Wednesday, January 13, 2010
New Year’s Actions
Finding myself – back to the basics…
I don’t know about you, but the new year bring in a lot of soul-searching, or, as my husband would say, anxiety for him, as he doesn’t know what his crazy wife will want to do in the new year. I hate the word “resolutions” as many call it. I like to think of it as actions. I’ve made many resolutions that die before they leave the shutters of my mind, so I figure, a new word will help me help myself better.
One of my first actions this year was to think about food differently. I’m tired of making the same old rice, roti, curry, meat dishes. Not only is Indian cooking time consuming, but leftover portions, after two meals, tend to weigh me down, with the smell and the tiredness of it all. I decided to expand my repertoire not only with different recipes and cuisines but to get back to the basics. Like trying out more seasonal veggies and not just making Indian style versions of them, updating my pantry with more whole grains – quinoa, wild rice. Although what I will do with them, we’ll see…
This week was a really good start. Monday’s dinner was roasted kale (kudos to my cousin for introducing this delish starter to me) and asparagus to start, with pav bhaji. Yes, Indian, I know, but it was a combination of four or more veggies, easily cooked and consumed, I must say. My two-year old had a blast tearing off the kale leaves from the stem while prepping it for the oven.
Tuesday night was fish and a ready-mix salad – freshly shopped for at the grocery store, but with a dinner prep time of 20 mins of less!!! Added a few spicy ingredients and sizzled the fish in a saucepan. I could have added some version of bread, in hindsight. Next time…
Tonight, I’m planning a whole wheat spaghetti & store bought marinara, with oven roasted thinly sliced eggplants and zucchini (and asparagus still in the fridge from Monday) and a great fresh salad recipe - shredded beets and carrots – from this author/chef I stumbled across on NPR www.cucinanicolina.com. Shredded beets, carrots, some lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Tomorrow, I’ll probably revert back to some version of chicken curry, before the other members of my household (including me, at some point, I’m sure) revolt in protest at alien combinations being forced down their palates, but in this process, I’m re-discovering how much I used to enjoy cooking and baking. These past few years, despite the obvious relish with which I watched the Food Network, I grew disdainful of cooking day in and day out. I’m not sure how much steam my current interest will run on, but I’m hoping it will last a while, because I cannot see myself doing take-out 2-3 times a week like I used to. Forget about the expense and the growing abdominal fat, (which, it is rumored you can never get rid of!) but the taste these days is just so blah! The oil smells stale most of the time; you wonder what’s in there the rest of the time…
I also came across an interesting article in the Sac Bee a few weeks ago. http://www.sacbee.com/161/story/2426657.html Apparently, a farm just outside Sacramento http://www.delriobotanical.com allows you to purchase a box of fresh veggies and fruits for $20 a week (catch is that you have to pay for the whole quarter in advance) along with recipes or suggestions for how to cook the produce. This sounds fabulous! I read the reporters article with relish, but my enthusiasm started nose-diving about half-way through the article. I didn’t know about more than half the veggies and I don’t think I ate any of them at all… I guess this is going to have to wait to see how my life plan action is taking effect in the next few weeks. Figure, if I sign up closer to the summer, at least I’ll know what to do with the abundant summer produce that I’m mostly familiar with, but I wouldn’t be making any bets if I were you!
I don’t know about you, but the new year bring in a lot of soul-searching, or, as my husband would say, anxiety for him, as he doesn’t know what his crazy wife will want to do in the new year. I hate the word “resolutions” as many call it. I like to think of it as actions. I’ve made many resolutions that die before they leave the shutters of my mind, so I figure, a new word will help me help myself better.
One of my first actions this year was to think about food differently. I’m tired of making the same old rice, roti, curry, meat dishes. Not only is Indian cooking time consuming, but leftover portions, after two meals, tend to weigh me down, with the smell and the tiredness of it all. I decided to expand my repertoire not only with different recipes and cuisines but to get back to the basics. Like trying out more seasonal veggies and not just making Indian style versions of them, updating my pantry with more whole grains – quinoa, wild rice. Although what I will do with them, we’ll see…
This week was a really good start. Monday’s dinner was roasted kale (kudos to my cousin for introducing this delish starter to me) and asparagus to start, with pav bhaji. Yes, Indian, I know, but it was a combination of four or more veggies, easily cooked and consumed, I must say. My two-year old had a blast tearing off the kale leaves from the stem while prepping it for the oven.
Tuesday night was fish and a ready-mix salad – freshly shopped for at the grocery store, but with a dinner prep time of 20 mins of less!!! Added a few spicy ingredients and sizzled the fish in a saucepan. I could have added some version of bread, in hindsight. Next time…
Tonight, I’m planning a whole wheat spaghetti & store bought marinara, with oven roasted thinly sliced eggplants and zucchini (and asparagus still in the fridge from Monday) and a great fresh salad recipe - shredded beets and carrots – from this author/chef I stumbled across on NPR www.cucinanicolina.com. Shredded beets, carrots, some lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Tomorrow, I’ll probably revert back to some version of chicken curry, before the other members of my household (including me, at some point, I’m sure) revolt in protest at alien combinations being forced down their palates, but in this process, I’m re-discovering how much I used to enjoy cooking and baking. These past few years, despite the obvious relish with which I watched the Food Network, I grew disdainful of cooking day in and day out. I’m not sure how much steam my current interest will run on, but I’m hoping it will last a while, because I cannot see myself doing take-out 2-3 times a week like I used to. Forget about the expense and the growing abdominal fat, (which, it is rumored you can never get rid of!) but the taste these days is just so blah! The oil smells stale most of the time; you wonder what’s in there the rest of the time…
I also came across an interesting article in the Sac Bee a few weeks ago. http://www.sacbee.com/161/story/2426657.html Apparently, a farm just outside Sacramento http://www.delriobotanical.com allows you to purchase a box of fresh veggies and fruits for $20 a week (catch is that you have to pay for the whole quarter in advance) along with recipes or suggestions for how to cook the produce. This sounds fabulous! I read the reporters article with relish, but my enthusiasm started nose-diving about half-way through the article. I didn’t know about more than half the veggies and I don’t think I ate any of them at all… I guess this is going to have to wait to see how my life plan action is taking effect in the next few weeks. Figure, if I sign up closer to the summer, at least I’ll know what to do with the abundant summer produce that I’m mostly familiar with, but I wouldn’t be making any bets if I were you!
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This is interesting. I recently read a similar article about the benefits of eating locally - - i never really thought about imported produce losing most of their vitamin content en route...i also am going to try to eat more local produce this year!!
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