I am a bad blogger. I keep buying food and intending to blog about it, but then I just eat it. The blueberry buckles and cobblers and whatnot? Gone as I ate pint after pint of delicious blueberries straight from their little cartons. The cherry clafoutis that I wanted to make last night? Well...the cherries were just so good! And there was a big, glistening bag of them right there! Who needs to mess with a sweet, ripe cherry?
Even my meal planning, normally so carefully orchestrated, falls to the wayside in the summer. 90 degrees out? Let's just have tuna sandwiches and call it a day. We'll throw burgers on the grill again. Let's pick up some homemade sausages from our local butcher. How about we throw all our leftover veggies over pasta. Delicious, all of it, but worthy of posting? "Dear blog: I just ate my fourth bowl of Cheerios with half a pint of blueberries on top while watching Top Chef."
So I apologize for the lack of content lately, but it's been all summer bounty all the time around here.
And there's a half a bag of cherries calling my name.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Cook for Good: A Review
3:59 AM 1 Comments cook for good, cookbooks, reviews
A few months back, I downloaded the Cook for Good e-books because we were trying to seriously cut down on our grocery bills and didn't want to sacrifice eating healthy. The experiment was a success; we easily cut our grocery bills by a third, even though we didn't follow the plan strictly. (My kids would revolt if they only ever had toast for breakfast, as would I.) With a picky kid and my own love of experimenting with new recipes, we didn't stay on the plan for long, but I can wholeheartedly recommend it for several reasons:
1. She talks you through the process of once-a-week cooking in a way that is helpful and genuinely innovative. She doesn't advocate cooking all of your meals once a week and eating out of the freezer, but she walks you through making sauces, breads, doughs, desserts, beans, and yogurt in a step-by-step way, combining the steps for each component, that makes you realize that hey, it IS possible to make your own yogurt every week! (That's not a collective you, by the way. My yogurt failed spectacularly. I don't blame the book.) You won't spend your entire weekend cooking, I promise.
2. She doesn't shy away from treats. In fact, she offers a dessert with every meal. I felt like I was eating healthier than ever, and I got a slice of cake every night! Healthy cake!
3. She thinks outside the box. Sweet potatoes and yogurt sauce for breakfast? Brilliant! Spending a little bit on a specialty ingredient like ginger, then using it in curry and stir-fry and sauces and cake? Love it!
There are cons, of course. It is 100% vegetarian by dint of cheapness, not from a vegetarian perspective per se, but that might turn a lot of people off. There really isn't, week after week, a lot of variety. There are creative takes on beans and rice and rice and beans and beans and...beans. But, you know. It all boils down to beans. :D
Ultimately, however, I think Cook for Goood is worth the $9.95. We use the book often as a "tune-up" when our grocery bills get out of control, and I think that her walk-through of once a week cooking is worth the money alone.
Plus, my husband really loves that ginger-carrot cake. It's a killer.
1. She talks you through the process of once-a-week cooking in a way that is helpful and genuinely innovative. She doesn't advocate cooking all of your meals once a week and eating out of the freezer, but she walks you through making sauces, breads, doughs, desserts, beans, and yogurt in a step-by-step way, combining the steps for each component, that makes you realize that hey, it IS possible to make your own yogurt every week! (That's not a collective you, by the way. My yogurt failed spectacularly. I don't blame the book.) You won't spend your entire weekend cooking, I promise.
2. She doesn't shy away from treats. In fact, she offers a dessert with every meal. I felt like I was eating healthier than ever, and I got a slice of cake every night! Healthy cake!
3. She thinks outside the box. Sweet potatoes and yogurt sauce for breakfast? Brilliant! Spending a little bit on a specialty ingredient like ginger, then using it in curry and stir-fry and sauces and cake? Love it!
There are cons, of course. It is 100% vegetarian by dint of cheapness, not from a vegetarian perspective per se, but that might turn a lot of people off. There really isn't, week after week, a lot of variety. There are creative takes on beans and rice and rice and beans and beans and...beans. But, you know. It all boils down to beans. :D
Ultimately, however, I think Cook for Goood is worth the $9.95. We use the book often as a "tune-up" when our grocery bills get out of control, and I think that her walk-through of once a week cooking is worth the money alone.
Plus, my husband really loves that ginger-carrot cake. It's a killer.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Shaking up Breakfast
9:57 AM 4 Comments breakfast
Let's just say that the less said about last week's multiple quinoa failures, the better. We don't need to revisit that. And the falafel? *shudder* We won't even mention it. Onward and upward to better things!
I have been trying to shake up my breakfast routine a litte. Generally, I eat cereal, cereal, and cereal during the week, with a few muffins or bacon thrown in on the weekends. Not a lot of protein there, other than the milk in the cereal. But I can't be bothered with dirtying a pan for eggs during the weekday, and I get bored with peanut butter toast pretty fast.
Then, this recipe for Loaded Orange Yogurt popped up on Foodgawker. And then I remembered Molly Wizenberg's recipe for Everyday Granola. Now we're in business!
The yogurt is delicious; it's creamy and rich and tangy, even using low fat yogurt. After draining, I just mixed it right in the original container, and I now have enough for breakfast all week.
Well, if I don't keep sneaking bowl of it. That stuff is delicious.
I didn't mix the raisins, nuts, and orange segments into it because I knew I was going to make the granola. The granola is excellent, but it's pretty much like every granola I've ever made; good, but nothing earth-shattering. But together? Ohhhhh, yes. Together, they make a crunchy, creamy, sweet breakfast that's a little bit virtuous and a whole lot delicious.
I have been trying to shake up my breakfast routine a litte. Generally, I eat cereal, cereal, and cereal during the week, with a few muffins or bacon thrown in on the weekends. Not a lot of protein there, other than the milk in the cereal. But I can't be bothered with dirtying a pan for eggs during the weekday, and I get bored with peanut butter toast pretty fast.
Then, this recipe for Loaded Orange Yogurt popped up on Foodgawker. And then I remembered Molly Wizenberg's recipe for Everyday Granola. Now we're in business!
The yogurt is delicious; it's creamy and rich and tangy, even using low fat yogurt. After draining, I just mixed it right in the original container, and I now have enough for breakfast all week.
Well, if I don't keep sneaking bowl of it. That stuff is delicious.
I didn't mix the raisins, nuts, and orange segments into it because I knew I was going to make the granola. The granola is excellent, but it's pretty much like every granola I've ever made; good, but nothing earth-shattering. But together? Ohhhhh, yes. Together, they make a crunchy, creamy, sweet breakfast that's a little bit virtuous and a whole lot delicious.
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