Cooking Marathon Mondays

So this semester I have Mondays off (yay!), so I try to plan my menu in such a way that I can do my more labor intensive cooking on Monday, before my school week starts. I'm at the beginning of a new menu cycle, and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today, absorbed in preparing broccoli-potato soup and sausage cassoulet. I had to hang around the apartment anyway, because the annual termite inspection guy was going to show up. He surveyed my (luckily clean and tidy) apartment for all of two minutes with a flashlight. No termites. That's heartening news of course, but as I am going to be moving soon, I wasn't overly concerned with the termite population. As to the moving soon, more about that in a future post.

First I need to rate the recipes from my last menu.

Miso Shrimp and Rice:

This was something I threw together with things I had on hand, and it was OK, but doesn't merit a recipe.

Convenience: 5

Deliciousness: 3

Value: 4

Left-over worthiness: 4

Good for you-ness: 4

Roasted Potatoes in Romesco Sauce:

I adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, and I must admit I was a bit in over my head here. The Romesco sauce was complicated but ultimately amazing; the potatoes a hot mess. Prepared properly, the deliciousness quotient would certainly be more on this one.

Convenience: 2

Deliciousness: 3.5

Value: 3

Left-over worthiness: 3

Good for you-ness: 2

Pork Carnitas Tacos:

Convenience: 2

Deliciousness: 5

Value: 3

Left-over worthiness: 4

Good for you-ness: 2

Spinach and Mushroom Frittata:

Convenience: 5

Deliciousness: 4

Value: 4

Left-over worthiness: 4

Good for you-ness: 3

Baked Polenta with Mushrooms:

Convenience: 4

Deliciousness: 4

Value: 5

Left-over worthiness: 5

Good for you-ness: 3

Skillet Black Beans and Potatoes:

Now, I will probably post the recipe for this eventually, because the first time I made it I was so pleased with the results. It was one of those meals that I was sad about when there wasn't any left. This time around I made it with presoaked as opposed to canned black beans, and I really didn't prepare the beans that well. The result was disappointing. However, I know the potential is there.

Convenience: 3.5

Deliciousness: 4

Value: 5

Left-over worthiness: 4

Good for you-ness: 5

Patchwork Pasta (Penne with Chicken and Spinach):

This reheats pretty well; the only negative is the spinach--pleasantly wilted on the first go--is listless and sad on subsequent re-heatings. I added a little bit of fresh spinach to my leftovers to brighten it a bit.

Convenience: 4

Deliciousness: 5

Value: 4

Left-over worthiness: 4

Good for you-ness: 4

Here's my menu for the next two weeks. I am incorporating made-from-scratch recipes with frozen leftovers, in an effort to clean out my freezer as much as possible pre-moving day:

Broccoli-Potato Soup x 4

Sausage Cassoulet x 4

Achiote Chicken and Rice (made with frozen achiote paste from Puerco Pibil) x 4

Ethiopian-style Yellow Split Peas (repurposing frozen Yellow Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup) x 2

Broccoli and Sausage Strata x 4

Onion Galette x 4

Cheesy Polenta with Roasted Root Vegetables x 4

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas (premade, frozen) x 2

As I mentioned above, my day was mostly taken up in the preparation of two rather labor intensive but satisfying culinary endeavors: Broccoli-Potato Soup and Sausage Cassoulet. Here are recipes for both.

This soup is at once light and healthy as well as pleasingly rich and creamy, thanks to pureeing, without the addition of any milk or cream. It's also quite easy to prepare, provided you have a food processor or immersion blender. It can be made vegetarian or vegan by subbing vegetable broth for the chicken broth, olive oil for the butter, and omitting the Parmesan cheese. A tasty vegan alternative to the cheese might be a topping of crushed toasted almonds or some kind of nut cheese.

Broccoli-Potato Soup

2 cups broccoli stems, peeled and diced into ½ inch chunks

2 cups red potato, peeled and diced into ½ inch chunks

2 Tbsps butter

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups chicken broth

3 cups water

¼ cup almonds, toasted and ground in a food processor or spice grinder

2 cups broccoli florets, finely chopped

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided in half

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large pot and sauté the garlic and onion about five minutes. Add the potatoes, broccoli stems, chicken broth, water, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat; simmer about ten minutes, or until the broccoli and potatoes are “crisp tender”; that is, tender but not mushy. Using an immersion blender, or in batches in a food processor, puree the soup to your preferred thickness. Stir in the broccoli florets, almonds, and half of the Parmesan cheese and simmer for five more minutes. Serve garnished with remaining Parmesan. Four servings.

If you're unfamiliar with cassoulet, it's kind of a cross between a stew and a casserole. It's a hearty French peasant dish made with white beans and some kind of fatty meat (often a combination of duck and sausage). I adapted this recipe from Real Simple. This humble version, which takes advantage of inexpensive winter root vegetables, carrot and parsnips, is an easier take on the more complicated all-day-long version. Still, it's quite satisfying. It's very flavorful, perfect for a cold winter's day, and preparing it will make you feel like Julia Child.

