Quarantine Eats 3: Carbs of interest

So, this is getting reaaaallly old, huh?

Naan!

New eats:

  1. Garlic butter naan: This was on my first quarantine eats to do list. The dough is very easy to make and comes together well, but man is it sticky (just like with the soft pretzels). I ended up giving up on rolling it out because it was such a pain even with significantly more flour. Instead, I basically sprinkled it with flour and mashed it with my hand to thin the dough a little bit before putting it in the skillet. As a result, my naan were thick and not nearly as big as the ones pictured in the recipe, but this was still tasty and as predicted about a million times better than store-bought naan. I would make this again once I’ve recovered from sticky dough PTSD. We ate it with these creamy coconut curry lentils over rice.
  2. Cashew tofu: This was fine. It didn’t stand out to me as head and shoulders above any other stir fry recipe I’ve made. I used my baked tofu method instead of what is specified in this recipe.
  3. Cold brew iced tea: My need for caffeine has somehow increased significantly during quarantine. This takes 3 seconds to make and it doesn’t require hot water or the sun to brew.
  4. Breakfast quinoa: This isn’t new to quarantine, but I realized I never posted about it since it’s a new-to-me-in-2020 recipe. I don’t actually love quinoa all that much normally in most recipes, but this is awesome and oh so filling. Don’t skip toasting the pecans.

Back in the rotation:

  1. Spicy peanut soba noodle salad. Simple, delicious, and has some nice heat. I usually make this without chicken. As an added bonus, the soba noodle stock seems to be more stable than that of most other pasta in my grocery store.
  2. A bunch of recipes from my best of 2019 post: Chicken tzatziki bowls; slow cooker buffalo chicken with sweet potatoes; best anytime baked chicken meatballs; easy burrito bowls with restaurant style salsa; taco stuffed zucchini boats. One of the reasons I intended to be less ambitious about making so many new recipes in 2020 is that the constant hunt for something new makes it easy to forget about meals you’ve already made that are really, really good. I’ve struggled to feed myself anything other than ice cream in the last couple weeks due to a perfect work/personal life hell storm so this set of reliable favorites has been a life saver.

On my radar:

I’m still eyeing a few other recipes from my first quarantine post for the near future, but here are additional recipes I’ve stumbled upon:

  1. Homemade flour and corn tortillas: Have I already forgotten how much I hate working with dough? Yes. These sound amazing.
  2. Mojito margaritas: Sounds like a refreshing quarantine cocktail, especially for once it is more consistently warm outside.
  3. Homemade frosted brown sugar pop tarts: I’m not sure I’ll try these out because I am pretty afraid I would eat them all in one go, but I hope someone who lives in a larger household will make these and report back on them.
  4. Caprese chicken with smashed potatoes: This is on my menu for this week. It feels like a summer meal to me, so I’m going to pretend like it’s 80 degrees and everything is back to normal while I’m eating it.
  5. Vegan crunchwrap supreme: Yaaaaaasss. Spent a good amount of time this week debating how to use up some tofu and once I found this recipe there was no going back. Planning to make this towards the end of the week as something to look forward to (how sad).
  6. Homemade cauliflower gnocchi: This feels approachable. It might be the next ambitious carb I attempt.