Welcome to my home & dining blog, where I, G, share my journey as a young autistic person breaking out of my past food limitations and exploring new flavors, cultures and experiences through food and cooking.
Bonus deets:
- Finding ways to spruce up cheap/easy meals
- My methods of food prep as someone with ADHD/autism
- Working around my partner's (also ADHD/autistic) food preferences and limitations to make things we both enjoy
- My favorite dinnerware/ceramics (a special interest of mine)
Salmon, boiled egg and carrot, roasted zucchini leftovers from last week, kimchi, and seaweed salad leftover from my takeaway lunch yesterday. And of course my triple grain rice.
I have been extremely tired and have evidence to believe that it was hormone-related, and couldn't figure out why till I realized that I had been eating soy products almost every day. If you haven't heard, soy can affect your hormones, and I believe that it's more impactful to people with ovaries/uterus as their hormone levels fluctuate much more.
I hadn't put much credence to the idea but then I'd never had enough soy on a regular basis to find out if it really had an effect.
That said, it's possible if I continued to eat that way the my hormones would've balanced out and accommodated for the change. However, I want to see if omitting it would help. After a week of not eating soy with breakfast, I'm noticing my energy levels returning to where they should be for this part of my cycle.
The dip in energy levels for over a month was truly devastating as someone who also suffers from SAD and finally having those symptoms decrease for the season and being forced back into winter levels of fatigue.
Yesterday I worked a full 8 hours, ran errands and then did cooking and cleaning all evening and wasn't exhausted afterwards. I'd say the soy may have been a factor.
Glad to see that I'm starting to bounce back finally!
Continuation of Japanese style breakfasts, month two. I've forgone the soup this week as I'm having soup with my lunches.
I think eating like this in the morning has genuinely changed my life.
This week I'm doing the same rice mix as before with kimchi and frozen edamame (microwaved), along with sweet potato, sautéed mushrooms, bacon, eggs, and sesame soy cucumbers. It’s filling, delicious and refreshing.
The reason I say this has changed my life is because of a few things:
- I can now go about my day having eaten well without much effort or thought
- I finally feel like I'm getting enough variety of nutrients and amount of fiber/protein into my system each day
- I only have to cook the rice every other week and as long as I have that, I don't need to do much in the way of food prep
- eating this much in the morning along with a prepped lunch means I'm now rarely hungry in the evening, freeing up time that would've been spent cooking
- It’s given me more energy
- perhaps the biggest win, my AUDHD's clashing needs for novelty and consistency seem to have come to an agreement here; the base idea of the food is the same, but the flavors and actual content are variable, meaning I get to eat roughly the same food every day with enough novelty that I don't get sick of it. (I'm sure this won't last forever but I've gone a a couple odd weeks without this type of breakfast and it felt wrong, so I'll stick with it as long as my brain lets me.)
I'm trying Japanese style breakfasts this week, with a focus on stable energy.
- rice/mixed grain, frozen and reheated for modified starch transformation to help curb blood sugar spikes (50% jasmine, 25% barley, 25% quinoa); carbs keep you full for longer too.
- soup with veggies for more protein and fiber, which both help with energy and feeling satiated as well as containing vitamins
- more protein, I chose to do soy eggs and tofu this week. Protein is a great morning food for me because I often exercise in the morning and protein helps repair and maintain muscle.
- something fermented, such as kimchi, yogurt, kifir, skyr, etc. I chose kimchi cause I wanted a more savory breakfast experience, but I could easily opt for a small yogurt bowl with chia seeds and fruit as well.
- bonus: (I did not do this) fish, for added protein and vitamins.
I was worried about this being too much food but I think it's just right. I don't have much appetite in the mornings, but despite that I always eat something. It can be hard to get through eating everything some days. But for this meal I didn't have any issues. Here's hoping I stay energized and satiated till noon.
Bonus: this morning's ice tea contains crème earl gray, licorice root, echinacea and rose.
at some point in your life you will be boiling fruit, water, sugar, and lemon juice in a pot to make a syrup or jam. the instructions will tell you to simmer for a certain amt of time. your timer will go off and you will look at the pot and go, "hm, this doesn't look thick enough. maybe i'll let it go for another 10 minutes." this is the devil speaking. it's only so liquid right now because it is at boiling point. it will thicken when it cools down. learn from the follies of my youth and do not let this happen to you
at some point in your life you will be making a sauce or a stew in which you need to add cornstarch to thicken it. and you will prepare a slurry of starch in cold water and think "this looks like way too little starch to thicken this amount of liquid." this is the devil speaking. cornstarch instantly polymerizes at 95°C and if you add too much it will turn into an impossibly thick goop.
