zucchini – Gabriela Maria

Happy Monday, Week 6!

I’m already halfway through my quarter. My roommates and I all feel the same way – we’re ready to graduate. Last week went by so quickly, and when Friday come up, I didn’t really believe it was already Friday. I ended up not posting because my schedule was so out of whack.

But now I’m ready!

I should be out of my boot within the next two weeks, and hopefully back to lacrosse in three weeks. These next two weeks are going to be pretty chaotic. This week I’ve got test corrections due for my inorganic exam, and I’ve got a 15 page sulfur lab report due. Then I’m in LA for the whole weekend, including President’s Day. Then the following Friday, I have a bioinformatics research draft due, and a graduation requirement essay due. I have yet to go grocery shopping for this week, and to be honest I don’t know what to make yet. But, one thing at a time.

So anyway, back to food. This past week I made a lentil soup for dinners. I’ve actually never had lentil soup, or cooked lentils, so there was a bit of a learning and tasting curve. This recipe turned out really good and ended up being really easy to make. It was great to have because it’s been relatively cold outside, so it’s been great to come home and have a warm soup for dinner.

The recipe I followed was from Cooking Classy. I measured most things out this time, so I followed the recipe pretty closely. I only used one box of vegetable broth, since two boxes wouldn’t have fit in my pot. The only other tweak I made was with the tomatoes. I saw them on the list, and knew I needed to buy crushed tomatoes when I went to the grocery store, and yet, I did not come home with crushed tomatoes. Thankfully I had some leftover cherry tomatoes in the fridge, so I instead cut those up and tossed them into the soup.

Tweaks and all, it turned out really good. Although, next time I will remember to buy crushed tomatoes (inserts face palm emoji). This was great because I felt like I wasn’t going to make enough, but it ended up lasting me the whole week, which typically doesn’t happen. I’ve recently been trying to minimize my meat intake. To be entirely honest, it’s kinda expensive and I never feel like it lasts me long enough. However I’m still going to the gym so I need to keep up my protein intake. The lentils were a great substitution for that.

So now that it’s Monday, my whole week is off by a day. I normally do my cooking for the week on Sunday. I have yet to go grocery shopping or even decide what to make, so we’re off to a great start. Hopefully I’ll figure it out by tonight before the week slips away from me again!

To be continued…

Gabriela

Happy New Year and welcome to week one of winter quarter!

I’m ~almost~ done. Not in the homestretch yet, but I’m sure this quarter will go by quickly. So far I’m really enjoying my classes and I work well with all of my lab partners. I have a lot of work ahead of me this quarter, but somehow it all feels incredibly more manageable than last quarter. Which is great because I have other things that I’m looking forward to doing this quarter other than just sitting in my library cubicle.

As it is a new year, of course there are new year’s resolutions to be said! For starters, I want to firmly stick to my gym schedule AND I want to start using the machines. Even though I grew up as an athlete, I’ve never really gone to a gym because all of my workouts were on the field. Now when I go to the gym, I notice I’m really intimidated and feel like everyone is watching me. It makes me feel really pressured and also makes me scared to try things that I believe “I can’t do.” I started Tuesday and Thursday, and both days I used a new machine. Going on Thursday, I noticed that because I had gone to a machine on Tuesday, I already felt more comfortable approaching the idea and I ended up having a great workout!

Secondly, I really want to expand on my cooking abilities. So for the next 11 weeks (the entirety of my winter quarter), I want to cook a new recipe every week for lunch and dinner. I’ve always wanted to try a bunch of new recipes, like the ones everyone secretly has pinned on their Pinterest boards but never actually tries. I really want to feel comfortable and feel like I can make something delicious!

Of course, as I’m sure it’s clear, I love food and I love to cook. I used to be awful at it (actually though…), but I’ve had a lot of practice and I’m starting to really enjoy it. It’s become a normal part of my Sunday schedule. In the morning, grocery store, buy some flowers to spruce up the living room, come home, and meal prep for the week. Meal prepping has been great for my busy schedule and also helps me stay on track with what I’m eating and making sure that I’m getting all of the calories I need. Between playing lacrosse, going to the gym regularly, AND swimming on weekends, I burn quite a lot of calories and need to make sure I’ve got something in my stomach to keep me going.

To start off with my New Year’s resolution, I made a Garlic Chicken and Veggie Pasta which I found off of a Facebook video from Tasty (I think). Personally, I think this dish is improperly named. One, because I definitely didn’t taste garlic and two, because I have never used THAT much oregano. But it was still really tasty!

Since it was just a video, there were no measurements or super clear instructions, so I just kinda winged it. It turned out great though!! It was delicious. It was super easy to make and lasted me for 4 days of lunch, although to be honest, I probably could have pushed that to 5 days. With the combination of chicken and pasta, the dish was heavier than I was expecting it to be, so I definitely could have stretched it out over another day.

The recipe consisted of chicken breast, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, shallots, kale, and penne. To start, I had to prep all of the veggies. The carrots were shaved and sliced, and the zucchini and yellow squash were sliced. I used 2 carrots, and 1 zucchini and yellow squash. The chicken was cut into little cubes and cooked in olive oil on the stove. I added some salt, pepper, and oregano. While cooking the chicken, I prepped the penne in a separate pot. I opted for whole wheat penne from Trader Joe’s and used about half the bag (around 3 cups). When the chicken was finished, I placed it into a separate bowl and cooked the carrots, kale, zucchini, and yellow squash in the same pan. While cooking these, I added in about a quarter of the shallot, 3 gloves of garlic, and some salt, pepper, and oregano. When the pasta was finished, I mixed it into the pan and added the chicken in as well. On medium-low heat, I mix everything around in the pan, and added some more salt, pepper, and oregano.

It was a lot of food, but a lot of really good food! I plan on sticking to my schedule of making a new recipe every week, but I definitely can’t wait to try this again. I would highly recommend it! Enjoy!

To be continued…

Gabriela

Tag: zucchini

Lentil & Vegetable Soup

“Garlic” Chicken and Veggie Pasta