Is it Tuesday already?

Man, I haven't eaten nearly enough of my vegetables.  Better get cracking.  Going to finally fix that salad for lunch and the garbanzo bean/chard dish.  Roasted a truly ancient butternut squash this a.m. (working from home so can take breaks to stick something in the oven, load the washer, etc.); I love the stuff but didn't know it would last so long; going to add a can of sweet potato and make a variation on Heidi Swanson's Thai-spiced pumpkin soup. Guess I'll just sauté and steam the spinach and stick it in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch; had better have another piece of chicken with that, then freeze the remaining pieces and make stock with the bones.  Still haven't braved the dandelion greens and not sure how/whether they will keep.  Going to a continuing ed dinner tonight at Scott's Seafood, where unfortunately I will be eating beef (limited choices at these kinds of dinners and I am really over salmon just now).

Speaking of butternut squash, and this probably won't be an issue again before the fall, that sucker was hard to peel. Usually I chicken out and roast it halved in the oven, then scoop out the good stuff.  But encouraged by a few internet videos, I decided to halve, scoop, peel and cut prior to roasting this time, and all I can say is, if a serrated peeler is what it takes, then I'm going to have to get one.  What an ordeal!  But it smells really nice now, and I am looking forward to all that coconutty and spicy, creamy goodness.

Yesterday made quite a bit of progress in the kitchen, and I was able to fix brown basmati rice and the lamb and fava bean stew.  The stew, in spite of its relatively simple preparation, was delicious.  I left out the sugar, not on purpose, but the tomatoes provided enough sweetness, I think.  The fava beans, after I had parboiled them and tediously peeled them out of their tenacious little skins,  constituted such a tiny pile that I can scarcely credit them with contributing to the flavor of the lamb.  I am running out of mealtimes to eat all this stuff, so they may very well go into the freezer; after all, it will be nice to have a healthy meal ready to nuke when I get home Sunday night!