cooking---recipes

[cooking---recipes]

i mean this in the gentlest way possible: you need to eat vegetables. you need to become comfortable with doing so. i do not care if you are a picky eater because of autism (hi, i used to be this person!), you need to find at least some vegetables you can eat. find a different way to prepare them. chances are you would like a vegetable you hate if you prepared it in a stew or roasted it with seasoning or included it as an ingredient in a recipe. just. please start eating better. potatoes and corn are not sufficient vegetables for a healthy diet.

#diet components

[cooking---recipes]

Riceless fried rice, v1

Time: 80 mins, servings: 4 -> 20 mins per serving

Ingredients:

- 1/2 a white/yellow onion

- 1/2 a WF bag of broccoli

- 1 WF container of diced carrots

- 1lb cooked chicken

- 3 eggs

- soy sauce

Directions:

- cook the veggies together in this order while stirring: onion, carrots, broccoli. Then add the soy sauce to the pan once they're all done cooking

- scramble the eggs and add them into the pan

- once the eggs are cooked, dump the chicken onto a larger pan, and dump the contents of the veggies pan on top of that. Stir

- divide and serve

Picture of one of the 4 servings:

#lunch and dinner

[cooking---recipes]

Fake quiche

Time: forgot to time it

Servings: 6

Time/serving: forgot to time it

Ingredients:

- half a container of Whole Foods pre diced tricolor bell peppers

- 2 cups of Whole Foods 3 cheese shredded mix

- however much onion is left. Usually just enough to cover the pepper layer

- 12 eggs

- 1 cup of heavy whipping cream

Directions:

Hold a paper towel over the Tupperware and pour olive oil over it. Use the paper towel to spread the oil around the container. Put the pepper in and spread it out evenly over the bottom. Put the onion in an even layer over the peppers. Put the cheese in an even layer over the onion

Begin preheating the oven to 375 F.

Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl. Use a fork to break their yolks then set this fork aside to use again later. Pour the cream in. Stir everything together with the fork.

Pour the egg mixture over the cheese. Jiggle the container and tap the sides to get out all the air bubbles. Let it sit to let out more air bubbles as the oven continues to preheat.

When the timer goes off / oven is ready, put the container in the oven. Cook for 30 mins then check w a toothpick. Cook for more in 5 min intervals as necessary

#fake quiche #breakfast

[cooking---recipes]

Pictures of the seasoned raw chicken and the final result:

Garlic and Italian seasoning chicken

Time: 2.5 hours (will be shorter going forward now that I know what heat to use)

Meals and time/meal ratio: 6 and 25 mins/meal

Tools:

Pan and lid - big enough to fit all the chicken

Stove

Spoon

Tongs to flip the chicken while it is cooking

Meat thermometer

Knife and cutting board for the garlic cloves

Plates for the raw chicken to be seasoned on

Tupperware / plate for the cooked chicken

Ingredients:

Olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of the pan in a thin layer)

1.5 tbsp butter

2 cloves of garlic

Wine (as much as the olive oil)

To taste: salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, minced onion flakes/onion powder

Around 1.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts

Directions

Put the olive oil on the pan and set it to medium low heat (3/10)

Lay the chicken breasts on a plate and season it with the seasonings. Then flip them over and season the other side

Place the chicken on the pan and turn the heat to medium high (7/10). Push all the seasonings left over in the plate into the pan as well. Cover and Leave for 5 minutes.

Mince the garlic while waiting for the chicken to cook

When the time is up, flip the chicken (with the tongs) and cook the other side on that same heat for 5 mins

When the time is up, check the internal temperature of the chicken. If it's not high enough then flip and cook for 5 mins and repeat until it's high enough.

