Cleaning it up this week
A Super Greens Soup, a plan for build-your-own-salad bowls & my 6 month break from clothes shopping.
What I’m cooking every week ebbs and flows between “Life is short-eat the pasta” and “Oh I over did it, we need to hit reset this week”. My version of “reset food” is far from lemon water and sliced cucumber for the whole day. I’m still me. I’m still a cook and I want to eat delicious, satisfying food always. My thought process usually boils down to this: cut the refined carbs & up the greens.
Last week I made (twice) ribs that were marinated in garlic, ginger, miso and soy. Then basted at the end with butter & gochujang. We had lots of pasta with beans and greens. All delicious and amazing quality pasture raised Berkshire pork but it is now time to swing the pendulum. The weather is warming up a little, we’ve been outside more, so I’m craving fresh.
The plan was to make a big pot of Super Greens Soup and a big quinoa build-your-own-salad situation that can hang in the fridge and be mixed with odds and ends to make bowls that suit everyone. This soup is like a green curry that I make, in it’s flavor profile. Raw cashews are what give it real creaminess without any dairy. It has handfuls of greens, broccoli and lime so it’s basically like a really tasty green juice. This recipe is going to hit the inbox of subscribers later today. If you’re not subscribed, and you’d love to be making it this week, click the button below.
Mini Mouths:
I mixed some of the Super Greens Soup with cooked quinoa for Dean.
My Make Ahead Plan This Week:
A pot of quinoa + a jar of Miso Lemon Dressing + a jar of Sauerkraut (the raw probiotic stuff) + lots of Chopped Veggies + Steamed Broccoli + a big box of Baby Spinach + Avocados
Miso Lemon Dressing:
In a jar combine: the zest and juice of 1 lemon, ¼ cup miso paste, ¼ cup olive oil. Shake to combine and add a little water to thin to a dressing consistency.
What I’m Loving:
Material Kitchen: I have their knife set and now a frying pan and a cutting board. Full disclosure: they’ve sent me all of these, at different times, as gifts to see how I liked them. I love them all. I have plenty of pans and knives but I find myself reaching for these over and over. To sound like a true millennial, they are very instagram worthy. The knives I have, have a creamy white handle that is very me. But most importantly, the knives are super sharp and my new skillet from them is very non-stick and so far I’m loving cooking with it.
Vegan Tomato Nduja | City Saucery: We bought this stuff at the farmer’s market last week and the jar is already empty. Nduja is an Italian spicy spreadable sausage - absolutely delicious. This stuff is a tomato based, vegan spread that is very reminiscent of nduja. We’ve been toasting Bread Alone sourdough, a little butter and then a thick schmear of this Vegan Tomato Nduja. WOWOWOWO. It’s so flipping good. So I looked them up on Instagram to tell them how awesome their spread was. And that’s when I realize you can order it online!
Not Buying Clothing: On my calendar, March 1st had an event that read “6 months of No Clothing ends today!”. That’s right. I made a commitment back in September to not buy any clothing for 6 months. I had 3 reasons. The first being financial, that’s an obvious one. The second being how awful the clothing industry is for our environment, another pretty concrete one. The third being a little more abstract. I was really tired of this consumerism/materialistic cycle I was in. I found when I was stressed, tired, anxious, sad I would shop online. Then I’d get the stuff (and that’s what it is “stuff”) and it didn't make me feel any better, made me feel kind of worse actually. So I put a stop to it. And the truth is, I have SO much stuff. SO many clothes. I bet we all actually have all the clothes we actually “need” but why doesn't it ever feel like enough? It’s been very liberating, the whole thing. I went into my closet, rediscovered things that I’d forgotten about and I even had pieces tailored to fit me better so that I would reach for them more. I love my tailor and it makes me feel good to give her the business. Wondering if come March 1st I hit the stores hard? Nope. I don’t even have the desire. I think I’ve broken my habit at least for a while. This morning I went through my summer wardrobe and instead of thinking about what new summer clothes I wanted, I looked through what I had and got really excited about the prospect of wearing my favorite warm weather pieces…. Also as I write this, I’m thinking “How privileged are we that we can call this a ‘break’ from buying clothes?!”
THANK YOU again for your support and if you take even one small thing away from these newsletters that helps you, then my job is done. Happy cooking this week! XO Liv