alot of things happened today

okay so the original inspiration for this was on tastespotting : it was a roasted spaghetti squash filled with tomato sauce and meatballs and mozzarella and parmesan. however, once i started i couldn't figure out how i was going to get two spaghetti squash halves to last the whole week...



instead of using prepared spaghetti sauce i made my own & i am using my mini-party frozen meatballs that i just heat up a few when i am eating (microwave). so i cooked down one HUGE onion one yellow bell pepper, garlic, oregano, red chili flakes, and a giant jar of whole plum tomatoes with basil. (my onion to tomato ratio was way off - not enough to try and fix but i have a ton of onions and not enough tomato...probably should have used tomato paste as well).



BUT OMG i used my dehydrated mushrooms that i made a while back. i just poured hot water over them while things were cooking, chopped them up a bit, & added it mid-way so that they could cook a little bit.

i put half in the fridge for dinner this week AND FROZE THE OTHER HALF FOR PASTA NEXT WEEK. yesssssssssssssssssssssssss



i also roasted the squash seeds and then made a vinaigrette of the items above.



before and after roasting...



i should have used less liquid but these suckers didn't last at all. like they were consumed immediately. i dumped the left-over liquid into the tomato sauce. (i <3 worcestershire sauce)



pre-roasted squash above; finished product below. i roasted it at 350° for like 45 min and then 425° until it was fork tender (i have no reasoning for those degrees or time lengths.)



the goods:



the cadaver:



snack:



DINNER:



FOURTH MEAL:



tomato sauce on toast with MOZZZZ. i couldn't figure out how to reasonably make the mozzarella i bought portion into a week's worth of meals so guess what, I MELTED IT ON THINGS AND AT IT. sometimes i didn't even melt it so DEAL WITH IT.

pasta

this one is kind of boring but i photographed it so here it is

i only allow (or try) to let myself eat pasta once it gets cold out & we are allowed to gain like 5 lbs for the hibernation season. otherwise i just sit there eating like 8 servings of pasta a day. but we all know how cheap it is.



not pictured: the enormous amount of garlic that went into this, roll tide!



so i cook the garbanzos & peas down & then kind of smash them all up. it makes it really hearty and with the garlic & chili flakes is AWESOME. made this twice now & honestly has been like $3 for a week's worth of dinners.



near the end of the week when i am completely bored with the pasta i just cook up my mini-party meatballs & VIOLA (BECAUSE DUH mini-party meatballs make everything better. when i am really depressed i just pull out my toothpicks & pretend i am at a party)

HEY Y'ALL

wooooah! i haven't posted in. a. minute.

BUT its because this has been a super busy few weeks.

FIRST! i went down to mississippi to visit MEGHAN! it was ridiculous. more on that later. then i had to get a tattoo & then it was halloween. and i am just barely recovered financially & like physically...

but of course megnation and i did some TAILGATE COOKING (which is the best kind obviously)



we made two things! i was in charge of a cheesy asparagus pouffff pastry tart thang. ^^^ blind baking of said pastry


cooked down onions



smothered in cheese, duh.



the beginnings of meg's dish (which i don't remember the name of) but was awesome poached eggs in a tomato-y brothy thing - so good.



the base! i see tomatoes, onions, AND MUSHROOMS.



POACHED EGGS SECURED.



invite us to your tailgate, y'all. we bring (fucking awesome) things



all we took! don't judge on the butt-plug champs. the walmart didn't have much of a selection.



this was the final spread. the hostess was a completely amazing cook. she made sausage balls (which are the essence of tailgates), sweet potato biscuits with sausage gravy, and badass bloody marys. i was so full of great food and disgusting champs that it hurt.

(what we also didn't discuss is that i bought us one of those like roasted chickens of which i ate a majority of before this potluck. i am disgusting)

EGGGGGS

SO BECAUSE ON THIS THURSDAY I AM GOING TO MISSISSIPPI TO VISIT MEGHAN AND I CAN'T EVEN BREATHE AND I AM DYING EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

anywho i have a dozen eggs & and i needed to get rid of them while at the same time make something i can eat for the rest of the week.

i used the portobello mushrooms, my pickled red pepper (from like ages ago), scallions, parmesean, 11 eggs, AND A TON OF CHEDDAR, ROLL TIDE.

look at how cute my little ramekins are

then i poured the rest of it into muffin tins. that's about three per day for lunch. idk what ima do for dinner.

can't deal. can't bear.

if i was anyone other than me, i might think that there is WAAAAAY TOO MUCH CHEESE in these. except that isn't a real thing in my life. they are epic.

SRIRACHA IS GOD.

brownie cookies

okay so last tuesday night, my sister's best high school friend and THREE OF HER 21 YEAR OLD FRIENDS WERE coming to stay in my living room for four days. i was dying and completely racked with anxiety.

i decided it would be cute if i made brownies. and it was cute.

except i don't like brownies and they had the option to turn the batter into cookies. it was really intense and really really thick. (the cookie recipe just had less liquid)

the girls got there and it wasn't a problem at all and i barely had to do anything and my anxiety was for naught. THEY WERE AWESOME.

look at these bitches. so dark. so awesome. making the cookies instead of brownies gave them this all around crunchy brownie-crust. but gd these are awesome.

omg and they gifted me these! WHOMP!

humungous fungus among-us

so i went to the green city market and in the half off bin were MUSHROOMS! STFU! mushrooms are so expensive y'all!! i had a left over pouff pastry so i made a fancy mushroom tart.

i got four kinds!! above are my cremini & portobellos. (aren't creminis just baby portobellos?)(the portobellos were reserved until tonight, that post will be later)

OYSTER MUSHROOMS which made me feel super fancy.

so this is the creminis, the osyters, white wine, mustard, onions, garlic, and cream cheese (because i didn't have any milk or cream)

while it isn't as visually stimulating as my tomato tart, this one tasted better. not that the other one didn't taste amazing, but it was rad.

these are my shiitakes!!! so the minimum on credit card charges is five dollars. before i grabbed the mushrooms i was at like $2.00 so then i also bought some thyme. BUT I STILL WASNT AT FIVE DOLLARS. the dude was like you should buy all these shiitakes and dry/dehydrate them.

this is them layed out.

this is them chopped. i was supposed to put them in the oven at 150 for an hour, press them with a paper towel to get all the water out and do it for another hour. of course, i was crunk'd and ended up leaving them in there from about 6:00 pm to 4:38am (IN A COMPLETE PANIC). they were completely fine, none of them were burnt. AND I DID RESEARCH. apparently when you do this they can last FOR SEVERAL YEARS. WHAT. yesssss. risotto? soup? WHAT SHALL I DO WITH THESE?

BEETS

so this meal / post was entirely serendipitous. i came to work and my manager had brought a bag with two beets, a green pepper, and four hot peppers.

the first recipe that came up on www.tastespotting.com was this roasted beets & poblano thing

so i dove in head first, and the result was pretty humorous...

this was the produce before roasting.

this is the worcestershire / lemon juice vinaigrette (i didn't have live but only that disgusting bottle of like 'real lemon') whatever it was fine

the problem was that the beets didn't cook quickly enough, the onions were cooking too fast, the green pepper was a plain green pepper (not poblano), and the red peppers became SO HOT after roasting.

so while it didn't turn out like the recipe it was good & it made a good dinner for two nights.