When the chicken is done put it on the Tupperware / serving plate. Then put the wine, butter, and minced garlic into the pan. Swirl it all around until the butter melts then cover it and leave it to cook for 1 minute or until the garlic pieces are brown

Turn off the heat and put the chicken back on the pan. Use a spoon to put the juices from the pan onto the top of the chicken. Leave it for 5 minutes then flip and do the same thing to the other side. Leave that for 5 minutes

Put the chicken on the Tupperware / serving plate and pour the juices from the pan on top of it

[cooking---recipes]

Garlic and Italian seasoning chicken

Time: 2.5 hours (will be shorter going forward now that I know what heat to use)

Meals and time/meal ratio: 6 and 25 mins/meal

Tools:

Pan and lid - big enough to fit all the chicken

Stove

Spoon

Tongs to flip the chicken while it is cooking

Meat thermometer

Knife and cutting board for the garlic cloves

Plates for the raw chicken to be seasoned on

Tupperware / plate for the cooked chicken

Ingredients:

Olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of the pan in a thin layer)

1.5 tbsp butter

2 cloves of garlic

Wine (as much as the olive oil)

To taste: salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, minced onion flakes/onion powder

Around 1.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts

Directions

Put the olive oil on the pan and set it to medium low heat (3/10)

Lay the chicken breasts on a plate and season it with the seasonings. Then flip them over and season the other side

Place the chicken on the pan and turn the heat to medium high (7/10). Push all the seasonings left over in the plate into the pan as well. Cover and Leave for 5 minutes.

Mince the garlic while waiting for the chicken to cook

When the time is up, flip the chicken (with the tongs) and cook the other side on that same heat for 5 mins

When the time is up, check the internal temperature of the chicken. If it's not high enough then flip and cook for 5 mins and repeat until it's high enough.

When the chicken is done put it on the Tupperware / serving plate. Then put the wine, butter, and minced garlic into the pan. Swirl it all around until the butter melts then cover it and leave it to cook for 1 minute or until the garlic pieces are brown

Turn off the heat and put the chicken back on the pan. Use a spoon to put the juices from the pan onto the top of the chicken. Leave it for 5 minutes then flip and do the same thing to the other side. Leave that for 5 minutes

Put the chicken on the Tupperware / serving plate and pour the juices from the pan on top of it

#lunch and dinner #garlic and Italian seasoning chicken

[cooking---recipes]

Blueberry peanut butter smoothie

Time to meal ratio is efficient, but varies because 1-7 servings can be made at once in the blender

Ingredients for x servings:

- x bananas

- x/2 cups blueberry

- x/2 large spoons of protein powder

- x large spoonfuls of peanut butter

- 12 x oz. rice milk

Put them all in a blender and blend. Store in the freezer then put in the fridge to thaw around 24 hours before expected consumption

[cooking---recipes]

Shrimp fried rice v1

Total time: 1 hour 53 mins

Meals: 3

Time per meal: 38 minutes

I used the biggest pans we have so I can't make any more than this at once. Therefore, no matter how many new attempts I make, the yield won't be much better. It is a lot to clean up.

Until I have bigger pans I will not be attempting this again. Too much time for the amount of food it yielded

Ingredients: 4 eggs, 3/4 pound of pre cooked frozen shrimp, 1/2-3/4 a yellow onion, 2 cups of cooked rice, 1 bag of broccoli, sesame oil and soy sauce to taste

Directions: (this is to make a vegetarian base and the shrimp can be added to individual bowls)

Wash and cook the rice.

Thaw the shrimp by leaving it in a bowl of cold water for 7 minutes then room temperature water for 4 minutes. Then cut the shrimp and place it on a pan with olive oil sesame oil and soy sauce until desired level of fried is reached.

Preheat the oven to 425. Lay the broccoli on a pan with olive oil salt and pepper and once the oven is ready, put it in for 13 minutes

Peel and dice 3/4 of a yellow onion and put it in the large pan on low heat. Once the rice finishes cooking, add it and the broccoli. Crack 4 eggs into the pan and add soy sauce and sesame oil to taste. Mix it all up until the eggs are cooked then cover the pan with a lid and turn off the heat to let it sit for a few minutes.

[cooking---recipes]

Shrimp and white sauce pasta, v1

Time: I forgot to time it. Sometime between 15 and 45 minutes

Meals made: 3

Ingredients and appliances:

- around half a bag of 99 cent macaroni shells from Trader Joe's

- salt

- large pot and a stove and a colander and bowl

- two handfuls of precooked and deveined shrimp from Trader Joe's

- Italian seasoning mix from Whole Foods

- around half of the cacio e pepe pasta sauce container pictured below

Instructions:

Reheat the shrimp as instructed by the package, boil the macaroni, then take a cup of some pasta water. Then strain the rest out and combine the saved water, cooked pasta, and shrimp into the pan. Then add the sauce and spices and mix them all

Notes for next time: this is richer than I was expecting. Maybe try with a different sauce. Also I forgot the pasta water. Overall this meal was underwhelming

#lunch and dinner

[cooking---recipes]

[id: box labelled trader joe's mushroom and black truffle flatbread with mozzarella cheese over pictured of said pizza / end ID]

I cooked this as instructed. The box says that it lasts two meals but I only got one meal out of it, although I will admit it was a big meal. If I had a side dish with it I could probably get two meals out of it, but that would require cutting it before baking it.

