just_cyd: (Default)
A few weeks ago I threw in an aside about cooking ground beef in the slow cooker (last paragraph). Highly recommend this, if only to make this dinner so much easier.

Struggle Stroganoff
ingredients:
- cooked ground beef from the freezer
- egg noodles
- brown gravy

My process:
-take half a package of cooked ground beef from the freezer, and break it up onto a saucepan with lots of water. cover and heat to boiling - the goal is to get the meat un-frozen and hot
- realize it'd be stupid to dump out that near-boiling water only to have to get another pot going for the noodles, so you grab the slotted spoon and scoop out as much of the meat as the spoon holes will grab.
- add a bit more water to the pot, bring it back to a boil, and add the egg noodles, cooking to desired doneness. drain
- in a separate, smaller pot, mix up the brown gravy mix and water, and cook as directed. Alternately, heat up a jar of prepared brown gravy.
-in your bowl, spoon in some noodles, then ground beef, and top with gravy. devour.

if mushrooms are your thing, use them. dump them and the beef into the gravy. add peas. whatever floats your boat. Last time I made this, i used SOS mix, diluted, which tasted good but was much too runny.

next time, I may just cook the meat and noodles together while the gravy happens. Or I'll get ambitious and prep noodles and freeze, so the whole mess is nearly a microwave meal.
just_cyd: (Default)
was reminded recently of the ultimate struggle food: cereal! I have some on auto-ship from Amazon, but I don't usually buy it otherwise for reasons that I'm still not clear on. So when this shipment showed up, I already had the almond milk in the fridge, ready to go. this past week+ has been me existing on this, my dopamine snacks, and fast food, or, some days, nothing else. not going to force-feed myself, after all.

But courtesy of Facebook memories, this gem came up in a post about a day spent road-tripping with Dan. It was the first time I'd packed us a lunch for a road trip, and I went a bit overboard, maybe. The sandwich was based on one I'd had at The Pickety Place, a cute restaurant/shop near my office. Service was a bit slow, but the decor was all shabby-chic country, and the food was amazing. I still think of this sandwich often, and wanted to be sure I captured the recipe somewhere I could find it again.

Pickety Place Sandwich a la cyd:
homemade oatmeal bread
turkey
cranberry sauce
muenster (or gouda?)
cream cheese with pecans
thinly sliced granny smith apples

-This needs a good, hearty bread that'll hold up to the varying textures being applied.
-Spread some cranberry sauce on one slice of bread
-spread some pecan cream cheese on the other slice of bread
-layer thinly sliced granny smith apples on top of the cream cheese
-pile some turkey on the apples
-add some muenster on the turkey
-a bit more turkey on the cheese
-top with the first piece of bread, cranberry sauce side in
-toast in a skillet with lots of butter over low heat until the bread is golden on both sides, and things are warm and melty on the inside.

I don't remember the official layering, but I think alternating the sweet/savory/creamy/tart is the best approach

I believe for the picnic I sliced the apple at the time of serving so it wouldn't brown, and we ate the sandwich cold, with the rest of the granny smith apple, and chips, carrots and a dessert of some sort (cookies, no doubt). the toasted version is my preference, but still SO MUCH better than a pb&j. And I like a good pb&j.
just_cyd: (Default)
First: process photos here, with some descriptions.

Second: it was even better the next day! Heated in the air fryer for about 7 minutes at 350. I've officially declared this $35 Dash air fryer to be a Very Good Purchase.

Third: The Middlefield cheese was the better of the two for the pizza.

Fourth: The Chalet brick would be MUCH better served alongside fruit and meats on a charcuterie board or adult lunchable. It just had too much of that aged swiss bite to it for me, at least with the sauce i used (and let's be real - it's a rare chance that I'll make my own sauce).

Fifth: would I make this again? sure! Not sure I'll go to the extreme of driving to Cincinnati for the required cheese, but the dough is not more difficult than any other pizza dough. I will eventually acquired the proper deep, dark, straight-sided pan needed for this, but until then, the two little pans I used will suffice.
just_cyd: (OK cook)
After my friend Doug shared his beautiful Detroit style pizza on the 'gram, I decided I needed to give it a go. The catalyst for his was finding Wisconsin brick cheese, which is apparently the traditional cheese for this. With that in mind, some friends and I made a trek to Jungle Jim's, where I was able to acquire two kinds of WI brick cheese (in the German cheese section?), as well as Pizza Flour type 00.

