With the last few hot days of the year winding down, it is necessary to make a slow transition from being a summer drunk to a fall drunk, with class!
Supplies
Wine
Frozen fruit
Wine glasses
Put the frozen fruit in the wine. It not only cools down your wine when it’s hot as nails in your apartment, but it gives you a snack for later. What the fuck is better than that.
Holla!
We are just doomed to worship the dollar, aren’t we?!
If you find yourself with 5 dollars left in your bank account for a whole week until payday, then you are just like me. Thankfully I’ve already done my grocery shopping for the week, and unfortunately that means I have to eat at home EVERY DAY (chinese food just ain’t the same at home).
This week, I’ve made a delectable lemon vegetable soup, partly because it’s inexpensive to make and partly because I binged on carbs all weekend and can’t look at another piece of bread for at least another week.
The real beauty of soup is that when making something like a garden-variety mix, you can change the ingredients up a bit to your liking. Democracy! Maybe.
I meandered using this recipe as a guide. If you don’t like onions, you can throw in potatoes, or if you really like peas feel free to have a pea party in that pot. Or, like me, you used what you had because it’s allllllmost payday. (But I didn’t just have a shit ton of kale on hand, I’m not a freak)
32 ounces of vegetable or chicken stock
3 whole carrots
1 onion
Two stalks of celery
1 green zucchini
1 yellow zucchini
1 tomato
Bunch of kale
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
salt, pepper and garlic to taste
1/4 cup of lemon juice, or one whole lemon squeezed
Pour the 32-ounce vegetable/chicken stock into a pot and place on medium heat.
Clean all of your vegetables. Begin chopping the carrots and onion into bite-sized pieces. Once the stock begins to simmer, turn the heat down to low and throw the onion and carrots into the pot. Let them simmer for 4-5 minutes.
While the carrots and onions are simmering, chop the zucchini, celery and tomato. Wash the kale and tear off the leaves from the stalk into bite-sized pieces.
Throw the celery, zucchini, oregano, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper into the pot and let simmer for 4-5 minutes. Then throw in the tomato and kale. The kale will need a minute or two to wilt into the pot and quit being so darn leafy. The tomato will get piece-y and that’s cool too.
Lastly, add the lemon juice and you’re basically finished. I like my vegetables to be softer in soup, so I let my pot simmer on the stove for about 10 minutes after I added the tomato and kale.
Also, all the ingredients are affordable. When making something of this size, it’s good to have tupperware and a strong will to eat the same meal a couple of times throughout the week. FUCK Yay budgets!
I never hear people talking about strawberry pie. Well, I’m here to tell you it’s awesome. Dab a little whipped cream on top of that baby and you’ve got yourself an awesome dessert. For Easter, my ma made a strawberry pie with jello that is a little different than straight up strawberry sauce and maybe a bit lighter as well. Here’s a recipe if you’re feeling pie-happy.
This salad was fucking awesome and yummy. As a money-crunched gal in the city, I’ve had to seriously curb my restaurant eating (dammit!). One thing I LOVE to eat out are really good salads. I’m not talking that iceberg shit with dry chicken, one grape tomato and a choice of 5 Garden Valley dressings. I’m talking amazing. My favorite it a roasted beet salad, but I have yet to try it homeward bound.
Anyways, I’ve thrown together an amazing and easy recipe for an awesome garlic chicken avocado salad.
Ingredients:
Roasted Chicken (I buy a whole roasted chicken and eat it over a couple of days. It’s an easy and yummy alternative to baking or roasting your own chicken at home. The one I bought this time was a roasted garlic chicken)
1 Avocado (you want a softish avocado when you’re shopping. Don’t buy a hard one because it will take days to ripen)
Romaine lettuce
Cherry or grape tomatoes
Red onion
Cucumber
Newman’s Own garlic and parmesan salad dressing
Salt + Pepper
Stacy’s pita chips or croutons
Directions:
Wash the lettuce. Even the lettuce that comes “pre-washed,” because people are big fat liars. (Do I need to say ‘put lettuce on a plate’? Do it.) Dice up however much cucumber and red onion you want, throw it on top of the romaine and put the rest in a bag or container for other meals. Throw on a few grape tomatoes now too.
Cut the avocado in half lengthwise. If you don’t know the 411 on avocados, they have a huge ball in the middle. When you cut the avocado in half, you want to leave the ball in one half of the avocado if you want to save it for later. For some science-y reason, the ball helps the avocado stay fresh longer than without. If you wanna use the whole avocado, don’t eat the ball, for the love of God. Use a spoon to scoop the avocado out, and then dice it up however you please. Throw on salad.
Next, peel some chicken off of the whole chicken and toss on the salad. Pour on the garlic and parmesan dressing and finish with salt and pepper. Then I topped everything off with Stacy’s pita chips or your favorite croutons.
Then, eat your heart out.
2PF 