Food Plant

i’ve been out of updating habit again, but any day now i’ll be making a lasagna to write about.
in the meantime, let me tell you what i’m eating right now!

yesterday evening i got a call from alex, asking if i’d like to go grocery shopping at loblaws. i enjoy that place for being somewhat fancier than the nearby foodshops but always end up with the nightmare of carrying giant grocery bags on the packed bus home, so getting a ride is not an offer i could pass.

alex kept true to his status as “fancypants” with quality groceries to last a month, and i got a little carried away accordingly, including a few prepared items that i would normally make from scratch. although i typically hate spending the extra money on convenience food because it hurts my foodie pride, these minor exceptions were worth it.

first, loblaws started carrying a white bean and grilled red pepper spread in their hummus area, under the “president’s choice” brand. THANKFULLY they had the decency to avoid calling it a “white bean and roasted red pepper hummus”. it’s lower in fat than hummus and is thinner, a little spicy and quite awesome.

the ingredients make it seem easy to replicate at home in a blender/food processor deal:

white navy beans,

grilled red bell peppers,

water,

lemon juice,

olive oil,

sea salt,

garlic puree,

brown sugar,

and “spices”.

the spices i detect are cracked black pepper, small amounts of cayenne and cumin, and a mystery dried herb that could be any of thyme, oregano, parsley, basil, crumbled bay leaf, etc.

the other thing i bought was a giant bag of pre-cut sweet potato “spears”, that is to say, fries. of course i could have bought sweet potatoes and chopped them myself, but i find them more difficult to cut through than your average root vegetable, and normally end up breaking up freeform chunks by starting a cut and jiggling the knife around.

so! i take thee, sweet potato fries, sprinkle you with salt, pepper, lime juice and shawarma spice (cumin would do), spray you with a mist of olive oil, and off to the oven for 20 minutes at 380f or so. then i dip you in white bean and pepper spread and you’re sweet, spicy, zesty and delicious.