at some point in your life you will be making some sort of cream based dessert that requires gelatin to thicken it. and you will soak some gelatin sheets in water and think "this is too few gelatin sheets for this amount of cream." this is the devil speaking. it will thicken in the fridge and if you add too much you will end up with milk jelly
at some point in your life you will be baking cookies. you will take the sheet out after twelve minutes as the recipe instructs and the cookies will still be glistening and soft. "these don't seem cooked enough," you will think to yourself, "i should place them back into the oven until their edges are nice and golden." this is the devil talking. this is how you get dry, overdone cookies. the cookies will continue to bake on the warm sheet for several more minutes and then harden up after sitting on a rack for a while. trust the process. trust the process.
the worst extremely low-stakes consequence of societal fatphobia is when a low-calorie/""""healthy"""" recipe is actually good and suddenly everyone thinks you're sharing it as a diet aid and not because it fucks hard
anyway put some frozen raspberries in a bowl and pour just a leetle bit of cold oat milk over it and the oat milk will semi-freeze into a kind of ice cream texture. and now you have fake raspberry ripple ice cream that's 90% raspberries by volume
Every Sunday morning L and I wake up early (either 6 or 7 AM) to listen to the pipe organ program on the classical radio station; we make tea and have a small morsel to eat and boot up the Switch to play a game together (on mute) as we listen to the radio.
This morning we had a tea called Second Breakfast from Chapters Tea (black tea w marigold) and sampled some of the French cookies I received for my bday. Also had a bit of lemon Wensleydale on sourdough toast.
Today we hit 100% on our play-through of Lego Harry Potter years 5-7. Next week we will be restarting our play-through of years 1-4 as our previous save became corrupted.
Featuring raw cabbage, spinach, cherry tomato, corn, crispy roasted chick peas, shredded cheese and pulled pork.
I've never made a taco salad before and I wasn't sure how I would make it in a way that didn't just feel like a salad with taco meat. I decided on some ingredients that would keep well without getting mushy, as that is a texture no-no for me, and then went from there. I used taco and Cajun seasoning on the meat and chick peas which added a lot of spice and flavor. I should have bought taco sauce to mix into the pork but didn't think of it till after I finished shopping, so we used a mix of sauces we had on hand including barbecue and buffalo.
I am not sure what I was expecting or why I was apprehensive about this meal but it ended up exceeding my expectations and I really liked it. I will definitely be making this again this summer, though perhaps I'll do ground beef or fajita chicken with it next time.
People with low spoons, someone just recommended this cookbook to me, so I thought I’d pass it on.
I always look at cookbooks for people who have no energy/time to do elaborate meal preparations, and roll my eyes. Like, you want me to stay on my feet for long enough to prepare 15 different ingredients from scratch, and use 5 different pots and pans, when I have chronic fatigue and no dishwasher?
These people seem to get it, though. It’s very simple in places. It’s basically the cookbook for people who think, ‘I’m really bored of those same five low-spoons meals I eat, but I can’t think of anything else to cook that won’t exhaust me’. And it’s free!
by Rachel A. Rosen and Zilla Novikov || Food you can make so you don't die.
SPREAD THE WORD THIS IS FUCKING GOD TIER OH MY GOD, SOMETIMES I HAVE SPOONS SOMETIMES I DON’T BUT NO COOKBOOK OFFERS LEVELS IN THEIR RECIPES THIS ONE DOES!
It's been a bit- I did not take a picture of lunches this past week. The week before that was some pasta, broccoli and red sauce with rotisserie chicken. It was a slow week for my partner so we decided to use up some stuff we had on hand to cover lunches, for budget purposes and also because I was the main person to need food for the week. We did make a household favorite mid-week which was hummus veggie wraps, though we added some pork schnitzel we had on hand.
Last week we had fried rice with eggs, frozen mixed veggies and some mild Italian sausage leftover from another meal. It was another slow week so we tried using some more of what we already had, so I only had to buy the frozen veggies and some garlic.
Overall these are two classics and also rice of any kind is one of my safe foods so I did not get bored of the fried rice lunches and could probably keep eating them.
Spring is nearly here so I may need to get one more soup week in at some point. I have lots of bones and veggie scraps to use up for a broth- and this time I will not be freezing them to avoid the fiasco that resulted from that last time.
Chicken Caesar salad with bow tie pasta. My mom used to make this and it was one of the few dishes I really liked. It's just so good.
I don't usually make salads in winter but it's been warm out and it's been ages since I've made this dish, it was time.
Oh and I added spinach too.
So my only problem with salads in general when making for future meals is they can get soggy, which makes a mushy texture I can't stand. The line between acceptable mushy and unacceptable mushy has always been unclear yet very thin. Slimy leaf is something that if I eat it I cannot force myself to continue. So I'm hoping that by assembling and leaving out the dressing to add when I eat it, that I will avoid this problem. 🤞🏼
I also left out croutons for a similar reason. No one wants soggy croutons.
