Stuff

This is by no means new, so you may have already seen it. I saw it for the first time last spring and I stumbled upon it again today as I was wading through old bookmarks on my computer. It's really an interesting view and can be very eye-opening.  Check it out when you have a few minutes!

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Spinach quiche

This is one of our favorite vegetarian meals.  I can't remember where I originally got the recipe, but it has evolved so much over the time I've been using it that I think I can almost call it my own. 

Prepare a pie crust (or you can use the pre-made frozen kind).  I use this no-roll pie crust recipe with whole wheat flour.

In a skillet melt 1/2 cup of butter, then add 3 cloves garlic (chopped) and 1 small onion (chopped) and sauté until tender.  At this point add spinach (I do this by sight.  I think the original recipe called for a 10oz package of frozen, but I use fresh and just eyeball it.  I'm sure I use more...), and a handful of mushrooms (sliced, and again, I eyeball this - it wasn't originally called for) and sauté until spinach has wilted and reduced in size.  To this mixture add 8oz of feta (I sometimes use 4oz feta and 4oz goat cheese) and 8 oz of shredded cheddar and season with salt, pepper, and Italian herbs to your liking.  Stir until melted, then spoon in to pie crust and spread out evenly.

In a separate bowl whisk together 4 eggs and 1 cup of milk, then pour this mixture over the contents in the pie crust.  Depending on how deep your pie crust is, this will be pretty full, so I usually do it on a cookie sheet.  Transfer pie to oven (on the cookie sheet is fine) and bake at 375 for 30 minutes, then sprinkle the more cheddar cheese over the top and cook an additional 20-30 minutes or until the center is set.  Allow to stand for 10 minutes before cutting (this is very important if you don't want to be serving goop).

Romanesco

In case you were wondering what it was, it is a vegetable belonging to the cauliflower family, although its full name is romanesco broccoli.  Go figure.  It tastes and feels like cauliflower, although it resembles nothing so much as an alien life form, or at least a mathematical one - look at those spirals!

Sunday, plan day

In our house Sunday is a day of planning, shopping, and preparation to get us geared up for the coming week.  That means that we sit down with our schedule, our delivery list, and our recipe keeper and decide what we will be eating that week.  A lot of times the decisions are pretty easy; we like to make sure that at least one meal every week is vegetarian, and we plan a lot of our meals around what vegetables and fruits will arrive in our organic produce delivery on Tuesday morning.  Planning ahead allows us to make sure that we will use everything we have, and gives us a day (Monday) to call the dairy and add things to our order that we might need that week (our dairy delivery day is also Tuesdays).  Since today is Sunday, we spent some time this morning planning meals, organizing a grocery list, and then going shopping.  Here is what our week will look like:

Monday - Bot Bie.  Grass fed beef soup bones were on sale at Arbor Farms this weekend, and we have onions and potatoes already on hand as well.

Tuesday - Spinach quiche.  Spinach and onions are being delivered in our organic order this week, and we picked up mushrooms and Feta at the store this morning.

Wednesday - Chicken and mushrooms, romanesco, and southern sweet potatoes.  We already have organic chicken in the freezer from a sale at Meijer a week ago, the sweet potatoes are coming in our organic delivery, there will be mushrooms left from those that we bought for the quiche, and the romanesco was something Calvin requested.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday - Leftovers.  Each of these meals makes enough for 6-8 sevings, so we will be able to eat them more than once.  Planning to cook for leftovers with each meal is not only frugal, but environmental; buying in larger quantities can save on both money and packaging, and reheating a meal often takes far less energy and resources than does cooking it the first go (especially whenever it's possible to use the microwave.  We often spice up leftover meals by adding a little cheese, or mixing and matching meal components (which won't work this week since two of the meals are all inclusive dishes).

Happy new week to everyone!

Andouille and arugula penne pasta

I like saying arugula; it's just a funny word. Thankfully it's also a nice leafy green that has a tad of spice to it, which adds color and flavor to this tangy Italian dish that we recently discovered and added to our list of favorites. I found the original recipe, which calls for chicken andouille sausage, on allrecipes.com, but following is my own version of this yummy Mediterranean meal.

• 8 oz. penne pasta (we use Meijer brand whole wheat organic)
• 4 links spicy chicken andouille sausage (we used organic spinach chicken sausage from Arbor Farms)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic , minced
• 1/3 cup pesto (I make this from scratch with organic Basil, parsley, olive oil, pine nuts, Parmesan and Romano)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 15 oz. cannellini beans, undrained (or aobut 1 cup beans rehydrated)
• 3 cups arugula leaves, torn
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• salt & pepper to taste
• 4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

Prepare 8oz of penne pasta as directed by package

Meanwhile, in a heavy skillet over medium heat cook 4 links of chicken sausage. Remove from heat and allow to cool, then slice into bite sized pieces. (In our case the sausages were actually pre-cooked, so we skipped this step completely and just sliced the sausages and added them with the garlic in the next step)

After removing the sausage add 1-2T oil to the pan as necessary and cook garlic until browned (remember this is also where we added our pre-cooked sausages). Add sausage back in (if not already done so) along with pesto and white wine and cook until heated.  Add cannellini beans and arugula. Cook and stir until heated through and arugula is wilted. Just before serving add tomatoes and stir until warmed, then toss with pasta and top with goat cheese to serve. Yum!