Monday
Breakfast: Blueberry bagel with cream cheese and Golden Delicious apple slices
Lunch: leftover bean and veggie braid and strawberry yogurt
Dinner: Cheesy veggie bake with quinoa
So a note about Sunday night: I was bored and so turned on my favorite boredom relieving tv channel - the Food Network. After watching the end of a Cupcake War, we watched Anne Burrell and Bobby Flay attempt to turn some pretty hopeless cooks into chefs on Worst Cooks in America. We were going to turn off the TV then, but instead became inevitably hooked when what comes on next but Iron Chef America with "professor" Alton Brown. This week's Iron Chef battle was battle parmesan reggiano with two sets of brothers competing - a couple brothers from Philly (though the one now has two restaurants in New York) and Iron Chef Forgionne and his brother (may have misspelled that name). No way we were turning this off. But it made us hungry for cheese. So, next thing I know, Nate goes running to the kitchen and returns with three chunks of cheese (two goudas and of course parmesan) and a glass of wine. A pretty good snack at 10 pm. I didn't realize there were different seasons of Parmesan, based on the time of year and diet of the cows from whence came the milk.
Anyway, today was a pretty typical Monday. Partway through the day Nate sent me the following photo and jokingly asked me if I thought it still counted as vegetarian. I thought it was particularly funny given his chicken finger cravings over the weekend.
I got two emails recently fro my Co-op. They were invitations to upcoming events: one was a cooking class and the other a food book group. Both take place in March and both are about fish. I really am quite interested in these events, but I am torn by my meatlessness. Both events will likely get into sustainability of the fish consumption in the US. I know the book focuses on three fish in particular - tuna, salmon, and sea bass. I love fish. I know it is tremendously healthy. I have a vegetarian friend who, when she was in France last summer, got into eating fish occasionally again and has kept up with it because she noticed she just feels better when she does. I wish we ate more of it, but often it is more expensive than a prime cut of beef.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Cravings: a guest post
Saturday
Breakfast: Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Toast (Natalee) Egg Sandwich (Nate)
Lunch: Elbow noodles with garlic sautéed summer squash and spinach and a smidge of red sauce
Dinner: 3 Bean Chili
Sunday
Breakfast: Pancakes with strawberries
Lunch: Leftover chili
Dinner: Veggie & Bean Braid (sorry, it's an old Pampered Chef recipe I couldn't find again - I'll type it up and post it later)
PS: By now you may have noticed that I, Natalee, am not the primary cook in our household, despite being the primary meal-planner. However, I am proud to say that with the exception of Sunday's pancakes and the no-cook/leftover meals I cooked the primary meals this weekend start to finish all by myself.
A Guest Post by My Husband, Nate
Saturday I went to work in the morning, and stopped at Wawa for some coffee and breakfast. I work from 8am until 12am one Saturday a month, so this was my day for the month. It was nice to get it out of the way early. I returned home to a nice welcome from Liam and Natalee. Natalee also made us some lunch, since we were a little short on leftovers. She cooked up some elbow noodles and in a separate pan sautéed some spinach and summer squash with some olive oil and garlic, and put it all together with a little red pasta sauce and grated parmesan cheese. It was well balanced, and the spinach was tender without being overcooked. Also, for lunch on Sunday I added some alfredo sauce to this same dish and I felt the rose sauce gave it a whole new dimension that the red sauce could not provide on it’s own.
This whole vegetarianism thing was Natalee’s idea, and though I agreed to come along for the ride, I am beginning to have my doubts. I spent most of the afternoon still with a little bit of a twang in my stomach, and as dinnertime neared, I only had one thought: chicken fingers. I don’t know why I was craving chicken fingers – out of the whole realm of meat dishes. I just was, and that’s all I could explain. Except all of our meat was stashed in the back of the bottom of the freezer, and we are doing this whole not eating meat thing.
Natalee made a great bean chili for dinner – except there was one problem. I was craving chicken fingers. I took a few bites, and apologized to Natalee for not eating it. It was tasty, and the flavor was well balanced, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I went back in to the kitchen to try to find something to eat that would satisfy me. I ended up with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, peach jelly to be exact. It wasn’t close to what I wanted, so Natalee and I started talking about what I had eaten so far today, when it struck me. I had gone to Wawa for breakfast, and without thinking had chosen a breakfast sandwich that was bacon egg and cheese on a bagel. I had eaten meat with my breakfast, and it hadn’t even registered. I am just so used to it that I hadn’t even paused to remember our discipline.
