So this set of lunches is a little unbalanced. Two dishes are spicy! The first is a somewhat of a grab bag stew. I browned onions, poured in vegetable broth and beef broth, cooked black eyed peas until tender, threw in New Mexico diced chilies, added corn starch to heavily thicken the stew (I’m not a fan of soupy liquids along side the two other sides in the one dish), and tossed in mustard greens.

The second dish was a macaroni and cheese dish. This was my first time making the cheese sauce and I think it came out okay. I cooked a roux of melted butter and a couple of tablespoons of flour until light brown in color. I then poured in about a cup or so of half & half and cooked it until thickened. I then grated 8 ounces of cheddar cheese and stirred until blended. But it wasn’t cheesy enough, so I added pepper jack cheese. Which helped it out considerably. I then added diced roasted Hatch chili peppers. And then poured in whole wheat macaroni.

The last dish was roasted root vegetables (consisting of one sweet potato, one beet, one butternut squash, one carrot, and two cloves of garlic). The only surprising thing about it is how much everything shrinks after roasting in the oven. I was a little short after I put together the sixth container.

For the first side, I experimented with a pickled dish. I fell in love with the pickled beets at Jack Allen’s Kitchen. So I tried recreating it at home. I sliced up beets and parsnips. I then marinated them in apple cider vinegar. I should have added some nutmeg and clove. They were good, but they fail as a frozen dish, I think. Too bad I can’t figure out a way to fit in the frozen dish, but only be defrosted and not cooked.

For the next side, I created a spinach and artichoke dish. I mixed one package of frozen spinach leaves, one sealed package of sliced artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, 4 ounces of Crema Agria, 4 ounces of cream cheese, 4 ounces of shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano, smoked sea salt, and pepper. This turned out excellent!

For the last side, I wanted to create an onion sauce and mix it with miso paste. I sliced up a large onion and poured 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda on it. The baking soda will break down the cellular walls of the onion and turn it into a soup. I then browned it in a pan and added miso paste to taste. The only problem with this dish was with the garbanzo beans. I had soaked them overnight with split peas, but ran out of time to make the dish. So I put them in the fridge (still in their water). Then, when the next weekend came around, I dumped them into this dish. However the garbanzo beans were still a little tough. I wonder what went wrong? But otherwise, this was not a bad first attempt.