Does anyone else do this?
I go on food jags, where I literally eat the same thing every day. Sometimes more than once a day.
The jags have tiny story arcs within themselves, where I change up the ingredients a bit, due to availablity, and of course, all of the jags over time have a larger story arc that ties them all together.
In this case the overall story arc of my eating has been about baby spinach. I can't get enough of it.
In the past 2 months I have gone on two of these jags. They are as follows:
THE BABY SPINACH SALAD
This salad is made up of Baby Spinach (as I bet you already guessed by the title, clever, clever reader), gorgonzola cheese, sliced green apples (with lemon juice if I am packing the salad to go and I don't want the apples to brown), candied pecans and grilled chicken.
The variations? any kind of blue cheese is fine. Sometimes I put in candied walnuts instead of pecans, and if there are nice anjou pears at the grocery store or farmer's market, then those'll do.
THE QUESADILLA
A multi-grain tortilla with shredded mexican blend cheese, black beans and of course, the ever present louisiana hot sauce.
That's really just the foundation of the meal. Most of the ingredients I make ahead of time to have on hand. You've got to be prepared for a jag.
The black beans I cook on Sunday using the magic spice packets from Goya that my mother taught me about long, long ago. Goya is more of an east coast brand, but I finally found a store that sells them here. No more begging NY friends to send them to me! When I am making the beans, I also make a filling where I sautee red onions and add frozen shrimp, and another magic Goya spice packet. Last week I had Portobello mushrooms, and so I used those instead of shrimp for the filling.
If I have a pork loin in the freezer, I will slow cook it until the meat just falls apart, and keep the pulled pork on hand to add as well.
After I put all of the ingredients on the tortilla, I keep it spinning on the pan so it doesn't burn, and top everything off with leaves of baby spinach. They serve as a lid, keeping the heat in, and when I finally fold the tortilla in two, add a crunch to the whole thing.
Then of course, sour cream. Last week I accidently bought low fat instead of regular. Ew. I'll suffer through, don't worry about me. If I don't have sour cream, I add goat cheese.
God, now I'm hungry. What should I have for lunch... AHAHAHAHAAHAHAA! So funny, me.
Kristen is MERELY a CONTRIBUTOR.