Breakfast (early in morning, before appointment): one packet of mustard peas. (After appointment, also after getting gas and stopping for prescriptions at the CVS... hungry!!): Habanero-lime tortilla with sliced hard-boiled egg, melted cheddar cheese, and salsa; carrot sticks.
Lunch: 2 scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, also salsa and a little green onion and cilantro on top. Very small bowl of Trader Joe's granola (all that remained) with whole milk. How is there no food in the house when I just did a major grocery shopping trip two days ago? The eggs are great, though.
Shopping (Co-op): organic 1% lactose-free milk, 2 cans cat food, Equal Exchange organic coffee, unbleached cone coffee filters, 2 boxes Cascadian Farms granola (1 maple-brown sugar, 1 chocolate almond), brown eggs, 3 blood oranges, bananas, $35.
Dinner: Madhur Jaffrey's Broccoli Rabe Served on a Bed of Fava Beans, whole wheat pita. The whole fava bean puree thing proved complicated. First of all, it is difficult to find dried fava beans, and I was unable to find the skinned, split kind that cook quickly. I did manage to buy the large dried beans with skins. Then, for some reason, it did not occur to me to presoak and cook only part of the fairly large bag, so I ended up boiling a LOT of fava beans. They did not take as long as I expected to become soft in the middle, so I drained and cooled them and then tried to shell the individual beans, as most recommend (although I seem to have missed the fact that most people shell them right after soaking). This did not work-- the skins stuck to the beans and the insides crumbled and I decided they were "too done" to shell. However, the skins were still a little chewy, so I added some more water and put them back on to cook a while longer, figuring we'd eat the beans whole. After more cooking, when I drained the beans again, I discovered it was now possible to shell them. So I shelled about five cups for the recipe, and put the remainder of the cooked beans in the refrigerator for later uses. As it turned out, the mashed beans topped with very garlicky, oily broccoli rabe were okay, but not very exciting. It wasn't really worth all the effort. I have had fava bean puree in restaurants that was fantastic, but this wasn't that.
Dessert: Jennifer Reese's chocolate pudding. Easy and not terribly sweet. My husband and daughter really liked it. I felt it needed a little more something. Salt, perhaps. And maybe sweeten the whipped cream more than I did. And the recipe made 4 petite servings, so if I made it again I would probably double it. But it would be really easy to make it again, so that's a plus.
Lunch: 2 scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, also salsa and a little green onion and cilantro on top. Very small bowl of Trader Joe's granola (all that remained) with whole milk. How is there no food in the house when I just did a major grocery shopping trip two days ago? The eggs are great, though.
Shopping (Co-op): organic 1% lactose-free milk, 2 cans cat food, Equal Exchange organic coffee, unbleached cone coffee filters, 2 boxes Cascadian Farms granola (1 maple-brown sugar, 1 chocolate almond), brown eggs, 3 blood oranges, bananas, $35.
Dinner: Madhur Jaffrey's Broccoli Rabe Served on a Bed of Fava Beans, whole wheat pita. The whole fava bean puree thing proved complicated. First of all, it is difficult to find dried fava beans, and I was unable to find the skinned, split kind that cook quickly. I did manage to buy the large dried beans with skins. Then, for some reason, it did not occur to me to presoak and cook only part of the fairly large bag, so I ended up boiling a LOT of fava beans. They did not take as long as I expected to become soft in the middle, so I drained and cooled them and then tried to shell the individual beans, as most recommend (although I seem to have missed the fact that most people shell them right after soaking). This did not work-- the skins stuck to the beans and the insides crumbled and I decided they were "too done" to shell. However, the skins were still a little chewy, so I added some more water and put them back on to cook a while longer, figuring we'd eat the beans whole. After more cooking, when I drained the beans again, I discovered it was now possible to shell them. So I shelled about five cups for the recipe, and put the remainder of the cooked beans in the refrigerator for later uses. As it turned out, the mashed beans topped with very garlicky, oily broccoli rabe were okay, but not very exciting. It wasn't really worth all the effort. I have had fava bean puree in restaurants that was fantastic, but this wasn't that.
Dessert: Jennifer Reese's chocolate pudding. Easy and not terribly sweet. My husband and daughter really liked it. I felt it needed a little more something. Salt, perhaps. And maybe sweeten the whipped cream more than I did. And the recipe made 4 petite servings, so if I made it again I would probably double it. But it would be really easy to make it again, so that's a plus.
 The beginning of pudding. |  Whipping cream. |
Snacks: 4 cups of coffee, 2 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half. Quite a number of fava beans as I was testing them as part of the process described above. Sherry in the evening.