And then the Roommate blessedly brought home an avocado and a tomato so it turned into this (the corn clearly had better things to do than participate in my photoshoot):

At least I got some vegetables in with this monster wrap.

I also enjoyed my very first Oats in a Jar:

The jar fit quite handily into my lunchbox for a portable breakfast.

And then, last night I, like Heather, broke down and found myself in the supermarket. I only spent $10 and it was actually pretty necessary.

I get a lot of my daily protein from my morning oats (always made with some type of milk) and yogurt. And we were out of both. I admit I bought the Greek yogurt because it was a dollar and I want to see if Yoplait can hold a candle to Chobani. The cheese is getting paired with frozen dough and leftover sauce for pizza tomorrow night. You know groceries are sparse in my house when we have no cheese.

Speaking of sparse, check out the slim-pickings of my lunch tomorrow:

There’s not much green in there! Short of bringing an onion to munch on for lunch, I have to rely on the veggies in my orzo tuna salad. We have run out of granola as well, so that greek yogurt has to deal with always delicious but less nutritionally sound peanut butter Puffins. Ah, well. Can’t win ‘em all.

Since I went to bed late I planned ahead and made overnight oats to grab out of the fridge and eat at my desk in the morning. Behold:

Again, it’s not too pretty on the eyes. Hopefully if I throw some peanut butter in there it will suffice until lunchtime.

I think it’s safe to say the lunch is always greener in the other lunchbox.

The two apartment couples spent a night in on Saturday. We watched Spanglish and ate copious amounts of cheese. The Roommie and I decided early on that we wanted cheese, wine, and crusty French Bread for dinner.

Counterclockwise from the orange cheese: smoked Cheddar (if you have not tried it, you MUST!), Brie, herbed goat cheese, and smoked Gouda.

In addition to olives and bread we had grapes and an apple.

Sometimes I think it might be nice to lose five pounds, but with so much cheese in the world, is it worth it?

NO.

With our cheese we shared a bottle of Malbec.

I don’t know anything about wine, but I like Malbecs as far as red wine goes. Later we popped a bottle of Mondoro, which is sweet sparkling wine.

Jack and Lola were happy to chill with us in the living room (and wait for pieces of cheese to hit the floor). We wore the younger pup out — Jack fell asleep on my shoulder halfway through the evening.

But Lola was ready to hang out!

Lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lola. (Do you know that song by the Kinks? I’ve been singing it all week.)

I ate more cheese last night than I’d care to admit. Despite the large block of dairy digesting in my stomach currently, I’m thinking sometime in the future this apartment needs to have a wine and cheese party. Ever hosted/been to one??

For lunch I had some of my barley soup. Holy deliciousness! You should seriously go get yourself a copy of The Best Vegetarian Recipes if only to make mushroom barley soup. I don’t even LIKE soup most of the time but this is amazing. I left my camera at home but I did snap a humorous photo with my phone. I give you Exhibit A, or Why I Desperately Need An iPhone:

Oh, yeeeeah.

My soup and yogurt-with-fruit combo did not hold me over for the seven hours between lunch and dinner so I snuck a Pecan Pie Larabar in during the commute home. Dear good people of Larabar: higher me to say good things about your company. I have high praises.

Dinner was the product of many cravings. Since I can’t stuff myself full of grilled cheese or pasta this week, I figured a hot and filling option was best. At first I wanted a repeat of last night — eggs, avocado and mushrooms. But then I wanted a baked potato. And then I remembered these Roma tomatoes I bought and need to use. So I created mishmash of all of these things in a Farmer’s Market Frittata. Frittatas are so tasty, so easy, and you can throw anything in them (like an abundance of vegetables in your fridge).

This photo only has 6 eggs, but that turned out to be too few — with all of these add-ins, I needed an extra three. I cut up a small potato (with skin — that’s where all the nutrients are!) and stuck it in the microwave for 2 minutes. Next I chopped up half an avocado, two mushroom caps, a Roma tomato, and the last bits from a bag of spinach.

Here are the instructions: heat olive oil in a cast-iron or any oven-safe skillet, beat eggs in a bowl, add ingredients, pour mixture into skillet and cook over medium heat until the sides pull away slightly and the middle almost sets.

