Mar 14, 2021

Menu: Week of 03/14/21

Several of you have been kind enough to reach out to ask about how my recently implemented and dreaded life-style changes are going.

The dietary changes remain surprisingly easy for the most part, and I really did embrace the paring down of my “things-you-are-allowed-to-eat” list with rather evangelical zeal. Unfortunately, my birthday and a friend’s birthday intervened recently and there was a slight relaxing of standards including the consumption of - gasp - wine. The final blood test at the doctor’s has been moved to early-April so I have put myself back on track again and will have - hopefully – only one more “relapse”, on L.’s upcoming 18th birthday, and I am considering relaxing standards and allowing myself coffee on weekends...

The exercise part of this experiment has been harder, since I loathe any form of it other than walking, and I hope that warmer weather will serve as the catalyst to get me outside and moving. During the pandemic I acquired both a foam roller and a Pilates bar which, once the initial enthusiasm (maybe too strong a word) subsided, I now tend to see more as interesting sculptural additions to the bedroom floor...I need to get back to them and to start doing dead bugs and the like again, something that I was doing religiously, and which somehow tapered off organically about a month into things.

Still, a few dietary lapses and peaks and valleys in exercise motivation aside, I have been mostly a really good girl, and I have better general health, skin and 15 pounds less on my frame to show for this experiment so far. My incapacity to sleep like a normal human being has yet to be affected (unfortunately) and today’s clock changes and Con Edison drilling outside my window at 7 am did not help!

This Week's CSA box was a harbinger of Spring showstopper in green and contained:

Herbs: a healthy bunch each of mint, dill, Italian parsley and coriander

Greens: a baggie of mixed lettuce leaf thinnings, two bunches of young spinach, a Romaine lettuce, two bunches of broccoli rabe and a bunch of dandelion greens

Alliums: a red onion, six sweet white onions, a head of garlic

Vegetables: a bunch of red carrots with the green fronds still attached, three beets, four crisp baby bok choi, a bunch of asparagus, two black radishes, three Covington sweet potatoes, a tiny Delicata squash, a Savoy cabbage, six Russet potatoes

Fruit: -

Remainders: a daikon root, some baby Gem leaves, an apple

So, with the addition of the above remainders and several avocadoes, as well as a package of sweet potato noodles (minus whatever I use for lunches) these items will be transformed into:

Sunday “Pantry Roulette”; fridge, freezer, and pantry item dinner]

Dandelion Green Salad with Mimosa Dressing

Mackerel en Escabèche

Steamed Potatoes

Roasted Asparagus

Monday [Wildcard; a more complex or fiddly dish than usual to test my culinary skills]

Spring Green Soup (very loosely based on the Persian Ash Reshteh)

No Knead Bread for L.

Tuesday [Pasta]

Mixed Salad

Pasta Carbonara for L. 🔁

Sweet Potato Pasta with Broccoli Rabe Sauce for me