Sunday Night Disease

When I was in college at the University of Vermont, my friends and I often came down with something we called Sunday Night Disease. Sometime after dinner and a few attempts to get work done in our tiny dorm rooms, we would all end up in the hallway chatting and procrastinating for hours. Often this involved listening and discussing music, which only one of us was actually majoring in. As I've gotten older, Sunday Night Disease has mutated, but it still involves some procrastination, dread for the week ahead and music listening. Tonight I'm writing this blog post instead of spending time on work stuff that I really need to do in preparation for next week, which I anticipate will be very stressful. However, writing is a big step from just sitting in front of the TV (or for me its a 24" Mac). Writing about what I just cooked is an even bigger step. It means that I fed myself a decent meal. Tonight it was a little garlic and greens (mainly kale) pizza with a salad.

Sunday night disease is like the flu, it comes in many variations. Typically for me it's TV. I will get into some show and watch an entire season on Hulu or Netflix. Recently it was Freaks and Geeks, which was awesome, and this weekend it was Season 2 of Portlandia, also excellent.  I spend A LOT of time watching TV, particularly when I'm depressed. I become almost paralyzed while I think about all the things that I would rather be doing but cannot get motivated to step away from the couch. It's an escape. Hours of TV watching also leads to apathy around what I'm eating. After a long day, I'm happy to just grab some carrots and humus while I watch old Seinfeld episodes. This past week, I feel like I've managed not to get sucked in too badly, despite the Portlandia catch up. I cooked every night and sat at the table to eat, even if I was alone. Now that I actually have a dining room table and chairs, it seems that I have no excuse to eat on the couch anymore. Last night I cooked the last two chicken cutlets from the package I bought on Thursday and used the same recipe from earlier in the week. I had two pieces so cooked both and ate one for lunch today. I also made more quinoa and added red pepper again.  Both of these are so easy and tasty, I'll have to be careful to not eat them all the time.

In order to avoid Sunday Night Disease, my plan going forward is to spend Sunday evening with a nice meal and planning what I'll eat for the rest of the week. Not overly planning, but at least having a sense of what I can cook and what I'll need to pick up after work or the gym. Tonight I made a pizza from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook. I had tried this topping last Sunday when the boyfriend was here. I dropped a few of the pizzas on the floor, but we managed to salvage two that were really good. If you put a ton of kale on something, it becomes instantly healthy. If you add cheese to something, it becomes instantly delicious. Since I'm trying to avoid gluten, I tried a wheat and gluten free prebaked pizza shell from Rustic Crust tonight. It wasn't bad. You can pretty much make a pizza with anything: pita, tortillas, French bread... Last week I made them for us on whole wheat pita. Of course you can also pretty much put anything on top of a pizza, but it's nice to have a few creative and healthy toppings rather than just tomato sauce and cheese.

Tonight while I was cooking and then eating my dinner, I listened to Paloma Faith. She's one of those British white chicks with a huge set of pipes who can belt out the tunes. She sounds a bit like Adele or Amy Winehouse, but her lyrics have a subtle humor. It's soul music, but with a twist. Most of her songs are mellow, but have an uptempo groove. Her latest album Fall To Grace, has tracks to sing a long with while cooking such as "30 Minute Love Affair."  Yet they're not so upbeat that you won't want to keep listening while you sit down to dinner. I really like her cover of INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart," which always surprises me as a beautiful love song.  

Garlic and Greens Pizza from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home (page 227)

Choose a pizza crust
6 6-inch pita bread halves
3 10-inch whole wheat tortillas
1 loaf French bread 16-20 inches long 

1 prebaked pizza shell 15-inch size (I used two 6-inch gluten-free shells and cooked one so I could heat the other one up later in the week)

Topping
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)

½ cup boiling water
4 large garlic cloves
3 Tbsp olive oil
4 packed cups coarsely chopped rinsed and stemmed kale
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
1½ cups grated mozzarella cheese
¼ cup grated Pecorino cheese

Preheat the oven according to the directions for the pizza crust you are using. (Generally 450° except for the tortillas that just get quickly broiled on both sides and then broiled again when the toppings are on, just until cheese is melted and brown)

Place sun-dried tomatoes in hear proof bowl, cover with boiling water and set aside.

In a large skillet, sauté the minced garlic in the oil for about a minute. 

Add the kale to the skillet along with the salt, and sauté on medium-high heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until just tender. The cooking time will vary with the age and the freshness of the kale. 

While the kale cooks, drain and chop the sun-dried tomatoes. 

Add the chopped basil and sun-dried tomatoes to the kale and remove the skillet from the heat.
 

Spread the kale topping s on the pizza crust using a slotted spoon, and sprinkle the cheeses on top. 

Bake following the instructions for the crust you chose (see pages 274-275 of the cookbook, I don't have the patience to retype all of them for you)

I had accidentally bought roasted red peppers instead of sun-dried tomatoes last week. It tasted great so this week I used both the roasted red peppers which were in oil and the sun dried tomatoes which were not. I couldn't find any fresh basil tonight at the grocery store so I left that out as well.  Honestly, if the kale is cooked nicely in the garlic and oil, then you add some other flavorings it will be tasty.  It's pizza, throw some cheese on it and it will be great.