Day 24

For dinner we had the Oven-Roasted Chicken Shawarma from the NY Times.  Pretty delish, I'm looking forward to making it again when I can have it with feta and hot sauce.  I also made the Broiled Eggplant Salad from Good and Cheap.  Since the chicken takes a few hours I wanted to consolidate oven use so instead of broiling the eggplant I brushed the slices with olive oil and put them in the oven for the last 20 minutes or so while the chicken was cooking.

Day 21

Lunch: I cooked brown rice in chicken stock and warmed up some leftover shredded chicken.  We ate the chicken and rice with the ginger and chili sauces from this Roast Hainanese Chicken Rice which really zipped up a simple meal.  The full recipe is also great.

Dinner: Porterhouse steak prepared by husband; baby kale and tomato salad with vinaigrette made of olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, salt, and pepper.

Day 19

I started my mid-week cooking catch-up evening by roasting some chicken thighs in olive oil and salt and pulling them apart when they were done.  Some of the chicken went into this stuffed pepper recipe from Marc Matsumoto substituted for the marinating and frying steps.  I assembled the rice and chicken mixture in the peppers, stuck them in the fridge, and did the final bake the day we ate them.

The rest of the chicken went into this Serious Eats roast chicken and kale salad with tahini dressing.  I didn't have any apricots or almonds handy but I've made it with the apricots too and it's pretty delightful either way.  A great lunch, very flavorful and hearty.

Finally, I made Laurie Colwin's pot roast (I've seen a few different versions, this one comes closest to what I did) subbing fresh chopped tomatoes and two cups of chicken stock for the tomato sauce. Ate with pasta.

Day 15

Still working my way through leftovers.  I did get some wings which I tossed in oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and roasted at about 375 for over an hour until the skin was totally crisped.  I also made Alton Brown's stovetop popcorn using canola oil instead of peanut and whizzing up kosher salt in my mini chopper since I didn't have popcorn salt.  I skipped the butter which certainly would have been great but it was tasty without it.  If you try it I'd recommend using the widest shallowest metal bowl you can. Mine's more deep and narrow which I think makes it harder to keep the kernels circulating and thus easier to burn, but it still came out 95% unscorched.  Finally, I tried a recommendation from this Food52 post for putting tahini in oatmeal with honey and it is delish.

Day 4

Breakfast: Oatmeal, jam, apple, peanut butter.

Snack: Black tea, raw almonds, unsalted rice cake.

Lunch: Green curry made by husband from the Pok Pok cookbook with peppers, string beans, Thai eggplant, and chicken minus fish sauce.  Brown jasmine rice.

Dinner: Stuffed eggplant from Martha Stewart Living.  Nixed currants, used pork instead of lamb.  This dish has been a favorite since the glorious day the issue showed up in the mail and the fact that I can still eat it was a much needed morale boost.

Dessert: Toasted marshmallows.

Day 2

Breakfast: Oatmeal, lingonberry jam, apple, peanut butter. Smoothie made of banana, frozen berries, greens.

Lunch: Celery. Unsalted peanut butter and banana on unsalted rice cake.

Snack: Skittles.

Dinner: We had people over for a Thai dinner made by husband:
-Chicken laap from the Pok Pok cookbook.  He made mine separately from everyone else's but I'm not sure what he had to leave out (probably fish and/or soy sauce).
-Faux green papaya salad using green apple instead of green papaya (for convenience, not dietary reasons; an improvisation honed by mother-in-law in North Dakota where the nearest Asian grocery store was a ten hour drive away.  It's delicious!) minus fish sauce and shrimp for me, I think he just upped the salt.
-Sticky rice.
-Thomas Keller roast chicken stuffed with garlic and lemon grass.
-Haagen Dazs peach and mango sorbets.