butternut squash risotto

I had two butternut squash sitting on my counter, staring at me. Eventually I was going to need to cut them up, so I chose to do that this morning while Bert was golfing. The alternative was take-out for lunch.

Butternut Squash Risotto
1/2 butternut squash, peeled, diced
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon oil
Salt
pepper
Chili powder
1 small onion, diced
2 tablespoon of butter
1 cup Arborio Rice (Risotto)
4 cups chicken stock (probably)

Parmesan cheese
Parsley
I melted the butter and stirred with the olive oil, then added the squash and seasoning. I stirred this until the squash was tender. I put this aside on another plate. You can also prepare the squash by steaming on the stove top. One recipe said to mash the squash once cooked. I kept it in diced form.

I warmed 2 TBS of butter and added my onion. I stirred this for 2 minutes, then added the rice. I stirred the rice for about 1-2 minutes, then I started to add the stock. I had warmed the stock on another burner. I transferred warm stock to my risotto, about two to three ladles worth at a time. Each time I added stock, I stirred until the stock had been absorbed before adding more. After about 3 cups, I was getting hungry so I tasted the rice. It had a good consistency so I stopped there. Yummy!

I turned the heat down and covered until Bert arrived home, about 8 minutes later. You can serve with cheese and parsley. I forgot both but the recipes still tasted good.

Bert thought the recipe had cream in it because it was so creamy! The recipe probably took 90minutes to prepare.

Comedy of Risotto

We made the risotto dish again last night since it is pretty easy.
I really wanted to go to the gym after work on Tuesday since I hadn't been in a while. As I was leaving work I texted Bert: "going to the gym. we need to defrost chicken." He knows that means I forgot to take some out that morning, and when he gets home he needs to start running the single breast under water (it takes about 30minutes and a lot of water to do it this way).  As I walked to the gym I remembered that we didn't have any starch for the meal, and we had leftover ingredients to make the risotto again. This time I called him, because I have a dumbphone and typing instructions into a text would take forever. I had to leave a message: "Hi hon, let's make the risotto again tonight. The kale is already washed and ready to use, and the tomato sauce is in a Tupperware container in the fridge. I hope to be home by 6, but if you can start that around 6, then we can eat around 7. Love you! "
After my work-out my sugar was low, so I couldn't race home. Instead I sat on a bench and drank Gatorade. I texted him again, "my sugar is low, need to wait before I walk home." When my sugar felt better I started to walk home. I decided I should probably text him again so he knows I didn't pass out in a ditch or something: "I am getting close" at 6:30.

I get home finally and the first thing he says to me is "I failed." And I know that means, he is just starting dinner.  Oh well. The onion was chopped and hitting the pan as I walked through the door. Oh well.

Where did the communication break down? Well, he defrosted the chicken without a problem. But the phone call did me in. For some reason that night he wasn't able to reach his VM. He thought the message might be from his mom and he would call her later when he got home. I was vaguely concerned that I didn't hear anything back from him through all of this, but not enough for me to panic. NBD. When he got the text that I was on my way home, he looked at his phone and realized the VM service was working and I had left a message.... with specific directions.

We ate a little later that night, but it was fine as I had time to freshen up before we sat down.

I have today off so I changed up my lunch. I had one tortilla wrap in the fridge, plenty of lentils, kale and cheese leftover. I made a quesadilla for lunch and cooked the rest of the kale, knowing we could eat it as a side later that night.

Sunday through Tuesday we should have served more veggies with the risotto to help use up the vegetables. Basically we didn't make a dent in the box those nights! Rookie mistake.

Stuffed peppers

Tonight we made stuffed peppers with the risotto from last night.
Bert actually did everything. He cut and cleaned the peppers, put the rice mix inside and popped it in the oven. The afterthought was maybe we should have precooked the peppers before stuffing them. I think they came out fine, he thought they were still too firm.
Steamed the last two ears of corn. (Yesterday's was so much better even if it was slightly under steamed.)
Stir fried the chicken with everyday seasoning, which does have 80mg of sodium per 1/4 teaspoon, in case you were wondering the sodium content. Trader Joes does have 21 Seasoning Salute which is without salt, but it is more fun to use the seasoning with the grinders.

For lunch I had some roasted beets, last week's leftover lettuce, pickles, Siggi's vanilla yogurt and peach. The Siggi's yogurt is really good! I think I'll buy it when it is on sale.

Eggplant and Cantaloupe!

I had to work today, so Bert picked up our box.

2 tomatoes
1 bunch kale
4 giant beets
2 Japanese eggplant
4 ears corn
3-4 cucumber
3-4 summer squash/ zucchini
1/2 pint blueberries
1 mini Cantaloupe
1 bag of green beans

For dinner we made Baked Risotto with Greens (Kale)
Recipe here: https://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/
Although the recipe says "1 bunch of greens" my bunch was much bigger than the 4 cups suggested by the recipe. I realized that after I washed and chopped everything, so I put the rest of the kale in a plastic gallon bag for later. That will make prep easier next time!

Steamed corn for 2 minutes (maybe needed another minute.)

I also prepared roasted beets for my lunch. I made lentils with some kale pieces... and burned them.

The beets taste so good!

I think I'll bring the cucumbers to work. I certainly don't need any more pickles!

We finally tried the pickles tonight. They are okay. Kind of acidic. I think they would taste better with more sugar to balance the acid.