On Sunday I woke up, and as I do many a weekend morning, made breakfast for the family. I like to make French toast, but this morning I felt like just making a simple pancake. Nothing fancy, but if you know me and my cooking nothing is ever left as simple. I saw some strawberries in the fridge and gave them a quick chop-chop and BOOM - instant pancake topping. Of course, as karma would have it, there on the back of the box of Bisquick was a recipe for chicken fingers. It’s as if life was laughing at me. I can’t even watch the Food Network without having to avert my eyes and plug my ears at certain commercials for fear of having my mouth water in a Pavlovian response.
If ignorance is no excuse, then the facts are that I cheated. I admit it – I had bacon for breakfast on Saturday. Though I will argue that I didn’t intend to cheat, and when I was sorely tempted I kept myself from digging through the freezer for the frozen chicken wings I know are in there. I am still craving meat. I am mostly thinking about steak today, but am contentedly having leftover bean braid for lunch today. I hope that I can make it through; it’s not going to be easy. We’re being fairly liberal with our description of vegetarian, and just not eating meat. We are still using a few meat-derived products and ingredients like fish sauce, and eggs and dairy are still on the menu. There are some people who avoid these products, and I have much more respect for those who choose to do this. As for me, I still have my same point of view about meat. I will happily return to my meat-eating ways once Lent is over, but until then will need to be a little more careful about what I idly grab for next time I am in a Wawa.
Breakfast: Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Toast (Natalee) Egg Sandwich (Nate)
Lunch: Elbow noodles with garlic sautéed summer squash and spinach and a smidge of red sauce
Dinner: 3 Bean Chili
Sunday
Breakfast: Pancakes with strawberries
Lunch: Leftover chili
Dinner: Veggie & Bean Braid (sorry, it's an old Pampered Chef recipe I couldn't find again - I'll type it up and post it later)
PS: By now you may have noticed that I, Natalee, am not the primary cook in our household, despite being the primary meal-planner. However, I am proud to say that with the exception of Sunday's pancakes and the no-cook/leftover meals I cooked the primary meals this weekend start to finish all by myself.
A Guest Post by My Husband, Nate
Saturday I went to work in the morning, and stopped at Wawa for some coffee and breakfast. I work from 8am until 12am one Saturday a month, so this was my day for the month. It was nice to get it out of the way early. I returned home to a nice welcome from Liam and Natalee. Natalee also made us some lunch, since we were a little short on leftovers. She cooked up some elbow noodles and in a separate pan sautéed some spinach and summer squash with some olive oil and garlic, and put it all together with a little red pasta sauce and grated parmesan cheese. It was well balanced, and the spinach was tender without being overcooked. Also, for lunch on Sunday I added some alfredo sauce to this same dish and I felt the rose sauce gave it a whole new dimension that the red sauce could not provide on it’s own.
This whole vegetarianism thing was Natalee’s idea, and though I agreed to come along for the ride, I am beginning to have my doubts. I spent most of the afternoon still with a little bit of a twang in my stomach, and as dinnertime neared, I only had one thought: chicken fingers. I don’t know why I was craving chicken fingers – out of the whole realm of meat dishes. I just was, and that’s all I could explain. Except all of our meat was stashed in the back of the bottom of the freezer, and we are doing this whole not eating meat thing.
Natalee made a great bean chili for dinner – except there was one problem. I was craving chicken fingers. I took a few bites, and apologized to Natalee for not eating it. It was tasty, and the flavor was well balanced, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I went back in to the kitchen to try to find something to eat that would satisfy me. I ended up with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, peach jelly to be exact. It wasn’t close to what I wanted, so Natalee and I started talking about what I had eaten so far today, when it struck me. I had gone to Wawa for breakfast, and without thinking had chosen a breakfast sandwich that was bacon egg and cheese on a bagel. I had eaten meat with my breakfast, and it hadn’t even registered. I am just so used to it that I hadn’t even paused to remember our discipline.
