What I made for dinner

Things fall apart. I cook.

Yoo-hoo, it’s me. I’m writing this, now having fully emerged from a dark period where all I cooked was roast chicken. No shade to roast chicken. It was delicious. I simply couldn’t bring myself to cook anything else. “What do people eat?” I asked myself every night. “Roast chicken and only roast chicken,” I answered myself.

Roast chicken requires very little babysitting. This is essential when you have an actual baby screaming at you because she would very much like to have her dinner right now. You might try to appease her with a handful of Ritz crackers or an entire carton of strawberries while you try to chop a salad. She is routinely unamused by these efforts. The trick to avoiding a full meltdown is to put a chicken in the oven before she wakes up from her nap, and remove it three hours later just as she begins her terrifying metamorphosis into a pterodactyl.

Luckily, the pterodactyl loves roast chicken. But I’ll admit, it was a bit of a blue period for me. Cooking was joyless. I couldn’t even get it up for a clutch of purple asparagus; I just let them wither in my crisper.

Now that summer is here, I’m feeling renewed. I have started doing something called “meal prepping.” Have you heard of it? I think I once called it “a flaccid way to feed oneself.” Ha! How young and virile I once was! Now, I chop vegetables days in advance and spend at least thirty minutes during pterodactyl’s naptime prepping my battle station for dinnertime. The result: a lot of meals that are just things piled into a bowl. But hey, they’re not roast chicken.

Rice Noodle Bowls with Steak

Cooked vermicelli noodles, quick pickled onions, salted cucumbers, a perfect nectarine, strip steak and fresh herbs with nuoc cham.

Cumin Chicken Thighs with Tomatoes, Corn and Quick Slaw

Hard sear cumin-dusted chickens thighs. Dress shredded cabbage in vegan mayo, cilantro and lime juice. Cook some corn in the chicken skillet with onions, cherry tomatoes, cumin and ancho chili.

Leek Galette with Peach & White Bean Salad

Melt leeks in butter. Add some kale and cook that down too. Roll out some pastry dough, brush liberally with dijon mustard. Pile in the leeks and dot with Boursin before baking. Salad is lettuce, cooked white beans, peaches, basil, pistachios and a rice vinegar dressing.

Quick Beef Ragu

What to make when you have nothing left to give. Blitz a bunch of carrots, garlic, celery and onions in the food processor. Cook it down. Add ground beef. Cook it down. Add a can of tomatoes and a parm rind. Cook it for as much time as you can. Put it on noodles.

Seared Chicken Thighs with Panza-touille

My favorite of the bunch! Dice a couple zucchini, a red onion, a red bell pepper, and 3-4 cloves of garlic. Cook in lots of olive oil until almost jammy. Add some halved cherry tomatoes and cook until collapsed. Hard sear some boneless skinless chicken thighs. Deglaze chicken fat pan with a glug of red wine vinegar and a splash of water. Add a few handfuls of croutons and toss in the pan sauce. Add capers and a grated garlic clove. Toss saucy bread with zucchini jam and serve all together. YUM.

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Currently:

Currently making on repeat: These veggie-packed muffins that my daughter happily inhales. You can use AP or whole wheat flour. I skip the raisins and coconut. I add vanilla extract. I cut the sugar to 1/4 cup. Beets, zucchini, and carrots all work nicely. This recipe is for mini muffins, double it for a regular muffin tin. And no, I don’t feel guilty about hiding her veggies, OK?

Currently slathering on my face: This retinol, the only one I have found that doesn’t turn me into a lizard person. I love that you can work your way up in intensity. I’m on level 1 and whoo-ee my pores are clearer already.

Currently wearing: These pants and only these pants, amen. I can’t hide from the fact that the price is absurd, but—I cannot stress this enough — I wear them every day. I have them in 3 colors. I will buy more. They are booger-and-berry-proof, washer-and-dryer-approved, and make me feel kinda cool? The closest thing I’ve gotten to a uniform since I actually wore one.

Currently thankful for: This reusable sticker book, which has gotten us through 2 flights, a handful of restaurant dinners, and many joyful hours at home. Sure, she freaks out when we can’t locate the lone kitty sticker, but I always find it.

That’s all for now. You know where to find me for questions and (encouraging & supportive) comments.