Days 6: Menu planning, grocery shopping, and meal cooking and meal eating

Day 6: Tuesday, January 21
Today I planned the rest of the week's meals, went grocery shopping after work and cooked a one-pot couscous meal. Wednesday-Friday of this week was a long one. Every Wednesday I stay late for Drama Club, Thursday I had fillings and Friday I'm always spent -even on a short week.

Day 7-9, Wednesday through Friday, meals were planned from Cook's Illustrated as:

• Pan-seared inexpensive steak (published September 1, 2005) and rice pilaf with vermicelli (published March 1, 2000),
• Parmesan-crusted chicken cutlets (published March 1, 2007) and make-ahead mashed potatoes (published March 12, 2007),
• Sweet and tangy oven-barbecued chicken (published May 1, 2004) and Brussels sprouts with garlic and farrow (published November 1, 1995).

 It didn't turn out quite as planned. Some things were cooked, some things weren't.We'll get to that later.

Tuesday's Dinner:

• Hangar Steak with Spicy Lemon Couscous (Bon Appetit)

This dinner turned out really well. It was pretty quick (hangar or skirt steak both cook so quickly because they're thin) and couscous is so fine it plumps up quickly.

This recipe has lots of veggies. Fennel, carrot, lots of delicious, crisp veggies.

Finely-chopped lemons go with the veggies.

 It's refreshing, literally, to have lemon with vegetables. They have a juicy, tart flavor that adds a different dimension because of the tough rind.

Fennel, carrot, lemon, cilantro, garlic and ground red pepper

The ground red pepper, though delicious and not as spicy as red pepper flakes, dulled the color significantly and made it look monotone. 

If you might recall, the nice butcher counter guy at Cermak mistook my order for 1 pound of flank steak for 4 pounds. I was disappointed to begin with, but then I froze the extra and it was just fine. Especially when they cleaned the fat off for me.

Season the steak with salt and pepper prior to pan frying.

When it's all said and done:

Cilantro for garnish and toast as a side.

 Less blurry:

It would be more beautiful with red pepper flakes instead of ground red pepper.

Day 3: Thursday. Dinner's Revenge

It's great to be a meat-eater:

Tonight is chicken. Tonight is roasted apples. Tonight turned out pretty ugly. Smelled great, tasted better.

• Roasted Chicken Thighs with lemon and oregano (Bon Apetit December 2012) -Add some sliced Braeburn apples to the above for a yummy fruit

It's been a tough week for us. I sprained my ankle on Saturday. Colin and I are battling a cold (and winning). eBay's Bucks are ambiguous to redeem on the mobile eBay and PayPal apps which caused Colin to worry that he was double-charged for purchase. Pretty stressful. Let's have some comfort food. Let's love ourselves, our home, our kitchen, and our meal. The perfect answer is always chicken.

One problem: Fammie doesn't agree that it is comfort food. She wants the tuna back. The cat's don't approve.

Apples for roasting.

It's great to cook for yourself:

This recipe calls for boneless chicken thighs. Do you know how tough it is to find boneless chicken thighs? I'm not sure the cooks at Bon Apetit shop at real grocery stores. So I de-boned them myself, nearly cutting my thumbs off in the process. Meat's ugly. My fruit is a little prettier.

Lemons for caramelizing.

The chicken recipe called for thin slices of lemons to brown prettily. Turns out, Thursday night I'm not a pretty cutter. Thank goodness for apple-corers.

Roasted apples with lemon and oregano.

Apple corers even make roasted apples look good.











It's great to eat what you cook:

There's a good reason I haven't photographed the meat. It's pretty, but only in the belly.

The prize for Ugliest Dinner: Roasted Chicken and Roasted Apples

We've been watching House of Cards while eating recently. It is great to enjoy meals on their own, but House of Cards is just so good.

The aftermath.

Tomorrow is Friday. Tomorrow is pasta. I always love pasta. I hope to share it with company.

Day 2: The Next Dinner

We suspect Jay can't smell, but he's approving of what we're doing.

Making delicious food in a loving way.

Too-focused on food?
One thing I'm hoping for with cooking daily is better health, mindful eating and weight loss. I saw a TED Talk by Sandra Aamodt: Why dieting doesn't work . Here Aamodt talks about research that shows dieting is ineffective and potentially damaging for people. She proposes that we work to respond to food as a need and learn to live in equilibrium with food. This speaks to me. I'm clinically overweight, I've been clinically obese and I want to be healthy and I want to fit into a different, skinnier, style of beauty. Maybe that's not the right way to think for success. Either way, food is amazing and let's cook something great tonight!

What's for dinner, love?
Tonight's menu:

• Grilled Ahi Tuna with mojo (How to Boil Water: life beyond takeout p. 187)
• Lemon pepper carrots (no recipe)

Wednesday is a late work night for me. Colin to the rescue!

Fammie loves tuna night.

The meat of the matter:

Steamed for 5 minutes prior to grilling.

Too many recipes for carrots are sweet. Colin asked for a savory recipe and we decided: lemon pepper. This is what I whipped up: The juice of 2 lemons, 2 Tbsp of crushed black pepper, 1 Tbsp of dry white wine, 3 Tbsp of capers, 1 Tbsp of 1% milk, 1 tsp of corn starch heated over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. For the carrots themselves, I grilled them.

Fumpie won't be left out. Maybe some tuna will fall?

The grilled tuna, seasoned with A1 Dry Rub prior to a quick grill on an electric grill, was accompanied with a mojo. Mojo is the name, or abbreviated name, of several types of sauces, varying in spiciness, that originated in the Canary Islands. (Wikipedia) This mojo was cilantro, a small amount of canned jalapeno, fresh-squeezed lime juice, garlic, and olive oil.

100% will do again.

The bottom line:
Delicious. An amazing recovery from bitter collard greens and a simple salad. Perfect way to get ready for 2 more work days.