Homemade marinara (my son’s favorite food right now!) and some quick plain naan breads. Delicious :)

Meta explanation: cold pepperoni is discouraged during pregnancy

Recipe from the cookbook "Love is Served". This was really delicious and I will def make it again.

* The roundish fish-cake looking pucks on the plate are Taro. The rest is edible.

As someone who was the farthest thing from a picky eater, Taro or Arbi was the bane of my young life! The strange fibrous, pulpy mush often disguised as potato would find itself on my lunch plate after a gruelling day of alphabet, addition, painting and softball at school… destroying everything I knew and loved! Yea, I hated it.

And I must be young at heart because nothing’s changed and I still hate it, although I really tried to do everything to give the recipe every chance I could. I steamed and mashed it with tempered spices, rolled it into fritters and pan fried them. It’s meh with a hint of 🤢. Seekh kababs, daal, tomato chutney, cucumber and onion salad, and paratha saved lunch today.

My meta is UTSSS or Use that sexy stupid stuff- to try to incorporate some of the many, many ingredients I’ve collected over time but haven’t used at all or enough.

Meta ingredients used in this recipe: mustard oil and carom seeds.

Curry recipe from a curry cookbook. The lava tofu is my version of realising the theme without using meat. It didn't turn out quite as gooey as I'd hoped, but it was still very soft and delicious! Lava Tofu recipe from "Wendy the food scientist"

Latte Recipe from "Vegan for Youth". The Taro Boba was the only way for me to get sth Taro lol

Hey, I know sweet potatoes aren't yams, but this theme was tough give me a break

I was pregnant in the year 2000 and figuring out how to be a stay at home mom. Dinner was shake n bake, a lipton sidekick and frozen microwaved veggies. Or maybe some KD if I was feeling especially tired.

I attempted to do this again but make jt better. Somehow, I channeled my inner 2000 bad cook so hard that this meal was TERRIBLE. Worst thing I’ve made all year. Somehow the pork chops were soggy and the Mac n cheese was dry. Steamed the frozen veg, so that was about as good as could be expected.

Thankfully I only disappointed 2 friends and one kid this week.

Didn't look great but tasted great :)

It’s 1999 going on 2000.

I’m just turned 17 and working at my very first job— Jamba Juice (very 90s-00s in its own right)

I’m “doing the Atkins diet,” which my teenaged brain interpreted “eat meat! only meat!” There were no Reddit subs to suggest recipes to me back then, of course.

Next door to the Jamba Juice was a Togo’s. I’d go over there and weasel a cup of meatballs from the dudes working that shift. Was I flirting with them a bit? We’ll never know…

At my elder-millennial age now I realize this was not necessarily the most Atkins applicable option but…hey, I was also taking MetaboLife which is SUCH a Y2K era phenomenon. It all counts.

Pardon how unattractive this photo is

I was a kid during Y2K, and we ate a lot of spaghetti bolognese. At the time, I wished I were vegetarian; unfortunately, this was strictly prohibited in my strict family. Now, at a suitable distance from my childhood, I can have whatever I like for dinner. This is a Nisha Vora recipe from her blog and it’s great. I made it with spinach fettuccine because I also just wanted it that way.

Sorry about the earworm, if applicable

This week I decided to make something using an ingredient that got very popular at the time - cream cheese! It’s fun to see once again how cyclical trends are, considering that in recent years some parts of the internet have been over-using cream cheese.

Recipe adapted from Nigella!