Quinoa Salad

Tonight, we had a perfectly ripe avocado, so I needed a dish that would take advantage of that. The White Bean Smash with Broccoli over Polenta got postponed until a night where produce doesn't matter.

(white bean smash - blonde some garlic in a pan in olive oil. add 4 cups white beans, 2lb tomato product of some sort and cook until thick and stew-like. smash with bottom of jam jar or potato masher to help thicken the whole thing.)

Tonight's quinoa salad was mostly a product of planning enabling inertia. I often have a jar of cooked grains in the fridge to be used as the base for any number of dishes. Tonight, a jar of quinoa turned into a cold grain salad.

We also often have chopped peppers in the fridge. This makes last minute dinners, salads, burritos, etc MUCH easier.

Soo... dinner:

4 cups cooked quinoa

1 can drained corn - we never have canned corn in the house, but this came from a pantry cleanout elsewhere.

1 can black beans

1 can chick peas

1/2 small onion, finely diced

1 cucumber, finely diced

1.5 cups chopped peppers

dressed with a dressing made on the fly. the general idea is:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/8 cup olive oil

1/8 cup dijon mustard

1/8 tsp smoked spanish paprika

1 tbs maple syrup

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup orange juice

salt

stir, serve. add chopped avocado to the top.

Makes a good six servings and keeps well in the fridge.

Canning Soup

One of the things I worry about, perhaps disproportionately so, is the chemical load from the packaging our food comes to us in. I don't really trust even "BPA-free" packaging - what's hiding in there that will be the Big Bad next week/month/year?

With all of our other food weirdnesses (vegetarian, mostly dairy free, gluten-free for meals, additive free), I'm always looking for new ways to make life easier, since most convenience food isn't. (food, that is.)

This weekend, I'm going to try the terribly ambitious step of taking dried beans, rehydrating them and putting them into the pressure canner in 1 pint jars, roughly the size of store bought cans of beans.

I'm also putting up a batch of soup, using the same general plan - soak the beans, cook them for half an hour, then add them to the jars and process them for 75 minutes at 10lbs of pressure.

The Recipe:
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 T. taco seasoning
1/4 t. chipotle powder
2 lbs diced tomatoes, and their juice (off-season. I know...)
4 cups soaked beans
2 cups frozen corn
1/4 cup tomato paste (jarred, not canned)
8oz broth or water
1 t. sea salt

the bean instructions I'm starting with:
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/beans_peas_shelled.html

Project Pack-a-Lunch and Plan: Eat More Plants

I know it's less expensive and healthier to carry a lunch than it is to venture into the wilds of Manhattan to procure one. I did the math once, and my brain exploded. Even if I buy bagged "triple-washed" lettuce, only costs me about $3 for a salad from home that would cost me $10 if I buy it downstairs at the deli. That's a $7/day savings, and yet for some reason, I often have a hard time motivating myself to be bothered.

That's ridiculous - a week of $7 splurges is $28 a week for me. That's $1400 a year (assuming two weeks off in the year). Folks, that's not chump change. That's a vacation for the three of us. That's a new appliance. Or that second shed for storing the conventions in. It's... real money On something I can easily manage to do.

I'm always starting and stalling on PPaL, but I figure if I just make it a regular thing, I can do this. I've got a new spiffy office blender for making smoothies here from frozen fruit I can bring from home or at a grocery store here in the city. I've got at least four containers appropriate for hauling salad. and I have no excuse not to.

Tomorrow and Friday's plans:
Breakfast:
farina or oatmeal from my "pantry" here at work.
coffee

snacks:
Oranges (before they go off!)
Apples

Lunch:
salad - bagged lettuce, chopped peppers and onions, shredded carrot. TJ's feta cheese, cooked chickpeas. dried cranberries and pecans.
Imagine! butternut squash soup - I have a box of it that has been in my emergency lunch stash for far too long - I'm using it up.

snack:
blueberry almond milk smoothie - I just need to haul in the bag of frozen fruit and a box of almond milk.