Baby Shastya Loves Rice & Chopsticks

This evening while we were eating supper Shastya started crying a little which is her way of communicating. It took us a minute to realize that she wanted our rice. I had given her a few grains of rice another night, but tonight she was hungry! She wanted to have an entire baby serving of rice. We obliged her. We thought it would probably be okay if she had rice since she is eating oats in oatmeal. Anthony and I decided it was easier to feed her with chopsticks than with silverware.

 

  

Creamy Rutabaga Soup

I blended our leftover scalloped rutabagas with some soy sauce, parmesan cheese, minced garlic, black pepper, salt, and water to make a creamy rutabaga soup. I loved the soup. It tasted delicious. Anthony liked it too. I toasted a bagel for us to split and eat with our soup. The combination of soup and bread reminded me of Panera, Atlanta Bread, or your favorite coffee shop. Anthony and I had been to Atlanta Bread some while we were dating, and had gotten bagels. Something about food that just brings back memories . . .

Nutritious Lunch

Gorgeous and tasty my nutrient-laden lunch was quite the colorful contrast of reds and greens. I prepared a whole-wheat wrap with green leaf lettuce, 1 roma tomato, and 1 avocado for my entree. I put together a beautiful sweet plate of 1/2 a juicy red grapefruit, 2 chopped large double-wide red strawberries, and a small cluster of succulent green grapes. I was overjoyed and astonished that the fruit and vegetables were so perfect and ripe during the winter. My husband said that they were probably from California or Florida.

Homemade Curried Grits

I decided to make curried grits for a quick lunch. I had recently made curried chicken with curd gravy and had used a bunch of spices in the making of it. I decided to incorporate some of the spices I had used in the chicken curry dinner into a bowl of grits. Stellar plan.

Homemade Curried Grits:

1/4 Cup Grits

1 Cup Water

1/8 Tsp. Tumeric

1/8 Tsp. Chili Powder

1/8 Tsp. Garam Masala

1/8 Tsp. Ginger Paste

1/8 Tsp. Minced Garlic

Dash of Salt

1. Dump all ingredients in microwave-safe bowl.

2. Microwave for four minutes.

3. Enjoy amazing grits:)

Broccoli Raab & Leek Stir-Fry With Coconut

I made an easy stir-fry with new-to-me vegetables. I googled leek and rapini/ broccoli raab to see what I was up against. From the pics I saw online it looked like leek was sliced similar to scallions/ green onions but cut down the middle first. I checked on rapini to see what parts of it are edible. Turns out, it's all edible. I learned rapini is bitter and is often sweetened with sugar. I sweetened my stir-fry with brown sugar and coconut flakes. I smelled a few of my Indian spice mixes to see which one or ones I wanted to put in my stir-fry. I decided on rasam powder for my seasoning. Dinner was amazing. To me the rapini stalks reminded me of asparagus, the foliage reminded me of perhaps spinach or some type of greens, and the mini broccoli florets on it . . . why broccoli of course.

Broccoli Raab & Leek Stir-Fry

1 Leek

1 1/2 Tsp. Rasam Powder

1/2 Bunch of Broccoli Raab

3 Tsp. Brown Sugar

2 TB Coconut Flakes

 

Israeli Couscous With Parsley Root

This was my first time working with parsley root. I would definitely recommend it. Tastes just like parsley, but the root is crunchy like a radish. I cooked my onion, broccoli, and parsley leaves, and then added my parsley root last, before adding my combination of veggies to my couscous. Doing it this way left the root nice and crunchy for some added texture in my couscous pilaf.

Israeli Couscous With Parsley Root:

1 1/2 Cups Water

1 Cup Israeli Couscous

1 Small Onion

2 Small Broccoli Stalks With Florets

2 Parsley Roots With Foliage

Chanal Chole Powder to Taste (Indian)

Salt to Taste

Artichoke: The Only Vegetable You Have To Cook Before You Cut

Have you ever cooked with a fresh artichoke? Until recently, I had not. I bought one to see what working with artichokes was like. Did I ever find out. Unfortunately, I ran out of time before dinner to google artichoke to find the perfect recipe for my artichoke, and to find the perfect cooking process for my artichoke. Well, in the past I have often winged supper with multiple other vegetables and products that were new to me, and turned out great results. But this time as I winged our supper, cooking with the artichoke proved to be a misadventure. I soon realized that it was necessary to boil the artichoke before I cut it. My bad. Even though our supper included a semi raw artichoke, our supper looked beautiful. Parts of the artichoke that did cook thoroughly tasted good. Other parts were inedible. Whoops.

Yummy Supper

Anthony made a yummy supper of fried bread and Italian soup with dumplings. The fried bread reminded me of Indian Naan, and the soup reminded me of Italian Zuppa Toscana except it had dumplings instead of potatoes. Anthony used the extra meat, veggie, and spice filling for the soup that we had leftover from when I had made pizza baozi.