I'm about to go shopping again. Not that I haven't been shopping in the interim; with Easter and so on, there's been a great deal of food-shopping going on here, but no time to write about it, and anyway, I figured that everyone else was busy, too.
But now here we are. Let's begin with a quick rundown of meals which have been both easy and successful of late:
1. Chinese stir-fry hot plate. This is a consistent hit. The exact contents change -- this past week, the meat was ground turkey, sauteed with onion, julienned carrot, shredded cabbage, very finely diced kale (because I was sneaking it in), and snow peas. I sauteed all of the above in a generous dollop of coconut oil, and seasoned it (also generously) with garlic and ground ginger, with a very sparing dash of tamari. I know that in the paleo-food world soy is out, but I haven't tracked down coconut aminoes as a substitute, and I don't ever use that much anyway. One of the things that had always been wrong with my stir-fry attempts before was that I tried to make stir-fry sauce, with lots of sesame oil, tamari, etc, which my husband has confessed to having hated. I find that just adding ginger is enough to give it the right taste -- Chinese-y, but not heavy-handed.
As an accompaniment, I made cauliflower rice: chop cauliflower to the consistency of rice (or couscous, which is really what it reminds me of) and saute in coconut oil. To this I added a dash of ginger as well, plus a beaten egg towards the end, for extra protein and to give it that fried-rice taste.
2. Ground-pork French-style hot plate over fashionably wilted baby spinach. This was ground pork cooked with finely diced onion and garlic, plus tarragon, cinnamon, and allspice and a handful of very finely chopped kale, then served over the baby spinach, which the heat of the meat wilted to a lovely bright green translucency.
3. North-African-style chicken. I began with raw boneless skinless chicken thighs (my cookups have been a little slipshod lately), frying them in coconut oil with a spice mix of garlic, cumin, coriander, paprika, cinnamon, and ginger. For a vegetable side, I did cumin-roasted carrots from Well Fed: you melt coconut oil, add cumin and cinnamon, and toss sliced carrots in this spice-oil mix, then roast. I also did an okra-onion-bell-pepper saute in spices similar to those I used on the chicken. I've really had a taste for these spices -- don't know if it's the warm weather or the relative novelty or what, but we've eaten a lot of North-African/Moroccan/Middle-Eastern-themed meals lately.
Even the paschal chicken for our Seder on Holy Thursday was not Greek-flavored as in years past, but more cuminy-cinnamony-coriandery.
Our Easter meal was quite Greek-flavored, however:
small leg of lamb (I found a miraculous deal, under $50 -- I'd been planning to do something with ground lamb, then couldn't find any).
eggplant strata -- this was an adaptation of an more Italian-themed Well-Fed dish. I baked two sliced eggplant for about 20 minutes in the oven, then in a baking dish did alternating layers of eggplant and a tomato filling which included a can of tomato paste, a big can of crushed tomatoes, garlic, cinnamon and allspice, and four beaten eggs. You finish with a layer of filling on top, so that it bakes up beautifully pillowy and substantial, with the eggplant in between . . . It was a very nice and filling accompaniment to the lamb.
green beans sauteed with caramelized onions and almonds
Then I effected a total departure from the universe of no-sugar eating, and made a chocolate-fudge pie as follows:
Break 6 large eggs, unseparated, into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add 2/3 cup sugar and two to four tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, depending on how dark you like your chocolate. Beat all this together, then begin dribbling in 2 cups of hot milk, beating constantly so the egg doesn't get cooked. Stir in two tablespoons of coconut oil for added richness (this was because I hadn't used cream, but whole milk. When it chills, the coconut oil solidifies, which helps set the chocolate custard). Pour into a pie dish and bake for 15 minutes on 400, then turn the oven off and let the pie sit until nearly firm. Remove from oven, cool, and then chill in fridge. Serve with strawberries and chilled, whipped coconut milk.
OK, so now all the sweet stuff is gone, and we're back on board. I don't have specific meal plans for the week, beyond the following:
one ground-pork meal
two ground-turkey meals
two chicken meals
two beef meals (including tonight, since it's the Octave of Easter!)
vegetable options will include spaghetti squash, zucchini, cabbage, kale, and sweet potatoes, plus the frozen green beans and asparagus I have on hand.
breakfasts: oatmeal with frozen raspberries and/or blueberries for the kids/eggs for adults (everyone like leftover stir-fry for breakfast, too, when it's available . . . )
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In other news, I put in my garden this week. I have:
*in a row along the side of the house, four tomato plants
*flanking the tomatoes on either side, two eggplants
*just in front of the tomatoes, an acorn squash (hoping to find some spaghetti squash to put in, too)
*at the front of the garden, parallel to the house, two zucchini
*in two short rows perpendicular to the house, six peppers
*five new plants for my corner strawberry patch
*lemon thyme, mint, orange mint, "boxwood basil," tarragon, and sage in the herb section
*zinnias and cosmos seeded between the rows of peppers (we'll see if they come up)
*sunflowers behind the tomatoes
We'll see how it does this year . . .
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