On Sunday I woke up, and as I do many a weekend morning, made breakfast for the family. I like to make French toast, but this morning I felt like just making a simple pancake. Nothing fancy, but if you know me and my cooking nothing is ever left as simple. I saw some strawberries in the fridge and gave them a quick chop-chop and BOOM - instant pancake topping. Of course, as karma would have it, there on the back of the box of Bisquick was a recipe for chicken fingers. It’s as if life was laughing at me. I can’t even watch the Food Network without having to avert my eyes and plug my ears at certain commercials for fear of having my mouth water in a Pavlovian response.
If ignorance is no excuse, then the facts are that I cheated. I admit it – I had bacon for breakfast on Saturday. Though I will argue that I didn’t intend to cheat, and when I was sorely tempted I kept myself from digging through the freezer for the frozen chicken wings I know are in there. I am still craving meat. I am mostly thinking about steak today, but am contentedly having leftover bean braid for lunch today. I hope that I can make it through; it’s not going to be easy. We’re being fairly liberal with our description of vegetarian, and just not eating meat. We are still using a few meat-derived products and ingredients like fish sauce, and eggs and dairy are still on the menu. There are some people who avoid these products, and I have much more respect for those who choose to do this. As for me, I still have my same point of view about meat. I will happily return to my meat-eating ways once Lent is over, but until then will need to be a little more careful about what I idly grab for next time I am in a Wawa.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
TGIF
Friday
Breakfast: whole wheat waffles with strawberry jam
Lunch: Leftover quiche, wheat bread with hummus and a handful of pepper slices and a brownie
Dinner: Tropical pizza
Today was a day that was both full and slow. Most of the morning I was in a rush to get a few things done because the afternoon was going to be spent having a new computer and new software installed at my office. Thankfully, almost nobody called that day. And most of the other staff was gone at a conference or on a regular day off. So, it was quiet except for me, our sexton, and the IT guy. We had a good time. I gave our IT guy some of the leftover chili because he was there all afternoon with no lunch. He appreciated it. "I never got this kind of treatment here before! Of course, I was probably never here for this long before either," he told me.
I left the office about 45 minutes early today to go looking at a couple houses with Nate and our realtor. The one was just a mess. There's no point saying more except that I left thankful we had the wherewithall to be able to say no to that place. There are others who can't. It reminds me I'm blessed to be in the situation I am. The other house was nice, but a little small. The good thing about it was that the kitchen was open - they had probably taken down a wall to make it a wider space one direction and allow for an open concept kitchen/dining room. But it was still small. It was hard to imagine where we'd prepare dinner. On the dining room table perhaps. We don't have tons of space now either and a larger kitchen is important to us for how often and how much we cook. We may be looking for a while...
Dinner tonight was the tropical pizza to which I provided the recipe link above. We used frozen dough that we left out to defrost during the day instead of a Boboli. We also couldn't find mango pineapple salsa, so we used peach mango. It was tasty!
Breakfast: whole wheat waffles with strawberry jam
Lunch: Leftover quiche, wheat bread with hummus and a handful of pepper slices and a brownie
Dinner: Tropical pizza
Today was a day that was both full and slow. Most of the morning I was in a rush to get a few things done because the afternoon was going to be spent having a new computer and new software installed at my office. Thankfully, almost nobody called that day. And most of the other staff was gone at a conference or on a regular day off. So, it was quiet except for me, our sexton, and the IT guy. We had a good time. I gave our IT guy some of the leftover chili because he was there all afternoon with no lunch. He appreciated it. "I never got this kind of treatment here before! Of course, I was probably never here for this long before either," he told me.
I left the office about 45 minutes early today to go looking at a couple houses with Nate and our realtor. The one was just a mess. There's no point saying more except that I left thankful we had the wherewithall to be able to say no to that place. There are others who can't. It reminds me I'm blessed to be in the situation I am. The other house was nice, but a little small. The good thing about it was that the kitchen was open - they had probably taken down a wall to make it a wider space one direction and allow for an open concept kitchen/dining room. But it was still small. It was hard to imagine where we'd prepare dinner. On the dining room table perhaps. We don't have tons of space now either and a larger kitchen is important to us for how often and how much we cook. We may be looking for a while...