To start, I used King Arthur's recipe. For the first time ever, I weight the flour rather than measuring it with measuring cups. I should have at least checked to see how the two compared. I did not weigh the water, and it did not occur to me to do so until much later.

it's a very basic dough, and the initial mix to "shaggy" was my first indication that i had too much water or too little flour. I let it rest, then started the kneading in my KitchenAid. It was more like batter than bread dough, so i added more bread flour, three spoonfuls in all (about 1/4c), to get it to actually hold together, kneading it well, then let it take its first nap. By this point I was texting Doug, and he provided some much-needed encouragement and inspiration by showing me his just-baked bagels.

Not knowing if my yeast was still good, I was please to see that after two hours, the dough had easily doubled, and had that yeast-y smell. I divided it into the only dark pans I could find - a 7" springform and a Perfect Brownie pan. both had the ability to free the contents easily, were dark and nonstick.

The dough only needed one rest between smushings to get it to fill the pan, and then it was time for nap #2. During the dough's nap I cubed up the cheese, two different kinds of WI Brick. One was commercially packaged, and was drier, and tried to crumble a bit when broken, the way a sharp cheddar will. The taste was mild and pleasant. The second cheese came from a larger block and was re-packaged by JJ's. it was much creamier, but had that pungent bite of a sharp aged swiss. It also had some of the glossy interior bubbles you see with swiss. very strong, and it lingered. The creamy texture was divine, but even my dormant tastebuds could register this one, and disapproved.

The dough puffed some during this final rise, but I didn't see the big bubbles that I thought I would. With the oven heated to 500F, it was time to assemble and bake. I tossed the combined cheeses onto both pizzas, making sure each got the appropriate amount for the available surface area (equitable vs equal?), then dolloped on some (too runny) canned pasta sauce. Into the oven for 12 minutes, worried that the full 15 would have been too much.

I should have used the full 15 minutes. I did have the crusty burned cheese along the edges that is the hallmark of Detroit style pizza, but the crust was a bit under-done. Also, the sauce was too runny and/or the cheeses were too much or too fatty? lots of extra and unexpected grease. The crusty cheese released well, and once cooled enough to handle, I devoured the smaller of the two. It's not exactly the same as the stuff I get locally, but with some adjustments, I think i can get a LOT closer for a lot less money.
just_cyd: (OK cook)
I've already covered my snacks, but sometimes you need "real" food, or at least something warm and filling. Yes, you can make this on the stove, but I figured out how to do this in the microwave while working, so I can have a fairly low-spoon struggle meal during the workday. I'll also do it when not working, and use the cooking and waiting time to make myself do things besides sit on the couch. Did I mention struggle?

Noodle Pouches

what you need:
Noodle pouch or box of choice
ingredients for microwave directions (mine calls for water/butter/milk)
microwave safe container large enough
optional add-ins of cooked meat or veggies

what you need to do:
First and foremost, make sure you're using a microwave safe GLASS/PYREX dish that's large enough. Your gladware isn't going to survive this. Mine is a 7c Pyrex bowl and it's plenty big

I also use my 1.5qt pyrex casserole dish with little handles which is a nice bonus. The 4c pyrex measuring cup is NOT going to be big enough. Trust me.

open your pouch and dump it into the bowl. rather than the milk and water, I add 2.25c water, and a scoop (2 tbsp) dry milk powder. add the 1tbsp butter, dicing it up if it's cold. give everything a good mix, trying to break up the clumps of powder, and then nuke it for 7 minutes. If everything is clean and accessible, I can do this in just a couple minutes and get back to my desk to work.

My microwave says its 900 watts, but tends to over-cook things. It's also got the handy feature that it'll beep every minute once it's done until you open the door. ADHD WIN!!!

Let it go a couple minutes, then go back and stir it well, making sure nothing is stuck to the bottom. This is where I add frozen cooked ground beef* to bulk this up. A generous handful, maybe 3/4 cup? be sure to stir that in well so it's broken up and coated in the liquid. Nuke for another 7 minutes. Again, let it sit for a bit before rescuing it and trying to eat it. the glass will be HOT, as will the contents. If your container doesn't have handles, some sort of grippy hot pads would be super-useful here. The sauce will be super-runny until it's had time to cool and thicken. As a bonus, you could probably shave 3 minutes off the total cook time and give it 10 minutes to sit at the end, and the noodles would still be done. For once, dwelling on something works to our advantage!!

full disclosure: I have not tried this with broccoli added, but have two bags in my freezer intending to.

The days I have this for lunch with ground beef in it (and again, full disclosure: i'll eat the whole thing), I almost never want or need dinner. I'm working towards making this two meals, but i'm not there yet.

