AUGUST MONTHLY DIGEST
Round 2 of precariously balancing plates on the window sill in my tiny apartment kitchen to take food photos. Explanation on how I think about food prep and basic ingredients that I assume you’ll have in your pantry already here. Short list: salt/pepper, red chili flakes, garlic (fresh or powder), EVOO, butter, flour, sugar, rice vinegar, rice. Let’s get to it!
WEEK 1
1 box rigatoni (or other pasta, leftover from July Week 5)
1 lb ground turkey
2 bunches kale
1 container parmesan (leftover from July Week 5)
1 onion
1 lemon
1 lb chicken thigh
1 piece ginger
1 bag gochugaru
1 container gochujang
1 bag carrots
1 potato
1 onion
1 korean chile pepper
Breakfast: Savory Toast (July Week 5)
Was finishing up leftover pesto, so continued to make savory toast this week. Bread + parsley walnut pesto + egg = perfection.
Lunch: Rigatoni with Ground Turkey and Kale
Used up the rigatoni from last week (July Week 5) with this recipe. To minimize dishes, I cooked the pasta in one pot, while using a pan to cook the onions and ground turkey, then drained the noodles in a colander, before dumping the onions and ground turkey into the now empty pot. I re-used the pan to sautée the kale, then add the kale and pasta back into the pot with the onions and turkey to mix it all up. I used a lot of garlic powder to season the kale and turkey, added lemon juice with the red pepper flakes (used way more than the recipe called for) and used parmesan. The residual heat from the pot helped melt the parmesan, so I didn’t need any of the reserved pasta water.
Dinner: Spicy Chicken Stew (Ddalkbokkeumtang)
Recipe halved from my favorite Korean cookbook. I mentioned this last month, but I will literally reference this book at least once a month when cooking Korean food to hit the cravings. I think you can find this specific recipe online from her old Tumblr post if you don’t want to buy the book.
Dessert: Neapolitan Cookies
Was so inspired by these dreamy cookies when I saw iamafoodblog post them on Instagram. I used ground black sesame instead of freeze-dried strawberries for mine, making them more like camo cookies in color scheme. 2 Tbsp of matcha was a little too much for this recipe (at least, with the matcha I was using), and it made the dough really dry and crumbly. Would scale back to 1 Tbsp.
WEEK 2
1 bag old fashioned oats
1 box vanilla almond milk
1 bottle honey (can replace with sugar)
1 bottle vanilla extract (optional)
1 can cinnamon (optional)
1 box doenjang (leftover from July Week 5)
1 oyster mushroom
1 potato
1 onion
2 zucchini
1 box silken tofu
4 green onions
1 loaf bread
1 bag carrots (leftover from Week 1)
1 bag avocados
1 English cucumber, or seedless variety
1 pack romaine lettuce
1 tub hummus
Breakfast: Overnight Oats
Easy and simple breakfast made the night before. I use 1/2 cup oatmeal to 1/3 cup almond milk, plus 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1.5 tbsp cinnamon. You can also add some yogurt to make it even more decadent, or chia seeds for some texture. I’ve been enjoying this PB&J style, with a spoonful of peanut butter and fig jam mixed in the next morning, or with a small spoonful of cocoa powder and honey as an easy dessert.
Lunch: “Eat your veggies” Sandwich
I had a lot of veggies that I was afraid would wilt, so I ended up making sandwiches. Toast 2 slices of bread and slather with hummus (on both). Layer sliced cucumber, avocado, matchstick carrots and romaine lettuce as the filling. It sounds plain, but the combination goes well together with creamy and crunchy textures, and the hummus gives it the punch of flavor. Pickled onions would’ve been a great addition to this too, if I had them.
Dinner: Doenjangguk (Fermented Soybean Soup)
This recipe also came from Cooking Korean… similar recipe here, except I don’t use gochujang in mine and water is fine if you don’t have the dried kelp and anchovy stock (though it does make it better, 100%). Also I use potato, hence why it’s on the ingredient list.
Special: Somen Combos - bibimguksu & peanut sauce
I had 2 picnics back-to-back (it’s the only socially distanced activity to do these days), and my go-to for potlucks is always somen!
WEEK 3
1 pack nori sheets
2 cans tuna
1 bottle light mayo
1 bottle sriracha
2 green onion
1 pack imitation crab sticks
2 English cucumbers, seedless variety
1 bag avocados
Breakfast: Coffee
I changed up my routine a bit, and now I sleep in until I only have time to make a cup of coffee before pounding away at my keyboard. Maybe not the healthiest, but I compensate by eating lunch earlier as I start getting hungry and the coffee starts wearing off. This month, I’ve been enjoying beans from Brandywine Coffee Roasters.
Lunch: Spicy Tuna Hand Rolls
Okay, so lunch and dinner are a product of having way too many leftovers after a hand roll party that I hosted. I went a little overboard with the prep so I ended up with a lot of protein leftover. The first variation is spicy tuna, which I paired with perilla leaf and cucumbers. I’m a little cautious with raw fish right now since the summer heat has been pretty unbearable, so I made this version with canned tuna. If you didn’t know, sushi rice is actually different than plain cooked white rice — there’s additional seasoning from rice vinegar and sugar. Recipe here, if needed.
Dinner: California Roll Hand Rolls
For dinner, the variation was imitation crab with cucumber and avocado. Super simple, super easy! All you need to do is chop up a few components, make some sushi rice and you’re done! I’ll probably end up making hand rolls for dinner more often as I work through this 50 pack of nori sheets…
Dessert: Brown Butter Cardamom Galette
I was caught by Bartlett pears on sale at the grocery store this week so I bought 3 and made this brown butter cardamom galette. Really gave me an early taste of fall! The best time trick for pies and galettes is getting pre-made pie crusts. It saves so much time and effort, and turns out just as good as making the dough yourself (for the simple bakers uninterested in making a mess laminating and dealing with dough). I used the filling in the linked recipe, though I wish I had 4 pears instead of 3 to fill out mine a bit more. I also used maybe half of the browned butter and sugar/cornstarch/cardamom mixture, as my galette wasn’t as big and was already pretty full of liquid halfway through. Could probably have used less butter since the pears released so much liquid on their own.
WEEK 4
2 broccoli crowns
1 English cucumber, or seedless variety
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 onion
1 lemon
2 green onions
1 lb galbi
1 pack romaine lettuce
2 carrots
1 bag frozen edamame
1 box kimchi
Breakfast: Coffee
Lunch: Broccoli Salad
Was trying to get rid of a bunch of produce in my fridge, so this was the way to do it! Took 2 broccoli crowns and chopped them up into bite sized pieces, added 3 diced mini cucumbers and 1 pint of halved grape tomatoes, 1/2 diced onion, 1 finely sliced green onion, a nice glug of olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and juice of 1 lemon and tossed it all together. Bright, crunchy and refreshing!
Dinner: Galbi Rice Bowl
I often use the bibimbap method of throwing together what’s in my fridge and mixing as a rice bowl. This week it was galbi as my protein, with crunchy romaine, kimchi, edamame and carrots. If you want more protein, add an over easy egg! Top with sliced green onions, and if the bowl is still dry, add some sesame oil and soy sauce or gochujang!
*Links to Amazon products are affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. All thoughts and opinions are my own, just tryna float on that passive income stream.