Flying Saucer Squash

Ah, Spring. I'm sitting in my backyard and the sun is literally shining and the birds are literally chirping. Machiavelli is having a conversation with our resident Bluejay. Wisteria blossoms are falling on my head, the leaves are rustling...and in addition to being Spring, it's also my Spring break. So it's like Spring on steroids, because I actually get to sit back and enjoy it. Ah, without school, what is there to do? Read on.

I've made it my mission this break to win back some of my health. I lost a fair amount of it (in the form of pounds gained, muscle lost, and skin dulled) during the weeks preceding finals (which took place last week and which I survived, thank you very much). I knew it was happening, but alas, I chose to sacrifice for the sake of my grades. Now I'm feeling a little less like myself. Maybe 60%. So I'm filling up my time with productivity and filling up my stomach with healthy, wholesome food. Food like this:

For a snack:

If you're looking for a healthy, delicious treat, try this stuff.





Behold, Siggi's Icelandic style skyr. "Skyr" is essentially fat-free yogurt, an age-old staple in Icelandic cuisine, but whereas most yogurt is mostly water, skyr has all the h2o strained from it, resulting in 3 times the milk content of a regular cup of yogurt. It has loads of protein and very little sugar; the plain version is unsweetened, and the flavored varieties (strawberry, vanilla, etc) are sweetened with organic agave nectar. Skyr is thick and healthy and yummy and I love it. It's available at Whole Foods and other natural foods stores, and I believe the price has recently gone down to $2.99 a pop. Definitely worth it.

For a meal:



Alas, I had higher hopes for this dinner. My mother suggested I try this flying saucer squash (okay, it's called Pattypan squash, which is almost just as amusing), but as I learned after feeding it to my whole family for dinner, it apparently requires more baking time than regular squash. So we got crunchy squash. Which some people like [my mom] and some people don't [everyone else].

However, the other parts of the meal--baked cod, baked potatoes, and lima beans--turned out pretty stellar. In fact I'm going to tell you exactly how to make them, because it's nothin fancy but all delicious and thus deserves to be shared. And as usual I'm using my unconventional suggestion-not-command recipe-writing style. Cook what you feel like cooking!

For the cod:

Marinate cod fillets up to 1 day (we did it overnight, but a couple hours would be enough to give it flavor) in a shallow baking dish with:

Orange juice
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Coriander

in whatever quantities you like. There should be enough orange juice to soak the fish, so depending on the juiciness of your oranges, 1-3 should suffice for 1 fillet. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 (thick fish like cod need to cook for longer at lower temperatures). We had two fillets: the smaller one took 30 minutes, and the larger one took 45. Set the timer for 30, and if the fish is white, tender, and falling apart at that point, it's ready. If not, leave for another 15. No longer! Or else the fish will dry out.

For the lima beans:

The ratio for this is 1 cup of lima beans to 3 cups of water. Bring the water to a boil and add the lima beans, plus:

Garlic
Salt
Epazote (more about epazote, a staple in my Mexican mama's cooking, here)
& a quarter of an onion (1/4 onion to 1 cup lima beans. No need to dice or slice; you won't eat the onion, it's just for flavor)

Once seasonings and beans are added, bring down heat to a simmer and cook for 1.5 hours with the lid 3/4 of the way on so some of the steam can escape. They're done when, well, they're soft and feel like edible beans. :)

For the baked potatoes:

Ah, the perfect baked potato. I'll admit I did not come up with the recipe for the perfect baked potato. Find it here.

And there's my meal.

I'm not going to tell you what I did with the squash because it won't help you. Just know that when baked whole, these babies need more than 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Paired with the sourdough epi I emergency biked two miles to get, this actually turned out to be a pretty damn good meal. And I successfully cleaned everything up after. My parents do love having their own indentured servant when I'm home for breaks.

Also, did anyone see the first full moon of Spring tonight? It looked magnificent. Kind of like a bird's eye view of one of my saucer squashes, in fact.

Off to do some yoga and read about psychokinesis (more on that later). Happy Spring!

xoxo
Maralah