Less-oil cooking and adventures in meal planning.
After watching Forks Over Knives, I’ve been trying to do my home cooking with less oil. It’s fine if I’m cooking something IN a sauce, like when I cooked zucchini/broccoli/okra in salsa the other night, but was nasssssty with the carrots I did the night after.
For lunch today, I’ve got defrosted broccoli and cauliflower, along with a LOT of fresh okra in a pan with garlic, salt, pepper, lemon pepper, and cayenne pepper, and NO OIL. I’ll top it with some pinto beans that I’ve been cooking through the morning for the weekend. No added oil, and probably plenty of flavor.
I don’t want to totally eliminate oils from my diet, but due to being where I’ve been for the most part, I’ve been using canola oil instead of olive oil, and I need to return to the better oils in cooking when I can, and still only sparingly.
PLUS, we’re getting Lebanese for dinner tonight, so I will get a dose of good fats. That said, the challenge of cooking with as many unprocessed ingredients as possible is interesting and quite fun.
This weekend, I’ve got a chickpea ragu (adapted from this Real Simple recipe I read while my brother was in his post-op appointment: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/lamb-chickpea-ragu-00100000085436/index.html) planned, as well as quinoa/sweet potato/kale/bean patties (adapted from this recipe, and baked in the oven instead of pan-fried: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/quinoa-bean-cakes-00100000084868/index.html), and a taco salad; this is a lucky coincidence because I am dog-sitting for The Best Friend this weekend, and I got to have dinner there last night to see how the house is set up, and his girlfriend made a pilaf with lentils and brown rice, which will be a perfect thing to have in the taco salad. I have some corn tortillas to bake in the oven as chips; salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, and cilantro to top it off. Also, I have a few tofu steaks marinating in garlic/ginger/soy sauce, as well as bok choy and broccoli that I can cook up on their grill (!!!! - I haven’t gotten to grill anything in AGES). ALL of these recipes can be made with little to no oil, all of them are comprised of whole foods, and all of them sound RIDICULOUSLY easy. (for the polenta, I’m not going to add butter, obvs, but I will add some garlic, salt, and nutritional yeast when I cook it up for flavahhhh).
This is going to be a TASTY adventure weekend, and meal planning means I only buy the groceries I need, and I only haul the exact amounts I need to wherever I’m staying.
PLUS, staying in the West Hills means I get TONS of cool trails to walk.
OMG I’m just a ball of enthusiasm right now.
