Oh my gosh! So much squash.
The first week squash started rolling in from my CSA share, there were just 3, and I was disappointed.
Be careful what you wish for.
Over the last 2 weeks, I have received like 10 lbs. of squash: cucumbers, zucchini, yellow crooknecks, pattypan…
We have to use up some of this squash, or else it might stage a takeover inside the fridge. Yikes!
One of the unexpected perks of being a stay-at-home mom is getting to have near-weekly lunches with my foodie friend Sarah of Well Dined!
Often when we get together, we view it as an opportunity to make something complicated (I think we like to show off for each other), or something our husbands would never eat. But a few weeks ago, we were craving something simple, full of veggies, and…yes, let’s admit it, cheesy.
Sarah tracked down a recipe for veggie enchiladas, and boy am I glad she did! With a few quick alterations (who has patience for a slow cooker at lunch time?), we were on our way to a delicious lunch.
You can make these enchiladas for lunch or dinner. They are super quick to put together and go well with a salad!
I regularly find myself standing in front of the fridge trying to figure out what to do with all the little leftover odds and ends in my crisper. Halves of bell peppers, lonely carrots, three baby bellas that didn’t make it into a salad earlier in the week…
Inspiration finally struck as I was struggling to find a way to use up two cups of leftover jasmine rice pilaf. I am not really a rice person; I am not even the kind of person who thinks every meal should include a starch. So that Tupperware container of rice had been staring at me for almost two weeks.
And finally, as I was trying to plan a meal to make with my mom, who can’t have wheat or dairy, a light bulb clicked on over my head. Fried rice!
You can use any kind of cooked rice and any vegetables you want when you are making fried rice. So why not jasmine rice baked in veggie broth with a few shallots already tossed in? And all those veggies hiding in my refrigerator drawers were a perfect match.
This one-pot meal came out so delicious that my husband ate about four servings of it. I won’t stress about how much white rice he consumed in one sitting…I will just use brown rice next time and rejoice that I’ve finally found a simple Asian dish I can make at home for him!
Let’s make a meal out of all our leftovers!
This month for the Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned a great blog: Amy’s Cooking Adventures. She has so many delicious recipes that I really had a hard time deciding what to make! So many of Amy’s dishes looked yummy, from her Avocado and Egg Grilled Cheese to her Balsamic Pasta Salad. I am definitely looking forward to making several of the recipes from her blog, but I could only choose one to post for the Secret Recipe Club challenge.
When I asked my husband to weigh in on what I should make, he voted for these waffles…probably because I have been promising to make him French toast for ages and he figured this was the next best thing. I was only too happy to seize an opportunity to make a whole grain, veggie-filled breakfast for him! (Of course, the syrup kind of negates the healthiness, but we can still count this as a wholesome breakfast, right?)
The flavor of these waffles is fantastic, a little nutty from the whole wheat, but still light because of the zucchini. Not too sweet, with a hint of cinnamon. While waffles aren’t exactly the quickest breakfast treat to make, I will definitely be making this recipe again in weekends to come!
Confession: I have never liked lasagna. There was always just something about the texture and greasiness of ground beef that was off-putting to me…it didn’t match with the smooth noodles and the creamy, stretchy cheese. Even before I became a vegetarian, I never felt quite at home with ground meats.
So…imagine my delight when my mom came upon a recipe for a vegetarian lasagna, filled with pureed, roasted vegetables! The first time she made this, I think I ate 3 slices of it. The first time I made it, I realized that this was only going to be an occasional treat, because it takes about 2 hours to make! But if you have a weekend afternoon free, I highly recommend you try this lasagna out! This meal is great if you are expecting company, because it serves 6–8 people, depending on how hungry everyone is.
Oh no! The summer is ending! I just realized that I am doomed to a life without tomatoes, summer squash, and sweet corn for like…9 months…
To celebrate the last of summer’s bounty, I bring you some yummy vegetarian tacos.
I love tacos, and homemade Mexican food in general, because all of the condiments are delicious, many are healthy, and you can mix and match with whatever you want or have on hand. I made these tacos with the works, and you can certainly do whatever you like in the way of guacamole, salsa, chopped tomatoes, cheese, jalapeños, etc., but for the purpose of this recipe, I am only going to write about what I see as the essentials.