Sausage Cassoulet

2 large sausage links, casings removed (I used Polish, but Italian would be fine, too)

3 cups prepared white beans, drained (about 1 and 1/2 cans)

2 medium carrots, peeled and diced

2 medium parsnips, peeled and diced

1 red onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup crushed tomato

1 tsp dried thyme

Dash of Cayenne pepper

Salt and black pepper to taste

1 cup buttered breadcrumbs (I used sourdough, which I recommend)

In a Dutch oven or lidded, range-top safe casserole dish, brown the sausage over medium heat, breaking it up with a spoon. When the sausage is browned, drain off excess fat. Add all remaining ingredients except breadcrumbs to the pot. Stir well to combine. If needed, add more chicken stock and/or tomato to the pot to keep the vegetables moist. Simmer covered until the carrots and parsnips are tender, at least 30 minutes. While the pot is simmering, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. When the vegetables are tender, top with the butter breadcrumbs and bake uncovered for 10-15 minutes, until the breadcrumbs are toasted. 4 servings.

As Julia Child would say, bon appetit!

The Sublime and the Beautiful in the Kitchen

I've been reading Burke for my Romanticism class, and in case you were unaware, the Sublime is something that is obscure and inspires terror. Rather like a daunting recipe you have never tried before. The Beautiful, meanwhile, is small, round, pleasantly varied in texture, and non-threatening. Like a frittata.

My current menu is a schizo mix of ambitious grand project meals and comfortable "I'd rather not cook tonight but I should" fallbacks. It's always good to have a little bit of both. The benefits of the ambitious meals are that, if you pull them off you have the satisfaction of being really impressed with your intrepidness and skill in the kitchen, and you also have a new thing that you now know how to make. The benefits of the fallbacks are that they are familiar and thus easy, and you know that although they may not blow your mind, they will always be good.

This is my menu:

Miso shrimp with rice x 3

Roasted potatoes in Romesco sauce x 4

Pork carnitas tacos x 3

Spinach and mushroom frittata x 4

Baked polenta and mushrooms x 4

Skillet black beans and potatoes x 4

Penne with chicken and spinach x 4

I present you now with recipes for one grand project (that I pulled off handily) and one fallback that never fails to please. The first is pork carnitas, a time-consuming but deceptively simple and maximally delicious way to prepare an inexpensive cut of pork. I reserve the right to apply my name to this recipe, because I made some changes to recipes I found online that I feel make these carnitas distinctive yet authentically Mexican in flavor.

Emily's Pork Carnitas Tacos

1 lb pork butt (aka pork shoulder), cut into 2” cubes

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 serrano pepper, minced

1 cup orange juice

1 splash of beer (preferably not a dark beer)

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp black pepper

1 tsp coarse salt

For the tacos:

Corn tortillas (I use Alejandro's corn gorditas--made here in Tucson)

Diced white onion, radish, avocado, cilantro and lime wedges for garnish

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Combine the spices in a bowl. Heat some olive oil in the bottom of a cast iron baking dish, or skillet with a lid, over medium-high heat. Toss the pork in the spices until well coated and braise in batches. Remove the braised pork to a plate. Add the orange juice, beer, garlic and serrano to the dish and return the meat to the dish. Add enough water to just cover the meat. When the liquid reaches the simmering point, remove from the heat and place in the oven. Cook covered for three hours, giving the meat a stir every ½ hour to hour. When the pork is done, move the meat to a dish to cool, reserving the cooking juices. While the pork cools, prep the taco garnish and set aside. When the pork is cool, shred it with your fingers. It should shred quite easily. Heat some of the reserved cooking liquid in a skillet over medium high heat until it simmers. Add enough shredded pork to cover the bottom of the pan and let it cook until it begins to crisp. Let it crisp on both sides. Scoop a little of the pork onto warm corn tortillas and serve topped with the garnish, a fresh squeeze of lime, and a pinch of salt. Yields 8 small tacos.

The second recipe is a simple frittata, variations upon which I make a lot because they are quick, tasty, light, and easily adaptable to whatever ingredients you may have on hand. If you're not familiar with frittata, it's kind of like a quiche without the crust--and while it might seem tricky, with a little practice it's quite easy. This is one of those great dishes that works equally well as dinner or breakfast. Although I've thrown every vegetable imaginable into frittatas before, this minimalist interpretation is one of my favorites.

