Cooking cooking ....

I've been working at putting up the recipes at Neurodivergent Cooking that I use often - and finally got around to putting this banana cake recipe up.

 

I did some assorted cooking today after I got back from the postal packages route.  I only had like a dozen people ask me why we're delivering on Labor Day, well, if we don't, those packages and tomorrow's too will be all piled up, and it's really tough on someone to have to do it all in one day (and get paid for just one day).  We kind of appreciate getting an extra day to do it in.

I made my banana 'flan' cake - but with all purpose flour, for demonstration purposes.  I often use my brown rice flour in it, and it does change the texture.  I documented the process at Neurodivergent Cooking : Banana Cake, not Flan

2 mashed bananas, 3 eggs, less than 1/2 cup granulated sugar, splash whole milk, baking powder, salt, less than 1 cup flour, mix it all up - bake at 375 degrees for about a half hour (but the link above has step by step with pictures)

Then I made the brown rice for the week - to use in fried rice and for snacks.  When I've got it in there it makes cooking pretty easy if we're not doing something specific I have the rice ingredient to fall back on.  With pre-cooked rice and other things I keep in the freezer, a decent and pretty healthy meal for two is only about fifteen minutes away if I want it to be.  I open a can of fruit or put some bread or an omelet or another vegetable beside it and there you go.

Then I decided to go all in and make soup for dinner, and ended up having enough for another day this week, too.  I was intrigued by a recipe that I had all the materials for in the cupboard, basically, and I tried it out.  I think it was a success - although we don't often have soup for dinner, it was just for Esme and I - as Mark was having his leftovers he saved from last night's family dinner of porkchop and potatoes.

The soup was based on an 'Italian Broccoli soup with Orzo pasta' recipe - and it had a lot of garlic in it, which I did not have and Esme probably wouldn't have liked that much in it, anyway.

The soup consisted of : orzo pasta, chicken bouillon, broccoli, orange sweet pepper, handful of green onions, some olive oil, a can of chicken noodle soup in a brand no one else wanted to eat *roll eyes* but added to this really well, black pepper, salt, one small diced potato (raw), italian seasoning and garlic powder - simmered for a good while until the diced potato was soft and the orzo pasta had expanded all the way  - the pasta in this case was actually 'melon seed' style, but it worked the same

So wow, that was a lot of cooking

It may not look like it to some, but this is me trying to save on the groceries and make sure we eat stuff that is actually in our cabinets before going and buying more stuff.  It's not a popular idea with the family, but I think we need to do it.  If I don't cook the basic things like this, out of ingredients they normally wouldn't eat alone, (but I always keep around and that last a long time), then that just means more junk food, and that means buying more junk food because when it's gone they don't know what to eat (bit hyperbole, but it's close).  

 

It's nice that Esme and Mark can make their own food, but it tends to be hyperspecific foods, freezer meals, sandwiches and wrapped snacks, and not a lot of things they have to cook from scratch.  (barring Mark's peanut butter fudge recipe which they've gotten really good at, and scrambled eggs, and Mark does very well with meat products, which are pricey though, and I tend to not want to eat it every day).

 I'd rather buy a few things that I know we'll be using soon and use it with what I know is in the cupboard than have things go to waste before we get to them.  I'd also much rather eat a real ingredient thing than a little debbie cake or such, but I'm alone in that boat.  Esme will eat some of this though, if I put it on her plate and eat the same thing myself.  That worked really well with the lasagna noodles that had been in the cupboard, and several ramen dishes and of course we have eggs from our chickens, which I keep trying to find uses for.

 

Also made an article about ramen noodle dishes - because we've done a lot of those.  In the wintertime, Esme really did like them quite a bit, and we both still like the pork tonkatsu noodle dish.

 

Languages : I did the Japanese on both profiles and the Clozemaster - I'm not sure if I'll get to the two vocabulary sites right now or just try to do some more tomorrow.  I've done a little review on the Swedish, as well, because of the Scrapheap Challenge we're watching has Swedish subtitles... but I need a lot more review on the spelling on that.