Not quite done! Heat the oven to 350 degrees, grate some cheese on top (I used a mixture of Cheddar and Parm) and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the eggs are cooked through and the top is set.

As such, I’m not in the best mood and I’m not feeling the positive and calming effects of refresh week. I won’t bore you with my morning bowl of oats (which is pretty much the same every day). Lunch was a repeat. Dinner was kind of weird looking, but totally delicious.

I had really wanted to make that pumpkin risotto that I love so much, but I cannot for the life of me find canned pumpkin! Are you telling me that I am the only person in the Albany area who uses pumpkin post Thanksgiving? The next time I find cans of it I’m stocking up!

In lieu of pumpkin-y delight, I used up leftover avocado in this:

Omelette (or something…) with mushrooms, avocado, and cheddar. Hot sauce added after the photo. Not the prettiest plate, but I think it’s sort of fun.

LOST is in a half hour. I love LOST but I’m already… lost. I can’t remember anything from last season. Bad. Hopefully it will all come back to me when I’m watching it!

Not cooking and planning my meals has led to a lot of take-out, many a meal-on-the-go, and dinners that consist of an unusual assortment of foodstuffs from my fridge. Which is my fancy way of saying I’ve been eating a lot of Stewarts’ Cream and Coffee Fudge for dinner.

In addition to eating poorly, I’ve gone out a lot with friends (drinks and bar food galore!) to celebrate birthdays and out-of-town visits and Fridays. I’ve been stressed, I haven’t been sleeping well, and I feel drained of energy all of the time.

So not only do I need to perk up my attitude a little, I need to hit the refresh button on my body. I’ve been reading a little about detoxes and cleanses and all that, and for the most part I think it’s a load of phooey. For a week I followed the statuses of a friend on Facebook who was doing a juice cleanse. Sorry, but the “benefits” of drinking only fruit juice for 7 days do not outweigh the fact that I’d be a HUGE grumposaurus from denying myself solid foods. No Master Cleanse for me.

I wanted to do some sort of literal “detoxification” of all the crap I’d been putting into my body lately, but I was hesitant to call it that. I don’t want to spend a week depriving myself of essential nutrients — that’s just not safe. I’ve decided that, for at least this week, I do need to cut out foods that have no nutritional value. For a week I’m cutting out the following:

• Sugar (yes, this includes my beloved ice cream)
• Bread (yes, this means no bagels)
• Caffeine (yes, this means no 3 o’clock savior in the form of a medium coffee)
• Alcohol (yes, this means coming home after a loooong day and taking the edge off with a nice glass of… herbal tea)

Basically, I’m cutting out my four main food groups. Sigh. A lot of resources recommend cutting out dairy. Like cheese.

Um.

Sorry. I just need to take a moment. The idea of not eating cheese for a week is on par with spending a week holding my breath under water: guaranteed catastrophe.

Frankly, I’m not interested in deprivation; there’s no self-love in that. Cheese is in.

On Sunday night, to help kick-off the eve of Refresh Week, The Boyfriend and I did two things:

1. Ordered a cheese pizza.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, people.

2. Went grocery shopping.

I allowed myself to spend money on items I don’t normally buy because of cost: avocados, a new box of tea, Parmesan (see what I’m saying about cheese?).

Part of my Refresh Week is about getting back in the kitchen. As retro as that sounds, cooking is a good way for me to unwind after a day. I like spending 30-40 minutes preparing dinner for my little family. Plus my two furry boys usually keep me company while I chop, boil, and saute away the day.

I spent my Sunday night planning meals for the week. I’ve got some good recipes to try out, so stay tuned!

The day is not yet over.  It’s not too late to take part in some cheesy festivities.

January is also National Oatmeal Month.

Celebrate accordingly.

Yes, please! On top of that, The Boyfriend showed me these portobello mushroom caps and informed me that one night this week he is making mushroom burgers with Swiss.

  

Yes, PLEASE! It was such a pleasant treat for a Monday night.

Don’t get me wrong, the Roomies do their fair share of cooking, but a lot of times it’s me throwing stuff together in the kitchen. Part of this is so I have something to write about on the blog. Part of this is because I love preparing food and spending some quiet moments in the kitchen after a day is therapeutic for me. But mostly it’s because I am a control freak who loves lists and plans.

