Greens & Grains

Wanted: 

Something tasty, quick, and hearty for dinner.

Start with:

Chopped onion, garlic & EVOO.

Saute while you search the fridge for veggies.

Cook Up

Some quinoa, farro, brown rice,

or use what you have leftover.

Add:

Everything green you've got, chopped (I used spinach, broccoli, zucchini).

Saute some more.

Throw In:

A can of chick peas, drained and rinsed

Some Calamata Olives

Some Feta Cheese

Serve

Kitchen Sink Pasta

This dish is the epitome of my latest philosophy of cooking; take what you have on hand and make something really good to eat, which is only possible if you keep really good things around, like extra virgin olive oil, good cheeses, fresh herbs, and local vegetables.

First, I set a pot of water to boil for the Ziti, then I started a Vidalia onion and half a red bell pepper, sliced - not too thinly, in a pan with some EVOO over medium high heat

 I cut a small head of romaine into ribbons (this is a good use for lettuce that is starting to dry out a little - as some of the lettuce inevitably does when you get 3 heads a week in your CSA share for several weeks in a row), added that to the pan , and let it cook down. I also threw in one Tofurkey vegetarian Italian sausage sliced lengthwise and then into half moons (strictly optional - this dish would work just fine without it - but it gave a nice flavor).

 One more trip into the fridge yielded some Calamata olives and Feta cheese and I grabbed a can of navy beans from the pantry for some extra protein. I mexed those all in and heated everything through. Always save some cooking water when you drain the pasta - I added some here to moisten things up a little.

 Very tasty! I think it also would have worked well with goat cheese, if that had been in the fridge instead of Feta.  Seems like a lot of "stuff" in one dish, I know - but it all worked well together.

Panzanella: My Version

THIS is why I LOVE summer. Jersey tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, and basil cut from a pot on the deck.

 I use fresh bread - the best I can find - ciabatta or other Italian or French bread is fine. Tear it into bite size pieces. I like a bed of lettuce in the bowl - romaine or red or green leaf, (I used red leaf here) top with 1 cup torn bread, 1-2 ounces fresh mozzarella - cubed or something near that - 1 large perfectly ripe tomato cut into chunks goes on next, a couple of Calamata olives if you like - but not altogether necessary. Top with a handful of fresh basil - just cut is best - (I used purple basil here) shredded or whole - I like my leaves whole. Dress with salt, pepper, olive oil (I use just 1 tsp) and lots of good balsamic vinegar.

Delightful. MY favorite summer meal.

Quick Skillet Supper

Came home from work, fell asleep on the couch, now it's late and we're hungry -so I rough chopped a red onion and started it cooking in 2 tsp olive oil while I sliced a couple of zucchini

Threw the zucchini in to start cooking while I sliced three little yellow summer squash and cut a green pepper into 3/4" pieces 

Threw the yellow squash and peppers in with the rest of the veggies and stirred over medium high heat - while I opened a can of chick peas and quartered a handful of Calamata olives

When the onions were soft and the squash was soft but not mushy, I added the chick peas and olives and heated everything through

Last addition - about 3/4 cup of crumbled Feta Cheese and some shredded fresh green and purple basil.

Total time < 30 minutes.

Served this with leftover mashed potatoes, warm pita bread and hummus.

Day 24: Pasta with Cauliflower, Kale & Onions

It was the second Night of Hanukkah and I was scheduled to work from 2:30 until 10 pm. My husband usually stops by the hospital on his way home from work (and the gym) and has dinner with me. Now, Hanukkah is a minor festival - but it is a holiday, and we we ate out on the first night,so I wanted to have something a little more special than cafeteria food. There are still lots of veggies left from the last CSA share of the season, luckily they are winter vegetables and they keep well. I decided to use a head of cauliflower, a bunch of kale and some onions - that looked kind of like this










The list that came with the CSA share says they are pearl onions, but they look like spring onions or bulb onions to me. In any case, I halved a bunch of them (quartered a couple that were larger) and put them in a pan with some EV olive oil to cook for a few minutes while I washed the cauliflower and broke it into florets. I added the cauliflower to the pan and let that cook while I re-washed a bunch of Kale and chopped that up. After the cauliflower began to soften a bit, I added the Kale. I re-hydrated a handful of sun-dried tomatoes and sliced them up, and quartered a handful of Kalamata olives. I added those to the pan, along with a little dried basil and oregano and some salt and pepper. I let this cook while I boiled a pot of water and cooked some orichette pasta (just short of al dente). I transferred the pasta to the pan with the vegetables using a slotted spoon. I added about a cup of the pasta cooking water and simmered everything together until the pasta was done. Then, I added about a cup of crumbled Feta cheese and  about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and tossed. I packed two portions of that pasta up and took it to work. I re-heated it when we were ready for dinner and it was pretty fabulous.

