IKEA prettiness.
October 19, 2014
IKEA prettiness.
October 18, 2014
Color Run selfie:
Miso Pepita Broiled Squash
I know I have a winner on my hands when the first taste of something horrifies my mouth – but subsequent tweaks and tastes cause me to salivate, eat too much, and wind up having to pour water over the bowl to cease the smorgasboarding. (sidebar: you don’t even want to know how many times I typed Smorgasburg instead of smorgasboard – I may have been living in Brooklyn too long)
Back to topic. This side is pretty great. The topping is sweet and salty and rich and a little crunchy – while the squash is a little sweet, soft and a touch velvety. The two play well nicely together.
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, paleo-ish [miso is not strictly paleo (neither is rice wine vinegar for that matter), but as far as soy products go – fermented isn’t quite the devil that unfermented is. I will also love my rice wine vinegar forever, regardless of what the paleo police say]
Miso Pepita Broiled Squash
Adapted from Broiled Spaghetti Squash with Walnut-Miso Glaze by Saveur
1 medium butternut squash
Coconut oil
1/2 c. pepitas
1/4 c. white miso
3 Tbsp. maple syrup
3 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
Pinch red chili flakes
Pinch kosher salt
First, prep a baking sheet with tinfoil and set your oven to heat to 400 F.
Peel your squash with a vegetable peeler, cut into two easier-to-manage hunks, and cut into potato wedge looking sizes (scooping the guts from the bell end as you go). Lay on the prepped cookie sheet and drizzle a little coconut oil over. Toss well to coat. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
Bake 30 minutes or until soft and just starting to brown a bit on the edges.
While your squash is baking, make the crumbly goodness.
Combine the pepitas, miso, maple syrup, vinegar, chili flakes & salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until combined and gravelly looking. Taste. The mixture should be weird but strangely delicious and addicting after the second taste or so.
If you need to cut the weirdness, adding a little more maple syrup would work; adding some “warmer” spices (like cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice) may also help. I kept it weird.
When your squash is done, move your rack up and kick the oven on to broil.
Top your squash with the miso pepita mixture – I used the whole batch when I made it (mostly because I was already obsessed with the taste, but in hindsight this was a wise choice).
Broil 3 minutes or so, until the top is nice and crunchy and browned.
Serves 4 as a side.
October 17, 2014
Tattoo update – the outline is finished; shading comes next.
October 16, 2014
Signs, signs, everywhere are signs.
October 15, 2014
Hallway leftovers
October 14, 2014
Biggie Biggie Biggie
What To Do With A Box Of Vegetables: Paisley Farms Box 19
This year’s CSA is from Paisley Farm, a 25-acre operation located in Tivoli, NY. Paisley Farm grows organically and plants with the chef in mind. The 22-week CSA runs from June – October and I purchased the standard vegetable share. This share includes 8-9 vegetables and herbs per week (8-12 pounds) – enough to provide a family of three with 3-4 dinners’ worth of veg. The price equals out to $25 per week, the cost of which will be accounted for in my weekly Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking posts.
Paisley Farm 2014 CSA Box 19
1 butternut squash
1 head leaf lettuce
1 bunch baby fennel
1 bunch chard
1 bunch kale
1 small head cauliflower
1 Napa cabbage
5 white potatoes
Leftover From Previous Weeks
Frozen peppers
8 Japanese eggplant
1 pepper
1 delicata squash
How I Used My Share
I made a mash out of the cauliflower, which I served with pork chops & sauteed chard.
I broiled the delicata squash simply with some sesame oil and ate it for lunch in one sitting, it was so good.
I had raw bell pepper for lunch one day with some rotisserie chicken.
Waste: 8 eggplant, 1 head lettuce
My Favorite Dish From This Box
Mmmmmm… cauli mash. So silky, so delicious.
Next Week
Going into next week, I have: 2 butternut squash, 5 potatoes, 1 head curly kale, 1 Napa cabbage, 1 bunch baby fennel, 2 Japanese eggplant.
Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking – Week of October 13 – 17
A number of people I know are completely flabbergasted when contemplating sticking to a budget while eating a primarily “paleo” diet. I’m hoping to shed a little light on that issue for those of you on the fence about eating healthfully in this manner – it *can* be done – and done well – without spending all the money. All it takes is a little planning.
