think it could have used another day to sweeten up. A peach provided a lovely complement to my bowl of Lucky Charms this morning!
The green beans were cooked in garlic and butter to pair with the Baked Ziti I cooked for dinner last night. I was pretty excited about this dish. I loosely followed a recipe I found on the Food Network website, but I was forced to modify it a bit because I didn’t have enough mozzarella cheese and I used ground beef instead of the turkey it called for. I mixed in a slice of provolone, some grated cheddar, and quite a bit of parmesan. Here’s the result, and it was quite tasty!
Tonight I am using some of the spinach in a quiche with bacon and ham. YUM!
I’ve been enjoying a bit of time for cooking myself this week …. also perusing Allyson’s cookbooks. check out one called, CHEAP.FAST.GOOD by Beverly Mills & Alicia Ross. The title says it all! Also, Allyson mentioned to me yesterday that she puts spinach in her lasagna (she usually uses frozen chopped, but no reason why you couldn’t cook your own), either mixing it in with the sauce or with the cheese. Don’t let that spinach go to waste… cook it up and freeze it for later in the winter if nothing else!
July 8, 2009 at 70:400am