Spinach and Mushroom Frittata

6 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used a combination of white and baby bellas)

2 cups sliced baby spinach

1/4 cup grated cheese + 2 Tbsps Parmesan (I used white cheddar this time, but almost any cheese will do. I've used Swiss, jack, smoked gouda, feta, even bleu in the past)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In an oven-safe non-stick skillet (about 12" in diameter), heat about 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and allow them to saute until they just start giving of their liquid. While they cook, beat the eggs with the milk and stir in the grated cheese, salt, pepper, and paprika. Add the spinach to the skillet, and cook until it just starts to wilt. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet, give it a gentle stir, and sprinkle the top with parmesan and nutmeg. Taking care that the flame is not too high (you don't want to make the bottom of the frittata rubbery), cook the frittata just until the edges start to set. When you can gently lift the edge away from the pan with a rubber spatula, but the center is still liquid, transfer the skillet to the oven and bake uncovered for 10-15 minutes, or just until it puffs up and the center is set. You can check by jiggling the pan. If the center jiggles, it needs more time. Once it is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for at least a minute before removing from the pan. If you are adventurous and dextrous, you can remove it from the pan by placing a plate on top and quickly flipping it. If you are like me and prone to clumsiness, use a rubber spatula to gently loosen the frittata from the bottom of the pan and carefully slide it onto a cutting board. Cut into four wedges. Delicious served with a side of pears and walnuts with a little balsamic vinegar.

Big Shrimpin'

I couldn't think of a name for this post, but since it features a shrimp recipe, I decided to name it after this show on the History channel that my brother and mother are apparently obsessed with. I haven't seen it myself, but I hear it has even more suck-you-in-ness than Deadliest Catch. And that is a show I have been sucked into for hours on end.

Anyway, it's taken me a while to get around to this; I've had a lot of things on my to-do list since I returned to Tucson a week ago. I did massive amounts of cleaning and apartment downsizing yesterday, and it occurred to me that in the process I must have lost my shopping list from last week. No big deal, really; I was pretty inefficient as a shopper last week, and I went to Sunflower three times, I think, in as many days. Also, I have a car now, which means I don't have to be as locked in to a shopping plan. Having a car is really spoiling me, though. After things start settling down around here and I get into the groove of the new semester, I hope I'll get back to biking to the store. But anyway, here's the menu I'm in the midst of right now:

Cauliflower & chickpea ragout x 4

Pork shoulder with braised cabbage and onion x 3

Miso soup with tofu and soba noodles x 3

Tuscan white beans and shrimp x 3

Gnocchi with spinach pesto x 3

Pan fried chicken with fresh "slaw" x 4

Spiced carrot and lentil soup x 4

Miso glazed shrimp with rice x 2

As you can see, I'm trying to alternate meals featuring meat with meatless meals in an effort to be...I don't know. Something. I guess I have the impression that it's a little healthier to do it that way. It's more interesting, in any case.

Last night I made Tuscan white beans and shrimp. In trolling the internet for shrimp recipes (I never cooked shrimp myself until recently, but I've decided I really like to use it), I came across several that combined shrimp and white beans. It didn't sound all that interesting of a combination to me, to be honest, but I was intrigued by how many recipes seemed to be out there. I figured there must be something in it, so I thought I'd give it a try. I came across a recipe on Dragon's Kitchen that looked like the thing I wanted, with an Italian spin. I modified Dragon's recipe in some ways because I didn't have everything the recipe called for--also, the original recipe uses a LOT of olive oil! I've got nothing against liberal use of olive oil, but this sounded excessive and like the result would be, well, oily. I did it my way, and I really liked how it turned out. This is another one of those meals that I would definitely make for a special dinner. It's light, and flavorful, and it seems very elegant, but it's actually incredibly simple to put together and doesn't take a lot of ingredients. I definitely encourage you to give this one a try.

Tuscan white beans and shrimp

2 cups white beans, such as cannellini or great northern (either canned or pre-soaked and cooked works)

12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 cup crushed tomato

4 cloves garlic, sliced

1 cup packed baby spinach leaves (the original recipe calls for basil, which also sounds good--a combination would probably work well)

Juice of half a lemon

about a tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste

dried basil (if you didn't use fresh), salt and pepper to taste

You need two skillets for this recipe. Put the beans in the first skillet and drizzle with olive oil. Add enough water, or reserved liquid from the can if you used canned beans, to keep the beans moist. Let them sit over low heat just to keep them warm while you prepare the shrimp. Stir occasionally to make sure they're not sticking, and add more liquid if need be. In the second skillet, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Cook the shrimp just until it is pink and opaque, about a minute. Tossing it while you cook produces better results. Use a slotted spoon to remove the shrimp to a bowl. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes to the skillet and cook until the garlic begins to turn golden. Add the tomato and spinach (or basil) and stir to combine, and cook for about a minute. Add the lemon juice and spices. Return the shrimp to the pan and toss well in the tomato sauce, and cook just long enough to reheat. Toss with the beans and serve. This makes three servings, with 4 shrimp per. Enjoy!

Grocery Day? Already??

I tell you what. The month of October is not shaping up to be super for the Sexy Divorcee. My reading load has gotten ridiculous, my students are taking up all of my energy, my house is a mess, and there are so many damn birthdays and parties and things going on! I haven't had a break since the month started, and I'm not likely to get one any time soon. It's getting to be a "clean all the things?" kind of situation over here.

