As my fellow singletons know, cooking is dubious business when you’re cooking for one. Sure, there’s a hoard of recipes out there to cook for one person, but where do you get 1/4 of an onion? Last time I checked, they are sold whole. I know I can cook pre-diced frozen ones and use just a bit, but it’s much easier for me to justify my half-assed cooking attempts by saying it’s too hard to cook from scratch. Fortunately, I’m not a super picky eater and don’t usually mind eating the same thing for a few days. I also survive on Aidell’s chicken sausage sold in bulk at Costco and whatever random veggies I’ve picked up. This is probably why I’m losing weight.
In an effort to find a substitute for that disgusting macaroni and cheese problem I’ve been having, I made spaghetti. Spaghetti sauce is something I’ve always done well, and I make a kickass lasagna. Since lasagna is now my nightmare food, full of delicious cheese, mushrooms, garlic and gluten, guess I’ll have to suffer through modified spaghetti. I browned up some organic, grass fed hamburger (thanks, Costco!) and added some roasted red and yellow peppers, two cans of artichokes and two glass jars of spaghetti sauce. One is from Kroger, one is from Target, and they are both organic, relatively garlic free deliciousness. One is actually pretty spicy, which was nice! Plus I got to use my Le Creuset pot, which is gorgeous and always makes me smile. Thanks, Mom!
So, call me Sandra of the Semi-Homemade Cooking show fame, but whatever. At least I didn’t jump warm it in the microwave and call it a day. I got four lunches out of the leftovers, two servings for dinner because I have no salad stuff here and I’m feeling like a big fatty today, plus six cups for the freezer. BOOM. At least I’m still within my calorie threshold for the day and I got a lot of iron from the beef. Take that, Anemia! I will kick you in the pants. Sure, it’s barely 6 pm and I can’t eat anything else today, but I’ll survive. That’s why God blessed us with fizzy flavored water.
I used the Ronzoni Gluten Free Penne Rigate. It tastes pretty normal to me and I like the chunkier noodle with my chunky sauce. Regular spaghetti noodles seem like they’ll make a mess. OH! That reminds me that I bought myself a spiralizer that should be here tomorrow, so along with my salad stuff I’m going to pick up a zucchini and see how that works. I really like spaghetti squash with my pasta sauce, so hopefully I’ll like the zucchini just as much. Less mess and chances for microwave explosions (coughMaryAnnecough.) I’ll post pics of that this week, and I promise it’ll look like a Pinterest fail.
Speaking of Pinterest, my girlfriend Erin asked where I was finding recipes these days. God bless her, she’s allergic to shellfish just like my Uncle Ray, who I hear willingly almost put himself in the hospital to bulldoze through a famous buffet in NYC back when I was a baby. Crazy man. Anyhoot – Paleo has been pretty popular for a few years now, and thank goodness, because anything Paleo normally has none of my allergens, aside from garlic, blueberries, spinach, and the other randomly good for everyone else that walks the planet foods that I can’t eat. And some of the stuff I’ve been eating for years thanks to Weight Watchers is allergen free too, like my shredded chicken!
That, btw, is just a can of Rotel for every pound of chicken, taco seasoning and heat on low in your crock pot for about six hours, until the chicken shreds. I normally eat it with black beans and avocado, but it makes great tacos too 🙂
All that said, I think I’m still allergic to tomatoes. They apparently don’t screw up my blood and exacerbate my inflammatory issues, but I’m typing this blog with a tightened throat and my face feels like it is sunburnt. Hmm. Did this with Suzy’s awesome allergen free taco soup the other night too, so I think tomatoes will continue to be in my diet but VERY. SPARINGLY. Tonight is good since I don’t have any big plans. Hopefully I won’t wake up with hives tomorrow. PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE. Hives are the worst. It could be the spices, though, especially since black pepper in on my naughty list. Who the hell knows? Again, just put me in a bubble. I guess I need to live on protein shakes and oatmeal 🙂 Or just have permanently sunburnt cheeks and perpetually chapped lips.
Anyone got a great lip balm they love? I’ve tried the Eos (no longer work for me and make my lips worse) and I’m concerned that my honey intolerance makes beeswax an issue, so that rules out Burt’s Bees. Carmex doesn’t seem to make things worse, but it does burn when I first put it on. Maybe I’ll save this question for my dermatologist post that I’ve been pondering for a few days now.
Cheers!
