Welcome back to the 21st edition of #cookingbookclub directly from our green kitchen. I hope you did not put the spinach on the fire and that you stocked up on salads because this month we are learning to cook as many vegetables and fruits as possible and we are trying recipes from Giada de Laurentiis!

Vegetables, lots of vegetables, wait… how many vegetables???

I don’t know how you are doing in this regard, but I eat vegetables and fruits regularly. And green stuff – without any eco tint – and stuff of other colors, depending on what is in season, what I find at the supermarket and on price. Where I still have to work is to streamline the process – what to buy and cook, to satisfy my needs, desires and whims – so that I throw away as little as possible.

Because fruits and vegetables are extremely perishable, including those with thousands of chemicals.

For those like me, the challenge is to cook everything, and not throw away, to be creative and reduce the consumption of protein from animal sources and carbohydrates. According to the theory, half of the plate should be fruits and vegetables.

Should we become vegans or vegetarians? At the moment, we like carnivores, if we are a little more responsible. 🙂

Giada de Laurentiis is a perfect proposal, because she cooks Italian, and I am a fan of pasta and I have no problem combining them with many vegetables and fruits. :))))) Get recipes from here, from her website. Or you can find her on Insta and in bookstores.

Don’t forget to leave a comment if you try a recipe and you like it very much. Mine are coming next month – get ready for so maaaaaany recipes. :))))

—

#cookingbookclub #letsgetgreen! because this year our kitchen is turning green.

Join the kitchen disaster community on our Facebook page or follow us on Instagram or Pinterest.

Read all the #cookingbookclub articles here. See here all the disasters in the kitchen. And if you’re passionate about #cakesandcoffee, click here. Remember that prevention is easier than treating and that you can’t burn recipes successfully if you don’t know first aid in the kitchen – read more here.

I went through the recipes in this collection several times, in the end I didn’t cook anything from here, although I saved a few ideas – well, that’s it. 🙂 But I cooked something else, inspired by Ikea’s recipes, because that’s how creativity works in the kitchen, you read one and you cook another. Preferably not a big disaster. :))))

A few comments. Those of us who cook from scratch are accustomed to using the principles outlined by the chefs who worked on this book. Specifically, to use almost everything, to throw away as little as possible and to use the ingredients, depending on how perishable they are. Of course, living in the developed world, with access to food of all kinds, our style has changed compared to 20-30 years ago, so we can make unlimited whims, as a result we throw more than we should. Moderation is the key, I say from the depths of the slightly messy kitchen; creativity helps; and it doesn’t hurt to remember what our grandparents knew. 🙂

Reflecting on what and how I cook, I realized that, in fact, for several years I have been trying to apply what I said above. For example, last month I baked eggplant in the oven, with their peel on. I used the parsley with the stalks. I try to eat the salad as soon as possible so that it doesn’t end up in the trash.

When I was a child, citrus peels were used for cakes – now you can’t do that, because they are sprayed with chemicals. Sometimes it depends not only on consumers but also on society as a whole.

All you can find in the fridge pizza – cheese, olives and some ham, the dough is bought from the store; I slice it, keep it in the fridge for a few days and heat it in the microwave and I’ve solved several meals when I don’t have time to cook.

Vegetable tray – the same principle, I emptied the vegetable from the fridge, in this case brussels sprouts, carrots and cherry tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, a little oil and bake until done.

Cheese salad – vegetarian, assorted green salad, tomatoes and feta; simple dressing with oil and lemon.

And if you’ve done it once, it works many times over. What I wish to you too. Until next time, have fun destroying recipes. 🙂

—

#cookingbookclub #letsgetgreen! because this year our kitchen becomes green.

Join #disasterinthekitchen club on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.

Read all the #cookingbookclub articles here. See here all the disasters in the kitchen. And if you’re passionate about #cakesandcoffee, click here. Remember that prevention is easier than treating and that you can’t burn recipes successfully if you don’t know first aid in the kitchen – read more here.

Don’t know what to cook this month? 🙂 Servus, today’s #cookingbookclub comes with the weirdest cookbook I’ve ever read: The ScrapsBook from Ikea, written in collaboration with chefs from North America. Book from which we will try – me and you – a few recipes, because it fits with the theme of this month’s green kitchen: to use leftovers in a creative way. 🙂

Well, in general, in our family the leftovers generated, for example, from a Sunday meal are used as lunch or dinner the next day(s). Sometimes reheated, sometimes recombined, the idea is to eat everything you have cooked, to like it and to be nutritious.

