WIAW 187 – Adjusting to Raleigh

You know, I’m not used to geese in the parking lot of a shopping center. Seagulls, yes – wheeling in flocks overhead, and calling… not geese.  Guess I’m in the land of geese – I know I’m too far inland for gulls. I’m also learning to watch chickadees and cardinals out the window, instead of sparrows, pigeons, and bluejays. (I’ll tell you right now, cardinals have a prettier song than jays, though the jays are as pretty to look at.)

I’m continuing on my apparent quest to go to every supermarket in Northwest Raleigh… and finally found one with a produce department I like! I still do want to get out to to the farmer’s market, though – especially when the Spring produce starts coming in.  (Other people go to landmarks – it seems I go to food stores. Well – cooking for the parents, as well as developing recipes for all of you, is essentially my job, here. I need to know my sources.)

What I Ate

I’m having a protein shake and grits most mornings, these days. I got some unsweetened cocoa (with something else in mind…)  and we had some strawberries – so I have had the chocolate shake a few times, now, just for fun! It does taste good… Most mornings I just use kefir and maybe a little juice or some spices (inspired by the Indian Salt Lassi – I should write that up, one of these days!) but a change is nice. Oh – coffee, of course…

One of my classic Odds and Ends of Leftovers Soups for lunch! Some (slightly stale) tortillas in it, a tomato base, green beans I found withering away in the back of the freezer… and on the whole a pretty tasty soup.

So I told you that I found good produce department.  Most I’ve seen seem to have plenty of fruit and many many kinds of salad greens – lettuce of course, but peppers and cukes, bags of salad mix, baby kale…  And not much else.  But the one store (and not another branch of the same chain I’d been to) had stew vegetables, and several kinds of winter squash, and… eggplant. Barbara has always enjoyed eggplant, so I got one, and simmered it in marinara sauce with browned ground beef. I made enough for two meals, so I have something in the freezer – this will reheat beautifully. And I served it with quinoa.

Then speaking of salads – well, the salad greens available are all quite lovely, and the parents have always enjoyed a salad course at dinner, and one of these days I’ll remember to take pictures… They take advantage of all the greens available, so we always have a couple of kinds of lettuce, arugula, cucumbers, and some assortment of tomatoes, celery, bell peppers and so on. Always delightful.

Rich and his dad went out yesterday to take care of a few things… and picked up these flowers for Barbara, as an early Valentine’s present!  Aren’t they lovely!

Join Jenn’s WIAW part over at Laura’s and see her news! Drop a link there yourself, if you’d like – or tell me what you ate today in the comments here! I’d love to hear from you.