So I was chagrined to realize that, oh my god, two weeks have gone by and I'm running out of food. I have to go to the grocery store today; I don't have time to do it tomorrow, and anyway I am out of coffee, and what is the point of living if there is no coffee? So I made up my plan for the next two weeks, and headed off to the store. I don't know how this happened, but the bill was a little pricey this week, almost $90. Luckily I just got paid, but yikes. I did buy some staples that I was running out of that are a little more expensive--olive oil and stuff--but jeez. An 8 oz bag of frozen peas was like, $3 or something. That seems like a lot. I found myself wandering through the store going, "wow, that seems like a lot," well, a lot, this morning. But anyway, my shopping is done, so I can get back to all the other things I need to do.

Before I get into my list and plan for the next two weeks, let's rank and review my last plan. Take a look at this post to learn more about my ranking and review criteria. I am adding a new one: good-for-you-ness. This criterion (like the rest of them, honestly) is kind of sketchy, since I'm not a nutrition expert or anything. It's mostly based on my sense of things.

1. Sweet and Sour Pork

Convenience: 3

Deliciousness: 5

Value: 3

Leftover-worthiness: 4

Good-for-you-ness: 4 (good balance of protein and vegetables, and the sauce isn't fatty or anything. It might be a bit on the salty side to be considered truly healthy)

2. Tony Rigatoni

Convenience: 4

Deliciousness: 4

Value: 4 (the sausage is really the only thing here that is a bit more expensive)

Leftover-worthiness: 3

Good-for-you-ness: 3 (the sweet potato and arugula are full of vitamins; the sausage, unfortunately, is full of fat)

3. Chicken mole enchiladas

Convenience: 2

Deliciousness: 4

Value: 3

Leftover-worthiness: 3-4 (I would say this is a solid 4 if you have a microwave; I don't, and reheating them well is a bit tricky for me)

Good-for-you-ness: 3 (I'm going to go ahead and call this moderately healthy, even though the chocolate, nuts, cheese, and cooking oil add fat. The sauce is vegetable and vitamin rich, chicken is lean, and the corn tortillas are whole-grain.)

4. Chana Masala

Convenience: 5

Deliciousness: 4

Value: 4

Leftover-worthiness: 5

Good-for-you-ness: 5

5. Chicken with Roasted Vegetable Pilaf

I realize have not posted a recipe for this one. I simply didn't have time. I'll get around to it eventually.

Convenience: 3

Deliciousness: 3

Value: 4

Leftover-worthiness: 3

Good-for-you-ness: 5

6. Yellow Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup

I also haven't posted a recipe for this, but I pretty much used this recipe from Fat Free Vegan, substituting arugula for kale.

Convenience: 4

Deliciousness: 2-3 (My version of this didn't taste bad, it was just kind of boring and disappointing. It would have been better if I had used the whole spices instead of substituting ground, and if I had an immersion blender than I could have used to smooth it out a bit. On the upside, it is totally vegan, and fat free.)

Value: 5

Leftover-worthiness: 4

Good-for-you-ness: 4

I also made tuna melts and tomato soup, but because they were not part of my original plan, I won't rank them.

So here's my plan for the next two weeks. New recipes are in italics:

Dal nirvana x 3 (once again, this was on my last plan, but I haven't made it yet)

Butter chicken and rice x 4

Rigatoni with sausage, peppers and onions x 4

Fried rice x 2

White bean and chicken chili x 4

Shrimp tacos x 2

Pasta carbonara x 3

Cuban black beans and shrimp x 2

And here's my shopping list:

Frozen peas

Unsalted butter, 1 lb

Skim milk, 1 quart

Black beans, 2 cans

Great northern beans, 1 lb dry

Crushed tomatoes, 28-oz can

Diced green chiles, 1 can

Low sodium chicken stock, 1 quart

Extra virgin olive oil

Vegetable oil

Corn tortillas, 1 dozen

Coffee beans, 1 lb

Parmesan, bulk wedge

Bacon, 1/2 lb

Chicken breasts, package of 3

Frozen Baja shrimp, 1 lb bag

Red onions, 3 lb bag

Garlic

Napa cabbage

Roma tomatoes, 1 lb

Cilantro, 1 bunch

Bell peppers, 2 green, 1 red

1 avocado

2 mangos

2 grapefruit

4 bananas

I don't think any of the recipes I've chosen for the next two weeks are particularly complicated, and I've thrown a couple in there that are really fast and and easy; fried rice and shrimp tacos. I wanted to make things relatively easy, knowing that my work load isn't going to let up any time soon. I'll let you know how it goes.

Grocery Day!

Happy two-week anniversary to me. The beginning of the Sexy Divorcee's third week of existence happens to coincide with shopping day, and a new two-week plan.

