Dinner

This is a good time of year to have oriental yams for dinner.  There isn't any fresh local produce to tempt me away from the yams just yet (sweet corn season is a few months away!).  The California veggies are good so I have them too.   This is one of my most favorite meals ever (beside my lunch potatoes and my breakfast grains), so I've been having this most nights.   As I described in this post, I cook a big pot of veggies every few days and distribute it into 2-cup bowls for lunch and dinner (lasts me 2-3 days).  I cook up a baked potato and yam every night or morning to have for lunch and dinner.   I just eat the oriental yam plain.  It is sweet like dessert.  It needs nothing else.  I eat the skin first so I can enjoy the inside all by itself.   yum yum yum.  The veggies are great too.   Here was last night's dinner.  As with lunch, I was too lazy to make a proper salad so just ate the Romaine leaves, which were quite good:

Today's included some blackberries for dessert.  My plate of veggies was bigger than usual because I had some leftover after serving up tomorrow's and the next day's into their bowls.

Lunch

I've absolutely been adoring my lunches lately.   I repeat it every day because it's so enjoyable and filling and it's a great inoculation against being jealous of other people's food.   It's also really easy with just a little preparation:   Always have some cooked beans in the fridge, and bake a potato ahead of time.   Also cook up a bunch of vegetables every 2-3 days and store them in single serving (2 cup) containers.  I like to combine lots of veggies like onion, kale or cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, frozen okra (hard to get fresh where I live), maybe some tomato, zucchini, asparagus, whatever looks good in the produce aisle (don't buy it if it looks lame!).    So here's what I do for one of my favorite meals.   Take the potato, cut it into large bite-size pieces, add seasoning if you want, and broil it in the oven for 7-10 minutes to toast it.   Heat up 1/2-1 cup beans in them microwave.    Put the beans in your bowl, with liquid, add the crispy potatoes, enjoy.  You won't believe how good it is until you try it.   The potatoes eventually soak up the bean juice but don't get soggy.   If you take this into work for lunch, it still works without toasting the potatoes--just don't combine them with the beans until you are ready to eat them.  Or if I think I'll be out for lunch but home for dinner, I might switch my lunch and dinner meals.   The potatoes and beans, along with your pre-cooked veggies make a very delicious meal.  I eat this with my friends and I can't imagine wanting to eat their food.   Here's an example with some big black beans and tandoori seasoning on the potatoes:

Here was yesterday's lunch.  My "salad" was just a bunch of romaine pieces.  I was lazy.  Plus the romaine was unusually sweet and fresh so it was quite good.   My potatoes were seasoned with Penzy's Mural of Flavors, and the white beans asked to be served with tomatoes so I added some tomatoes from a can (from our garden last summer).  The veggies also asked for some tomatoes

Today I finished off that can of tomatoes on the beans, and drank the juice from the can (just a few oz). I had some blackberries too.  My salad was more proper, all cut up with some flax meal and high-quality balsamic vinegar added (diluted with water), but truthfully I think yesterday's salad was better.  Sometimes simple is better especially when the ingredients are fresh and high quality.

Breakfasts

This is what I've been eating for breakfasts lately:  some grains, maybe some beans, and fruit or veggies.    For example,

Here was a "mango salad":   oat groats, beans, mango, lime juice and cilantro.  I had this for 3-4 days:

Here was a "savory" breakfast.  I cooked up a batch of rice of different kinds (brown, wild, forbidden).   I store that in the fridge and have a serving each morning so can make a quick meal out of it.  Here I cooked up some onion and spinach and garlic, and some spice (don't remember, but some good ones are tandoori seasoning, singapore seasoning, cumin, curry, or nothing at all--it's quite good all by itself).   At left is some teeccino (chicory barley drink), top are a few frozen blueberries, top right, a few gulps leftover after making housemate's smoothie (usually just a few Tbs are left):

Next day it's the same rice mixture, cooked up with spinach and onion (probably some garlic too) and red bell pepper.   I also accidentally got to enjoy part of a potato.  When you bake a potato, if you forget to punch holes in it with a fork first, then it's best not to handle it just after it's done cooking; if you grab it a little too forcefully, it can explode like this one did.  so I enjoyed what was left after it exploded in the oven.  Along with that is a bit of frozen mango and the leftover gulp from housemate's smoothie.

Here's more of the same.  You start to see the picture.  This day I was in a hurry.  I just added frozen peas to my grains (heated up), and cooked up some spinach in the orange bowl (I love cooked spinach just plain).  There's a few frozen mangos and blueberries, a few gulps from the smoothie, and some teeccino.

This day I cooked up some oatmeal, cooked up and onion, red bell pepper, and spinach, combined them with some curry and nutritional yeast---it was very good.  with the usual suspects on the side:

For the last few days, my grains were kamut, barley and rye.  I had them with a banana for a couple of days (and cinnamon), with the usual suspects on the side (cooked spinach, blueberries, etc).  Oh, and I like to read a blessing from this book before I eat:

Today I was in the mood for beans with my grains, so I had beans, grains, strawberry and banana, and the usual suspects on the side.

This is a filling and satisfying breakfast.  I love it!