Food for Thought

I like food. I like cooking food, I like shopping for food, I especially like eating food, that is the best part. As I mentioned before I am not so much a fan of baking as cooking, and I am not sure why. Perhaps I am channeling a little Hannah Hart? (If you have no idea what genius I am talking about please check it out, ps NSFW there may be swearing, and drunkenness involved).

But cooking, we are besties. Back in the day, when I was 17ish, I decided to cook a big fancy smancy meal for my parents just to prove I could do it. I snuck all these cook books up to my room the night before, planned my meal, listed the ingredients, made a Gantt chart to schedule the food making process (Seriously made a Gantt chart without even knowing what it was until much later.) I got up early in the morning, bought the ingredients and started to cook.

The menu that day was Zucchini and cream cheese appetizer things, ribs with a Hoisin sauce, greek roasted potatoes, carrots, and an triple layer pastry dessert. So me (and the little brother) started cooking, and cooking and cooking. The meal turned out amazingly even though the zucchini was actually cucumber, and the pastry thing was cooked on wax paper not parchment paper, everything was edible and finished on time.
I still make that rib recipe, it is my go to "impressive meal option." It hasn't let me down yet.

When I moved into my own place, I really started liking cooking more so to cook every day meals than create fancy smacy ones all the time. I really like taking recipes and creating something good out of basic ingredients. I like to mix things up, go off recipe and substitute things that I have on hand. I had been pretty lucky to make some delicious food...until Saturday.

I had the ingredients to make a shrimp/sausage/pasta dish with veggies and hotness. Everything was going well until I decided to add some sauce for flavour. Unfortunately, the sweet flavours of the BBQ sauce mixed with the thai chillies, and the salty shrimp flavours tasted (to me) had a slightly acidic taste...like vomit. Literally like vomit. Bleehhh. Not good at all. Luckily, Mike seemed to like it fine enough, and he ate it with some cheese which he promised hid the flavour. What a good boyfriend.

So that was my first really bad meal I have made. Ever. Boo.

So I redeemed myself tonight by following actual recipes, and creating this:

Green thing: Perfectly ripe avocado. Nomm.
Red thing: Tomato and Lentil Salad modified from SOS Cusine which is a awesome website for budget food shopping and creates meal plans based on what is on sale in your area!

Ingredients:
1 cup of lentils (I used red lentils)
2 tomatos
2 cloves of garlic
2 green onions
2 tsp Dried dill
Salt/Pepper

Dressing:
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp of olive oil

1. Rise and drain lentils. Add the lentils and diced garlic to a pan. Add enough water to cover the lentils, and a few shakes of salt. Bring to a boil, then bring down to simmer (uncovered) until the lentils are cooked (20 minutes). Stir often.
2. While that is cooking dice the tomatoes, add them to a bowl. Add the onions (chopped) and dill and some salt and pepper.
3. Mix the dressing together well to emulsify the oil and vinegar, add to tomatoes.
4. Once the lentils are done drain any excess water and add to salad.
5. Mix and serve and enjoy!

Orange thing: I also made a sweet dumpling squash (cut, seeded and slightly margerined, cooked for 45 minutes at 350) and I could barely finish the meal! It was so filling, and flavorful, and delicious!