I just ate two portions of The Roommate’s mac and cheese, so I have to go have a lie-down and digest. Stuffed as I may be, what a great way to start my week!

]]> http://notesonapage.com/2010/01/give-peas-a-chance/feed/ 0 http://notesonapage.com/2010/01/quick-quinoa-salad/ http://notesonapage.com/2010/01/quick-quinoa-salad/#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:04:30 +0000 Page http://notesonapage.com/?p=1419 Do you find that you munch while you’re cooking dinner and by the time you sit down to eat, you’re full? This is the story of my life. Last week Julie made a smart suggestion on her blog: whip up something else while dinners cooks and you’ll be less likely to graze.

The other night we pulled out frozen lasagna from the freezer (care of the Boyfriend’s thoughtful mother) and roasted some chopped carrots with rosemary olive oil my own mother gave me for Christmas. (Dinner was a family affair — thanks, moms!) It was a simple dinner that called for a lot of oven time. To occupy myself I made a quinoa salad that I’ve had on the brain for a while.

• 1 c. quinoa, cooked
• 1/2 pepper, diced
• 1/2 c. cheese, diced (Cheddar is okay; Feta is betta)
• Olives (any variety), sliced
• a drizzle of olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add the quinoa. Turn down to a simmer and cook quinoa for 12-15 minutes. The quinoa will completely absorb the water when it is done cooking.

Add the quinoa and the other ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

I think capers or pigeon peas would have been such a good addition to this! The salad was tasty but there could have been more flavor. Next time I make this I think I’m going to go all out and buy feta and roast some red peppers, too! Yum!

The most important thing about this salad was the hearty and healthy quinoa. Quinoa is very fast to make, which is a huge plus in my opinion. And I love having a large grainy salad to portion out for lunch throughout the week. Zesty Cook seems to agree: check out his tasty-looking pasta salad from today’s post.

But before I get to tonight’s dish, can I go on a cheese tangent? While picking up some extra sharp Cheddar at the store, I saw Price Chopper is having a 2 for $4 sale with Cabot cheeses. And imagine my delight when I saw this tucked away:

I pulled out Old Faithful and that block of cheese was reduced to shreds in the pulse of a finger.

I made minor adjustments to Smitten Kitchen’s recipe:

Homey Macaroni and Cottage Cheese

(Homey? Cottage? See what I did there??)

• 1 c. low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 8 oz. block Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2 c. 1% milk
• Pinch paprika
• Pinch dry mustard
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 lb. multi-colored vegetable pasta, uncooked
• 1 cup chopped broccoli

My pasta came from this box:

This dish is so easy to assemble:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and shred cheese.

2. In a food processor, combine the cottage cheese, mustard, paprika, salt and pepper, and blend. Slowly pour in the milk while blending the cottage cheese mixture.

3. In a large bowl combine all but 1/4 c. shredded cheese, cottage cheese and milk mixture, and the pasta.   Once combined, pour into a greased baking dish.

4. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove, sprinkle the remaining Cheddar over the pasta, cover, and bake again for another 30 minutes.

Ta da!

The only hard part is waiting for this to bake.

Apple Potato Cheddar Casserole

• 2-3 potatoes, sliced
• 2 apples, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 c. sharp Cheddar cheese (Don’t skimp on the cheese! There is not a lot of seasoning in this and you want the cheese to stand out.  The Roommate Cabot Cheddar Private Stock.)

Peel and slice potatoes and boil for 10 minutes.

Take potatoes off and run under cold water. Layer casserole with 1/2 potatoes, then layer with 1/2 of the onions. After onions, layer with 1/2 the apple slices. Then add 1/2 cup of cheese.

Layer the rest of the apples, followed by the rest of the onions, and top with the potatoes. Add the rest of the cheese, and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the cheese on top starts to brown (usually you need the broiler for an extra 5 minutes for this).  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

While the casserole baked, The Roommate just, ya know, whipped together an apple pie.

It’s apple insanity in the apartment this week.  I hope you are enjoying our fruity antics!