Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

No, I don't have the fancy stone bowls like the Korean restaurants. It's just a black bowl. I've been easing into making my current favorite Korean soup, doenjang jigae, by making  this miso soup with Korean flair . It's become a frequent enough meal that I decided it was worth investing in a tub of doenjang. I'm glad I did! Rather than just reusing my old recipe, I initially worked from  this recipe from My Korean Kitchen . But I'm sticking with dashi as the base, since I still have no interest in working with either beef bones or dried anchovies.  It's delicious! Preschooler hasn't tried it yet, but I have a feeling I'll just be making him a separate bowl of miso soup whenever we have this, even if I kept the spice out of his bowl. The doenjang definitely has a stronger flavor than miso. The Recipe: (adapted from  My Korean Kitchen ) (makes 3 servings) 3.5 c rice water (from rinsing rice) 1.5 tsp hondashi granules 3 tb ...

Seasonal secret weapon: garlic scapes instead of green onions This is one of the child's all-time favorite foods. He will eat any quantity of it that I put in front of him. I like it too. I follow  this recipe from Kimchimari , making no changes except that I either leave out the chili powder completely, or I set aside only a small portion to get the chili powder, since the 5-year-old will be consuming most of it. I also increase the amount of sesame seeds. The Recipe: 1 small English cucumber (if bigger, I double the rest of the ingredients), sliced 1 tb soy sauce 2 tb rice vinegar 1 tb sugar 1 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tb toasted sesame seeds 2 green onions, finely chopped optional: 1/2 tsp gochugaru Mix together soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar Add the rest of the ingredients Toss to combine The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: Simple and delicious Time to prepare: 10 minutes Child quote: "FAVORITE FOOD!"

Photo is the leftovers in the pan, because we finished our bowls immediately. I've been in a rut with fried rice lately, and I've struck out on a few recipes that I thought would be good but weren't. I'd seen this  Cookie and Kate recipe  before and I hadn't bothered with it because I felt like something with oyster sauce and/or fish sauce would be better, but I was wrong! I finally tried it and it's delicious. Partially its success I think came from the experience that I finally have making fried rice and adjusting the seasonings at the end. I used the recipe as a guide, but I did a lot of adding and tasting at the end until it was just right.  My only real change, other than seasoning to taste, was that I added a splash of the pineapple juice (from canned pineapple) in the seasoning process. We like a bit of sweetness in our fried rice. This is the one! For now, at least. I'm curious about some of the recipes I've seen that use curry powder, so ...

I'm excited about the whole oats. One food that I've been missing in quarantine is Laughing Planet's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I tried one previous recipe for vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and it wasn't quite right, but it led me to believe that I was on the right track with flaxseed and coconut oil. So I tried  this one from Love to Be in the Kitchen , and I'm a fan. It's not vegan - it has egg - and I think the egg is maybe the thing that does set it aside from the Laughing Planet cookies. I might try to experiment with eliminating the egg in favor of more flaxseed. I also think that maybe they could have even more oats in them. But aside from a slight obsession with figuring out EXACTLY how Laughing Planet makes theirs, I really like these and they fulfill my craving. I made no changes to the original recipe except that I cooked them 11 minutes, despite the recipe's warnings not to exceed 10. But I'm glad the recipe emphasize...