Friday, May 27, 2011

Food | I'm an inventor



I rarely use recipes. 

It's not that I don't like them; I really do. It's just that recipes call for specific ingredients, and ingredients cost money, and I try really hard to save what I can in our grocery budget. I go for quality over quantity. As a result, our diet consists mostly of pasta, rice and beans paired with fresh or frozen vegetables. We sometimes eat salmon, and rarely any other kind of meat (partially because I can't bear to buy meat from the grocery and partially because it's, again, expensive).

So today I let you in on a couple of my day to day cooking experiments. Don't hold your breath, but do try the fries at least.

RICE & PEPPERS
2 cups rice (cook according to directions on bag)
2 green bell peppers or whatever vegetables you have in your crisper
Dice your peppers and sautee them in your oil of choice + seasoning + salt
To finish, add sauteed peppers to cooked rice.

HOMEMADE RED POTATO FRIES
Wash + cut poatoes lengthwise (should resemble shoestring fries)
Toss in large bowl with olive oil + seasoning of choice + salt
Spread evenly on baking sheet
Bake for 30 min. (Seriously just watch them, because 30 is just a guess. I wasn't paying very close attention...) TIP: to get your fries crispy, bake on the top oven rack.

I'd be lying if I said these weren't the tastiest fries I've ever eaten. I can't wait to try them with sweet potatoes. Be honest; do you use recipes every day?

3 comments:

  1. Oooo I can't wait to try the fries! We also do a lot with rice/peppers/onions. I love it when Kroger puts the red/yellow/orange peppers in the 10 for 10 sale -- I stock up and slice/freeze them for later. Actually, do you know why green peppers are always cheaper then the red/yellow/orange ones? I've always wondered...

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  2. Your diet sounds so much like ours. We eat rice, beans, lentils, and pasta almost every day. And we get fish from Trader Joe's about once a week, so that's our experimenting night. One of my favorite cookbooks is called Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, which has great recipes that are designed to be high-protein without meat.

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  3. i'll defintiely have to check that cookbook out, dawn. thanks for the recommendation!

    kaite, i have no idea. so weird that the red/yellow/orange are more expensive... but it's good to know they freeze well! i'll have to do that!

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