Whole30 - Day 1

Manzano banana

Honeycrisp apple
Coffee

Frittata (eggs, zucchini, yellow squash, onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper, olive oil)

Dry-rub skirt steak (salt, cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper) salad (green leaf, romaine, frisee) with radish salsa (radish, tomato, apple, lime juice, onion powder, cumin, salt, cilantro)

D'Anjou pear

handful of almonds

Sauteed spicy marinated (daikon, garlic, onion, jalepeno, korean red pepper powder, red pepper flake, salt) pork belly (onion, perilla) over napa cabbage & frisee

Breakfast on a free Saturday

Wow, it's a Saturday, I'm home AND it's not snowing! Can you believe it?

Being free on a Saturday is nice. I even got the opportunity to make myself a nice looking breakfast.

The funny thing about eating your food after taking pictures of it like this is that it's cold. It doesn't taste quite as good as it could although it looks nice.

I think being a food stylist would be fun.

Snowed In

I haven't gone to work since last Thursday! I'm on leave right now because I don't really have work I can be doing at home to qualify for "work from home." VDOT has yet to plow our neighborhood, and my little Accord can't make it out of here, and with the snow that's supposedly coming tonight who knows when I'll be able to get back to work.

Well, at least I'm enjoying my time off. It's unplanned time off but still generally nice.

I'm running out of food! That's one bad thing about being snowed in. A good thing about that though is that it forces me to be creative. I made soup today with what I had on hand. It's something close to cream of broccoli.

Broccoli and spinach, water and beef bouillon, onions and garlic in butter, milk and yogurt and cheese. Flour to thicken, cracked pepper to taste and mint to garnish!

I was rummaging in the refrigerator for something to eat and found some broccoli from who knows when and the last dregs of spinach from the days when I had salad for lunch. Add in the last dollops of yogurt and the last of the milk and you've almost got yourself enough for something. Almost. There just wasn't enough cream stuff so I had to add cheese, which helped. I'm surprised it came out tasting as good as it did. The mint really helped. In the absence of celery it was a more than adequate aromatic.

Too bad I ate all the bread. No toast with this soup.

Snow Day

It's an official snow day! I'm "working" from home. I seriously have not done any work today. Instead I woke up and worked out for an hour. I haven't had the time or energy to work out this week, so I exercised extra hard and enthusiastically this morning. Then I took my monthly "detox bath." I like taking baths, but I can only seem to squeeze one in once a month. Then I had breakfast/lunch. Soup is so nice and cozy on snowy days like these.

Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom taken a notch up with shaved onions, cracked pepper, garlic powder, beef bouillon, garnished with mint and served with toast.

I've just been loafing around and listening to BIG 100.3 the classic hits/classic rock station. It just seems right for right now. Easy jammin' I suppose...

Today is also payday! I've been mulling over what to spend my $100 self allotted allowance on. I wanted to go to the shoe store this weekend and pick a pair of nice work pumps, but I don't think I'll be going anywhere due to the snow. So I hopped online and ordered a new wallet from Kenneth Cole. I've been wanted a new wallet for a while. I suppose this snowy day gave me an excuse to get one.

Happy snow day! :D

Grapefruit & Mint Shrimp

Shrimp with grapefruit & mint butter.

It tasted much better when it was warm. I should have de-veined them, but having to peel the darn things was work enough. I think the grapefruit and mint would've worked better as a shrimp marinade, but I was working with already steamed shrimp we had for dinner on Sunday.

Grapefruit and mint is a great combination, but I think it works better on stinkier proteins.

Pacific Saury

Canned pacific saury on a bed of spinach topped with lightly pickled radish and onions in mayo.

Some relatively crazy things come out of the kitchen when you've got limited resources. This really just tasted like tuna salad. I mean, the fish and the mayo were really the taste makers. I like saury better than tuna just because it's fattier. Tuna is too dry in my opinion.

I like the fishiness of fish. MMM.

Spinach and Cheese Sauce

Sauteed spinach and onions with cheese sauce (butter, cheese, milk, cracked pepper).

I swear, cheese makes everything better. The sauce was so reminiscent of "mac n cheeze" it caught me off guard. I suddenly expected to taste the carbs, but there weren't any.

