the not so starving artist
I love creamed spinach alongside steak. And I love spinach artichoke dip. And now Costco sells this amazing artichoke jalapeno dip. I married all those together as the inspiration for my side dish for my hubby’s 50th birthday. We were all in love with it. And now I can’t quit making it, so I thought I’d share with you lovely people.
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Here’s my original post with details of how I made him!
It’s fall. For me, that’s kind of a big game of “will it roast”? Pineapple? Oh, heck yes! It’s like a dish and the world’s best home fragrance rolled into one. No candle necessary. Hope you love it, too!
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You don’t like pumpkin spice? I *guess* you can use those words together. How about some lovely fall apples then? Roasting them brings out extra natural sweetness, so you don’t even have to think about adding sweetener!
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I love the changes of the seasons. Summer’s flipping wonderful, but fall’s here and I’m leaning into it hard with some cozy weather favorites. Does everyone roast garlic? It changes the flavor completely, with the sharpness giving way to a deep soulful sweetness. Oh baby! I roast a bunch at once, since I’ve already got the oven on. So good. My idea of meal prepping is creating a lot of awesome ingredients that I can throw into a variety of things throughout the week and make them better.
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I was craving a garlicky stir fry tonight. I found a pound of shrimp in the freezer, and broccoli, carrots, peppers, and snap peas in the veggie drawer. Perfect! And it’s great for the 800 gram a day produce challenge! There’s 443 grams of produce on that plate. WooHoo! Hope you love it, too!
*If you are visiting right now, I’m trying to adding search and printing functionality. I apologize for any weirdness my tinkering is causing.*
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The State Fair of Texas is cancelled for the year, and our family always has a great time there. There’s tons of fun food, but I always get a roast beef po’ boy with debris gravy. And weird beer. Texas and Louisiana are neighbors, so there’s a lot of sharing. Whenever I make po’ boys at home, I use this recipe. PARASOL’S STYLE ROAST BEEF PO BOY RECIPE from NolaCuisine.com. Great blog! You may look at it and your eyes may get huge in horror when you read about simmering the roast and using Kitchen Bouquet in the gravy, but you just have to trust her. It’s so flippin’ lickable!
Okay, so hopefully I wont offend the author with my completely inauthentic use of her insanely delicious beef. But I’m a tinkerer. I’ve made her po’boys exactly as she commands in the recipe. So yummy! But, I’ve also turned it into a po’boy salad when I was in a more salad-y, less bread-y mood. It was awesome. Tonight, I’m using it in my 800 gram of produce challenge in my roast dinner. 345 grams per plate, which puts me at 1003 for the day. Woohoo!
I went looking for a link to this blogpost yesterday, only to find I’d never blogged about it. Huh. It’s a family favorite. Super easy, delicious, and filled with all the make your body feel oh so good stuff. It has 447 grams of produce towards the 800 gram a day challenge. Hope you love it!
Serves 4
2 Eggplants – Peel stripes and cube
2-4 Tablespoons olive oil (go with your preference)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Toss. Roast at 400 for about 20 minutes. Set aside.
1 lb Ground beef
Brown. Drain excess fat if needed.
1 red onion, diced
4 Cloves garlic, minced
Add and saute a few minutes.
Diced tomatoes, 28 oz can
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
½ tsp Black pepper
½ cup Fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Add. Place eggplant on top.
½ c beef broth
Add and simmer for 20 minutes.
Toss and garnish with little more parsley if you like. I ran out.
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Escali Primo P115C Precision Kitchen Food Scale
My favorite knife. It’s a 7″ full tang Santoku. I chose the Ikon handle design, which is wonderfully ergonomic. I have spent hours on a produce sculpture before and my hand was just as comfy at the end. It’s worth the pennies.
Wusthof WU4176 Classic Ikon 7-Inch Santoku, Hollow Edge, Black
WÜSTHOF CLASSIC IKON 8 Inch Chef’s Knife
My favorite cast iron skillet is a 12″ Lodge dual handle pan. Why, the long handles are too heavy to hold with a single hand when they’re loaded up. Since you’re using two hands anyway, you might as well get the ones that take up less space and stack so much better!
Lodge 12″ dual handle cast-iron pan
Same sheet pan with a cooling rack/roasting rack insert. Ooooo!
I get asked about my spice wall all the time. The magnetic tins on the wall are great for any spices or salt-free blends. Salt corrodes the tins, so anything with salt is in a glass jar on the counter underneath.
Everyone knows and loves broccoli salad, but there’s traditionally 2 cups of mayo in this much salad along with some sugar. That’s yummy, but we can do so much better than that! This has less than 1/6th of the usual added fat, and some lovely fresh juice. Better for you and more flavor. Boom! Hope you love it!
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Fresh juice! I love to make it once a week! Turmeric is supposed to be lovely for joints, pineapple for inflammation, and celery for skin. Are they, though?! Since we’re not eating them in a vacuum, and have lots of other things going on in our lives, who knows?! I’m sure your mileage may vary, but when someone complains about an elbow or knee, they ask me to make turmeric juice and it stops. Either way, getting lots of extra produce in our diets is always a great idea.
I make a lot of juice hoping for three day’s worth. With two teenagers who want lovely skin in the house, it rarely makes it past two days.
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