First, maybe I should review last week's cycle. For the detailed menu, see this post. I'll list what I made from my favorite to least favorite, and rank on a scale of 1-5 for convenience, deliciousness, value, and leftover-worthiness, with 1 being least and 5 being most:

1. Puerco pibil

• convenience: 3 (easy, but time-consuming)
• deliciousness: Off the charts
• value: 3 (expensive spices, but good investment; dirt-cheap meat)
• leftover-worthiness: 4 (reheats well, but is best straight out of the oven. Would probably freeze well? I didn't have enough left over to find out.)

2. Louisiana red beans and rice

• convenience: 3 (simple but time consuming)
• deliciousness: 4
• value: 4 (pretty darn inexpensive per serving)
• left-over worthiness: 4 (keeps fairly well; can be frozen)

3. Ratatouille with chicken and rice

• convenience: 3 (simple but time consuming)
• deliciousness: 4
• value: 4
• left-over worthiness: 5 (just as good if not better reheated; also freezes well)

4. Summer succotash with bacon

• convenience: 3 (simple to make, but multi-tasking and different cooking techniques involved)
• deliciousness: 4
• value: 3 (combo of inexpensive and more specialized ingredients)
• left-over worthiness: 4 (good cold, but loses some crispness)

5. Kofta sandwiches

• convenience: 4 (pretty quick and easy)
• deliciousness: 3 (not bad)
• value: 3
• left-over worthiness: 3

6. Angel hair pasta with pesto and chicken

• convenience: 4 (as easy as measuring and boiling water)
• deliciousness: 3
• value: 2 (basil and nuts are a bit pricey)
• leftover-worthiness: 2 (it was great the first night; leftovers, not so much. I think if I were to do it over, I would definitely store the pesto and the pasta separately--not only did it seem to make the pasta soggy, but also, it didn't taste like much after a few days in the fridge except oily garlic. The fresh basil flavor disappeared.)

So here's my new menu (new recipes are italicized, transitional recipes are in green):

Chana masala (chick pea curry) with rice x 4 --this was the last thing on last week's plan, but I never got around to making it.

Sweet and sour pork x 4

Rigatoni with sweet Italian sausage, arugula and sweet potato x 4

Chicken molé enchiladas x 4

Yellow split pea and sweet potato soup x 4

Chicken with roasted vegetable pilaf x 2

Dal nirvana (curried lentils) with rice and homemade naan (Indian flatbread) x 2

And here's my shopping list, with changes and substitutions in green:

Canned pineapple

Tomato paste

Rigatoni

Dried yeast

Dried pasillo peppers

Dry roasted pumpkin seeds

Sesame seeds

unsweetened Mexican chocolate (They do not carry this. Odd, and sad. :( Now I must go to WF for it)

Almonds (bulk)

couscous Bulgar wheat (bulk)

Green lentils (bulk)

Chicken breasts

Sweet Italian sausage (3 links, just over a pound)

queso fresco Monterey Jack--their fresco was muy exspensivo

Wheat bread

Corn tortillas

Plain yogurt

Eggs

Sweet potatoes (technically, jewel yams) x 3

Arugula (5 oz package)

Green onion x 2

Onions x 2

Italian parsley x 1

Zucchini x 1

Lemons x 2

Fresh fruit (bunch of 4 bananas, 2 6-oz cartons of raspberries)

All for just over $70, which was about what I was guessing it would be. I continue to be in love with Sunflower. The employees are so nice there, and not in the creepy forced way that they are at Safeway. I'm just sad they didn't have my chocolate. So, there's at least one unscheduled shopping detour in my future.

Sexy Sunday Science

I heard this bit on Weekend Edition Sunday this morning about new studies about the science behind willpower. According to a new book, called Willpower, by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, willpower is more than just a state of mind; it's an actual function of the brain. And interestingly enough, it's a function that depends on having enough glucose circulating in your blood stream.

In the interview, Tierney said a couple of interesting things about how willpower works that stood out to me. He described how it's much easier to exert willpower to resist the temptation to eat a cookie if the cookie is out of sight. You're more likely to eat some Oreos if they're sitting in front of you than if they are hidden away in a drawer across the room. When asked about willpower and dieting, Tierney explained that one reason dieting is so hard is because it usually involves taking in less food than one is used to eating, and less food means lower levels of glucose, which means willpower can't function the way it's supposed to. "In order to diet you need willpower," Tierney said, "but in order to have willpower, you need to eat."