Oh, and it never fails to surprise me how much vegetables shrink when heat is applied. It's pretty amazing.

Green Pea Salad

Green peas, onions, scallions and mint tossed in olive oil and grapefruit juice plus a little ground pepper and topped with feta.

I actually had this on top of some spinach and it was pretty filling. Mint and peas are a great combination, but I wish I had some fresh mint. Well, I suppose fresh is always best. In addition, I've been substituting grapefruits for lemons since I don't have any lemons on hand and I do have grapefruit. The bitter quality of grapefruit is an interesting addition. I think it might have done better without it, but you have to make do with what you have.

Radish & Apple Salad

Radishes, apples and scallions tossed in plain yogurt and mayo seasoned with salt and pepper to taste and a little acid to keep the apples from browning.

I actually had this salad with some tuna, and I think the tuna overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the radishes. Plus, I think I added too much mayo. The original recipe calls for sour cream, but since I didn't have any on hand I had to make do with what I had.

Whatever the case, I enjoyed the salad just because radishes are so pretty. That fact alone makes everything okay.

Avocado & Grapefruit Salad

Avocado and grapefruit on a bed of spring greens served with honey mustard onion relish (onions, dijon mustard, honey, grapefruit juice, olive oil, cracked pepper).

I love interesting salads like this one. The textures and flavors were really incredible. With an earthy base of fresh spring greens, the smooth, creamy, rich avocado plays off of the juicy, sweet 'n bitter grapefruit, and the onion relish ties the dish together while adding it's own spicy kick.

Salads can be fun and exciting! Overall, I think this has got to be one of my most favorite work lunch salads I've ever made. It equals if not surpasses the go-to salad of my 2008 summer internship - the "Asian Salad" (baby spinach, red onions, mandarin oranges, cashews and a soy sauce & sesame oil vinaigrette).

In any case, it was fun to make and fun to eat! Plus, I just realized the honey mustard onion relish... Snyder's of Hanover Honey Mustard & Onion Flavored Pretzel Pieces! My favorite flavor!

Garbanzo Bean Salad

Garbanzo beans, black olives and tomatoes tossed with olive oil, minced garlic and cracked pepper and topped with feta cheese.

I've been trying to get creative with my lunch creations since I'm getting tired of the same old same old. And I need to get creative because I'm not particularly fond of the lunch staple that is the sandwich.

So above is my garbanzo bean salad, and it is something simple and tasty and rather filling. It's simple because I can't cook, and complexity would certainly preclude it's creation. It's tasty because olives, tomatoes and feta cheese has never failed to taste good together. It's filling because beans just tend to be that way. (I like beans.)

Coffee & Apples

I've been drinking too much coffee and eating too many apples recently.

I haven't been much of a coffee drinker in the past, but there is indeed an addictive quality to a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee in the morning... It's probably the caffeine.

A couple weeks ago my folks picked up a bushel of apples from some orchard in the Shenandoah Valley off of 29. Mind you, a bushel is equivalent to an ass ton as far as apples are concerned. I hadn't had an apple in years because I'm mildly allergic to most raw tree fruit, but I had a peach this past summer and I didn't die so I thought I'd give an apple a go.

Surprisingly, I didn't die so I'm back on apples.

I am quickly tiring of the apples. The first week I had up to six apples a day. It was the novelty of the danged fruit. I mean, I hadn't had the opportunity to actually enjoy an apple in 10 or so years, so I guess it was to be expected.

I haven't had any coffee today nor did I exercise, but that's a whole 'nother story.

Maybe I'll brew myself a cup.

Tea Sandwiches

Tea sandwiches are quite lovely, although not as tasty as the traditional not so lovely sandwich.

Last Friday my sister and I made a whole loaf's worth of tea sandwiches from stuff we just had at home. (I mean we did need to go buy some white bread and creamcheese, but the other stuff we had on hand.)

We made 5 different varieties and everyone had their own favorite.

1. Smoked salmon & cucumber with chive creamcheese

2. Old Bay seasoned "crab" meat with mayo

3. Smoked oyster spread with onions

4. Wasabi soy bean spread with tomatoes

5. Cinnamon prune spread with creamcheese

Who knew making these dainty finger treats could be so laborious?