Dinner tonight was the tropical pizza to which I provided the recipe link above. We used frozen dough that we left out to defrost during the day instead of a Boboli. We also couldn't find mango pineapple salsa, so we used peach mango. It was tasty!
Time Keeps Ticking Away
Thursday
Breakfast: Eggo waffles with peach jam and blueberry yogurt
Lunch: Vegetarian chili (and a brownie)
Dinner: Leftover bean burgers - with salsa!
Ever since I went to Haiti earlier this year, I've enjoyed my pancakes and waffles with jam or jelly instead of maple syrup about half the time. It started when we were served pancakes for breakfast one day in Haiti and I didn't want the maple-flavored syrup on offer. (Okay, I admit I'm a syrup snob. But I'm from New England, so that should almost be expected. I pay extra for real maple syrup and use it sparingly.) Anyway, as an alternative to the syrup that morning in Haiti, I decided to try guava jelly. I don't have much experience with guava. But the jelly was very tasty. It was sugary fruit flavor, I guess you can't mess that up too much. Ever since Haiti I have tried to find guava jelly to no avail. Anybody know where I can get some?
For lunch today I had some of the leftover vegetarian chili from the night before. It was quite tasty - lots of veggies. Lots of corn. I thought it could use more beans. Perhaps some black beans in addition to the kidney beans? Now it is starting to sound like the 3 bean chili I plan to make this weekend. I also had a leftover brownie from the dinner. Only one. I was really tempted to have a second. I may have eaten a couple cookies in my desk later in the day. I don't remember clearly if that was yesterday or today.
Dinner on Thursday has to be quick. We get home at 6 and I have to be at choir rehearsal at 7:30 usually, but we're rehearsing with another local choir for a big Brahms Requiem on March 11, so we had to be there tonight at 7 (turned out to be 7:15, and that 15 minutes meant a lot!). I had suggested to Nate that we pick up some salsa and heat up the bean burgers again. Liam and I went to the store to get the salsa. He wanted to run around the store and play. I had to carry him to the register. Then he wanted to go behind the registers and play. Fortunately the staff at my Coop is a really understanding bunch, the cashier that day was one of my church buddies I'd gone to Haiti with, and Liam is a stinking cute kid. He didn't cause too much trouble back there. The way home was a struggle because he wanted to run out one door of the store, around the corner and back in the other door. He got upset and I had to carry him while he was flailing around. I kept expecting the two jars of salsa I bought to rattle together too hard and smash.
Meanwhile, by the time I get back with the salsa it is closing in on 6:30. I'm thinking, I have a half hour to heat up and scarf down this bean burger and walk across town to rehearsal. Great. My friends B & R who I walk to rehearsal with called and B thankfully determined that we had until 7:15. Good, because between everything going on in the house, clearing the table, getting Liam his food, whatever else, I managed to finish my burger at about 5 after 7. And then walk swiftly on a just-filled stomach to sing. No wonder my breath support was so poor the whole rehearsal. It's no wonder the fast food and prepared food industries do so well with lives as full (overfull?) as we have.
Here's an ad for the Brahm's Requiem, in case you want to come. :-) (I and my friends are part of the "and guests".) Oh, and here is a link to the event on Facebook.
Breakfast: Eggo waffles with peach jam and blueberry yogurt
Lunch: Vegetarian chili (and a brownie)
Dinner: Leftover bean burgers - with salsa!
Ever since I went to Haiti earlier this year, I've enjoyed my pancakes and waffles with jam or jelly instead of maple syrup about half the time. It started when we were served pancakes for breakfast one day in Haiti and I didn't want the maple-flavored syrup on offer. (Okay, I admit I'm a syrup snob. But I'm from New England, so that should almost be expected. I pay extra for real maple syrup and use it sparingly.) Anyway, as an alternative to the syrup that morning in Haiti, I decided to try guava jelly. I don't have much experience with guava. But the jelly was very tasty. It was sugary fruit flavor, I guess you can't mess that up too much. Ever since Haiti I have tried to find guava jelly to no avail. Anybody know where I can get some?
