cook new foods

So this last week was insanely hot! Temps over 100 degrees and we have no a/c, so I was NOT cooking much and definitely nothing new and exciting. But this was the same week we got our first delivery of our CSA (community supported agriculture) bin! I also read a great article on the NY Times by Micheal Pollen about how American’s don’t enjoy cooking/don’t really cook these days and it inspired me to defy current American trends.

So when the weather cooled down, I was excited to organize my fridge filled with fresh, local organic foods and start visioning what I could do with them. Last night I made a simple dinner using great tasting ingredients. The main dish was whole wheat spaghetti noodles tossed with pesto and heirloom baby tomatoes. I grilled (on the stove top) zuchinni spears and topped with parmesean cheese. Super simple, but tasty! Can’t wait to look at my ingredients tonight and figure something else out to do!

I bought a bread machine and am determined to start making all our sandwich bread. I made a loaf with a whole wheat recipe from the machine manual—too dense. Made a country grain bread that had great flavor but was too crumbly. Need to keep experimenting with new recipes to find one that the family is in love with, so this becomes part of our new routine!

I need to make another loaf in the next couple of days… Maybe I should make a sweet loaf too to play around with making treats. I do have pumpkin in the house right now…

Made an Indian lentil dish with a jarred sauce. I wasn’t cooking from scratch, but it was a great way to try new flavors in our dinner routine. If I try more kinds of Indian and figure out what we really love, I’ll be more motivated to learn to cook the recipes we like.

Monday night I made a modified Indian meal (I didn’t have all the ingredients in the recipe) and while everyone ate it, the fam was not big fans of it. I did discover though that I don’t mind eating sliced, stir fried brussel sprouts which really surprised me. My partner and son love brussel sprouts steamed and buttery, but I’ve always found the flavor too strong. I think I’ll play around with them more in future dishes.

Last night I made an AMAZING minestrone that was overflowing with veggies. It was a huge pot, so I was happy that the fam and I really LOVED it. I’d definitely make that one again!

I got a bunch of cookbooks from the library. I’m going to scour through them tomorrow morning before I go grocery shopping to make sure I have everything I need on hand to cook some new stuff this week. An added challenge is that my partner has decided he wants to try a gluten free diet for a few weeks to see if it improves his health. I’m super supportive and feel like if I can find us delicious new wheat free veggie meals, it’ll be easier for him to make this change and not feel deprived. I’ve been feeling stuck in a food rut as a new vegan lately, so these cookbooks are hopefully just the inspiration we need!