Cooking For the Unemployed

So, here I am with some spare time on my hands and I know I shouldn’t be eating out (and a dishwasher!!!). It’s also luckily warm comfy food season (because it recently dropped to sub-zero temperatures when it was 70* last week, whatever!), so that means getting to cook lots of pasta dishes, soups, and rice dishes that I can store in my fridge and heat up in no time so I can avoid paying Dig Inn $12 every time I want to eat a healthy and quick meal.

The weekend before last I made three things that lasted through the week:

• Jordan’s Crack Pasta (not healthy at all, but it’s so good)

• Curried Butternut Bisque (aka butternut squash soup, similar recipe) 

• Penne with Tomato, Cream, and Five Cheeses (recipe)

These are great recipes that I mostly followed but I didn’t have enough canned tomatoes for the Crack Pasta but it turned out just fine with only one can. And instead of using two cups of heavy cream for the last recipe, I used 1 cup cream and 1 cup milk, which is great and it’s a tad healthier. 

Additionally, on Thursday night I made a recipe that my best friend made up years ago and that I’ve been making occasionally ever since. It’s pasta with sautéed sun dried tomatoes, spinach, and parmesan cheese in olive oil and I threw some chicken in for protein.  

Since this is a short week (not to mention I will inevitably go home with a bag of leftovers on Thanksgiving), I’m not cooking much. But I did make Creamy Rice & Sweet Peas (recipe) today. SO good.

Let’s not forget the Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread that I baked from scratch (I used a recipe that my high school boyfriend’s sister gave me in 2005 – so long ago) and Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding that I made today. 

I went through my huge binder of recipes last night and pulled a dozen more or so to make over the next few weeks (though I’m starting a gig on Monday). It’s so much easier, and healthier, than eating out.

If you have any suggestions for awesome, healthy recipes that I can make it bulk, leave it below!

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A productive weekend to myself.

I love my ‘to do’ lists. I had no plans this weekend, and instead of what usually happens – go out to eat a LOT with friends and spend unnecessary amounts of money – I decided to relax and make a list of things ‘to do’ and actually get them done. 

I went to my usual yoga class on Friday night. I love the teacher – Paula Lynch – because her classes are so anatomy focused. We spent a good 20 minutes rolling around on rubber balls, for example.  I grabbed a banana-chocolate-peanut butter smoothie from GNC on my chilly walk to the subway – maybe not the best choice for dinner as it was cold and so was the weather.

I slept for ten hours that night and went for a run the first thing the next day.

I had planned on doing 5.5 miles like the last couple of weekends, but my body was so tired and it wasn’t agreeing with the cold wind, so I only got in 2.5. But that’s better than nothing, right? I went to Whole Foods after that and I spent the next 3+ hours in Starbucks writing letters of inquiry and applying for a few jobs. It was exhausting, but I felt really accomplished after all was said and done. I went home to make butternut squash soup after. It’s really quick and easy – and one of my favorite winter dishes to make. Perhaps I’ll post the recipe at some point.

I spent the rest of the evening watching shitty edited-for-TV movies and chatting with friends. I don’t often stay up late – ever – anymore because I loathe getting up late the next day, but I was up til 1am and assumed that Sunday – today – would be wasted. 

Well, I was wrong. For some reason I awoke at 8am and decided to peal myself from my bed and make a 9am iyengar yoga class at my studio (YogaWorks – West Side) with a teacher whose classes I really enjoy (I haven’t taken one in a while though because she teachers during the day during the week). It was a great way to start a Sunday, to say the least.

I walked up to Trader Joe’s – to stock up on Clif Bars – and Jack Rabbit – to get my stride looked at. Two positive things came from those stops:

I realized Trader Joe’s was carrying their seasonal Candy Cane Green Tea again…

And that I need these sneakers… eventually.

I also listened to Dos! another 2-3 times and a friend invited me to the final performance of The Performers tonight… So, that’s where I’ll be. How was your weekend?