Dinner

I had in mind cooking some chickpeas and potatoes with cumin, garlic powder, a little turmeric, and salt, and then mashing or blending, making patties, then air frying. It turns out we ended up in a big rush, so I skipped the air frying and just served the chickpea-lentil mash (which I had blended) on its own. Results My daughter quite liked the main course; I thought it was good. My wife found it lacking a bit in spice. Ideas for the future I should try this again but with my original idea of air frying.

We have a new store that opened near our house last week called Sprouts ; we visited and found it doesn't have the variety and quality of coops or Whole Foods Market , but it's nice that it's nearby so we may occasionally visit. They had a few products we've not seen elsewhere, such as  Lightlife brand vegan "sausage" ravioli  that I picked up and decided to make today. It's not particularly healthy as it has 16g of fat and a long list of ingredients, but I thought we'd try it. (It turns out it had soy which my wife is a bit intolerant of, so I prepared some pasta instead for her but used the same sauce, side dish, and salad for her.) I made a homemade sauce by sauteeing chunks of just-ripe but firm tomato, bell pepper, garlic, and onion, and mixing in oregano, salt, and black pepper when off the heat. I don't often make tomato sauces - this one was good! I put, in this order, onion, garlic, frozen cauliflower, and frozen baby lima beans into a la...

I made a Yukon Gold-sweet potato-carrot hash cooked on a cast iron pan, plus a waterless baby lima bean and greens dish, along with a mixed tomato and olive salad. Dinner was good!

My wife ate on her own but I waited till after midnight to enjoy dinner with her cousin, visiting with us for a few days. I made air fried tofu by cutting tofu into approximately 3/8" x 1" x 2" pieces, dredging in a mixture of nutritional yeast + salt + jerk seasoning, and air frying first for 6m at 375°F, then for 4m more at 425°F. I served the tofu with a waterlessly cooked mix of kale, bell pepper, and onion, as well as brown rice that I had made in the pressure cooker (1 part rice to 1 3/4 parts water cooked with a touch of salt for 20m). Results Fried tofu (with no oil!) always comes out well in the air fryer, and my wife's cousin quite enjoyed it. I thought that the vegetables were a bit "flat" but my wife's cousin liked them. Ideas for the future Waterless cooking is nice, but I should be sure to use more vegetables. Having some cauliflower or broccoli might have been nice.

Today is Indian's Independence Day! My wife had the suggestion of putting a dinner together that has orange, white, and green from the Indian flag and I agreed that it was a good idea. (The Indian flag picture here is from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:India-flag-horiz-vert.svg  and is in the public domain.) I thought that I'd make a "striped" plate with white Basmati rice in the center (we prefer the taste and nutrition of whole grain rice, but white Basmati is also tasty and welcome for an occasional change). I chose split red lentils to form the basis of the leftmost stripe and some Fushimi chile peppers that I found at the local farmers' market a few hours earlier. The farmers' market visit was quite productive. Among my purchases were these three interesting items, including two that were new (to me): Fushimi frying pepper  or chile pepper, said to be like the shishito pepper that I enjoy but with less heat and more flavor, Petit Mersaillais pepp...

With my daughter's help (she loves udon noodles, and so do my wife and I), I made an udon noodle dish tonight. We chopped golden zucchini, shallot, and broccoli into small 3/8" chunks and air fried at 350°F for 6 minutes. I also had my daughter include some tofu pieces dredged in nutritional yeast/sesame seeds/salt, and a Field Roast brand vegan sausage cut into 1/4" pieces and halved; the tofu went with her meal and some with mine, and the sausage went with my wife's meal and some with mine. The noodles took 7m to cook on a low boil. I put the vegetables/tofu/sausage atop the noodles. My wife got some hot sauce and my daughter and I got soy sauce. A tomato and olive salad with ume plum vinegar, salt, and pepper, as well as sweet potato (cooked in the Instant Pot), completed the meal. Results We all loved dinner! Ideas for the future I had forgotten, but wanted to include ginger with the noodles; I should cook with udon noodles more often and remember to pair them wit...

I made a simple dinner tonight in two cast iron pans over medium heat. The side dish was easy - I just sauteed shishito peppers, turning occasionally until mostly blackened. I served with salt as a nice side dish. For my main course, I made a saute starting with onion and garlic. As they started clarifying in color, I then added two chopped golden zucchinis. A minute or so later, I added seitan chunks. When everything was reasonably well cooked after another 4 or 5 minutes, I added a little ginger and baby arugula. The arugula quickly cooked down, and I repeated with two more handfuls of the greens. I served with leftover rice. Results Pending Ideas for the future Pending