For lunch today I had some of the leftover vegetarian chili from the night before. It was quite tasty - lots of veggies. Lots of corn. I thought it could use more beans. Perhaps some black beans in addition to the kidney beans? Now it is starting to sound like the 3 bean chili I plan to make this weekend. I also had a leftover brownie from the dinner. Only one. I was really tempted to have a second. I may have eaten a couple cookies in my desk later in the day. I don't remember clearly if that was yesterday or today.
Dinner on Thursday has to be quick. We get home at 6 and I have to be at choir rehearsal at 7:30 usually, but we're rehearsing with another local choir for a big Brahms Requiem on March 11, so we had to be there tonight at 7 (turned out to be 7:15, and that 15 minutes meant a lot!). I had suggested to Nate that we pick up some salsa and heat up the bean burgers again. Liam and I went to the store to get the salsa. He wanted to run around the store and play. I had to carry him to the register. Then he wanted to go behind the registers and play. Fortunately the staff at my Coop is a really understanding bunch, the cashier that day was one of my church buddies I'd gone to Haiti with, and Liam is a stinking cute kid. He didn't cause too much trouble back there. The way home was a struggle because he wanted to run out one door of the store, around the corner and back in the other door. He got upset and I had to carry him while he was flailing around. I kept expecting the two jars of salsa I bought to rattle together too hard and smash.
Meanwhile, by the time I get back with the salsa it is closing in on 6:30. I'm thinking, I have a half hour to heat up and scarf down this bean burger and walk across town to rehearsal. Great. My friends B & R who I walk to rehearsal with called and B thankfully determined that we had until 7:15. Good, because between everything going on in the house, clearing the table, getting Liam his food, whatever else, I managed to finish my burger at about 5 after 7. And then walk swiftly on a just-filled stomach to sing. No wonder my breath support was so poor the whole rehearsal. It's no wonder the fast food and prepared food industries do so well with lives as full (overfull?) as we have.
Here's an ad for the Brahm's Requiem, in case you want to come. :-) (I and my friends are part of the "and guests".) Oh, and here is a link to the event on Facebook.
Temptations
Wednesday
Breakfast: Whole wheat Bagel with peanut butter, apple
Lunch: Leftover quiche and perogies
Dinner: Bow-tie noodles with veggies
When you work for a church - an active church with people in and out all day; Bible studies and community dinners - there's always a lot of leftover food around. Most of it in that "sweets and baked goods" category.
We have this fabulous volunteer, H, who comes in all day every Wednesday and Thursday to answer the phones and do any other tasks that I have on hand which can be done without a computer. Every Wednesday, without fail, he brings in a box of Munchkins from Dunkin Donuts for the office. He typically sits them on the table in the workroom, right on a direct path from my office (behind the workroom) to the rest of the building. Don't you know I consume about a quarter of those things. It's like my former boss, J, and the M&M's... Yesterday, a coworker brought cookies to staff meeting and a bible study left cookies and pastries remaining from their session.
Don't get me wrong, I have an enormous sweet tooth - especially for baked goods. And this temporary vegetarianism isn't about weight loss. But it is a bit about health and a lot about paying attention to what I send to my stomach. There are a lot of cookies involved in that process right now. Especially since Nate baked ginger chocolate chip cookies this weekend...
A friend posted an article to Facebook about a Disney ride at Epcot that has been closed down. It was about healthy habits but clearly demonized overweight people by making them all into villains. I think it was foolish of them to do, especially, as the writer of the article points out, considering what they serve at the theme park's restaurants. If you want to support healthy habits, then exhibit, promote, and offer them above unhealthy ones. And don't make people "bad guys" for their weight and presumed health. Especially if you are contributing to the problem.
Anyway. Today was also the day that the church was hosting its first community supper of the season. They decided to cook chili for the occasion. And they were in the kitchen cooking most of the afternoon. I went in to see what that wonderful cooking smell was and realized that it was the ground beef for the meat chili. *sigh* The woman in charge, D, offered to be sure and save me some vegetarian chili for tomorrow.