A little background: I live in Brooklyn, NY, and the grocery prices here are definitely not the same as what you will find in other areas of the country. If you live in say, Raleigh NC for example – you may very well be able to cut this grocery bill by a third, depending upon where you shop. For where I live, where I shop and what I buy, $100 a week is a doable budget without having to sacrifice the quality I want too much. My DH thinks $130 is probably more realistic with our morning smoothie supplies, but I want to shoot for $100. I aim to make 4-5 dinners for two and 5 lunches per week, plus two smoothies per day six days of the week with my budgetary allowance and update you all weekly on what’s going on. Let’s see if I can make it.
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My CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares are going strong, so I will be doing things a little differently with the vegetable portion of my meal planning for the next few months (until October). My share averages out to $25 a week, which will come off the top of my budget allotment and will comprise the bulk of my non-smoothie-related vegetable purchases. If you’re curious to see how I use my CSA veggies up, check out my What To Do With A Box Of Vegetables posts.
Menu for Last Week (Week of October 6 – 10)
The Plan vs. Reality
Ok guys, so I was incredibly slack this week in posting. I blame it on not going grocery shopping until Monday and having my week cut short by vacation!
Monday
- The Plan – Delicata squash & fennel salad with miso & kale and duck
- Reality – I did my salad, just with harissa and it was fantastic
Tuesday
- The Plan – Cilantro cauli rice with peppers and spicy chicken
- Reality – I actually did good here – made the rice, only with crackling chicken from Nom Nom Paleo instead of a spicy chicken because, as it turned out, I bought bone-in skin-on chicken thighs instead of my usual variety. A happy accident.
Wednesday
- The Plan – A tomato sauce with eggplant & ground beef over squash mash
- Reality – Forgot we had planned on meeting friends for dinner – which we did.
Thursday
- The Plan – I’m on vacation!
- Reality – My dinner was a quick salad from the airport + crapton of pre-packed plane snacks.
Friday
- The Plan – Still on vacation!
- Reality – And dinner was fantastic (pork chops + asparagus & mushrooms, if you must know)
Lunches
- The Plan – Leftovers. Try to eat some veggies.
- Reality – That happened. I had the last of the Napa cabbage with pulled pork and an egg, plus slipped things like half a bell pepper into other leftovers. Yum.
Extras
- The Plan – Nothing planned.
- Reality – And nothing happened.
This Week: October 13 – 17
I have leftover CSA veggies this week and $75 to spend on groceries. I was out of town when I generally plan menus and I knew I didn’t want to bug the hubby to go shopping in my stead, so I didn’t really plan anything and went shopping on Monday.
This Week’s Proposed Menu
- Monday vague plan: Eat out
- Tuesday vague plan: I’d love pulled pork, but that probably isn’t happening
- Wednesday vague plan: Vegan cheese intrigues me
- Thursday vague plan: I’d like to waffle something
- Friday: No plans.
- Lunch: Leftovers.
- Extras: Back on the almond milk train.
Shopping List & Cost Breakout
Grocery Store Key: WF = Whole Foods, TJ = Trader Joe’s
Shopping List
3 Meats
Other stuff we need that I think of last minute and can’t usually fit into the budget
Avoid the snack aisle
Olive oil ($5.99 @ TJs)
Chicken tenders ($4.34 @ TJs)
Pork chops ($7.55 @ TJs)
Flank steak ($18.79 @ TJs)
Ghee ($4.79 @ TJs)
Smoothie supplies
2 bags kale ($4.58 @ TJs)
1 bag spinach ($1.99 @ TJs)
5 apples (these were mistakenly rung up as bananas – $1.45 @ TJs)
Limes (1 lb bag – $1.99 @ TJs)
2 avocados ($2.78 @ TJs)
Coconut water ($3.69 @ TJs)
Extras: Skipjack tuna ($1.49) and Albacore tuna ($1.69) to build my emergency protein rations, 2 pears ($0.79 & $0.69) for snacks.
Total TJs: $62.70
Total For The Week: $62.70; $12.30 under budget. *happy dance* Whoo! Whoo! I love it when the grocery gods smile upon me.
Pantry/items repurposed from last week: fats, spices, CSA veggies.
October 13, 2014
Somebody’s happy mom is home (but really that she had rotisserie chicken for lunch).
Gastography 