What Ana Does

Packing Up My Cup O Noodles for Work So all of a sudden I'm a trendy foodie, I guess. The big thing right now is using mason jars to transport food like salads, soups, cereal, etc. (Isn't it weird how popular mason jars have become?) And maybe because they use these trendy jars and they're super photogenic ( see here ), I've seen recipes pop-up in every magazine, food blog, new recipe book (like Gwyneth's) and Pinterest over and over again. If it's in Martha Stewart magazine, it's a THING. I've been using the cup o' soup recipe from Martha Stewart for the last week and it's been a total success, though I'm going to continue to experiment with other ingredients. What's inside: The noodles are a Chinese bean noodle, I add thinly sliced mushrooms, frozen corn and a few teaspoons of Miso paste. I want to add greens like scallions but I don't have any in the fridge, so today I took the last bite of spinach. Overall, very qu...

Pictures in cookbooks are essential. I need a visual goal of what I'm cooking, especially if it's something new. And the more lovely and artistic the picture, the better. This week I attempted a recipe sent to me via the hubby. It came from the The New York Times, and printed as a PDF, it had no image. But the many beans and veggies in the recipe followed my ongoing goal of EAT MORE PLANTS, so I attempted it. It was kind of like cooking without a net. Does this look right, I kept asking myself. Maybe? Keep going.   Here's the link to the Ribolita recipe  (there's a picture on the website) and here's what it looked like in my bowl. It was the perfect winter soup! Delicious.   Related posts: More cooking posts 

This weekend I dipped into my collection of Everyday Foods  from Martha Stewart mini-magazines, which I've been hoarding since the early 2000s, looking for some simple veggie recipes. (I don't think we're eating enough veg lately.) Anyway, it got me thinking about how much I loved this now-defunct recipe magazine and how it's odd to have recipes that feel are in "my style." Do recipes or cookbooks go after a certain style? I'm not aware if they do. Sure, there's a theme and focus, but food doesn't traditionally follow a style, right? But I'm starting to think it does. Similar to how J.Crew is my clothing style and Express or Loft is not. Everyday Foods is my food style, as Ina Garten and Jaime Oliver (oh how I love them both) are not my style of food. I try to make their recipes, but I don't generally love the taste, or some of the ingredients or how they prepare things. Does that even make sense? My Treasure of Everyday Foods ...

The grocery rule of thumb is: if you can't pronounce it, you shouldn't eat it. Or, put simply, stop eating over-processed, chemical-laden foods. For Pete's sake! But in reality, that's not totally possible. Especially with the kiddos. Their reliance on fruit bars and cheese crackers (albeit organic and mostly all-natural) is a convenience I can't deny. Working Moms don't have oodles of time to bake granola mini-muffins, weekly sandwich bread and stumble upon veggies picky kids will actually eat. (This mom did it and is now making a living off helping others do it ... 100 Days of Real Food .) Hey, I'm trying! So this weekend I decided to find a granola bar recipe the girls would like -- one less unprocessed snack food for them. Of course, I went right to the cereal bar recipe from Alana's The Homemade Pantry -- mostly because I'm in the middle of a passionate love affair with that cookbook. And her two daughters eat them. That's kid test...

Every week for the last few years I've been making pizza for Pizza Thursday. Occasionally, it's from a box. But usually it's homemade. At first, I was focused on perfecting the dough . If I have time, I'll make the dough from scratch the night before. I have a no-fail recipe that uses half whole wheat flour and sits in the oven (turned off) where it will rise until the next night, when I'm ready to bake it. My backup is the whole wheat dough from Trader Joe's -- which I consider a staple. There's always a bag of dough in my freezer. It's pretty delicious. And I pre-cook it, so it's extra crispy once we top and cook it. Lately I've focused on toppings and adding a lot of veggies. I've read there's nothing you can't put on a pizza and I'm starting to test that theory. Most recently, baby spinach. Delicious! And this week I threw on sliced tomatoes. I love when they get all soft and juicy. Fantastic. The experimentation conti...