January Eats That Won't Make You Sad
Kicking off 2023 with Cozy Cuisine, Fun Foods, and Rad Recipes
Happy New Year, Food & Stuff friends!
I hope this first letter of 2023 finds you well, having enjoyed the scrumptious sweets and excellent eats of the holiday season and the delightful New Year’s Eve menu that is “cheese board for dinner.” Personally, I greatly enjoyed being back at my parents’ house where I had access to 12+ varieties of cookies…this cookie plate was a thing of beauty to behold.
As we transition out of a season of foods that are admittedly quite rich, I’ve observed that January can be a weird month for cooking and eating. Has January ever rolled around and you tried to cut back on meat because #globalwarming but you did that too quickly and found yourself with the dreaded “bean bloat”…or do you have more prudence than me?
For many people, January is a month when they decide they should go on a fad diet. But over here at Food & Stuff, I think that January eating shouldn’t make us sad or bloated or hungry one hour after we eat a meal-that-isn’t-actually-a-meal (looking at you, sad salad). In that spirit, this month’s newsletter includes recipes for cozy casseroles, steaming stews, a salad that isn’t sad, a smoothie that will transport you somewhere tropical, and a dip and a sauce that jazz up an ordinary Tuesday night meal. Let’s feed our bodies well every month, every meal: because food is fuel, and food is fun.
Cozy Casseroles
I never thought of myself as Midwestern until I lived in Nashville for a year and realized that I said “Ope!” far more than anyone else I encountered. My love of a good casserole, as well as commenting on the amount of humidity in the air, prove that I truly am a Midwest Mom at heart. Sharing some tasty casseroles that you can enjoy for a winter dinner and then reheat for lunches throughout the week!
Pizza Beans
While the name “pizza beans” may be off-putting, I urge you to listen to Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen because she is never wrong! Her cozy recipe is saucy, cheesy, and great with a loaf of crusty bread or served next to a side of simply-prepared polenta. If you want to beef it up (literally), you can add some ground beef or ground turkey sausage.
Meat & Potato Quiche
Growing up, my mom would make this recipe out of the Mennonite cookbook More With Less. It’s a great cookbook if you’re interested in learning how to be savvy with your cooking and get a lot of bang for your buck with ingredients. It’s a bit old school in some of its suggestions and recipes, but this recipe for Meat and Potato Quiche was an old favorite, y’all—it’s just good! My mom would sometimes make it with corned beef, but it’s also great with ham or browned sausage.
Easy Skillet Enchiladas
This recipe from my cooking club Natalie Cooks is a super easy and cozy casserole that can be made all in one pan! Top with salsa, cilantro, guacamole, sour cream, and whatever else you like!
Steaming Stews
I think like stew more than soup because it has a little more heft. Do I really know the difference between soup and stew? Not particularly! I feel like I get less soup fatigue though when I eat a stew. And that’s just science, folks!
Sweet Potato Lentil Curry with Crispy Sesame Chickpeas
This is recipe from Half Baked Harvest is of my favorite winter meals, and you really should not skip the pomegranate seeds on top – they add such a fun burst of flavor to the stew! This is a hearty and satisfying meal that I liked to serve alongside some crispy roasted broccoli and rice or quinoa. Or serve it with naan! You make the meal, you make the rules!!
Moroccan Beef & Lentil Stew
In the spirit of a true food blogger, I will now share a backstory to this recipe that you didn’t ask for! This stew was the central dish in a “Shepherd’s Feast” that my friends and I had on December 23. This is a tradition I grew up doing that my mom created as a family Advent activity; we dressed up like shepherds, ate by fire and candlelight, and even danced along to a song called “Shepherds’ Dance” from the opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” I really thought it was a tasty stew, and others agreed! We had a great time enjoying this and other components of the meal, like dried figs, bread, and cheese. It was a warm and comforting meal, full of flavor and texture. It also fed 14 people!! Great for sharing with pals :)
A Salad That Isn’t Sad
Firm believer here that salads do not need to be sad!! In 2023, let’s all put that plain iceberg lettuce away and LIVE! I mean, iceberg has its place* (*in the TRASH!**) (**just kidding, I sometimes like iceberg lettuce when it’s in a well-crafted Italian salad) With a little time and effort, salads can be packed with flavor and satisfying ingredients that won’t make you spiral into an existential crisis as your blood sugar goes crashing at 2pm.