These two points of Tierney's speak exactly to principles underlying my whole system of shopping and menu planning. To start with, don't buy things that you know you wouldn't be able to resist if they were in your house. Sometimes I crave ice cream, or something like that, but that craving is pretty easy to resist when I don't have it around. More importantly, though, you need to eat. Eating healthfully doesn't mean eating less. In my case, I've found it actually means eating more, but eating better. More protein, veggies, and fruit. Changing my diet turned out to be surprisingly easy, at least in terms of my enjoyment of food. When I have good food in the fridge that's ready to eat, I don't find myself wishing I had a quesadilla or a slice of pizza instead. The somewhat more challenging part was learning to plan ahead, and to get used to making time to cook things more complicated than burritos or tuna melts. I suspect that this is really the hardest part for most people. It's not the idea of changing what you eat, it's changing how you eat--that is, how you tend to shop during the week and what you usually do about making dinner after a long day--that's hard. Planning makes all the difference.

So how do you come up with a plan? Well, I think you have to let food be the motivating factor. You should think about the meals that you really enjoy, and that you know how to make. (Maybe you don't know how to make many things; that's a problem unto itself that I will need to address in a different post. I always say, however, that if you can read, you can cook. I think that a lot of cooking failures, my own included, are the result of not reading a recipe attentively. Just following the directions carefully is usually all good cooking takes.) Think about it this way, if it helps: if you were going to go out to eat all week, what kind of restaurants would you like to go to? Thai? Italian? Mexican? OK. So, is there anything you get at that kind of place you could make on your own? The answer is often "yes." A simple example is your basic taco, that you can get from any taqueria, which is just a corn tortilla, some spiced meat filling, topped with chopped onion, cilantro, salsa, and lime juice. This is one tasty meal that is about as easy to make at home as it is to go to a restaurant and order it. And you can dress it up or down as much as you want. Anyway. Can you come up with three or four things you wouldn't mind eating throughout the week? Alright, then, you've got a menu.

Once you've got a menu, it's fairly easy to come up with a shopping list to get the things you need. Even if you have a menu that's kind of complicated and disparate, and requires a weird mix of items, don't let this intimidate you. It's far better, I think, to spend more money in one go, knowing where that money is going, than to shop frequently and randomly--buying fruits or vegetables you have no clear plan for that end up going bad, buying bread that languishes until it's moldy or stale, buying staples haphazardly so you end up with dozens of cans of something you use infrequently while you never seem to have enough pasta or rice on hand, etc. Make a shopping list, get everything that is on it, and don't get anything that isn't on it.

Getting motivated to cook is the hardest part. You need to think of cooking as a necessary task that needs to be done regularly, just like laundry, or cleaning the bathroom. And just like laundry and cleaning the bathroom, cooking need not be something you do every day. If you want to make something complicated, make it on your day off, and on the nights when you have no energy for cooking you don't have to do anything but reheat it. In addition, having an arsenal of simple, quick, tasty recipes at your disposal, like the pesto pasta I made the other night, or the succotash, or those tacos I mentioned earlier, is great, because you can throw them together anytime without a lot of effort. The key is to make things in the proper quantity. Make enough of something that you can get some leftovers out of it, but not so much that it will go bad before you finish it. Most of the recipes you'll see on this blog will make about four servings, or enough for a person living alone to feed themselves four times throughout the week. If you live with someone, doubling the recipes for two may cost you a little more money, but the increase in time and effort will be negligible. I actually think shopping for two (assuming that you have two incomes) can be more economical, because buying things in bulk often means you pay less for something per ounce. That's why they call big packages of things "economy-sized."

So back to the willpower thing. A final thing John Tierney said about willpower is that you can build it up and train it, like muscle. With practice, you can develop stronger willpower over time. I have found this to be the case with me and cooking. It used to make me tired to even think about, but now I'm used to it and it doesn't seem like such a chore any more. In fact, I really enjoy it, to the extent that for me it can be a way of procrastinating from working on something else that needs to get done. Well, maybe it's not procrastinating. Maybe it's just my brain craving the food it needs in order to focus on my other work. Right?

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

What a beautiful September day in Tucson! After two days of heavy monsoon rain, the air was fresh and clear this morning, with a steady--dare I say it--crisp breeze. It felt almost fall-like. Let's hope it keeps up. Anyway, it was great weather for riding to Sunflower Market. Let me say a few words about Sunflower. I think I might be in love. If you've never been to one before (as I never had until two weeks ago, when I happened to go with a friend), it's kind of like a Trader Joe's on a bigger scale. Like Whole Foods, it has a lot of natural and organic options, and bulk grains and nuts and things, but like Trader Joe's, you can actually afford the prices and the people who work there are very nice. They had everything I needed (except 1% milk quarts, so I went with skim). The produce section is great, and so is the meat counter. I found fresh andouille sausage, which they never seem to have at Safeway. The cost was pretty close to the $70 range I was predicting; the total bill ended up being $74.23. I suspect that I would have spent at least $100 at Whole Foods for the same items. So here's that list again, with some notes:

1. Bacon (1/2 pound bulk)
2. Pork (3 lbs boneless pork shoulder)
3. Andouille sausage (1/2 pound)
4. Quart of 1% milk (not available in quart size so I got skim)
5. 1/2 quart of lowfat plain yogurt (Nancy's brand)
6. 1/2 gallon of orange juice
7. Frozen lima beans
8. Coffee beans
9. White rice
10. Walnuts
11. Peanut butter
12. 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
13. 2 15-oz cans chickpeas
14. 2 15-oz cans red beans
15. Fresh fruit (2 6-oz cartons of raspberries and a pound of pluots)
16. Lemons (3 for $1)
17. Limes (3 for $1)
18. Cherry tomatoes (1 pint)
19. Avocados (3)
20. Bell peppers (3 green)
21. Serrano peppers (2)
22. Celery
23. Fresh basil
24. Salad greens (red-leaf lettuce head)
25. Whole-wheat pita bread
26. Freezer bags

So here's what I'm going to do with this stuff. As I mentioned previously, I plan my menu out for two weeks. To be more specific, I plan for 28 meals: 14 dinners and 14 lunches. (Breakfast isn't included because it often doesn't involve cooking. On most school mornings when I'm pressed for time I just have a bowl of oatmeal of a smoothie or something.) I allow for about four meals eaten outside the house in the course of two weeks (one dinner + one lunch out/week), which means I need to shoot for 24 meals. Because I am not about to make 24 separate meals, I come up with seven or eight recipes yielding 3-4 servings each (or more if it's freezable) that complement each other in terms of the ingredients required, the amount of prep time required, and the variety of flavors, to stick to and stretch out over the two weeks. Usually I'll have a couple things that are a bit heavier on meat and other things that are mostly vegetarian, some things that are more labor intensive and some that are quick and easy. I also try to incorporate at least one new recipe into the mix. It's not unusual for me to end up with more of one thing or less of another than I anticipated, but it works surprisingly well. Finally, if I do things right, I'll end up with at least one "transitional" recipe that will get me through the end of the two weeks into the next shopping cycle.

So my menu items for the week are as follows. Recipes that are new to me are italicized; transitional recipes are in green:

Tuna salad pita sandwich x 1

Ratatouille with chicken and rice x 4 (possible extra for freezing)

Puerco pibil and rice x 4 (adapted from Robert Rodriguez; possible extra for freezing)

Summer succotash with bacon x 3 (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Red beans and rice with andouille sausage x 4

Angelhair pasta with walnut pesto and chicken x 4 (hopefully extra pesto for freezing)

Kofta (Middle Eastern spiced meatballs) and rice x 2

Channa Masala (chickpea-tomato curry) x 2

Et voila! 24 dishes from 8 recipes, all of which function as complete meals within themselves including vegetable, protein, and a starch.

Since ratatouille is going to be my dinner tonight, let's end with my ratatouille recipe. Ratatouille is a highly-spiced vegetable stew with a tomato base traditional to French and North African cuisine. It's a good choice for a weekend meal because, though it is not difficult, it takes a bit longer to prepare. The cooked vegetables freeze well, so this is also a good recipe to double, so that you can freeze half and turn it into an easy meal sometime in the future. Ratatouille pairs well with rice, but could also be served with some rustic bread or couscous, or even a chunky pasta like rigatoni. Because ratatouille is pretty hearty, I prefer to have chicken with it instead red meat, but I imagine it would be tasty with beef or lamb kebabs. To turn it into a balanced vegetarian meal, add a can of drained chickpeas to the pot just before serving.

Because I don't have a grill, I plan to saute my chicken. If this is something you're unfamiliar with, it's quite easy. It works best if you pound the chicken breast first so that it's of an even thickness. You don't want a thick part staying pink inside. Place the chicken breast in a freezer bag or wrap well with saran wrap (maybe a couple of layers--there's nothing grosser than having pulverized bits of raw chicken flying at you). Beat the shit out of it until it's about a quarter inch thick. You can use a mallet, or if, like me, you don't have one, a rolling pin or the bottom of a small sauce pan will do. Heat a little olive oil in your skillet. Rub your chicken breast with a little olive oil and a spice rub of equal parts cumin, paprika, cinnamon, salt and pepper (this is something you can mix a quantity of and have lying around so you don't have to measure the spices out every time). Place the breast in the skillet and cook about five minutes on each side. That's how you saute a chicken breast. Easy. On to the ratatouille:

You will need:

Olive oil

1 yellow onion, sliced in thin half-moon slices

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium eggplant*, peeled and cubed

1 zucchini, cubed

1 yellow (summer) squash, cubed

2 cups crushed tomatoes and juice (about half a 28-oz can)

(Optional: 1/4 cup pitted green or kalamata olives)

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp ground cloves

salt and pepper to taste

In a deep skillet, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until the onion begins to soften. Add the eggplant and cook until the eggplant softens, stirring constantly. This is important, because eggplant is a squirrelly vegetable. It can suck up oil like a sponge, with the result that half your eggplant chunks are oily and the other half are bitter and dry. Stirring will ensure that it is evenly coated with oil. Once the eggplant is soft, add the remaining ingredients and, stirring, bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 1/2 an hour to an hour, until the vegetables are all soft and the sauce has thickened. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve. Yields 4 servings.