Ikea adds to this book and teaches us how to cook with almost everything – including banana peels or wilted vegetables (it happens to me too) and how to make compost from what we can’t use. If you’re concerned about eco issues and the health of the planet and you’re running on a low budget, you’ve probably already applied many of Ikea’s ideas in one form or another. As a result, it will be a good exercise to see what you do and what you don’t. If you’ve come into the topic recently, then here’s how to enrich your knowledge from a verified source. 🙂

And any day is good for a little more creativity in the kitchen. 😀

If you try a recipe and you like the result, leave a comment. The recipes I’ll try will come, as usual, next month. 🙂

—

#cookingbookclub #letsgetgreen! because this year our kitchen is turning green.

Join the kitchen disaster community on our Facebook page or follow us on Instagram or Pinterest.

Read all the #cookingbookclub articles here. See here all the disasters in the kitchen. And if you’re passionate about #cakesandcoffee, click here. Remember that prevention is easier than treating and that you can’t burn recipes successfully if you don’t know first aid in the kitchen – read more here.

The initial idea was that I would cook some noodles with soup, based on David’s ideas. But since the plan at home doesn’t match the one in the supermarket, I ended up with a couple of eggplant recipes. I didn’t want to cook just one and let the second one get wilted and thrown away! I also tried another Asian pickle, a quick one, made in a day, because in just 3 hours I did not feel any special difference. 😛

Tingly Honey Glazed Eggplant or eggplant glazed with honey… sounded like a real disaster!!! I took my heart in my mouth and the result was eggplant baked in the oven with almost no leftover. You cut a washed eggplant in half and each half cut it lengthwise and widthwise. On top, you glaze it with a mixture of honey and olive oil, add a pinch of salt and some thin slices of garlic. Bake it at the medium heat for about half an hour or until you see that the eggplant is soft. At the end, pour a little more honey and serve it with some lemon. (Why would anyone want to pour honey on eggplant, only a Korean-American could explain that to us…).

Max’s Chickpea Curry was better. 🙂 A stew or a dish of chickpeas and eggplant with a garnish of rice with cardamom, in which the flavors are mixed and that combines vegetable proteins, vegetables and carbohydrates. Plus it’s done fast! The chickpea curry is made this way: a chopped onion, some chopped ginger slices are hardened with a little oil, you add a clove of garlic and I also put a chopped celery stalk. Seasoned with vegeta, pepper, salt if necessary and curry powder. Fill with a little water and let the vegetables soften. When they are half done, add a can of boiled chickpeas, rinsed and half diced eggplant (if you want, you can soak the slices in the oven beforehand, in a tray on baking paper). If you want other vegetables, the recipe suggested potatoes, cauliflower or cabbage. I skipped them. Also a can of coconut milk… or not. :))) Boil long grain rice with bay leaves and cardamom, plus some vegeta. I boiled it too much, but it was ok, at least I didn’t burn it. :)))))

Quickly pickled sour cucumbers: a sliced cucumber, pitted, put in a jar with pieces of ginger (this obsession is not mine, ok? :)))) and pour over a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and rice vinegar, eye proportions, lightly heated, to melt the sugar and chilled. Leave on for overnight or at least 3 hours.

And pinkcatmajordisaster did you manage not to throw away the food this month? Well, not really, but I’ve been making an effort. 🙂 Because in quarantine I bought more than I should, now I try to consume. And something other than my favorite pasta. :)))) In addition I reduced my shopping. Well, it also helped that everything became more expensive (here is a good thing in all the current mess, lol).

PS: Parsley is for artistic impression. Green. 😛

—

#cookingbookclub #letsgetgreen! because this year our kitchen becomes green.

Join #disasterinthekitchen club on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.

Read all the #cookingbookclub articles here. See here all the disasters in the kitchen. And if you’re passionate about #cakesandcoffee, click here. Remember that prevention is easier than treating and that you can’t burn recipes successfully if you don’t know first aid in the kitchen – read more here.