inspo

apparently the universe got itself in order because i’m feeling inspired to cook a little more, and work stuff has chilled out a bit?! my brain is feeling a little more organized and i’m writing a little more and exercising a little more, and feeling generally, dare i say… good?! all of this is to say, i cooked the most amazing (but very basic and simple) breakfast yesterday, still dreaming about it and cannot wait to obtain more mushrooms and an avocado so i can recreate it soon!

i basically found leftovers in the fridge and made a meal from them – swag! (side note: i just finished reading cat marnell’s memoir so sorry but i’m saying swag for a sec). i had half an avocado left that was mostly browned, spooned it into a bowl minus the really bad parts, and squeezed lemon juice and sprinkled whole cilantro leaves on top, along with kosher salt and lemon black pepper. mixed that together into a sort of guacamole-style spread, and served on a toasted piece of sourdough for a nice little avocado toast. i also fried an egg with salt and lemon black pepper.

and i felt that i wanted some sort of vegetable and dug in the crisper drawer. turns out i had about five king trumpet mushrooms that i had completely forgotten about (i bought them at berkeley bowl about two weeks ago and they. are. still. good!!!). i know they aren’t vegetables but they’ve got a veggie vibe. i browned the mushrooms in olive oil on my cast iron skillet and then removed them from heat and mixed them with a little miso glaze made of white miso paste, soy sauce, and black vinegar, along with a sprinkling of kosher salt. then i dusted everything with more cilantro!!!

this meal was so good that i did the lick-the-plate thing. i loved that miso glaze left behind after i’d finished off everything else! needless to say, i’m now out of mushrooms but i now have a lot of motivation to get to the store or farmer’s market for more! mushrooms are so wild… generally, we hardly even know what they do, but they do a lot more than we give them credit for to keep this earth moving along. for example, have you heard of the underground mycelium network? here:

Mycelium are incredibly tiny “threads” of the greater fungal organism that wrap around or bore into tree roots. Taken together, myecelium composes what’s called a “mycorrhizal network,” which connects individual plants together to transfer water, nitrogen, carbon and other minerals.”

from national forest foundation website

so, i had a little extra time today to cook that up, but overall it was super fast. browning the mushrooms took the longest… NO REGRETS!

for lunch i made trader joe’s cauliflower gnocchi (made sure it was EXTRA CRISPY per advice from a friend) and it did not disappoint! i served it with… the cashew-kale vegan pesto from trader joe’s as well. now THAT was a fast lunch! again, browning the little gnocchi took the longest but then it was good to go. i didn’t take a photo but it looked pretty much like my lunch yesterday. and yes, i would eat gnocchi every single day if i could. when i traveled to italy years ago, i seriously ordered it at every restaurant – because they HAD IT at every restaurant! again, NO REGRETS! that was the best gnocchi.

still waiting to hear from people about their favorite QUICK MEALS – completely prepared, partially-prepared, or even from scratch! lmk! i need to expand my quick meals repertoire.