Re: What did you have for breakfast/lunch/dinner?

by MerciToujoursMaPetiteBoop Tue 05 Jan 2021, 7:44 pm

You know, Peachy, I always make sure I have at least a couple jars of red cabbage with apples in my cellar pantry (now known as my quarantine emergency food stockpile). A slice of pumpernickel, a fat slice of cheese, and a scoop of rc&a makes a fine light lunch or dinner!

I'm slowly pushing my kitchen into maximum functionality mode. The kitchen and dining room are quite small, and during the winter I have to share the space with two potted grapefruit trees and a big ti plant that summer outdoors, but I have finished loading the most awesome spice cabinet right next to the 1970-vintage range (which has both downstairs and upstairs ovens), and that's really important to my "culinary artistry".

Which brings me to tonight's suggestion for hungry bellies in the northern hemisphere, here in what is usually our coldest month, January. It's called, variously, stoemp in Belgium, stamppot in the Netherlands, or colcannon in Ireland, and I imagine other places make similar stuff with other names for it. It is basically smooshed potatoes with vegetables stirred into it, and the variations are countless. Look online for a recipe to get you started. Just cook up some potatoes, choose your vegetables to stir in, add milk/cream/broth if you want, season to fit your taste (or to be adventurous), consider further add-ins or toppings (butter, margarine, olive oil, cheese, meat).

When I make it at home, I usually microwave the potatoes whole, add butter and a wee bit of Olive Garden salad dressing at the first smoosh, cook some more, and then smoosh again and stir in spinach or kale or other greens. But never beet greens, because they are high in sodium and turn the potatoes pink. Even though I usually don't get home and finish unloading the car and start making dinner until around or after 9:30pm, I can change into my sweats and check through the mail while the microwave is cooking potatoes, and have a steaming bowl of stoemp ready in maybe 12-15 minutes.

At work, I more often boil dried soup vegetables (called "groente" in Dutch) in water, add instant mashed potato flakes and a little margarine or olive oil, and call it lunch. A tiny bit of smoke flavoring or paprika or nasi seasoning adds variety, although it seems I'm well contented with a mug of any stoemp every day of the week.

by Dee67 Thu 07 Jan 2021, 12:58 pm

For breakfast I have a homemade muffin, made from ground almond flour and with cranberries. For lunch I usually snack on something light, like rice cakes with hommus. I drink a lot of blueberry green tea all day. For supper, I will have grilled chicken breast in a creamy mustard sauce over top of egg noodles, with tarragon. I sometimes make a homemade chocolate sauce to eat over bananas for dessert. Yumm. Drool