Restocking Post Francois

The most exciting thing about coming back home was coming home to a mostly empty fridge and freezer. I had eaten most of my leftovers and exhausted all of the perishables in anticipation of this trip and in the madhouse just before I left. And so, with the luxury of the pre-work crowd dinner rush, I was able to amble around Whole Foods to re-stock my pantry and plenty of time to cook up some food for dinner and work goodies.


The lady at the cash register gave me the evil eye for how many pieces of random produce I had, but thbbbt. Whatever. Canned no salt added diced tomatoes, onion, shallot, garlic, dark leafy greens (beets with the greens always make me feel like I'm getting two for one since the greens are delicious), and some sort of fruit are always in my arsenal. I usually go with some plan for food in mind so its not just haphazard shopping -- a list is essential so you don't buy crap that gets thrown away because you had no plan for it. So is some sort of cheese that would be worthy of my homemade breads... both ones that pair well with sweet and savory breads.

And so the cheese nub basket blessed me. I love the P street Whole Foods cheese counter, but most of the portions are too big, or I don't know if I'll like something enough to want to order even a quarter pound, and usually, I don't have time to sit around and taste everything I want to taste. The cheese numb basket is where all of the little oddly shaped pieces of cheese go to be sold in chunks priced from 50 cents to $2. The $2 nubs are usually the $20/lb bits which is awesome because those are the ones they never put out samples of anyway. Despite my general lactose intolerance, the cheese nubs are usually small enough to:

a) not hurt my stomach too much -- I love cheese too much to give it up altogether;
b) not hurt my wallet;
c) appeal to my sense of needing variety; and
d) appeal to my need for portion control.

It had been a long time since I was able to raid the basket before the dinner crowd rush (since I am always there right before closing time or during the madhouse weekends, where all that is left is Leerdammer by the time I get there). My golden find was a cheese with white truffle! Oooh.



Anyway, done with the ode to cheese. One of my new favorite things to take to work are Roasted Winter Veggies, which will soon be replaced with grilled spring veggies as the farmer's markets start rolling them in. I did try to go with some brighter and lighter veggies this time -- golden beets, sweet potato, brussel sprouts, and shallots. Lightly sprayed with EVOO, sprinkling of sea salt, cracked pepper, and thyme, and they were ready to go into the oven for 45 minutes at 375. So easy, taste great cold or reheated, and save well. They are my favorite 4:00 snack to help me get through the long afternoon and rates A nutritionally with just 86 calories per serving, .9g fat, 83mg sodium, 4.0g dietary fiber, 9.8g sugars, 3.1g protein, 115% vitamin A, 57% vitamin C, 4% calcium, and 8% iron.