(no subject)

[pebblerocker]

Partner and I got bored with having the same old food every day. Potatoes, rice and split peas feature heavily and we end up rotating the same meal every 3 days instead of once a week -- that's if we feel interested enough in food to make something instead of just having toast. He also wanted to start taking lunch to work so he doesn't end up buying chocolate bars for lunch every day, which is hard on the bank account as well as on his health.

I looked up meal plans online and got this one (link via Wayback Machine because it went 404 a day after I found it) and we're working from that pretty closely this week. It's going well. Partner is remembering to take sandwiches or leftover dinner to work for lunch; I think the external authority, this LIST that orders him to take a certain packed lunch, is working better than his internal "suppose I should but I'd rather watch cat videos" or my "I would pack lunch if I was you". Dinners are not all that different from what we'd have normally -- stir fry, bean stew, pasta -- but not having to do the thinking is a big help, and working from a recipe means we get new flavours, different spice combinations than I'd think up myself, and that makes things so much more interesting.

We put hoisin sauce on the shopping list since the stir fry recipe wanted it, and it's a new favourite. I can't stop sticking my finger in the bottle for a taste. And pickled gherkins is another new food: partner bought some for sandwiches because he likes it when they give him some on his sandwich at a chain of sandwich shops. (They always just say "pickles" on the menu but it's always pickled gherkins, not pickled something else.) He bought the gherkins to try and I had some and liked them a lot and accidentally ate them all in a week. And there was a recipe that said cilantro, so we bought a bunch of coriander, which has had a mixed reception. I never ate it growing up because my mother can't stand the taste, but I think I like it; partner tasted it and is very wary of having any in his dinner.

I'm going to have to make sure I try new foods regularly so I don't get bored with food. I only discovered olives and eggplant a couple of years ago; it's well past time to add a few new tastes to my repertoire.

Comments

[capri0mni]

Cilantro is a funny thing, for us humans: turns out there's a very specific gene that gives some people the ability to taste the yummy flavor in it (I suppose it's the phytochemical that the plants make to attract bees and other pollinators).

But if you're one of the people who don't have that gene (*raises hand*), you can't taste the yummy at all. For folks like us (Me, you mother, and Partner) eating cilantro tastes like chewing on a bar of soap -- matter of fact, the first time I tasted cilantro in a frozen dinner I bought, I thought that I'd failed to rinse the dish soap off my fork. (I suppose what we're tasting is the phytochemical that deters other bugs from chewing on the plant's leaves...).


Now that I know it's not soap, I've trained myself not to spit out my food as a reflex, but it's still less then fun... I'd suggest keeping it out of the general recipe in the big pot, but keeping the fresh leaves for garnishing your own dishes when you serve them.

[pebblerocker]

I can taste the soapy taste a bit, I think, but I can taste an interesting lemony-spicy taste a lot more. Isn't it interesting that my mother doesn't have the gene and I do! Maybe I'll save a few leaves and experiment on my father and siblings with them. It's my most scientifically-minded brother who dislikes all vegetables, luckily, so I'm pretty sure he won't mind a small nibble For Science! and will be willing to distinguish "another vegetable I don't care for" from "tastes like soap".

[capri0mni]

Well, the genetic code that means you don't get that particular olfactory sense* is a recessive one, I believe, so maybe you're tasting half-and-half...

Thanks for telling me its lemony-spicy... I taste nothing-at-all,** so now, I have an idea of what I can substitute in a recipe that calls for cilantro

*(flavor is mostly smell, and every flavor has its own chemical and corresponding chemical receptor in the nose)

**my disability is classified as mobility-impaired, but cilantro-impaired is a lot more annoying, since it's become a trendy spice that shows up almost everywhere, but the only listing in the ingredients is: "Natural flavors and spices"

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky - Sis is a wonderful cook and likes a lot of variety in her cooking (and when I'm on my own I eat the same stuff over and over, but it's mostly raw veggies and salad).

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

You are on the right road to the cooking pleasures:-)! Experimenting is fun and Yum!:-)