My favorite food next to Italian is Mexican. I am not sure if it is the tomato or the comfort of pasta and tortillas. Whatever it is, I am hooked.
I have not made Enchiladas in a long time. They are messy and a little time consuming. But I had the extra time today so I ended up making 2 medium size pans – one to eat now and one to freeze and eat later. (more…)
No long weekend this year; the fourth is right in the middle of the week. I hate when that happens.
Traditionally the 4th is a time for “All American” picnic foods. Things like hotdogs, hamburgers, baked beans, corn on the cob, potato salad, pasta salad. strawberry shortcake and cherry pie. I have the Hamburgers, Baked Beans and corn on the cob covered. That just leaves the salad and dessert.
I am GREATLY relieved to be able to report that I have my cooking mojo back! This week everything I cooked turned out well. In fact better than well. . . it was all downright good!
Monday morning I went out a picked a great assortment of fresh veggies. Spinach, yellow squash and tomatoes shown here. I also trimmed a big basket full of basil and a bunch of onions.
In the fridge there were navy beans from last week, a head of lettuce and a big cucumber that we had gotten at Farmer’s Market. It was obviously a Greek salad day.
We are now officially in summer and menus are guided by what I pick on any given more. This morning I had LOTS of basil that was either going to get harvested or bolt. I harvested.
I stood and inhaled the incredible aroma and thought “Pesto!”. (more…)
A big favorite in our household is Cajun Red Beans and Rice. Traditionally cooked on Monday which was laundry day because cooking beans the traditional way is an all day (and sometimes close to two) process. Taking the time is almost worth it since the pot of beans is to die for!
Any red bean will work – small, large, kidney. The dish tastes almost as good if you use pressure cooked red beans. And you can always use canned kidney beans. Whatever beans you decide to use the basic recipe methodology is the same. (more…)
My favorite part of gardening is watching the seeds sprout and poke up through the ground. My second favorite part is harvesting the food. Third, is eating it.
It is immensely gratifying to actually see the results of all your hard work. Watering, weeding, keeping after pests and fungi is hard work. Never mind the transplanting and soil prep. It’s definitely work! But there are so few things in life where you can actually see, taste and experience such tangible and direct results.
Harvesting means menu planning. Now, in the winter menus are usually about the finished product – casseroles, soups, stews and meatless meatloaves. In the summer it is about making sure I have cooked rice and beans in the fridge, nuts in the pantry and a few things in the freezer.
Brown rice is probably our most flexible staple. We use it as breakfast cereal, for specialty rice dishes (like Spanish Rice), salads or a quick add to bean based meals for an extra protein boost.
At the end of every week we gather up any veggies we can find laying around, nuts and even beans. We throw them in a pan and add rice for a quick, thrifty meal. The trick is adding a good mix of herbs and mirepoix to give it great flavor without resorting to too much salt or soy sauce. (more…)
I grew up eating veggie patties. Mom would serve them smothered in gravy and accompanied by potatoes and a veggies. Leftovers would be recycled as “hamburgers” for lunches or snacks. We usually have some sort of veggie burger or veggie loaf in the fridge for exactly the same reason.
I probably have 25 versions of this recipe, but this happens to be the one I used today. (more…)
Beans are one of those wonderfully healthy foods. High in fiber, protein and minerals and very low in calories. So when it comes to baked beans, I always been ambivalent about eating them. I like fact that they burst with flavor but all the brown sugar and molasses give me great pause.
Beans, especially white beans, are pretty much flavorless. So we decided to try something different. Over the winter (when having the oven on felt great) we did a bunch of baked navy bean experiments and came up with our favorite. It is flavorful, filling and tastes as good with honey in it as without. (more…)
Since we are constantly asked what we eat, I have decided to post our dinner menu plan for this coming week. Over the next few days I will add the cooking tips and the recipes we use.
There are several things to note – we almost always have certain basics in our fridge. These include cooked brown rice and prepared beans of some type; this week it is navy beans. In our cupboards we keep a supply of things like olive oil, nuts, herbs, spices, canned and frozen veggies and salsa. As a practical matter we buy bulk and stock items like rice, beans, nuts, flours, oils, herbs and spices once a month on a “big shop” day.
Every weekend David and I spend part of a day procuring and preparing the food for the week. We have a lot of fun and use it as quality time together spent shopping, cooking, talking and singing to the tunes on Pandora.
Yesterday was the day. (more…)
David loves granola, but most of it either contains lots of sugar and/or is filled with gluten containing grains like oats.
We started on the quest for easy to make, sugar free, gluten free granola. The first thing we found was gluten-free oats. They are expensive, but worth it (maybe). Oats worked well, but I felt like they added a lot of carbs and for some reason seemed to have less fiber than the regular oats. The granola tasted good, but after a couple of hours I was ravenous. (more…)
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