bloggage and brussels

Dear people of the blog world,

In case you guys haven’t figured this out, there’s an inverse relationship between happiness in my life and quality of my blog. When I’m sitting at home unemployed watching the hours go by utterly meaninglessly, my blog is filled with new recipes and hilarious witticisms. When I’m actually living life, spending time with ridiculously awesome people, doing ridiculously awesome things… not so much.

Apologies. As a reward, my favorite new way to cook one of my favorite foods and an entire day of eats (it’s odd, all my favorite bloggers do three meals a day and yet the thought of doing that myself is hugely unappealing).

So. I LOVE BRUSSELS SPROUTS. I. love. them. How does not EVERYONE EVER love them?!

I wanted to recreate the blissful sauteed brussels sprouts I had at that brunch in Austin.

Sooooooo I heated up some olive oil in my sauté pan and put some halved brussels in there, face down.

My goal was to get them brown and crispy. It was taking awhile, so I then covered the pan and that worked beautifully.

Gave them a flipsie and did the same thing on the other side.

Then, to let them steam through so they were soft in the middle and to impart the delicious flavor I so loved in Austin, I added a mix of honey (2 tsp? In Austin it was agave but I am poor, yo), dijon mustard (1/2 tsp? Could’ve added more), dried dill (1/4 tsp? Could’ve added more), and water (a couple tablespoons, which was a bit too much because then they were more soft than crispy. Just add a tad so the sugars in the honey don’t burn!)

    

Oh. Yes.

I DEMOLISHED these. Best brussels ever. Cannot wait to make them again.

For the proteinaceous element, I thawed some organic ‘n grass fed ground beef from the freezer.

Made it into meatballs jazzed up with homemade breadcrumbs, egg to bind, garlic, and fresh rosemary.

Gave it a broil for, tragically, SLIGHTLY too long. But they were still really good. So delighted our deck rosemary plant hasn’t died yet.

The following day, I actually photographed every meal I ate. HOW long has it been?!

I began with my baked-in-a-pumpkin oats, which I’d refrigerated in individual tupperwares for easy reheating in ensuing workdays.

Though actual pumpkin is a lot stringier than canned pumpkin puree, I find the stringy bits kind of delicious. This really tasted like pie, with the carby oatness and the cinnamon and all.

I added some chopped almonds on top in a seriously puny attempt to get in some protein.

Set out to make lunch and there was an apple getting sliced and then I ate a lot of apple slices (and probably dipped some of them in almond butter… and then just started dipping lots of things in almond butter).

Makes sense because this breakfast was low in protein (and also just low in calories compared to my usual breakfasts).

Made a sandwich that was so good I had it two days in a row!

I began with beautiful farmer’s market 100% whole grain spelt bread. Spread one slice with dijon mustard, the other with avocado.

 

Then got out some turkey (Trader Joe’s; antibiotic and hormone free and vegetarian fed; a litte salty) and some beautiful fresh farmer’s market arugula.

 

Epically delicious sandwich. Rounded out with a yogurt and the remaining apple slices!

Keerazy workday, as usual, so was delighted to have a ridiculously easy dinner to throw together.

Last fall I got obsessed with Ellie Krieger’s beef and butternut stew after I got to actually see her make it in person at a book signing.

I didn’t have stew meat, but I had leftover meatballs. Didn’t have butternut but had already cooked kabocha.

Ad libbed it by just chopping/crumbling everyone up and throwing them in the dutch oven with a can of tomato sauce, salt and pepper, fresh rosemary.

Not at all an attractive meal but it was one of those that fed my SOUL.