Tag: dinner

All about the themes

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Realizing I was low on veggies, I ran into the grocery store next door to my office (it’s much cheaper than the one in my neighborhood) to see what I could find. I grabbed a bunch of green beans (to replenish my dwindling supply) and then went a little crazy and also got a pack of fresh okra (it was only $1.50!). I’ve never cooked okra before in my life and probably only eaten it a couple of times, but I thought it would keep things interesting.

When I got home, I chopped the okra into thinnish rounds and put it (and chopped green beans, for variety) in a pan with a splash of water to steam:

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And then the stroke of genius hit. I added a heaping spoonful of homemade Dominican sofrito, an amazing herby and garlicky sauce that another coworker (hi inginia!) gave me when it was leftover from a work party a little while back. Using the sofrito got me thinking about more homemade Dominican food from my coworkers, so I dug into the freezer to uncover the Dominican rice (hi mildred!) I had saved from yet another work function. I mixed it with some of the cooked barley that I brought back from MA to add a healthy whole grain punch:

Dominican rice (left) and pearled barley (right)

frozen cooked grains: Dominican rice (left) and pearled barley (right)

My plate, topped with grated homemade cheddar:
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How intricate is this okra?!

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It was a delicious experiment that went very well, and I made enough to have for dinner one more night this week, yum!

For dessert, I had the last of the grapenut pudding from MA, another big pile straight from the oven (my apartment is microwave-less, so I do all my reheating in the oven):

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Now the rush, rush, rush to make my 9pm bedtime!

Mad dash …

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… in more ways than one!

I ended up eating both of my “emergency snack” mini muffins today around 5pm (along with a Russell Stover orange cream-filled chocolate from the box that materialized in the conference room right next to my desk) because Gina, Kate, and I decided that we would, in fact, meet for our 3.5 mile run through Central Park with the NIKE Running Club. We try to go a couple times each week, mainly because NIKE provides heaps of fresh fruit, bagels, muffins, and pastries after each run. I always stuff as much fruit as I can into my mouth (and sneakily pack more into my empty lunch tupperwares) and intercept the staff as they’re throwing out the leftover bread products so I can hand them to homeless people on the subway.

But tonight, we got bad news: no more food!!!! Gina, Kate, and I looked at each other in horror because that meant we had to run 3.5 miles, not only with no promise of food waiting at the end, but also with an hour + commute on the other side before we could get home for dinner. On the subway ride, we split an orange (also courtesy of the conference room at my work), but needless to say, I was ravenous when I got home at 8:45. But before eating, I had to prep tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch and also deal with this windfall of 13 overripe bananas I scored from a work donation:

bananas BEFORE ... not appetizing, I know

bananas BEFORE ... not appetizing, I know

bananas AFTER, chopped for freezing ... still not appetizing!

bananas AFTER, chopped for freezing ... still not appetizing!

I filled two 32 oz. yogurt containers. I know they don’t look great now, but they are going to make amazing banana bread oatmeal someday … just wait!

I had to think fast for dinner, since it was nearing 10pm. Even though I don’t have to get up at 5 tomorrow since I got my workout in tonight, I still need to be sleeping by 10:30 in order to be functional tomorrow. I stuck a dark chocolate pomegranate VitaTop in the oven for 15 minutes to get the chocolate chips all gooey, and then I sauteed half an apple and half a banana (I found some slightly less mushy pieces from tonight’s haul) in a tsp of canola oil until golden brown:

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pre-work

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step 2

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Everyone knows that VitaTop + yogurt + fruit = brownie sundae!!

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And now it is time for the mad dash to my bed. Good night!

A little too much …

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I wanted to save the rest of the turkey soup from MA to have for lunch this week, so dinner tonight was more fun with crudites! I mixed the cauliflower from home with two Tbsp of herb hummus (also from home), sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and grated homemade cheddar cheese (thanks to my cheesemaking kit):

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I roasted the cauliflower on BROIL until the smoke alarm went off, about seven minutes:

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On the side, I had about a half cup of homemade yogurt (procedure to come :-)) with blueberries and cherries:

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And another mini muffin. All together:

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Dessert was a pile of grapenut pudding:

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I actually was not hungry at all for dessert and probably should have had half as much as I did, but I’m planning to go to the gym at the crack of dawn tomorrow and I don’t want to be hungry while I’m there (and the pudding tasted too good to stop!).

Bedtime!

City farming

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Hauling (almost) the entire contents of a refrigerator along with two weeks worth of (now clean) laundry across NYC boroughs via the subway system is SO fun. Once isn’t enough, so I do it about four times a year. The best part of today’s journey was when I got stuck with my bags in the turnstile at Port Authority. I couldn’t move forward. I couldn’t move back. My bags were clearly too big for the small space. I had visions of spending the night trapped between the bars, hearing Brooklyn-bound A trains (or “D trains running on the E line in place of the A due to track construction”) whizzing by without me on board. The more I struggled, the more I seemed to stick. Passersby glanced at me with amusement as they uselessly shuffled along. I heart New York.

Finally, something in the refrigerator on my back gave way, and I stumbled through. Both of my trains arrived promptly, a fellow passenger helped me carry my bags up to street level in Brooklyn, and I arrived at my apartment just under an hour later. Phew.

After all of that urban excitement, I felt the need to get some dairy farming underway. It’s an overnight process, but here’s a hint for now:

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Details to come tomorrow …

Once I’d gotten my dairy project settled in its incubation stage, I unpacked my refrigerator bag from MA and threw a very quick dinner together. Turkey soup:

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Peach pie:

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And homemade chocolate pb froyo (a partially frozen mash of plain yogurt, vanilla, and chocolate peanut butter Vitatop:

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Good night!

Cooked out!

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My cooking energy was almost non-existent today — this week has wiped me out! — so I was happy to let mom be the boss. She spent the afternoon and early evening going through the turkey left from our Hannukah party to divide it into soupable pieces, cat pieces, and fat. Here she is with her fan club looking on:

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I chopped celery (ewwwww), carrots, and onions for the soup:

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The fridge looks so empty now because most of its contents went into the soup, yayyyy! Here’s the huge soup pot, stuffed to the gills:

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And finally, our 10 pm dinner! I only had a little mug of soup because I had eaten my way through a hefty percentage of the carrots, cauliflower, and cabbage as I chopped. That’s a matzoh ball in front — mom found a few in the freezer and threw them in, mmmmmmmm:

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Mom also found some peach pie in the freezer that she made over the summer. While that was heating in the oven, I set us up with a dessert appetizer: the teeeeeeeeny piece of rice pudding I rescued as we left the party last night. My bite:

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You can’t tell from the picture, but the rice pudding is on a little tea bag-sized saucer and accompanied by my baby spoon. For perspective, here it is next to my tea (decaf Earl Grey and a splash of light eggnog):

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And finally, this delicious peach pie! Mom can’t remember what she put in it (as usual), but it tasted perfect and not at all as if it had been in the freezer for the past six months:

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I’ll be heading back to Brooklyn tomorrow morning armed with loads of food (I may not even have to grocery shop this week!) and a mom-made lunch for the bus. Booooo, end of vacation :-(.