So grab those last ears of yellow corn, the few zucchini in the bin/on the table that aren’t weirdly scratched and deeply dented, and a few red onions, and let’s get cooking!
This is probably the best pizza in the world. I know, I know, that is a fairly outrageous claim. After all, everyone looks for different things in their ideal pizza: cheesiness, how sweet or spicy the sauce is, the thickness of the crust, the layers of toppings…
So how can I possibly claim that this pizza is so fantastic? It’s simple: both my husband and I love it. I think we could both be happy eating this pizza every night for a week.
In case this still doesn’t seem like a very definitive proof, then I will leave you with a gross understatement: Dave and I have very different tastes in almost everything, particularly when it comes to food. Dave would be happiest eating nothing but Asian food for every single meal of his life. If a food is not drowned in some kind of sauce, he thinks it is a bit lacking. I, on the other hand, like the taste of fresh vegetables, and try to serve simple meals that are overflowing with veggies whenever possible. It’s not often that our taste buds line up, but when they do, the dish is generally pretty amazing.
Hence, I bring you this pizza, with its sautéed veggies and fontina cheese. The veggies in this pizza act like a deconstructed sauce, and covered in just a light layer of cheese, the pizza is healthy and tasty. This pizza is amazingly delicious—but don’t worry, after you try it, there will still be room in your heart for your favorite delivery pizza!
Sometimes I try to do the majority of my prep while also cooking other components of a dish. It’s at such times when I realize how slowly I do things like shuck ears of corn and dice…well, anything. And how quickly onions burn.
Still, somehow these stuffed peppers came out very well! No doubt because of the incredibly fresh, local goodness of the vegetables themselves.
This past week, my friend Sarah of Well Dined lent me her CSA share while she and her husband took a trip across the country. Never heard of a CSA? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and it’s a program through which you can buy a share of a local farm or network of farms. You help support them as they are getting their crops going for the summer, and in return, you get a carton full of awesome fresh fruits and vegetables each week. So, thanks to Sarah, we were blessed this week with fresh ears of corn, green bell peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, heirloom grape tomatoes, red and white onions, baby potatoes, granny smith apples, peaches, pears, and a cantaloupe. And some wilted chard. Oh well, only one dud among all that goodness!
So how did I use this bounty? Dave inhaled all of the fruits within a day and a half. And about half of what was left went into these stuffed bell peppers. Yum.
When we were in London, I had this massive craving for Italian food. What can I say? We took a walk through Kensington and every other restaurant had an old world-sounding Italian name…and I just wanted ravioli. So the last day before we left for Paris, I demanded Italian food! Unfortunately for that craving, we were near King’s Cross, where we needed to catch our train, and where there is almost nothing around. We wandered down to the British Library (closed) and I started to get really irritated at the distinct lack of ravioli and then we happened across this Mediterranean place called Caprice. Oh my gosh. Caprice.
As I perused the menu for vegetarian options, disappointed by the lack of ravioli, a couple walking out told me that the grilled mixed vegetable plate was heavenly. I wasn’t convinced…”mixed vegetables” doesn’t really call anything exciting to mind. But we were tired of walking so I gave in.
Holy crap was that mixed veggie plate good. I practically hugged the waitress it was so good. I literally talked about it for the next week of our trip, while we were in France, no less! Maybe I had just forgotten how grilling something instantly makes it delicious…also I didn’t know what halloumi was,or I would never have hesitated. If YOU don’t know what halloumi is, I highly suggest you go find out. Seriously. Grill it up with these veggies. Right away.
My husband and I don’t have a cable plan at our house. This is really no big deal, as Hulu keeps us knee deep in shows to waste time watching. The main drawback for me is that the Food Network hasn’t really caught on to the online episodes trend. Sure, they do have some episodes online, but for a very limited number of shows…and the episodes posted never seem to change.
Alas!
So what happens is that every time I get near a TV that has the Cooking Channel or the Food Network, I become attached to it and I soak up every second possible of Ina and Giada and whoever else is on. Sometimes, I get really lucky with a great, figure friendly, vegetarian dish like this Greek Caponata, which I saw one glorious December day on Everyday Italian, and have waited anxiously to make once warm-weather vegetables were readily available. Which is now!
Smells Like Brownies 