Mmmmm, Dinner

A nice vegan meal for us on this Meatless Monday.

The main is roasted butternut squash with toasted walnuts and lentils. It is topped with a squeeze of lime (and cilantro that I forgot for the picture) which really makes the flavors pop. The rice is spiced with saffron, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon. The spinach is plain sauteed spinach.

Good, easy, and cheap, just how we like it.

Labels: lentils, Meatless Monday, nuts, rice, spinach, squash

It was a long weekend of treats and dinners. Did I take lots of pictures? Of course not. Friends were in town, guests had to be fed, and I was absent-minded.

Friday started out with some homemade Mexican. I made a nice meal of tacos, beans and rice. The filling for the tacos was chicken in a green pumpkin seed sauce. It was outstanding, in my opinion, and you can get the recipe here. I tweaked the recipe a bit, but it is close.

Have I mentioned my love of homemade beans? Beans are the easiest things in the world to make from scratch and one of the most satisfying. Bean juice is the greatest tasting substance in the world some days. Everyone should spend time next weekend making beans at home. Pinto beans are a very easy place to start and give you the most bang for your buck.

Saturday dinner was a bit complicated. It had to be a vegan gluten free dinner. Yikes. I ended up with a mushroom ragu (that was way too watery) on polenta. Tisha brought a spinach salad, that was perfect. Dessert was a bizarre concoction of prunes, oranges, and cardamom syrup on ice cream (and soy cream). It was an okay dinner, but not my favorite by any means.

Sunday, my feet hurt from two days of cooking, so dinner was takeout.

Today, was sort-of-meatless Monday. See, CJ gave me these great crocks for my birthday and Valentine's Day.
I also had a lot of chicken stock left over from making chicken Friday night and no room in the freezer for it.

What could I do? I made super nummy, super tasty, super awesome French Onion Soup.

I used the recipe from Cook's Illustrated. It took over four hours to make; 2 1/2 half were inactive. It was very good and well worth it. While very few ingredients are used in the recipe, it would be too much work to paraphrase, so I suggest you get to the library and get the recipe yourself for your collection.

You do have a collection, don't you?

Labels: beans, chicken, mexican, mushroom, onion, rice, soup, vegan

Today, for Meatless Monday, we have roasted veggies and rice. Lots of fresh veggies and herbs were used. Pretty boring, but an easy meal.

I'm beginning to realize that Meatless Monday is tougher than I ever imagined. Not because it is hard to eat veggies or come up with food ideas. It is hard because it follows Meatful Sunday. We always have leftover meat in our fridge on Mondays, and I think it is a waste not to eat it on Monday. Why cook a completely new meal when we have more than enough tasty leftovers? Seems wasteful.

Anyway, click here to hear how CJ feels about the whole thing.

Labels: Meatless Monday, rice, veggie

The day before Meatless Monday is Meatfull Sunday, I guess.

Last night I made a boneless leg of lamb with a berbere rub.
Served medium rare.

I also made a really great rice dish.
Basmati rice with dill and pistachios. It turned out really good.

Labels: ethiopian, lamb, nuts, rice

My New Year's Resolution is to eat less meat. Specifically, I want to stick to a vegetarian diet once a week. Therefore, in comes Meatless Monday.
Meatless Monday is a "nation health campaign to help Americans prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer..." According to wikipedia, it dates back to a government movement during WWI for families to eat less meat to save money for war bonds.

If you know me, you know that this is not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because Americans eat too much meat. Meat, produced under most circumstances (including organic), is much worse for the environment than how most veggies (especially organic) are produced. Also, meat takes a lot more inputs of energy and water than veggies. And we all know that our next war will be over water, we are already fighting over energy.
Plus, veggies, grains, and beans are tasty. It helps expand my collection of recipes. And, it is good for our health.

So, today was my first Meatless Monday of the year. Or, should I say, our first Meatless Monday.

These chickpeas were great. Spicy, a little tart, and a bit tangy, they really hit the spot on a cold Minnesota evening. They were also super low fat and have lots of fiber. Served on rice, they make a complete protein. Even CJ liked them.

Labels: chickpeas, Indian, Meatless Monday, rice

Friday night we had chicken and rice, a very simple meal. I used this chicken recipe:
orange braised chicken with olives
and this rice recipe:
yellow rice with sofrito.

I'm learning lots of things with this new blog:
1) Brown plates + brown foods = ugly looking food. I'm going to start trying to use white plates for pics, I think that will help.
2) Meat goes on top. See that pick above. It would look better if the meat would have been on top.
3) Green. Plates need green. Or some bright color.

Labels: chicken, rice