Cooking When No One is Hungry

I love to cook when no one is hungry and it can be a wonderful exercise in mindfulness meditation; being present with the herbs releasing their aromatic oils to the air as I am separating the individual leaves by hand, rinsing, and ripping, Cilantro. Mint. Basil. Kitchen aromatherapy.

Tonight I took a few hours preparing an Asian-inspired meal with a sweet dessert treat. Mark Bittman is fast becoming one of my favorite recipe authors. His recipes are simple, easy to follow, and most importantly - they WORK (unlike those of Martha Stewart, but I digress... .) Tonight I tried out Thai Beef Salad and paired it with Noodles with Mushrooms . Fantastic! Thankfully I had my husband around to cook the steak to medium rare. Having spent from ages 12 to 29 as a vegetarian, I never learned to cook meat. I can now cook chicken consistently, however beef is still in many ways a mystery to me. The meal was light, flavorful, and satisfying. This would be great with a beautiful chardonnay or a plum wine.

For dessert I prepared the Coconut Nut Chews. So delicious. I cut the nuts to 1 cup and added 1/2 cup of rice milk chocolate chips. I was surprised at how easy these were to make. Twenty five minutes to prepare and bake and 30 minutes to cool. I do recommend transferring the chews on the parchment paper onto the rack to cool rather than transferring them by spatula. The chews were kid approved!

Now, the real question, did the kid eat the dinner? I had low expectations going in that my son would embrace the meal. I reserved some of the pasta for him and topped it with marinara sauce from a jar. I also set aside some steak for him and he was quite happy to dip it in ketchup. He was quite happy with his adapted version.