Day 29

We were visiting my mom this weekend so I don't have all her recipes but the dishes were pretty simple.  She made carrot ginger soup by sauteing onion and garlic (maybe?), ginger, salt, pepper, and carrots, simmering in water, and whizzing with the stick blender.  Nice bright innards-warming lunch with some rice cakes.  For dinner we had pan seared ribeye with potatoes and asparagus that had been roasted in olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Note about long drives while on LID: eat as heartily as you can before you set off.  By the time we got home the thought of eating another raw almond was very depressing.

Back home we had the Crispy Lamb with Cumin, Scallions, and Red Chilis from the NY Times.  I misread the recipe and used rice wine vinegar instead of rice wine and I was out of cornstarch so I used potato starch instead.  My guess is the latter substitution was the reason why it didn't come out all that crispy but it was still good.  We ate it with brown rice and string beans that had been blistered in the wok.

Day 7

Breakfast: Apple, peanut butter.  Oatmeal, jam, almond hazelnut meal.

Lunch: Another pureed soup.  Chopped carrots, a fennel bulb, and half a butternut squash, tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, roasted until the squash was soft.  Sauteed garlic, added roasted vegetables, homemade chicken stock and about half a cup white wine, simmered for a little while.  Zapped with the stick blender.

Dinner: Ribeye prepared by extremely thoughtful and considerate friend who came to visit even though it is bitterly cold here and we weren't going to be able to eat out.  She cooked it in a cast iron pan in olive oil for six minutes per side with a bit of salt and pepper.  I am pondering whether I can just eat it for dinner every night between now and the end of the LID.  Also had Barilla GF spaghetti mixed with shredded zucchini, a drizzle of chili oil from Fuschia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice, and a spoonful of Chinese sesame paste (tahini would have been fine too).  Skittles.

Day 1

Breakfast: Bob's Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal, lingonberry jam from Ikea, apple.

Lunch: Apple, peanut butter.  I can see myself leaning on this combo hard over the next month. Haagen Dazs Raspberry sorbet.

Snack: Salt free peanut butter and Marshmallow fluff on unsalted rice cake.

Dinner: Squash and lentil soup.  No recipe really, just sauteed some leeks, threw in chopped butternut squash, red lentils, kosher salt, pepper, and homemade chicken stock, simmered until soft, and zapped it with my trusty stick blender.  Not sure about dessert, probably Skittles.