Normally, my diet consists of eggs and bread. I get my proteins and my grains, what more do I need? Nothing, clearly. Some other one ingredient meals I eat are rice and bagels. I tell people I just don’t have time to cook, and since I’m on spring break (read an entire week with no plans) I decided to test that theory out:
If I have time and ingredients, will I actually cook? Let the adventure begin!
I created a meal plan for myself, then went out and bought all the ingredients. There’s no turning back now! Today was the first day of the plan. On the schedule? Stuffed peppers and homemade hummus.
Project 1: Stuffed Peppers. I procrastinated all morning, and around 1 PM decided there was no more putting it off. I gathered the ingredients, read through the directions, and realized it was surprisingly easy!
I cut the peppers,
Cooked the filling,
And put everything together! 12 minutes later, they came out of the oven looking delicious.
And for the final test – were they edible?? I was a little worried when I put the first bite into my mouth (by the way, I realized I don’t know how to eat stuffed peppers. Do I eat the filling first, and the pepper second? Or do I eat the pepper as I go, letting all the rice filling fall out? Tough decisions!) but it was delicious. If I may say so, I was quite proud of myself!
Project 2: Homemade Hummus. Apparently I couldn’t stop with making one thing today. No, my first day was go big or go home. So I decided to make some hummus. I was having some friends over and thought that might be a good treat for them – provided it turned out alright…The recipe didn’t look too hard.
The recipe called for Tahini sauce (aka Sesame Paste), which took me forever to find at the grocery store! I looked in the ethnic food section and didn’t see it. I sort of wandered through the Mexican section, not really expecting it to be there but not knowing where else to look! Went back to the ethnic foods – turns out it’s in the Greek/Mediterranean section. Just for future reference.
The ingredients included olive oil, garlic, tahini sauce, chick peas and a few other random things. Turns out it’s really easy to make hummus. Step 1 – collect ingredients. Step 2 – stick everything in a blender. Step 3 – blend. Step 4 – eat. Real difficult, right?
The recipe made quite a bit of hummus! I like it warm, with tortillas, crackers or pretzels. It was a hit with my friends too, so overall I’d call this a success.
Reflections after Day 1 of Real Food: I guess cooking isn’t that bad. It’s nice being full and not having to find a snack every half hour. (It’s surprising, but bagels every half hour really don’t fill you up. At all.) But I will suspend my judgement until the final day of this week-long project!
Good for you Heidi! I LOVE HUMMUS!
You should definitely do this more often and share the love with your apartment mates!