The it's hot in here. The my house smells like onions now. The dishes. I am spoiled completely rotten by having a dishwasher at work - not the machine which I must load with scraped-nearly-naked dishes, but the actual human upon whom I can foist stuff that still needs to be scraped clean.
And the chopping. The only time my favorite teacher in culinary school ever got really irritated with me (as far as I know) was during my final exit practical (a combination of knife skills assessment and preparing a full menu solo) when I purposely chose the tiniest bunch of parsley and the tiniest garlic cloves I could find in each pile, in order to minimize my mincing time. He picked up pinches of each and flicked them disgustedly at me, looked at me deadpan, cocked his head to the side, and said.... really? I grinned and nodded. He remained unamused.
Anyway.
I know alllll the things when you don't want to cook, but you need to have food in your house.
Plan ahead, Lisa! - pffft. Cute.
Lisa, make a few dishes, portion them out, and freeze them! - nah, mayne.
Lisa, if you just make a ton of marinara to freeze, if you just use the food processor to chop the onions and garlic, it'll take you no more than LONGER THAN I WANT TO SPEND AND THEN I GOTTA WASH THE FOOD PROCESSOR TOO AND THE CUTTING BOARD ALREADY FITS AWKWARDLY IN THE DRAINBOARD JUST BY ITSELF AND I ALREADY SMELL LIKE ONIONS AND I JUST GOT HOME AND I JUST WANT TO TAKE MY PANTS OFF IN A COLD ROOM AND BE UN-HUNGRY.
"Cooking ahead" is rarely going to happen, and, when it does happen, it just kinda sits there because I'm just so over it by the time I'm done making it. Is this a byproduct of making food for people all day long? Is there some switch in chef-brain that flips as soon as the food is prepared, and that switch is labeled FOOD IS NOT FOR EATING SEND IT OUT SEND IT OUT WHERE ARE THE SERVERS WHY IS IT STILL SITTING THERE? I don't know.
So heck. Given my propensity to either go hungry or just go to bed rather than cook, I resign myself to doing Whatever Gets Healthy Food Inside My Person. I, the knife-skills nerd, with my storebought-sliced mushrooms and pre-cut bagged kale (keep it in the freezer, crumble it directly into the pan. perfect). And maybe you, with your own version of semi-homemade whatever. It's hard enough coming up with meals, sometimes, let alone healthy meals, let alone healthy meals that don't require much of you when you're tired, let alone healthy, easy meals that don't trash your kitchen. We need all the quickie recipes we can get.
So here is a nonfancy quickie recipe which was probably already presented to accolades by someone else, photographed with an iPad and I swear someday I'm gonna get a new battery charger for my real camera, but I never remember it until I need it, so until then, I'll be draping my lacy kitchen curtain over my head in order to get enough light by which to photograph, and I'll think for a second what if I never get married and, suddenly, for the first time, the possibility seems very real and sort of grief-y, so if that happens to you, just tell yourself I could throw some cheese in my grits if I wanted to.
Ha ha.
Huh.
Grits and Stuff with an Egg
(serves probably 3-4 moderately-hungry adults, maybe. I don't know how much you eat. I have leftovers.)
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups water or broth/stock
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 cup grits
Eggs.
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 bell pepper (I used half a red and half a yeller 'cause I can)
1/2 onion (or more)
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 clove garlic (or more)
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
Kale.. probably three aforementioned frozen handfuls
Salt and pepper
GRITS: Bring the liquids to a boil with the salt. Whisk in the grits. Cook and whisk over medium heat for a minute or two. Toss in some cheese, if you're single - no, wait, I mean if you want to. Adjust the liquid if you prefer your grits more firm or soft. Set aside.
VEGGIES: Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the pepper, onion, and mushrooms; cook until they're as cooked as you like them. Add the garlic and vinegar, and cook another minute or so. Stir in the kale and cook until kale is tender, about 10-ish minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Cook some eggs. Cook 'em nice. Not like this dude's wife. Otherwise who knows what will happen.
[On second thought.. maybe I'm better off single.]
Grits: in the bowl.
Veggies: on the grits
Eggs: on the veggies
Hot sauce: all over everything in the world.
The grits, they are creamy and perfect. The veggies, they are tangy and salty and fragrant. The egg yolk, its richness with the tangy veggies and creamy grits, and the hot sauce perking everything up. Yes.
And not a food processor in sight.
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