Fast Veggie Curry from Scratch

My trick to a fast weeknight meal is doing small things every night to slowly prep for the next night or multiple nights.  For any type of bean, soak them overnight then put them in the slow cooker the next morning with fresh water and let them cook all day.  I don't bother with seasonings because I want them to be versatile, just like a can of beans.

My secret with winter squash is to cook them when I have the oven on for something else.  Just stab it a few times with a knife to make sure it doesn't explode and put it on a baking sheet in the oven along with whatever else you are cooking.  If the other things are done before the squash is soft, just leave the squash in the oven and turn the oven off.  There will be enough carry over heat to cook it all the way through.  The way you know its done is that the skin is soft.  Don't bother doing anything with it that night and just put it whole in the refrigerator until you are ready for it.

Now that the prep is out of the way, we can get on to a fast weeknight meal.  Into a skillet went the black beans, cubed squash, diced hot peppers, and curry powder.  Cook until warmed through then add in the coconut milk.  I let it simmer a bit to reduce and combine the flavors.

Top with some parsley and enjoy.  Making all this from scratch would be an all day affair, but split it up into small chunks over multiple days and a week night dinner is ready in 10 minutes.

French Toast

This lovely loaf of bread that I made truly was delicious.

Unfortunately there was only so much I could eat before it was past its prime.  Luckily a Saturday morning came around and French Toast was in order.

Into the liquid mix went eggs, vanilla, milk and cinnamon.  That butter is for the pan.

While mixing everything up get the butter in the pan and start heating it through.

I tend to use a 9x9 baking dish to mix all the wet ingredients together.  It is a great shape for laying out the bread in one layer.

Stir everything up and slice the bread.

Soak the bread in the egg mixture for a few minutes on each side.  The more stale the bread is the longer I let it soak.  Really, you can't over soak but if it doesn't soak long enough you still get the stale center of the bread in the final product.

Into the hot skillet it goes.

Cook on both sides until brown.  You can see some extra bits of egg attached to some of the pieces of bread.  That is because any egg mixture left when the last piece of bread goes in the skillet gets poured over the top of the bread directly in the skillet.  No reason to waste the egg.

For a fun little treat, once the french toast is out of the pan toss in some banana and pear to get them warm and caramelized.

Now that is what I call breakfast.

In my opinion this breakfast is delicious enough with out the syrup and it saves a few calories.

Tomatillo and Peanut Soba Noodles

This dish came from another crazy thought process of mine.  Tomatillos are sour and in my mind can be used to replace a lime flavor.  I was trying to come up with a way to use some soba noodles I had on hand and they are right by the peanut butter in the pantry.  That is where the idea was born. 

I cooked the tomatillos in a flaming hot cast iron skillet to get a bit of char on them.  

Once they were cooked through, peanut butter, soy sauce and fish sauce went into the skillet to make a quick sauce.  Toss with the cooked noodles and call it dinner.

Jute Mallow Stew

Greenling was kind enough to provide a recipe for how to use the Jute Mallow.

As usual, I modified a bit by leaving out the chicken and serving the stew over polenta.

First into the pot goes the onion, garlic, jalapeno and cilantro.

The jute mallow is washed, prepped and ready to go.

Add in the chicken stock, jute mallow and lemon juice.

It is quite liquidy, but that really goes nicely with polenta.

Overall it was quite a nice dinner.  I've never seen jute mallow in a grocery store, but I think I would buy it again if I ever saw it.

Greenling Local Box Sep 16-20

Some pretty good produce this week

You know its fall when winter squashes start showing up.  Some might say it is a problem that the weather is still in the 90s but for me, I'll take it.

Something I had never heard of in this box was Jute's Mallow, also known as Corchorus. It is common in the middle east and usually served as a type of stew so I am going to give that a go.  Asia greens will be cooked and served with beans, avocado will go with lentils into a quick salad, and pears will go in smoothies.  Everything else is still up in the air a bit.

FWF - Rolls

 

A few whole wheat rolls that I made started showing some mold.

You can barely see it in this picture, but there is just a small spot on the roll in the bottom left.  I was just one day too late on using them up before they turned.

Thanks to Kristen (FrugalGirl) for hosting FWF.

FWF - Herby Dogs

Just a bit of waste this week.  A mostly full packet of veggie dogs and a sprig or two of Oregano.

No excuse for the Oregano, I just got lazy and stopped pulling it out of the fridge to use.  The veggie dogs on the other hand were a request for a vegetarian at a cookout we had.  I will be the first to admit that I eat a lot more vegetables than I do meat, but these processed veggie dogs just aren't my thing.

Ingredients

Water, soy protein isolate, soybean oil, evaporated cane syrup, pea protein isolate, tapioca starch, salt, potassium chloride, bakers yeast extract, carrageenan, dried garlic, natural flavor (from plant sources), natural smoke flavor, xanthan gum, fermented rice flour, guar gum, oleoresin paprika (color).

Honestly, what is half of that stuff?  Anyway, I never could convince myself to eat these so instead they went into the bin.

Thanks to Simply Being Mum for hosting FWF.