Day 22: Leftover Vegetarian Chili plus

This batch of chili was so good - we wanted more the second day - but there wasn't quite enough to go around - so we each added our own little something extra. I had a little chili with this sandwich on lightly toasted tomato basil bread:
fresh mozzarella cheese
sun-dried tomatoes - re-hydrated in hot water and sliced
a handful of calamata olives, chopped
a drizzle of olive oil & balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper
arugula and red leaf lettuce
Yum.

Day 2: Pizza with broccoli, red onions, olives, feta & sun-dried tomatoes

Two more reasons I'm doing this - my terrible memory, and my very short attention span. As my family has known for a long time, I never make exactly the same thing twice and I will have forgotten what I made for dinner tonight by this time tomorrow. This is probably because I tend to make things up as I go along, I get bored easily, I don't write down what I do, I don't always measure, and I'm likely to substitute what I have on hand for what I don't (also, I have a notoriously bad memory). I'm already excited that I can make the cauliflower risotto again because I wrote down how I made it here last night. Of course I can't promise it will be exactly the same, even with the recipe recorded here in the ether forever (because I tend to make things up as I go along, I get bored easily, I don't write down what I do, I don't always measure, and I'm likely to substitute what I have on hand for what I don't).

And  - - - - I just thought of another reason! Next week when I am wondering how long  a container of leftover something or another has been in the back of the fridge, I won't have to guess! and I won't have to argue with those who insist it has been there longer than I think it has. This will be, to quote FB, "Cool".

Day 2
Let's Use the Broccoli before it goes to seed Boboli Pizza

The CSA broccoli from last week still looked pretty good - it is amazing how much longer things last here in my refrigerator when they haven't spent weeks traveling across the country in a truck and days sitting in the grocery store - and I'm betting there will be more in tomorrow's share, so I was looking to make something with that. We had cavatelli & broccoli (my absolute favorite thing to do with broccoli) earlier this week, so I was thinking of making some kind of veggie mix to put over polenta. This idea was vetoed by a family member who shall remain nameless - and I found a thin crust, whole wheat Boboli pizza shell in the freezer, so...

• I pre-heated the oven to 450 F - as per the instructions on the Boboli package
• I sliced a red onion, fairly thin, tossed it with a teaspoon of olive oil, put it in a roasting pan and put that in the oven to soften and sweeten it up a bit. The oven wasn't up to temperature yet - I put it in anyway - on the bottom shelf.
• I cut the broccoli up into florets and threw it in a large heavy pan with a tablespoon of oil and a few cloves of garlic - the unmentioned family member said I should just throw the raw onion and broccoli onto the shell and be done with it - but I wanted them a little soft - and not mushy or steamed soft - but flavorful soft - Red onion tastes just wonderful after a little time in the oven but I thought that would dry out the broccoli, so I opted for a short stay in the sautee pan.
• While the onions and broccoli were cooking,  I took a handful of sun-dried tomatoes out of the freezer (they keep longer in there? I've been told - we'll see) and put them in a bowl with hot water. I chopped up the 8 or 10 calamata olives (from the olive bar) left in the refrigerator into quarters, then chopped up the sun dried tomatoes.
• By this time, the oven was up to temperature. I spread the onions on the shell, then the broccoli & garlic, olives, sun dried tomatoes. I spread some feta over the top but I was worried it would be too dry - so I drizzled on a tablespoon of olive oil, then I was worried there wasn't enough cheese - but the block of Parmesan in the fridge has funny white spots on it and we are out of mozerella, except for a couple of "sticks" - so I cut up two of those and threw them on top too.
• Things were piled pretty high on the shell. I put the "pizza" on the pizza stone in the 450 F oven and cooked it about 12 minutes.
• We made a salad with Red leaf lettuce, red pepper, chick peas, and green olives to go with the pizza.

Family Consensus: Pretty Tasty!

PS - Lunch today was Lentil soup made from Mollie Katzen's recipe in the original Moosewood Cookbook, very simple, very, very tasty, one of my favorites - I made a pot last week and put half of it in the freezer - don't forget the vinegar.

PSS - I'm thinking I should run these recipes through the WW calculator and get points totals on them - I am only two months into my lifetime membership, still near goal weight, and I see counting points in my future if I want to stay here.