Cooking Out My Kitchen
Taking down holiday decorations last week snowballed into a total home clean out. I was wild. I was ruthless. I realized I’d been compulsively buying paper plates and storing them in unique corners of the basement.
You know when we use paper plates? Maybe twice a year and also when I draw on 8 of them as paper plate awards for C’s soccer team. Good thing I have 3,000 of them!
Clearly I need to get better at monitoring and using what I have.
That big time applies to the kitchen. I’ve got a stocked pantry, yet I’m a frequent flier at our grocery store–constantly filling the gaps of what we run out of or suddenly want. For shame!
This week I had a craving for homemade soup, a want for granola on my yogurt when we were out, and a need for a dinner side dish hit and I…*groundbreaking I know* used what I had.
Here’s what I made, and altered, cooking out of my kitchen:
Greek Fries
A half bag of frozen Costco gyro meat
A half bag of frozen fries
Diced cucumber & red onion
Feta cheese
Quick tzatziki: plain yogurt, a squirt of lemon juice + dried dill, salt & pepper
Cook the frozen items, then let everyone make their own plate based on what they like
Smitten Kitchen’s Split Pea Soup
Modifications: used yellow onion for leeks, used a jar of minced garlic for fresh
Notes: This was excellent with a small spoonful of sour cream stirred in and some sort of crunchies on top (croutons, bagel chips, toasted bread)
Greek-ish Farro Salad
Cooked farro (lnstantPot helped me do this quickly!)
Dried cranberries
Diced cucumber
Chopped green onion
Feta cheese
Garlic Expressions salad dressing
You know when we use paper plates? Maybe twice a year and also when I draw on 8 of them as paper plate awards for C’s soccer team. Good thing I have 3,000 of them!
Clearly I need to get better at monitoring and using what I have.
That big time applies to the kitchen. I’ve got a stocked pantry, yet I’m a frequent flier at our grocery store–constantly filling the gaps of what we run out of or suddenly want. For shame!
This week I had a craving for homemade soup, a want for granola on my yogurt when we were out, and a need for a dinner side dish hit and I…*groundbreaking I know* used what I had.
Here’s what I made, and altered, cooking out of my kitchen:
Greek Fries
A half bag of frozen Costco gyro meat
A half bag of frozen fries
Diced cucumber & red onion
Feta cheese
Quick tzatziki: plain yogurt, a squirt of lemon juice + dried dill, salt & pepper
Cook the frozen items, then let everyone make their own plate based on what they like
Smitten Kitchen’s Split Pea Soup
Modifications: used yellow onion for leeks, used a jar of minced garlic for fresh
Notes: This was excellent with a small spoonful of sour cream stirred in and some sort of crunchies on top (croutons, bagel chips, toasted bread)
Cooked farro (lnstantPot helped me do this quickly!)
Dried cranberries
Diced cucumber
Chopped green onion
Feta cheese
Garlic Expressions salad dressing
Rinse your farro after cooking so it doesn’t warm the veggies. This should be served room temp or cold. Mix everything together depending on the ratios you prefer. That’s it. That’s the recipe.
Simple Maple Granola Inspired by The Kitchn
Ingredients
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup sliced nuts–your choice. I quickly blitzed almonds in a food processor to various sizes
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup avocado oil
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
Directions
Simple Maple Granola Inspired by The Kitchn
Ingredients
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup sliced nuts–your choice. I quickly blitzed almonds in a food processor to various sizes
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup avocado oil
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300
- Mix together syrup, oil, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl
- Add in oats and nuts. Stir until everything is well coated
- Dump onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet–spread out
- Bake for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through