Eat your veggies! and, garlic mysteries solved

OK, so I have a confession to make.

I am not all that fond of my cooked veggies. If I have to eat cooked carrots by themselves, I just won't. I'd rather not eat than eat them.

But of course I need my veggies. I cannot live on SCD applesauce, much as I would like to, because that would make me a Bad Susan.

I'd rather eat meat and almond butter brownies until I pop. Yes, I have done this. It's no wonder I can't lose any more weight.

So! I decided I would try mushrooms, as my next stage 2 veggie. I decided to come up with a recipe that would force me to eat more vegetables, so here we go.

BEEFY SPINACH WITH MUSHROOMS (STAGE TWO)

1 pound frozen spinach
8 oz white button mushrooms
1 pound ground beef
1 onion
6-7 garlic cloves
1 cup SCD ketchup

In a large saucepan, put the frozen spinach, mushrooms, garlic, and onion (quartered) with 2-3 cups of water. Cook until the water has reduced about half. Add the beef and cook through, reducing the liquid as much as possible. When it's done, stir in 1 cup of SCD ketchup.

You can add more ketchup if you want, but I would definitely eat this again. I liked it the next day as leftovers, too. I decided to have pineapple with it, but only one spear made it to my plate.

Oh, and by the way, if you were trying to pick out the garlic cloves? Good luck, because they look just like the mushrooms. It's an interesting little treasure hunt, should you decide to attempt it.


This meal brought to you by the number 10.

I think next time I might cut the amount of meat in half, but I'm not sure.

OK, on to garlic! So as I mentioned before, I actually burned my fingertip with all the garlic peeling I was doing. It turns out that I was going about it all wrong.

Get a clean, sturdy drinking glass. Pop the cloves off the garlic head or whatever it's called. Now, put the clove on your counter, and whap it with the bottom of the drinking glass. Turn the clove over and whap it again. Then peel it. The skin will come right off! Yay!

I have thus been peeling garlic with abandon. Abandon, I tell you! :)

I was also told that I can roast garlic. Since garlic is on stage 2, I figured it was time to stop picking the cloves out of soup and other things that I'm cooking. But roasting garlic is a really good way to get a flavorful cooked garlicky paste when you're not going to be boiling it within an inch of its life. So!

ROAST GARLIC (STAGE TWO)

Take a large head of garlic and break it apart. You don't have to, but I think it makes things easier. Bigger cloves are easier to work with, too.

Take the big cloves and gather them up in a piece of foil. Don't peel them!

Bake at 400 degrees for about 45-50 minutes.

Wait until they are cool. Then, using a pair of kitchen shears, cut one end off the clove and squeeze out the garlic paste. You can use this in any recipe you want.

And here's a recipe for Spinach Frittata.

SPINACH FRITTATA thingy (STAGE THREE)

1/4 of an onion
2 peeled cloves garlic
olive oil
3/4 cup spinach, drained (you can eyeball it -- I use frozen)
6 eggs
salt

In an 8" skillet, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and break up the onion and garlic in it. Saute the onion and garlic until done. At this stage you can't eat it, so toss it. Salt the remaining oil.

Sprinkle the spinach on the skillet. Immediately crack six eggs on top and mix it around. You can beat them ahead of time but I kind of like the effect of the whites and yolks. Squish it around and move it so the egg will flow underneath the cooked parts.

After about 5-10 minutes on medium heat, it should be solid enough to flip if you're really careful and you have a big spatula, since I can't make a real frittata in the oven. When it's done, cut into four pieces. You're done!

OK, that's all for me right now. I'm in the midst of a cooking marathon so I will probably post about that later. Bye!