What are you cooking or baking today?

Yesterday I tried making my Mexican/curry/lentil soup in the instant pot. I only included onions & garlic plus spices for that stage. Yes, it cooked quickly, but I set it for too long so the lentils ended a bit too soft.

I've been cooking this for years on the stove top, adding liquid as needed, so didn't know exactly how much I used. Turns out I also guessed wrong on how much liquid by at least a cup. It's still delicious, just not quite as thick as we like.

I M/W the chopped carrots & celery for a couple of minutes, adding them to the soup after it was done cooking. DH & I like veggies crisp, even in soups. Froze about half of it.
 

Steamed fresh haddock. Fries and salad on the side.

We sometimes have a Sunday roast dinner but, not often. When I was a child, almost everyone had a Sunday roast dinner, mostly beef but sometimes pork or chicken. Having said that, the local pubs and restaurants which serve Sunday dinners are usually booked up in advance so, perhaps people prefer to go out for Sunday dinner these days, rather than cook it at home.
 
Made a dozen 16" pizzas last night, some with the help of my grandchildren. ♥

As planned, I made a couple with just crust, sauce and mushrooms for me. They were surprisingly tasty. I was surprised to see that without cheese, I wasn't tempted to eat more once my hunger was satiated.

We put 4 pizzas in our freezer, sent DD home with 4 (1-1/2 with vegan cheese for DGD), we all combined to eat 4. (DS & DDIL's freezer is full so they declined take-home pizza this time around.)

Hoping to make some biscotti today. Some other Christmas cookies are still in the freezer, but biscotti is my runaway favorite and they're all gone.
 
Chilli con Carne.
2 tbsp olive oil, 2 onions chopped, 2 garlic cloves, crushed 2lb lean beef, minced. 2 cans of chopped tomatoes, 3 tbsp tomato purée,
2 red chillies, thinly sliced, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, dash of Worcestershire sauce,
1 beef stock cube, 2 cans of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed, salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Method.
Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan with a lid and fry the onion and garlic until softened. Increase the heat and add the mince, cooking quickly until browned and breaking down any chunks of meat with a wooden spoon and simmer for 2–3 minutes.
Stir in the tomatoes, tomato purée, fresh chilli or chilli flakes, cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon and Worcestershire sauce and crumble in the stock cube. Season well with salt and pepper.
Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and cook over a gentle heat for about 50 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally until the mixture is rich and thickened.
Add the kidney beans and fresh coriander. Cook for a further 10 minutes, uncovered, before removing from the heat and add any extra seasoning if necessary.
Serve with boiled rice.

chilli con carne.jpg
Enjoy.
 
Skipped the plan to make biscotti in favor of other food prep. I used the instant pot to cook about a pound of rice, then a pound of barley. (Froze most in small portions for future use.)

I also cut, blanched and froze the remaining fresh broccoli in my fridge, plus a couple of pounds that I cut into full spears and blanched, but didn't freeze.

Used the spears last night for "chicken-less" divan, using a pound of tofu to replace the chicken. Cooked the sauce on the stovetop in my large skillet that also accommodated the spears and tofu. Heated everything through, nuked some of the rice and barley from earlier, and dinner was ready. No baking necessary.

We used some of the barley and the rice as a base, then spooned the divan mix over it. DH sprinkled some cheese on his; I went with nutritional yeast. Plenty of leftovers for another meal today.
 
No need for me to cook today.

For lunch I'll try assembling a "Greek salad pizza" using 1/4 of one of the crust/tomato sauce/mushroom pizzas I froze on Sunday. No cheese.

While heating the crust,I'll toss chopped lettuce and the green part of green onions with balsamic vinegar and oregano in a bowl. I'll load that on the hot pizza so it will wilt slightly, then scatter slices of tomato, cucumber and kalamata olives over top.

(Back in the 90s, I learned the surprising deliciousness of salads that wilt slightly due to some heated ingredients. The grilled vegetable salad at Ivy at the Shore in Santa Monica was to die for. Probably still is.)

Dinner plans: leftover tofu divan spooned over a combination of barley and brown rice.
 
StarSong said:
For lunch I'll try assembling a "Greek salad pizza" using 1/4 of one of the crust/tomato sauce/mushroom pizzas I froze on Sunday. No cheese.

While heating the crust,I'll toss chopped lettuce and the green part of green onions with balsamic vinegar and oregano in a bowl. I'll load that on the hot pizza so it will wilt slightly, then scatter slices of tomato, cucumber and kalamata olives over top.
Click to expand...
Reporting back - this turned out AMAZINGLY delicious!!!
 
Jules said:
@StarSong, my hairdresser was telling me about a pizza crust made with cabbage. There’s probably a recipe online somewhere, if that interests you.
Click to expand...
How kind you are to think of me, but I'm very happy with my pizza dough recipe. I use (white) bread flour to make it but am ok with that because the horrible-for-your-body toppings (cheese, pepperoni, sausage, drizzles of olive oil over top, etc.) are the true health villains lurking in pizza.

When making pizza for a crowd, I weigh the cheese so I'm sure to limit it to 5 oz per 16" pizza pie. More than that is not only unnecessary, it overwhelms the flavor of the crust, sauce and toppings.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top