WIAW 131 – Almost Autumn
What I Ate Wednesday – oh, OK, I know it’s Thursday…
It’s been that kind of week. Seasonal changes are particularly rough on my body, and I had a few migraines I could not just push through – so everything is a day late (hopefully not a dollar short?) And, well, family stuff still takes some time and attention, too, and a lot of energy. Once I get past this, though, Fall has always been my best season, when I feel best and am able to do most – I look forward to that!
The season is changing. We had some cool days, when I could open all the windows for a few days in a row, not just a few hours in the cool of the night! This weekend is Labor Day, here in the US, and school starts next week, here in New York. The CSA gave us the first winter squash, in with all the zucchini. While the official first day of Autumn isn’t for a few weeks, today is considered the beginning of Meteorological Autumn – the weather starts changing now.
And in the blog world, which has its own rhythm, pumpkins and pumpkin pie spice are taking over Pinterest… I’m not ready for that, but I am starting to look for apples, instead of peaches. (Maybe I need to make an Apple Pie Spice Blend?)
What I Ate
As I said last week, I started to change my breakfast. I made a batch of egg muffins – I hadn’t done that in ages! You know, they are so convenient in the morning… Why on earth did I stop? (Well, because I made a dozen at a time and had to use the oven. I can make a half dozen and use the countertop oven, the way I do for regular muffins…)
Speaking of regular muffins, the other yellow things on the plate are corn muffins. They are still the fastest and easiest bread stuff for me to make – and we do both like them. I still drink the cold brewed iced coffee. I have a friend who makes hot coffee from the concentrate, too – we’ll see, soon enough, if that makes sense for me.
My usual salad for lunch. Two kinds of lettuce. You can’t really see them, but cucumbers, and purple bell pepper! Pintos and cheddar cheese for protein. The beans were from a can, instead of ones I’d cooked – that kind of week… But I make sure I always have a few cans of beans around, just in case. Home cooked are cheaper and I prefer the texture, but it is good to have options. Herb salad dressing. And brown rice cakes on the side.
We had a fine assortment of cute little eggplant and patty pan squash, and I think they lend themselves beautifully to grilling. I used a contact grill, which holds in some of the steam to finish them. If you use a flat stovetop grill or – lucky you – have an outdoor grill, you may want to brush them lightly with olive oil to help them cook. I did a whole batch, and we’re eating the rest marinated in salads, later!
Then, again, I’d cooked a pork shoulder – a standby for me. I heated the shredded pork with a bit of squash that hadn’t fit in the grill, some broth from cooking the meat, and – my bad, I don’t remember what else is in there! Sage, maybe, I have a bunch, and onion, and… something I see but cannot identify. Oops… All served over rice.
So there you have a day of meals, all pretty easy, all using food prepared (even if just chopped, like the vegetables in the salad) when I felt up to it, so I could eat well when I didn’t. It’s all about planning for meals…
My last post talks about that, too – in that case using a combination of fresh corn and precooked food for a lovely, fresh tasting (there’s no way to really preserve the flavor of fresh corn!) but fast and easy meal.
No matter how I feel, I need to eat – if anything, when I feel poorly, as they say, I need good food even more!