*about 7lb of ground beef will fit in your typical 8qt oval slow cooker. Chuck that stuff in there, cook on high for 1-1.5 hours, stirring, chopping and draining frequently, until it's all browned and cooked through. Drain what you can, then spread the cooked meat into two 13x9ish containers lined with plenty of papers towels to finish draining, cover and chill overnight. load into quart-size freezer bags in whatever size quantity works for you. 2c loosely packed/scooped is what I use for recipes calling for about a pound of uncooked ground beef. Taco night just got that much easier
just_cyd: (Default)
I've already covered all my dope(amine) snacks, but some require preparation, perhaps the application of heat, even! Since "cooking" can be scary, let's start simple:

Yogurt Plus Stuff
the ingredients:
yogurt - a peel-open cup, or a big scoop from a bulk container into a bowl
fruit - a fruit cup (like diced no-sugar-added peaches) or part of a larger can of fruit (drained well), berries or sliced banana or whatever the heck you like, have on hand, or is in season
- granola or other crunchy stuff - Trader Joe's Just the Clusters (chocolate or vanilla) is good here, as is any granola of your liking. you only need 1-2 tablespoons, about half the "serving size" so this super-pricy item should last a bit longer.
- other stuff - chia, flax, wheat germ, whatever floats your boat. plain yogurt could use a drizzle of honey or maple syrup, or cooked down fruit/pie filling. use canned pie filling - no judgement here. you want rainbow sprinkles, you use rainbow sprinkles!

The presentation:
yes, you could attempt to eat all of this out of the single-serving yogurt cup, but wouldn't it be better in that pretty bowl? How about that stemmed parfait dish in your china cupboard? Heck, a wide-mouthed wine glass or martini glass could work. low spoons? it's also equally delicious eaten out of a paper bowl with a disposable spoon - they make compostable ones now if you don't dig the plastic. you DESERVE to enjoy this, even if you're sitting at your desk in your jamming, driving the struggle bus, five minutes late logging into work.

The assessment:
what worked? what didn't? start simple; you can always throw in more stuff if it seems boring. Remember that too much fiber too quickly to an unaccustomed digestive tract will be unpleasant, so go slow with those add-ins, and drink enough water.

how did you feel eating it? a hour later? two hours? when the next mealtime rolled around? Was it worth all the smiling you did to have to hand wash that antique china dish, or to NOT have to wash ANY dishes by going the disposable route? Did this fit well within your food sensitivities, dietary or budgetary restrictions? Time- and energy-wise? Would you recommend this to a friend, or even serve it to a friend? Grab a notebook (you know you have at least seven of them that have never been touched), take some notes, and try something new tomorrow.
just_cyd: (gingerbread man)
Eating habits of the WFH ADHDer with a 6am start and 30 minutes for lunch!

Grab and go, no prep needed
- fruit or fruit & cream cups (OK, these require a spoon)
- applesauce pouches
- individual bags of chips/pretzels
- mini candy bars (mostly peppermint patties)

oh, you need real food? fine.
- protein shakes (with caffeine!)
- greek yogurt cups
- peanut butter

cronchy snacks that take a second to assemble
- baby carrots
- pretzels
- apple slices

big winners
- any of the three above with a glob of peanut butter
- any form of pretzels with pb and a sprinkle of chocolate chips
- yogurt cup (usually vanilla) with a fruit cup (peaches), and/or granola.

lunch break
- Knorr noodle side dish pouch, microwaved.
- the buy-1, get-1-for-$0.29 double cheeseburgers from McDonalds via the app
- leftovers

As I have learned from ADHD Nutritionist and ADHD Dietitian, a LOT of my food issues are connected to ADHD and other brain-stimulation type stuff. If I'm bored or not mentally engaged, i want to eat ALL the things. Eating even just a few pretzel crisps can turn that around, as can doing a brisk-for-me lap around my downstairs. being super-into something is a good way to forget to eat (or pee or sleep, but these two are harder to ignore). The "being "good" all day" only to be starving and binge at night that regularly occurred while working in office was fueled by then-undiagnosed ADHD a toxic work environment. Working from home, where I can snack as I need to, and I don't have dozens of eyes watching and commenting, is so much better.

I'm off work today, and can't figure out why I have a piercing headache and am hangry. Well, for starters, I didn't take my meds last night OR this morning. second, it's been at least 8 hours since I've had anything to eat, and I've had minimal to drink since I went back to sleep from 9-1. oops. time to put this into practice.

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