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

Rotini with Spinach & Ricotta

So Simple, So Good.

Put the pasta water up to boil.

Chop an onion and start it sweating in a tad of olive oil.

Wash and chop a bunch of spinach.

Drop the pasta in the pot.

Throw the spinach in with the onions and cook until it wilts.

Remove the pasta from its pot to the pan with the spinach and onions, using a slotted spoon.

Stir in 1/2 - 1 cup ricotta cheese (use the purest you can find - read the ingredients - there should be only milk, vinegar, and salt).

Add a little pasta water to thin if you like.

Salt & Pepper to taste.

Top with a dollop of ricotta and little grated Parmesan if you like.

 

Greens & Feta over Polenta

Step One: Mix up some polenta, spread in a pan, cut into squares, let it set up, then brown in a little olive oil - or - cut up a pre-made roll and brown.

Step Two: Start with the barest amount of olive oil, some garlic and diced onions. Saute while you wash and chop the greens (any combo will do, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, collards, even romaine).

Step Three: Add the greens to the saute and cook them to your taste.

Step Four: Spread the greens over the polenta and top with Feta cheese.

Spinach & Sun Dried Tomato Fritatta

There are so many delicious things you can do with fresh spinach. This was a quick supper with eggs, kind of a fritatta. I used one bunch of spinach from the CSA box.

Wash the spinach well, especially if it just came from the farm market or the CSA box and still has dirt and sand clinging to it.. I usually put it in a big bowl of water, push it around gently, lift it out of the water into a collander, dump the water (and the sand and dirt) - or use it to water the plants, then repeat that process two more times or until there is no more dirt in the bottom of the bowl when I remove the spinach.

Chop the spinach bu piling up the leaves, slicing them into strips one way and then slicing the other way to cup those strips into pieces.

I made this a few weeks ago and used sun dried tomatoes - but if I make it now, I would use fresh tomatoes -mmm - makes my mouth water just thinking about fresh Jersey tomatoes...
For this fritatta, I chopped about 1/3 cup of sun dried tomatoes.

Grated about 1/2 cup Parmesean cheese

Sauteed one chopped yellow onion in 1 tsp olive oil

I beat 6 eggs with a little soy milk, then poured them into the ovenproof saute pan

I cooked the fritatta on top of the stove until it was almost set, then sprinkled the mozerella and Parmesean cheese on top and popped it into a 400 degree oven just until the top browned

Pan Fried Tofu topped with Spinach & cheese

Another dinner made from ingredients in a CSA box from earlier this season.

Aren't vegetables beautiful?

 I used 1 block of organic, extra-firm tofu. I cut the block in half length wise, then cut each half into four pieces width wise. I dredged the tofu in ww flour, then dipped it in soy milk, then breadcrumbs, then pan fried it in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil until it was nice and golden brown on both sides. Placed the browned pieces in a rectangular baking pan.

 I sauteed a chopped yellow onion, then added one bunch of chopped spinach, cooked till wilted, added about 1/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomato and cooked till everything was heated through.

 I had a bit of mozerella cheese - grated that and some parmesean. Topped the tofu with the shredded mozzarella cheese, then spread the spinach mixture over that and topped with grated Parmesan. I put the pan in a 350 degree oven just long enough to melt the cheeses.

 
 I cooked some asparagus on the grill. Toss them with a little olive oil salt & pepper, lay them on a grill rack and watch them closely - if they stay on the grill too long they get dried out or stringy.

I transferred the topped tofu to a platter.

 Pasta with leftover sauce for a side dish

Lovely.

Spinach Salad with Feta & Pecans

The perfect Lunch or Supper Salad

Made this from the contents of one of the first CSA share boxes this season - right out of the box - lovely spinach that was so fresh it was just perfect for a salad - we used some Romaine lettuce too, because we like a LOT of salad, and strawberries just out of the field (I am so sorry that strawberry season is over and I didn't get to a big batch to freeze like I did last year - and I think I will be even sorrier in November when there are no strawberries in my freezer!)

Pecans have just the right crunch match to compliment strawberries and spinach, don't you think?

And a little feta cheese to liven things up. I do love Feta Cheese.

We dressed this with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Here's another shot, because it is so pretty!

Day 18 : Thanksgiving #2

We traveled to visit my husband's mother - and brought some vegetarian Thanksgiving dishes with us. Once again, the family voted,  and this time it was a split decision, the boys wanted squash with a nut stuffing and the girls wanted stuffed mushrooms.  I made both. First, I modified  Chloe Coscarelli's vegan Harvest-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/a-vegan-chef-dishes-up-thanksgiving/) by adding a bunch of fresh spinach, chopped, to the onion, cashew, and garlic sauté. Then I added  some grated Parmesan cheese to the finished stuffing mixture. The flavors blended well and the result was very tasty.


For the squash, I started with a nut stuffed Delicata squash recipe from Sunset Magazine (http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001842377). We had acorn squash from our CSA share, so I used that. I wasn't sure I would like the nut stuffing (and it is a little too high in fat and calories for me) so I stuffed my squash with the stuffing I made for the mushrooms - making a total of three different main dishes. For sides, we had the roasted left-over winter vegetables that I made earlier, a big green salad made by grandma, and some of the apple cranberry chutney.