#premade meals #lunch and dinner

[cooking---recipes]

Everything pasta, v1

I didn't take any pictures or time it, since I was cooking with a group. We got 6 meals out of it

Ingredients: (basically all the leftovers in the fridge)

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

1.5 whole onions

2 mushrooms

Bunches of spinach and lettuce from our misc. leaves bag

Paprika, Italian seasoning, garlic salt, and pepper

Almost a full container of rao's white pasta sauce (2 half- used containers)

Almost 2 boxes of pasta (one curly, one straight)

Directions:

Start the water boiling and once it is, add the pasta and leave them in there until they're soft enough.

Chop the onion and put it on a pan. Then chop the rest of the veggies and add those in. Then dump in half of the pasta sauce and season generously with each of the spices. Then add the leaves, and once they're a bit shriveled add the rest of the sauce.

Save a bit of the pasta water then drain the rest out and mix everything together.

I ate first and then my roommates added 3 sliced tomatoes and some crumbled tomato and basil feta. They said it ended up being a bit tomato heavy so maybe 3 was too many.

#getting rid of leftovers #lunch and dinner

[cooking---recipes]

Basic salmon, v2

Time: 43 mins

Servings: 3

Ratio: 14 mins/serving

Ingredients: salmon, extra virgin olive oil, my room mate's garlic seasoning mix, dill, salt and pepper, Whole Foods all purpose seasoning mix

Instructions: put the salmon on the baking pan, drizzle olive oil over it, add the seasonings over that. The olive oil going on first will help the seasonings stick to the salmon. When the oven is ready, put it in for 20 minutes

Notes for next time: optionally add a quarter of a lemon if I have one, but it's not needed. Make sure to start preheating the oven before beginning everything else, since that takes the longest

[image shows 3 pieces of seasoned raw salmon on a baking pan. / end ID]

[cooking---recipes]

Goat cheese and sausage pasta, v2

Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Total servings: 3.5

Time / serving: 23 minutes

I used the same instructions and ingredients as last time.

Notes for next time: sometimes the specific make and model of ingredient will be out, so measurements like "a box of pasta" do not help. Begin trying to quantify things in terms of ounces etc.

[cooking---recipes]

Basic salmon, v1

Total time: 42 minutes

Meals made: 3

Time/meal: 14 minutes

Ingredients: extra virgin olive oil, a quarter of a lemon, salmon, salt, crushed black peppercorns, lemon, my room mate's garlic seasoning mix

Instructions: preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put the salmon on the pan and season it to taste. Drizzle the olive oil and lemon over it so it doesn't dry out

Notes for next time: the olive oil and lemon ran a lot of the spices off the salmon. I will try putting those on first

[image shows three pieces of raw salmon covered in the above spices, laying on a baking sheet. / end ID]

And cooked:

[image is cooked salmon in a Tupperware. The ends are a bit charred and the inside has been opened up to show that the meat inside cooked, no longer being the dark pink color of raw salmon. / end ID]

#lunch and dinner

[cooking---recipes]

Blueberry peanut butter smoothie v1

Total time: 58 minutes

Servings made: 9

Mins/serving: 6.5 // this is good, as making these one by one each morning takes 17-22 minutes

Ingredients:

- 7 bananas

- 2 cups of frozen blueberries

- 3 scoops of protein powder

- 7 (non overfilled) spoonfuls of peanut butter

- almost 2 cartons of almond milk

Instructions:

- put half of all the non-milk ingredients into a blender. To make things fit, start w the bananas and put them vertical.

