Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–I’m so glad you’re here!
I’ve been traveling again and I am realizing that I don’t seem to travel “well.” I don’t mind traveling, and I almost always enjoy seeing the people or the destination, whichever is the reason for the travel; but digestively, I tend to be a mess by the time I make it home, and I’ll leave it at that. I think the reason for the digestive issues is the lack of real food.
And just what do I mean by “real food?” By that, I mean food that one makes from fresh or individual ingredients by hand. Prepared meals, either those you get from the grocery store, or those you get at a restaurant, are full of, well…junk. And listen–I get it! Eating real food takes time and energy–something that is in short supply in our world these days. But eating “real” food means that you more or less know what’s going into your body and you’re better able to control that melange that makes you feel “right,” at least for you. Plus, eating “real” is better for the planet–less packaging going into a landfill = healthier planet.
Needless to say, most folks, myself included, don’t or can’t make every meal from scratch; and eating prepared foods, or eating out once in a while is a fine thing and when shared with friends or family, an awesome thing. And then there are Girl Scout Cookies, which are never, and I mean never, a bad thing, but I digress. But as my great uncle Bert used to say “T-O-O of anything is bad.” And when I stray from my freshly prepared meals for too long, my body tells me in no uncertain terms what I’ve done to it! And let me tell you–my body is letting me know who’s boss right now!
This week, in keeping with my theme of living simply for Lent, I am featuring healthy (or reasonably healthy) “real food” that is also “found food.” By this, I mean–I’m diving into my freezer, my pantry and my crisper drawer and making meals that come from food I have on hand (think shelf stable grains or canned beans, frozen, long-term storage items [think squash or root vegetables] or items that have only a day or two left before they need to be tossed). I’ll also use sauces and produce I prepared over the summer and canned or froze for the winter months, and/or proteins that are already in my freezer that I can defrost. I did a small grocery run when I returned home, but only for necessaries–milk, eggs, butter–like that. Other than that, I’ll be using whatever I can find in my abundant larder.
I had a chicken in the freezer. I always have a chicken in the freezer, which…is a little weird, I agree, but that’s my problem. I made a roast chicken the first night we returned:
With that, I made a huge–and I mean HUGE–salad of greens that were on their last legs and whatever else looked good for a salad: celery, red bell peppers, asparagus, cucumbers, and mixed it all with a basic vinaigrette:
And added roasted potatoes to the mix:
Just looking at the real food made me feel better. And it was simple to put together. Prep time for the chicken was about 10 minutes, prep on the potatoes was 5. It was a small chicken–only about 3.5 pounds, so cook time was under an hour. While the chicken and potatoes cooked, I put together the vinaigrette and salad and we were eating within an hour.
This morning, I rustled around in the freezer and found a pound of ground chuck and a half a pound of ground pork. I took it out to defrost and then thought about what I could make with that. I remembered the tomatoes I have on hand that I canned with my friend Em, found some spaghetti pasta in my pantry and we were off to the races. Tonight’s “found” “real” meal is spaghetti–and another big salad. Tune in tomorrow to see the results!
In the meantime–
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
