I’ve mentioned here and there that my eating habits for the last nine months (the last three months in particular…this has been a very hard school term) have been best described as “nutritious sustenance.” A lot of salads, a lot of simple pack-and-go breakfasts, a lot of veggie burgers. Even though I’m pretty darn busy through the end of this month (at which point I will finally reach the light at the end of this long tunnel), my pace has shifted from frantic to merely busy. Which means I once again have some time to cook.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy to shift gears, and I’ve felt stuck in a “No time! No time!” head space. Well, I’m finally breaking free, and Tamar Adler is my saving grace. I’ve been slowly reading An Everlasting Meal, and  it’s given me some great new ideas for preparing delicious, nutritious food in a way that saves time and allows for variety.
I headed to my local Columbia City Farmers Market yesterday…my first farmer’s market of the season, since I normally had class while the CCFM was going on. It didn’t quite live up to my Tamar Alderian fantasies (i.e., no broccoli, cauliflower or beets for roasting), but there were lots and lots of gorgeous greens an carrots and herbs and flowers.

I got home and scrubbed the carrots and roasted them whole. While they cooked, I washed batches of lettuce and frisee and dandelion greens and beet greens. I sauteed the beet greens with garlic and made a chickpea and veggie salad inspired by one of my I-need-this-like-I-need-another-hole-in-my-head cookbooks. I’ll share next week. The dandelion greens were treated with a warm mustardy vinaigrette, per usual, and dinner was served. I also cooked up batches of quinoa and wheatberries to have on hand for salads through the rest of the week and the weekend. I may try to replicate some salads I’ve had recently at Whole Foods.