Rest, because I need it and cooking, because I generally enjoy it and I had every intention of making big batches of stuff that would make my week evenings easier.
This was not just limited to cooking for us humans - I also had every intention to making big batches of food for the birds.
So yesterday morning I tackled the cooking task; one hand, I had a ham going for us (which provided plenty of leftovers) and, on the other, I wanted to prep two containers of food for the birds (a raw mix and a cooked mix).
Once the ham was in the oven, I moved onto the bird stuff. I went outside and collected all the chard that was ready to go, which was a HUGE bundle. I washed and trimmed it and kept a few leaves for the raw veggie mix. The rest saw its leaves cut down to large chunks and stems diced finely and set aside until my large pot became available (with the ham I wanted potato salad so at that time the potatoes were cooking in that large pot).
I then moved onto chopping the leaves I had set aside in small pieces for the raw veggie mix. Alongside the chard, I had carrots, broccoli, a red bell pepper and a chili. Those last two ingredients also came from my garden.
\The raw mix
The raw mix is pretty basic, I didn't have much on hand (groceries day is today) and I have every intention of complementing the raw veggies with the cooked mix.
While I was cutting everything up, the potatoes for my salad finished cooking. I washed the pot and set the chard stems to steam with a little water. That took a few minutes and when it was done, I removed them and set the leaves to steam as well. Once that was done, I put what was left in a colander to drain and cool while I returned to the raw mix.
When the chard was nice and cool, I gave it a squeeze to draw out even more liquid and gave it a rough chop. At this point I wanted to add some grains/legumes so I set a cup of French lentils to cook (I really like these as they retain their shape better than normal lentils I find) and a cup of quinoa. The instructions for the quinoa said to bring the water to a boil, put the quinoa in and then let it come back to a boil...I thought I would have a least 30 seconds before the water came back to the boil and I had time to quickly do something else....and that was not the case. Needless to say, I had a nice quinoa mess on my hands at that point.
Mix of cooked chard, lentils and quinoa with added raw chili
I thought that mix could use a little something more so I added a little dash of powered ginger and cinnamon and a larger dash of cayenne, which did give it all a bit more flavour. But I also wanted to add something more substantial so I cut up some sweet potato and set it to steam. Once that was one, I also figured I'd add some beans, which were fresh from my garden. This is a true testament to how much I love these birds as I don't share those beans very easily (just ask the Boy..).
Cooked mix with additional steamed sweet potatoes and beans
At this point I was done, not because I felt I couldn't add anything more, but I was tired and thought it was a good base to begin with. I had also purchased a small pie pumpkin with every intention of using it, but I might just try something different with it for the birds next week-end.
This big batch of cooked food was divided in dinner size portions in small Ziploc bags destined for the freezer and I got a little more than two weeks worth of food from it. Not bad!
And, on a funny note, when the Boy saw the final cooked mix he asked if it was for us or for the birds - he really wanted to eat it!
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