Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

This photo makes me sad that it's all gone now. This recipe comes from Grandma Judy, because I've only had her version of clafoutis and it is so delicious that I don't care to compare other recipes.  It's a great sweet breakfast or substantial dessert. It reminds me of french toast meets frittata, but more sweet and fruity. And we've definitely had it for dinner when we're low on dinner ingredients. The Recipe: 5oz fruit (cherries, berries, peaches, pears, etc), cut into pieces if larger than bite-sized zest from 1 small lemon 2 tb sugar, plus about 2 tb additional to sweeten fruit 1/2 c flour 1/4 tsp salt 2 eggs 1 c milk 1 tb butter powdered sugar for serving Mix lemon zest with sugar in small dish Sift together flour and salt. In separate bowl, beat eggs and whisk in milk.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and whisk together.  Stir in the lemon sugar. Preheat the oven to 425. In a 10-inch skillet, melt butte...

Proud of his chewy piles of turd A few days before his third-and-a-half birthday, Miles declared that he wanted to make Noop. He said that noop is mashed berries, flour, sugar, and cinnamon ("cimanin"), and you microwave it for one minute. We'd like to think that he called it Noop because it's nuked goop, but probably not. So, we made it. It was very very chewy, but it tasted good. Cinnamon and strawberries! Who would've thought? After batch #1 (photographed), he wanted to try again to make it more dry, so we did another batch with more flour, but he didn't like it because it had less strawberry flavor. So I am blogging version one until we make further adjustments. He says that the next batch will have chocolate chips, brown sugar, and puffed kamut in it. (I vetoed adding raw farro.) Let's call this batch #2 - not worth keeping. UPDATE Batch #3 - Miles wanted to add oats and chocolate chips. So we did about 1 teaspoon of quick cooking oats, ...

Pretty colors. In our last CSA box of the year, we had broccolini, red peppers, and shallots, which screamed stir-fry to me. I'm on a constant mission to make a shrimp dish as delicious as the one at  Pho Grand , so I searched for Vietnamese recipes and found  this one by The Spruce Eats . My modifications: I made it less spicy for toddler (which didn't matter because he decided that night that shrimp is gross), I added a bit of sweetness to the sauce which I saw in another recipe, I stir-fried the shallots before anything else to try to fry them a little bit (because I dream about the fried shallot garnish at Pho Grand but I wasn't willing to go to the effort of frying them in a separate pot), and I increased the amount of sauce. It's fresh, it's easy, the shrimp is delicious, and it's so healthy with stock as the base for the sauce. The Recipe: (adapted from The Spruce Eats) 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined 1.5 tb brown sugar 3 cloves ga...

With mashed potatoes and collard greens, because the CSA box said so. I previously made  this seafood creole , which was delicious, but I wanted a simpler alternative. This one is less soupy and more just like a delicious sauce on the shrimp, which we would prefer most of the time. It also has a brighter, fresher flavor. They are both keepers, but right now I prefer this one. I worked from  this recipe from Ready Set Eat . My only changes were halving the quantities (we still had plenty) and simplifying the tomato situation to just use 12 oz of freshly pureed tomatoes instead of whole tomatoes and tomato paste. I also removed the jalapenos because of the toddler, but he thought it was too spicy anyway, so I'd say those are optional in the future. The Recipe: (Adapted from  Ready Set Eat ) 1 tb vegetable oil 1/2 onion, chopped 1 bell pepper, chopped 2 ribs celery, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tb creole seasoning 1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and ...

I made those! When the CSA box hands you radishes, you eat one. Then you try to give the rest to the neighbors. Then, left with no other option, you pickle them. Then you discover that the pickled radishes are really good. I followed  this super-simple method from My Korean Kitchen . I picked it because it had good reviews on Pinterest, but mostly because it was easy, and I wasn't willing to dedicate a lot of time and effort to these things that none of us really liked. But it turns out that they are delicious.  As is clear from the original recipe, these are good with Korean food. They are also good on Vietnamese rice bowls. And they are PERFECT on salad with hard boiled egg and honey-mustard dressing. And the toddler ate half of them in one sitting, just as a snack. We might actually need to buy more radishes. The Recipe: 1 bunch radishes 1 c water 1 c sugar 1 c white vinegar Pinch of salt Thinly slice the radish bulbs and place them in gla...

Addictive. I hadn't heard of shishito peppers until they showed up in our CSA box. I searched Pinterest, and it was clear that the right thing to do was to blister them in a pan with some seasoning. I was intrigued by  this simple recipe from Gimme Some Oven , and I followed it exactly. I thought that maybe I shouldn't make the whole container of peppers at once, but the original recipe author claimed that they could easily be eaten in a single sitting, so I made the plunge. I ate more than half of them in about 10 minutes and I forced myself to stop only so Jess could have some when he got home. Otherwise I could have happily eaten them all myself. I will be looking for shishitos again. The Recipe: 6 oz shishito peppers 2 tsp canola oil salt and pepper 1/2 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp sesame seeds Heat oil in heavy-bottomed pan (I used my dutch oven) Add peppers and a generous pinch of salt and pepper Saute for 3-4 minutes, to...

These got eaten very quickly. I rarely buy green beans, because I've so often gotten ones that were dry and flavorless. But when we got some in our CSA box, I was excited to make something good with them. And since I was missing the good ones at a recently-closed Chinese restaurant that we loved, I thought I'd try my best imitation. I worked from  this recipe from Fine Cooking . I made no changes, except for making the sauce directly in the pan (rather than combining those ingredients in a bowl first), and eliminating water from the sauce.  The Recipe: 12 oz green beans, trimmed 1 tb soy sauce 1 tb honey 1 tb butter 2 tb olive oil 1/2 tsp kosher salt 2 garlic cloves, minced In a saute pan, heat butter and olive oil When butter is melted, add green beans and salt. Cook, turning the beans occasionally, for about 7 minutes until they are slightly browned and tender. Reduce the heat to low. Add garlic and stir for 15 seconds. Add soy sauce...