*You may want to salt your eggplant cubes before using them. Salting draws moisture out of the flesh and makes it less bitter and easier to cook. Toss the eggplant with salt and let sit in a colander for an hour. Rinse the pieces well and squeeze them in your hand to expel moisture. Pat dry with paper towels or a clean dish towel. You can do this with squash, too.

Cooking For One: An Introduction

Hi. I'm the Sexy Divorcee. Welcome to my blog. Let me tell you a little about what I'm doing here. (Sometimes I use bad words. Please don't be alarmed.)

I am a reasonably healthy adult, but the desire to be healthier was the push that started me down the road to becoming a more conscious cook. I have been slightly overweight since my mid-twenties, and I realized that once I hit my rapidly approaching thirties, just maintaining my weight was going to get harder, and losing weight was going to get significantly harder. Although I bike and walk everywhere and enjoy outdoor activities, I have an abhorrence of anything resembling structured exercise. If I was going to maintain my weight, changing the way I eat was far more realistic than suddenly becoming a jogger or something. I fuckin' hate jogging. Anyway.

I think diets are bullshit. If I was going to change the way I eat, the change was going to have to be permanently viable. I had to be able to continue to eat all the foods I like...that is, all the foods period. But I was willing to make some concessions in terms of frequency and amount. I didn't think this would be too hard; I don't eat a lot of junk food, and I don't have a big sweet tooth. I do love fries and pizza and stuff, but I only have those things occasionally when I'm out with friends. I cave to fast food cravings maybe three times a year. And I almost never spend grocery money on packaged snacks or highly processed quasi-meals. No pop tarts or hot pockets or soda or any of that crap. Once in a great while I would buy some tortilla chips (an entire bag of which, I will admit, I could easily have eaten in the space of two days, but still). So I didn't think making changes would be that difficult.

I went on the USDA's "my pyramid" website (it has since become the more sensical "my plate") and got a little obsessed with their menu planner tool. When I started plugging in the things I would eat on a typical day, I learned a lot about the state of my nutrition. Things I was eating too much of: Empty carbs, butter, and cheese (...and beer). I guess that wasn't a surprise. If somebody told me it was acceptable human behavior to do so, I could probably be content eating nothing but buttered sourdough toast and quesadillas for days on end. What I was surprised and intrigued to learn was how out of balance the rest of my diet was. I tried to be sure to eat fruits and vegetables and lean protein regularly, and I thought I was doing OK, but the truth is I wasn't getting enough of any of it. I realized that I was going to have to be very clever and creative if I was going to achieve a more balanced diet.

Now, after several months of experimenting, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I don't think my diet is perfectly balanced, but I'm not striving for perfection. It has gotten a lot better, and I know that I feel better in general as a result. I tend to be happier and have more energy, and I've even lost a little weight. Trying to meet my nutritional goals was frustrating at first; I spend probably twice as much money on groceries now as I used to. But I eat out less, and I waste a lot less of the food that I do buy, so it evens out. Also, incorporating more whole grains into my diet and cutting out all the butter and fatty dairy was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I've also cut back on the beer. Picking up a six-pack when I went grocery shopping used to be a matter of course; I only get beer occasionally now. (I haven't cut back on my beer consumption when I go out with friends, however. All things in moderation, including moderation, right?)

There are a number of challenges unique to my situation that I should probably outline. I have a very small kitchen, with virtually no counter space and a wee gas oven and range only 18 inches wide. I have no car, so all my grocery shopping has to be done by bike. Hence, all my groceries must fit on my bike. I live on a graduate student's small stipend (I won't say how much I make, but it's well below the poverty line), and I have a graduate student's hectic schedule. And, perhaps the biggest challenge, I live alone. I love living alone, but cooking healthfully and with variety for one requires a lot of creativity and adapting. Most recipes yield at least four servings, and the most economical and practical dishes--meals that can be made in one dish and keep well, like casseroles--typically yield job lots. A lasagna, for example, is a practical, healthy, affordable meal that will provide at least two dinners for a family of four. But if I made a regular-sized lasagna for myself, chances are it would go bad, or at the very least I would get sick of eating it, before I finished the whole thing, and I would end up throwing much of it away.

Must a single lady or gentleman subsist on burritos, sandwiches, frozen dinners, and takeout? Many do, but that gets monotonous and expensive, and doesn't allow for much control over nutrition. Through this blog I want to share my experiences with menu planning, shopping, and cooking to show that it's eminently possible for a person living alone to eat well and scrumptiously without expending tons of time and money. This isn't meant to be just another cooking blog. There will be a lot of recipes; some original, some adapted, some outright cribbed from other sources. But the objective is to present a record of the entire process: planning, shopping, cooking, and enjoying (or not) the results.

Thanks for coming along for the ride. I think this will be fun.