Winter Cobb Salad
This is my kind of salad: texturally varied, flavor-forward, colorful, and filling. You can swap out the chicken with chickpeas or lentils or white beans, whatever you please!
Ingredients
2-3 medium sweet potatoes (about 1.5 lbs), cut into bite-sized cubes (about 5 cups)
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp kosher salt
5-6 cups loosely packed thinly sliced kale*
4 boiled eggs, halved or chopped**
Cooked chicken (a rotisserie chicken is great here!)
1 avocado, chopped or sliced
½ cup feta cheese (optional)
Pickled red onions
Note: a little crispy crumbled bacon on top would be next level.
For the dressing:
⅓ cup olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp kosher salt
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the sweet potato, olive oil, and salt. Toss to coat. Bake for 20 minutes, or until browned.
In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, add the oil, vinegar, mustard, soy sauce, pepper, and salt. Shake vigorously to combine.
Add kale to a large bowl along with about ¼ cup of the dressing. Use your hands to massage the dressing into the kale (you’ll notice it brightens in color and wilts down a bit). Divide between your bowls. Add sweet potatoes, chicken, egg, avocado, feta (if using), and pickled red onions. Drizzle remaining dressing all over. Sprinkle the egg and avocado with some salt and grind some black pepper all over. Dig in!
Tropical Getaway Smoothie
Despite the frigid temperatures of Ohio winters, I had this smoothie on repeat all last winter. The brightness of the citrus and the punch of ginger made me feel like my immune system was ready for battle, and it tasted like the little tropical getaway I never got to have because I contracted a terrible cold the day before I was supposed to fly to Florida. Anywaysssss, if you are looking to try something new in your breakfast rotation, I recommend this Green Sunshine Smoothie!
Dips & Sauces to Jazz Things Up
Neither of these dips/sauces require you to fold in the cheese, so breathe easy.
Smoky Carrot Dip
This smoky carrot dip from Bon Appétit is very much a hummus experience, and I love to have it around in the winter with some crunchy, seedy crackers or served with some pita chips. Great for football parties! If you’re into that! I have watched zero football games this season…but if I was to watch a football game, I would surely enjoy it with some smoky carrot dip nearby.
Runner’s High Peanut Sauce
From one of my Run Fast, Eat Slow cookbooks, this peanut sauce is a delight on everything from a piece of salmon to a chicken stirfry to a cold noodle salad. It’s pretty easy to make and makes a lot so that you can enjoy it in multiple meal scenarios! Work SMARTER not HARDER with SAUCE in 2023!!!
& Stuff
January is often a time for resolutions and goals. Over here, I don’t really have any new cooking goals or Food & Stuff goals…I simply just want to keep doing what I did last year: try new recipes, share meals with friends, and make several attempts to become a person who likes olives. Which brings me to an important science moment below…
If one of your resolutions is to cook more, may I make a few recommendations?
Watch Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat on Netflix. It will make you HYPE about food and really excited to build flavor and complexity in your meals this year. Samin’s love of cooking is infectious, and the special could make anyone fall in love with cooking.
Buy Smitten Kitchen Keepers. I got this cookbook for Christmas, and I cannot wait to make all the recipes. It’s seriously one of the best cookbook recipe lineups I've come across. “Keepers” is right—you’ll want to keep making these recipes over and over!
Invite others to eat with you. Hosting people for a meal doesn’t mean you have to make something fancy. Start simple: boil some spaghetti and serve it with a store-bought sauce and meatballs, brown some meat for tacos and ask people to bring the toppings, or make breakfast for dinner. If there’s anything I’ve learned through my twenties, it’s that a lot of people (young & older) are lonelier than we realize, and would love to be welcomed in your home for warm hospitality, a shared meal, and a moment of friendship.
With that, I thank you again for subscribing to this newsletter and look forward to sharing more recipes with you next month! I hope the recipes here today will provide you with a good start to the New Year! Take care, Food & Stuff friends!
-Grace