Sunday afternoon food prep

Sunday afternoon food prep

Objective: create segments of meals that let me eat a variety of foods this week with minimal prep time and will help me fight the temptation to buy something on the way home.  Living in walking distance to Trader Joe's is getting dangerous.

I'm at the tail end of the produce box.  The roasted tomatoes went into sandwiches, pasta, and catalan tomato bread (see Europe pics), curried brown basmati rice, black beans and brown rice.  Plums went into drinks and snack...  Roasted cauliflower was devoured as part of salad and part tapas.  Kale went into the hash, rice, and scrambled eggs.  Potatoes went into mashed, hash, and fries (with fresh cheese).  Beets were roasted and eaten with salad and reduced basalmic one night...and Trader Joe's spicy peanut dressing on another.  Lettuce...obvi...

After ten hours of peeling, cutting, and dissecting 

I procrastinated on handling the acorn squash because I have yet to find an efficient way to peel and cut it...or deal with innards... But now that I'm out of the easy veggies, I decided to stop procrastinating.  Plus, I love squash...  just not preparing it.

This week's mix and match set:

1. Grilled pears on the George Forman: Good for salad (almost tastes like jicama).  Good for paninis.  Good as a healthy snack.  I'm sure they'd taste better with butter and sugar but I'm trying to save my sugary intake for ice cream and cake...still have leftover molten cakes in the freezer!

2. Brie (<$5)

3. Trader Joe's multigrain loaf

4. Roasted acorn squash, garlic cloves, and onion.

After dressing: olive oil, basalmic, red wine, oregano, brown sugar (LOVE using pyrex, putting on the cover, and shaking it all up to save on minimizing the use of another prep bowl!)

5. Goya white beans (on sale at Stop and Shop)

6. Eggs

7. The rest of the bag of cooked frozen shrimp I splurged on at Trader Joe's

8. Half of a sad basil plant--learned the hard way that the radiator is under the sunny window...  oops!

So far, we've made
1. Grilled panini with brie, grilled pears, and basil...definitely way less pricey than the grilled sandwich that I was tempted by at Panera's.

2. Roasted garlic white bean dip with italian herbs (half of one can of white beans, olive oil, roasted garlic from the roasting batch, sea salt, oregano, basil)



3. Squash and white bean dip (other half of the can of white beans with the roasted onions and squash)
4. Scrambled eggs with shrimp, cheese, and basil

...I still have leftover barbecue shrimp pizza with whole wheat crust (trader joe's!) that's in the freezer... looking forward to other combos... squash risotto?  squash pasta?  squash stuffing?  squash and white bean salad?

Caramelized pear cake


This one came from Epicurious--I'm definitely making it again!!! It is SO good. Though, I thought I'd cheat and use a springform pan. Evidently, my springform pan leaks so I created quite the smoke sensation... but it still tastes good. If you go to the epicurious link, I agree with the reviewer who says it's possible to make in a regular cake pan if it's high enough. I had to make a few changes due to what I had on hand (e.g., I used 1.5 teaspoons ground ginger since I didn't have the crystallized stuff and lemon zest in lieu of orange zest). However, I'd stick with the original recipe if possible...or add way more than 1.5t ground ginger. And that darn old small oven of ours keeps cooking things in way under the time suggested. I probably only had it in the oven for 20 minutes... Most reviewers didn't seem to complain about the timing so I have a sense it has to do with our dinky oven given other recent baking mishaps...

Caramelized pear cake Bon Appétit | September 2000

Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream is perfect with this upside-down cake from the Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco.

Makes 8 servings.

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 1/4 pounds Bosc pears, peeled, quartered, cored

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 cup grated peeled Bosc pears (about 2 medium)
preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Melt butter in heavy 10-inch-diameter ovenproof skillet over low heat. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Arrange quartered pears in flower design atop sugar, cutting some pieces to fit center if necessary.

Whisk flour, 2/3 cup sugar, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, ground ginger and salt in medium bowl to blend. Whisk eggs, oil, vanilla and orange peel in large bowl to blend. Mix in grated pears. Mix dry ingredients into egg mixture.

Carefully pour batter over pears in skillet. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool cake in skillet on rack 20 minutes. Run knife around skillet sides to loosen. Place plate on skillet over cake. Invert cake onto plate. Serve warm.