Today was not a great day for me. I'm usually off on Mondays and end up just kind of restlessly puttering around the house, doing chores, waiting for the imminent start of my work week on Tuesday. Plus, I found out that the tattoo I got last week isn't really healing properly and will likely need to be touched up almost immediately from my tattoo artists who was kind of a dick to me about it. Fuck that. I followed all the directions he gave me to heal it, which were essentially, put absolutely nothing on it and let it get all scabby and painful and gross. This is my seventh or so tattoo and I've always been of the A+D school but I tried to give this healing method a try. I would not fucking recommend it. Then I went to the co-op and bought 3 things, one of which magically disappeared from my hand without me having the slightest clue where the fuck it went between the store and my house. I got home, turned around, retraced my steps back to the co-op, found the stupid bag of rolls I had forgotten, and walked back home only to find that Xavi had taken it upon himself to turn the apartment into his own little garbage playground by toppling the kitchen trash can.
Dinner time rolled around, and I was determined to cook something simple, quick and, most importantly, comforting. I had grabbed a couple sweet potatoes at the co-op on kind of a whim earlier, and lately I've been trying to eat based on which produce is going to kick it first so as not to waste anything. The result hit the spot:
Obviously lighting is not my forte, I leave that shit to my photog sister. You get the point. The recipe is as follows.
Ingredients: spinach, canned chickpeas, garlic (I used pre-minced, for convenience sake), a sweet potato, freshly ground black pepper, liquid aminos, butter
Sweet Potato: Here I used about a pounder, but it was long and skinny so I cut it in half and stuck the other half in the fridge after cooking. Poked a bunch of holes in it with a sharp knife, put on a baking pan in the toaster oven at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or so. I didn't really time it, just poked it with a fork to ensure tenderness through and through. Cut down the middle, and put the teeniest amount of butter you can manage on either side.
Spinach and Chickpeas: I always cook this over very low heat because I do not like overcooked greens. I used a cast-iron skillet with a bit of cooking spray on medium-low or something. We have a gas stove for the first time and I'm still figuring that shit out. I put a TON of garlic in this, mainly because I'm of the belief that you can really never have too much garlic. Seriously, like 2 heaping spoonfuls. I would say I used about have a pound of spinach but I'm not even sure. Get that going, sprinkle a little liquid aminos on there, and then pepper the shit out of it. Once it's nearly done (almost all leaves are getting wilty) throw in about 1/3 a can of chickpeas. They're already cooked so you just need to heat them. Finally, once you have the spinach/chickpea mixture in a serving bowl or on your plate, top with a teeny tiny pat of butter. You could even throw this on top of the sweet potato instead of serving side by side if you wanted to get fancy.
Typically, I NEVER use butter in a recipe, for a host of reasons: it's caloric content, the fact that I've been blessed with genes that ensure that cholesterol plasters itself all over my arteries, the dubious practices of the dairy industry. Here I used less than a teaspoon of organic locally produced butter, helping quell my guilt. You could absolutely omit it here and still have an awesome meal, but I think the butter is what took this meal from delicious to comforting for me. Still not "comfort food" by many people's standards, but it certainly turned my day around!
There are about a million ways to make this, all delicious. This particular incarnation contains soba noodles, tofu, scallions, mushrooms, bell pepper, and spinach, seasoned with garlic, soy sauce, and spicy sesame oil. (IMPORTANT: The best spicy sesame oil is the homemade kind. Take a bottle of sesame oil and pour it over a bottle of red pepper flakes. We keep ours in a bowl-like container so we can make use of both the oil and the flakes.)
Obviously lighting is not my forte, I leave that shit to my photog sister. You get the point. The recipe is as follows.
Perfectly roasted eggplant. It took less than 5 minutes to prep the eggplant, which I threw in the oven (on an unknown temperature, because our gas oven has no temperature dial) and checked on it periodically. I enjoyed this on a whole wheat pita with hummus, tomato slices, and spinach. I ate my sandwich before I could take a picture. More proof that it's neither difficult nor time-consuming to eat delicious, healthy food.
