Day 6 of the Food Lover’s Cleanse started out in a very familiar way – a bowl of oatmeal (soaked with water and whey) topped with fruit. I replaced the banana with organic blueberries and raspberries. I added cinnamon but forgot to add the nuts. Oh well.
Lunch was very interesting – I had no leftovers, which was too bad, so I bought lunch out (at a place I regularly go). The food was completely unremarkable and frankly, tasted a little gross. I’m not going to say what I ate or where I bought it, it was so meh.
Dinner was a different story altogether. It featured Itamar’s Bulgur Pilaf, oven-roasted broccoli, and 2 fried eggs in grass-fed butter. I also added a mâche salad with the shallot dressing. So delicious! The pilaf comes from Yotam Ottolenghi again, and was simply fantastic. It was very easy to put together, and by soaking the bulgur all day in water and raw apple cider vinegar, that greatly sped up the most substantial step. Plus, it makes wheat more digestible. I was thrilled to be able to use the red peppers from the CSA that I froze this summer, and the coriander seeds I saved from the cilantro I grew this summer. Loved the pink peppercorns in it as well – just so fun!
Originally, I was to include cauliflower with the roasted broccoli, but I just haven’t been feeling the cauliflower lately. I do love broccoli, and had not roasted it before, and I loved the outcome! It really transforms the broccoli. I tossed the florets with both olive oil and a little walnut oil (broccoli and walnuts go well together, so I thought, why not?!), a little kosher salt, then sprinkled on a bit of fleur de sel after they came out of the oven.
Poached eggs were on the original menu, and while I love poached eggs, I really wanted to up the fat content of this meal, so I fried (sunny-side up) two pastured eggs in grass-fed butter. NOM. So good.
The mâche salad with shallot vinaigrette rounded off the meal, and was simple and fantastic.
I loved how quick this meal came together. I started at about 6pm, and sat down to eat at 6:40pm. This is a meal worth repeating, as it is both highly delicious with the bonus of being relatively quick to prepare.
And good thing that it was quick, as I had to scoot out of there to attend a meetup with the Queens Community Kitchen folks for a viewing of Food, Inc. I’ve seen this movie before, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to be reminded of that which is discussed within. Some of the images are really hard to watch, but seeing such things just reinforces my desire to continue buying as much food as I can from my CSA, buying club, and the greenmarkets.
It was a really nice group of folks and I look forward to more QCP meetups this year.