- pour almond milk into the blender until the liquid level reaches 12oz * the number of servings being made. Some solids will be extending above these lines

- blend and pour the blended results into storage containers. Put these in the freezer. Approximately 24 hours before anticipated consumption, move one container to the fridge

- repeat using the remaining non-milk ingredients

Notes for next time:

- don't make so much at once. I only have 7 drink containers and there are only 7 days in a week anyway

- I think I used to make it with 3/2 cups blueberries per banana, but this is 1/2 cup per banana. If the taste keeps being off then maybe that is why.

- try it with some milk other than almond milk so that I don't have to buy almond milk, which no one drinks. My roommate says she'll try oat milk if I use that

#breakfast #dessert #smoothies

[cooking---recipes]

Couscous salad v1

Total time: 1 hour 1 minute

Total meals: 5

Ingredients and materials:

- One box of couscous (I used the 5.8 OZ roasted garlic and olive oil mix from Whole Foods)

- one red bell pepper and one green bell pepper

- three cucumbers

- chick peas

- 3 spring onions

- vegetable knife and cutting board

- pan and stove

- large container to mix it all in

Directions:

Cook the couscous according to the instructions on the box. Remove the middle seed part from the peppers and the roots from the onions. Cut all the vegetables into small pieces. Mix everything together.

Lessons learned and tips for next time:

The leftovers are stored in the fridge and not reheated to eat, and I have discovered that I don't like eating cold food. So I will probably not be making this again.

#lunch and dinner #couscous salad

[cooking---recipes]

And here is the result.

[image is pasta in a glass Tupperware. Visible in the pasta are chunks of sausage, onion, broccoli, and spinach. End ID]

Goat cheese and sausage pasta v1

Result: 3.5 meals

Time: I forgot to time it

Ingredients:

- one 8oz tube of goat cheese

- one box (12 oz) of pasta, water and salt according to its box instructions

- 1/6 a brown/white onion

- one pack of broccoli

- olive oil

- half a pack (five handfuls) of spinach

- two sausages

Materials

- one cutting knife (for the onion)

- one spatula (for the stove)

- stove, one pan, and one pot (I used 8qt)

- oven and baking pan

- pasta stirring spoon

- kitchen scissors (for the sausage)

Process

I started by putting the broccoli on the baking pan, drizzling it in olive oil, and preheating the oven. Then I filled the pot with as much water as the pasta box said to, added 3 mini spoonfuls of salt, and started boiling the water, and while the water was boiling I cut the onions then started cooking the sausage. The sausages finished so I also cooked the onions and spinach in that pan.

[ID: a pan on a stove, with cooked sausage and uncooked onions and spinach. End ]

Then the water boiled so I cooked the pasta in it by the box's instruction. Then I took out two cups of pasta water and strained the rest of the water out of the pot. Then I put the boiled spaghetti back into the pot, along with everything from the pan, the broccoli, the saved pasta water, and the goat cheese. Then I mixed it all up

Tips learned and changes to make next time:

- the water took too long to boil, so next time I will boil it on the highest heat setting on the stove

[cooking---recipes]

Goat cheese and sausage pasta v1

Result: 3.5 meals

Time: I forgot to time it

Ingredients:

- one 8oz tube of goat cheese

- one box (12 oz) of pasta, water and salt according to its box instructions

- 1/6 a brown/white onion

- one pack of broccoli

- olive oil

- half a pack (five handfuls) of spinach

- two sausages

Materials

- one cutting knife (for the onion)

- one spatula (for the stove)

- stove, one pan, and one pot (I used 8qt)

- oven and baking pan

- pasta stirring spoon

- kitchen scissors (for the sausage)

Process

I started by putting the broccoli on the baking pan, drizzling it in olive oil, and preheating the oven. Then I filled the pot with as much water as the pasta box said to, added 3 mini spoonfuls of salt, and started boiling the water, and while the water was boiling I cut the onions then started cooking the sausage. The sausages finished so I also cooked the onions and spinach in that pan.

[ID: a pan on a stove, with cooked sausage and uncooked onions and spinach. End ]

Then the water boiled so I cooked the pasta in it by the box's instruction. Then I took out two cups of pasta water and strained the rest of the water out of the pot. Then I put the boiled spaghetti back into the pot, along with everything from the pan, the broccoli, the saved pasta water, and the goat cheese. Then I mixed it all up

Tips learned and changes to make next time:

- the water took too long to boil, so next time I will boil it on the highest heat setting on the stove

#goat cheese sausage pasta #lunch and dinner