Lunches this week were Tater Tot Hotdish, a midwestern classic and one of our faves.
I've probably made this dish more than any other in the past year. It's easy, affordable, tasty, and customizable.
I accidentally bought cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom, tho L was kinda happy about that. It turned out just fine, but I think I still prefer it with CoM. 🍄🟫
I have to talk about this cake, please forgive me. It's the best cake I've ever made.
See below for details!
For this cake I simply used a regular box white cake mix, cool whip (frozen aisle) and strawberries from Aldi. I decided to spruce it up by substituting the water with heavy cream I had on hand from the soup I made this week and melted butter instead of oil.
I've never made a box cake and not followed the directions so I did a bit of research. I wasn't planning on doing anything different but decided I was in the mood to risk it.
I threw in all the ingredients except the eggs and mixed with a hand mixer for a minute or two, similar to reverse creaming. Then before I added the egg whites, I beater them in a bowl along with two egg yolks to add some air, then mixed it into the rest for a couple minutes.
I was considering making a layer cake but I only have one round pan and decided it would be too annoying to make multiple cakes that way. Into the 9x13!
After it cooled I added thawed cool whip as a frosting and some stewed strawberries I whipped up real quick and let cool. Also threw a few of the nicer strawberries on top and swirled the toppings a bit.
There was several things that I hesitated on since I am not very experienced with baking, like using melted butter instead of softened butter (since I didn't have time to wait for that) and I'm glad I took the risk. I also added about 2 tablespoons extra melted butter after reading a reddit post on subbing melted butter for oil.
Anyway it turned out really well, super evenly baked through, really nice texture and crumb, really soft and moist, and the flavors are sooo yummy with the mild whipped topping and tart fresh strawberries & sweet strawberry sauce.
Cost: $5 ish for two boxes of strawberries, $1 cake mix, $1 cool whip, and then if you count the eggs, butter and heavy cream I already had on hand it was $3, $4 and $5 respectively but I didn't use up the whole carton of any of those so more like $11 total.
I never buy cakes so I don't know how that compares but it was really good and I will definitely make it again.
Lunches this week: creamy chicken wild rice soup, topped with sriracha, feta and crackers.
I'm bringing back this household favorite that I haven't made in a while. Last few times I made it I had to omit the roux for a gluten free family member we were living with, so this is the first time I think I've had it with the roux.
It's hardy, cozy and yummy. We've had a bout of early March weather, t-shirts and shorts weather in the 40s-50s F, but despite the warmth it's been a tad gloomy and I was still in a soup mood.
Bowl: East Fork soup bowl in Taro
I remembered to thaw the last of my homemade broth a few days ago, setting the cracked jar inside a cheesecloth inside a pitcher. It was so much easier to deal with than the gallon jug.
I wish I had added some more seasonings, as the original recipe only used salt, pepper and some herbs. It kinda needs like some paprika and chili powder or something next time, hence me throwing in some sriracha. But I understand that the soup is probably meant to not be too complex in flavor, especially with wild rice having a unique flavor. I happen to be more sensory seeking with my flavors, but someone who likes simple, salt and butter flavors will like this.
My secret for cooking wild rice nice and fluffy and flavorful is to mix some chicken bullion into the water once it boils. (Don't use chicken broth/stock, it doesn't work very well for some reason) and cook it extra long. This time around I only had to cook it for 35-40 minutes and I washed it thoroughly beforehand and because it's a broken grain variety.
Our favorite wild rice is one we've only found up north, so every time we visit my family's tiny cabin we make a point to restock. The smell and taste of wild rice just feels like the cabin, and cozy nostalgia.
Upon finishing making the rice for the soup I decided that I need to make some wild rice with salmon sometime soon.
Chipotle chicken quinoa bowls with corn salad! I also topped with some avocado, green onion and Taco Bell chipotle sauce.
Okay so for this meal, I had to figure out how to get a nice spicy flavor while completely omitting all chipotle/peppers from the recipe. L's tummy has a hard time with peppers sadly, even though he otherwise enjoys the flavor and heat.
For the marinade I just used some sriracha sauce and some Taco Bell chipotle sauce in place of the peppers. It seems to have done the trick and was quite tasty, though probably slightly less spicy.
The corn salsa called for bell peppers, which I could have left out and added separately to my own but instead decided to go with radish. Raw radish is something both L and I enjoy and it has a bit of a bite to it- not quite the same kind of spice as a pepper, but it's a decent substitute we've used before. It's also nice and refreshing, so a perfect fit for the corn salad.
I may add spinach and/or arugula to my lunches to build it out a bit more as I had to stretch this food a bit further this week.
Anyway this was extremely tasty and I will definitely make again, perhaps soon. Next time I'll for sure make more of it. 😉 L kept coming through the kitchen while I was cooking and thanking me profusely for making the food cause it smelled so good and he was really excited for it.
