Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

I don't know how to take a good photo of a muffin. The 4-year-old has been requesting carrot muffins for a while now. I used  Cookie and Kate's recipe  as a guideline, but made several changes:  - I substituted wheat flour for Bob's Red Mill 1:1 gluten-free flour - Instead of 1 3/4 cups of flour, I used 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of quick-cooking oats - I skipped the ginger and nutmeg, and went heavy on the cinnamon instead - I didn't measure the amount of carrots I ended up with, but I'm pretty sure it was more - I skipped the walnuts and went heavy on the raisins - I added a little bit of brown sugar and skipped the turbinado sugar on top - I used vegetable oil instead of coconut oil - I disregarded the instructions about adding things in a certain order, and instead dumped everything into a bowl at once and then mixed. The fact that I didn't use coconut oil helped this (I had nothing that was prone to solidifying), and also the fact that I had no gluten in the

I had seconds. I saw  this video on Yeung Man Cooking  for rice and black beans, Chinese style, and I was intrigued because I've never had such a thing. I had most of the ingredients, or at least suitable substitutions for the ingredients, with the exception of the doubanjiang. Now I have a jar of that, so more Szechuan-style recipes may be in my future. My changes to the original recipe: I used jalapenos instead of the fresno pepper, I used regular soy sauce instead of the dark soy sauce, and I used avocado oil plus a but of chili crisp instead of chili oil. I may get some chili oil in the future, because I imagine that that would give it a different flavor. I added a splash of chinese cooking wine because I felt like it needed a tiny bit of sweetness and acidity, which I think was a good move. I also doubled the recipe, more or less. The Recipe: 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 inch ginger, chopped 1 large onion, chopped 2 jalapeno peppers or fresno peppers, seeds removed and minced 3 J

Not green apples The mu succeeded in the garden this fall, which means it's time to use them all up! I came across  Maangchi's recipe for radish salad , and decided to make it as a topping for some rice bowls. It's delicious and easy, like a simpler version of the  radish kimchi  that I love so much. It's a perfect component of a rice bowl / bibimbap, or it would be good as a side dish on its own. I made no changes except skipping the step of peeling the radish. Maybe I would be more inclined to do this with radishes from the store, as opposed to the garden. The Recipe: 1 large korean radish, cut into matchsticks 1 tb kosher salt 2 cloves garlic, grated 1 stalk green onion, chopped 1 tb rice vinegar 2 tsp gochugaru 2 tsp sugar 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds Mix radish and salt, and let sit for 5 minutes Squeeze out excess liquid Mix in remaining ingredients to the strained/squeezed radish The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: Easy and delicious Time to prepare: 15 m

I want to find crispy noodles that add height, just for aesthetics. This one borders on being too much work, especially when I make one pot with coconut milk and another pot with oat milk so I can eat it (and another pot to boil the rice noodles, and a baking sheet for the tofu). But it's very delicious, and it makes enough broth for to save for a second dinner (4-6 servings total). I used  this Prik-King curry paste  and the flavor is so good. I'll only experiment with other curry pastes if I can't find this one again. I worked from  this recipe from Feasting at Home . I made no changes aside from adding a thai chili, substituting oat milk for coconut milk in my serving, and skipping the kefir lime leaves because I couldn't find any. The Recipe: 4 oz rice noodles, boiled according to package 1 large shallot or 1/2 onion, sliced 2 tb chopped lemongrass (I used a tube of lemongrass paste) 1 thai chili, minced 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 tb Thai red curry paste 1/2 tsp turm

Photo of the leftovers instead of the fresh meal, because at the time of serving I did not expect it to be blog-worthy. But it is! Yum. I had a tube of lemongrass paste and leftover cooked rice, so I went searching for a lemongrass fried rice recipe. What I found was many variations on stir-frying the lemongrass with aromatics, adding the rice/vegetables/protein etc, and finishing it with fish sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper. So that's what I did! I currently have an abundance of thai chilies from the garden, so that went into the aromatics, and I wouldn't skip this in the future. The Recipe 2 tb lemongrass paste (or work from fresh lemongrass for more work and more flavor) 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 thai chilies, minced 1 tb ginger, grated 1/2 onion, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 4 c cooked and cooled rice (next day is best) - I had calrose but I think Jasmine would be even better 2 c shelled edamame, boiled for 4 minutes 2 eggs, beaten and scrambled fish sauce to taste sugar to ta

Pretend to also see some red onion on top. I'd never had pozole verde prior to making this. I went in search of recipes to use up the pepitas that I had from making  this farro salad , and decided this was worth a try. I worked vaguely from  this recipe from A Cozy Kitchen , but I made many simplifications: I used roasted/salted pepitas instead of toasting them myself, I threw in some fake chicken (Quorn Pieces) instead of cooking chicken in it, and I replaced a whole bunch of ingredients with  La Victoria Thick 'n Chunky Salsa Verde . That last one in particular was a big risk, and I was prepared to make a backup dinner if it turned out terribly, but it ended up being delicious! Mayyyybe one day I'll try the original recipe as intended, but these shortcuts make it a totally achievable weeknight dinner. I also threw in a tromboncino squash that I had in the garden, though this isn't in the recipe and is totally optional.  The Recipe: 1 yellow onion, chopped 3 garlic clo