Working the creativity - Spinach Risotto

This week my husband gave me a challenge: to work with what I got in the fridge and not do any grocery shopping. Of course this has a purpose: save money.

What I Ate Today: Spinach Risotto with Italian Sausage and Green Bell Pepper

Whenever he asks me this I feel scared. A lot of questions pop up on my head: will I be able to do breakfast and dinner everyday without going to the deli? There's not enough of this or that, what should I do?

This is where the creativity comer along to help me. Sometimes I just open my fridge and say: "surprise me today". Sometimes I spend my whole day thinking about what I am going to cook for us. I even go to bed thinking about breakfast and dinner. 

Yesterday after coming back from a session of the documentary Wasted! The Story of Food Waste at the Tribeca Film Festival, I was determined to work with what I had and be creative. I had no meal planning for this, so imagination had no limits for me.  I knew that I had some Italian sausages on the fridge. Two, to be precisely. Two is enough for two people, right? It depends, ok? So, I know that sausages, specially the Italian types, goes well with peppers. And yes, I had one green bell pepper (half of it) hanging on my fridge drawer, just waiting. I also had garlic (always!), onion and white whine. That's it. If you have just plain white rice, you already have dinner at this point. 

But I wanted risotto. I was craving it. Maybe because of the rainy day... I wanted something comfortable. Not pasta this time. Risotto. I had some cheese: a bit of fresh mozzarella, blue cheese, cheddar and this smoked gouda. I had good choices, except the cheddar, this would be a bold move for sure and a risk I wasn't willing to take. I went with the smoked one. Last but not least, I decided to add spinach to the risotto - I had some and didn't want to waste the opportunity of adding some nutritional on my meal. 

Turns out that I didn't think about my wine quantity and ended up putting everything on the sausage. By the time that I was doing the risotto, I asked my self what I was going to do? I didn't want to put lime, because I know the risotto would taste like it, even with the other layers of flavor. So thinking about the acidity, I grabbed my apple vinegar. It worked amazingly. Just like wine, to be honest. 

Tip: to make the pepper sweeter and tender I did let it sit on the fire on my stovetop for a few minutes. Better than stir it for a bunch of time.

And on the top of everything: garlic confit. I did this yesterday morning and wanted to try. So everything was actually a good excuse to put my new garlic confit on top. I know that everything was good because after two spoons my husband said: "I wish I could eat three times this". 

Restrictions are good - if you look at it in a different way

I have met people that has gluten and lactose intolerance, for real. They do not follow this diets because they want to lose weight or just trying to see how their bodies reacts by being without those substances.

Today I had a friend that follows this FODmap diet, that I have never heard about before. I was curious about this. She can't have things like onion and garlic. Basically my main ingredients for every dish. I was really intrigued by this and invited her to come anyway. I had to try. I was afraid, of course, that the food would be flavorless. I read blogs, saw lists, checked every ingredient, shared the menu with her... But at the end it was worth it.

I decided to do ribs and mashed potatoes. Actually for the mashed potatoes I wanted this different texture, more similar to aligot - mashed potatoes with cheese. But with no cheese. I know, I am stubborn.

I was pretty happy with the results. She seemed pretty happy with it as well. All I had to do was using the food processor and add ghee for the velvety texture. For the ribs I used the pressure cooker. Made a paste with cherry tomatoes and spring onion (just the green part), add bacon fat, turmeric, bay leaves, baby spinach, cumin, smoked salt, worcestershire sauce, dried oregano and arrowroot in the end to thicken it.

Here is the thing: I thought that the food tasted delicious. And also tasted like real food. I mean, I actually could taste the meat. Once a friend told me that he doesn't season the meat with garlic because he thinks is tastes too garlicky. And now I can see why.

Yes, it's possible to not add onion and garlic and play with other ingredients. But still onion and garlic are very convenient, and delicious!

Now I feel so blessed that I don't have any food allergies. I can have everything and also feel so bad for the past me - the peaky eater one. I am so open for the new flavors, even from things that I know that I don't like - beets I am talking to you!