Dinner tonight was supposed to be something else - I don't recall what - but Liam was requesting noodles. Nate asked what we should do. I said, "well, let's cook some noodles!" So, low and behold the pantry had a box of bow-tie noodles. I suggested we chop up and saute a bunch of veggies with garlic and then serve them over the pasta with olive oil and grated parmesean. It came out great. We used a lesser variety of veggies than I had imagined, but Nate was in a rush and I couldn't help much because I had to occupy Liam while he cooked. N got frustrated when I insisted we add mushrooms to the dish when he'd pretty much already finished cooking the onions, tomatoes, and peppers he'd chopped up. I had imagined squash and asparagus making it into the dish too, but we just didn't give ourselves the time to chop all that stuff up. Especially since we were figuring this out at 6:30 because after work and picking Liam up, we went to drive by a couple of houses we're considering in our home search.
Thankfully the meal turned out great. If you want to make it, it's really simple:
1 box pasta any shape- boiled to your taste
1 pepper diced
1/2 onion diced
handful or so grape tomatoes cut in half
handful or two of baby bella mushrooms - run through with a knife
about a teaspoon of minced garlic
olive oil and butter
Saute veggies in olive oil, a small pat of butter, and a teaspoon of minced garlic
Add veggies, a little extra olive oil, and a couple handfuls of grated parmesean to the warm, cooked noodles and stir to combine.
Yum.
Breakfast: Whole wheat Bagel with peanut butter, apple
Lunch: Leftover quiche and perogies
Dinner: Bow-tie noodles with veggies
When you work for a church - an active church with people in and out all day; Bible studies and community dinners - there's always a lot of leftover food around. Most of it in that "sweets and baked goods" category.
We have this fabulous volunteer, H, who comes in all day every Wednesday and Thursday to answer the phones and do any other tasks that I have on hand which can be done without a computer. Every Wednesday, without fail, he brings in a box of Munchkins from Dunkin Donuts for the office. He typically sits them on the table in the workroom, right on a direct path from my office (behind the workroom) to the rest of the building. Don't you know I consume about a quarter of those things. It's like my former boss, J, and the M&M's... Yesterday, a coworker brought cookies to staff meeting and a bible study left cookies and pastries remaining from their session.
Don't get me wrong, I have an enormous sweet tooth - especially for baked goods. And this temporary vegetarianism isn't about weight loss. But it is a bit about health and a lot about paying attention to what I send to my stomach. There are a lot of cookies involved in that process right now. Especially since Nate baked ginger chocolate chip cookies this weekend...
A friend posted an article to Facebook about a Disney ride at Epcot that has been closed down. It was about healthy habits but clearly demonized overweight people by making them all into villains. I think it was foolish of them to do, especially, as the writer of the article points out, considering what they serve at the theme park's restaurants. If you want to support healthy habits, then exhibit, promote, and offer them above unhealthy ones. And don't make people "bad guys" for their weight and presumed health. Especially if you are contributing to the problem.
Anyway. Today was also the day that the church was hosting its first community supper of the season. They decided to cook chili for the occasion. And they were in the kitchen cooking most of the afternoon. I went in to see what that wonderful cooking smell was and realized that it was the ground beef for the meat chili. *sigh* The woman in charge, D, offered to be sure and save me some vegetarian chili for tomorrow.
Dinner tonight was supposed to be something else - I don't recall what - but Liam was requesting noodles. Nate asked what we should do. I said, "well, let's cook some noodles!" So, low and behold the pantry had a box of bow-tie noodles. I suggested we chop up and saute a bunch of veggies with garlic and then serve them over the pasta with olive oil and grated parmesean. It came out great. We used a lesser variety of veggies than I had imagined, but Nate was in a rush and I couldn't help much because I had to occupy Liam while he cooked. N got frustrated when I insisted we add mushrooms to the dish when he'd pretty much already finished cooking the onions, tomatoes, and peppers he'd chopped up. I had imagined squash and asparagus making it into the dish too, but we just didn't give ourselves the time to chop all that stuff up. Especially since we were figuring this out at 6:30 because after work and picking Liam up, we went to drive by a couple of houses we're considering in our home search.
Thankfully the meal turned out great. If you want to make it, it's really simple:
1 box pasta any shape- boiled to your taste
1 pepper diced
1/2 onion diced
handful or so grape tomatoes cut in half
handful or two of baby bella mushrooms - run through with a knife
about a teaspoon of minced garlic
olive oil and butter
Saute veggies in olive oil, a small pat of butter, and a teaspoon of minced garlic
Add veggies, a little extra olive oil, and a couple handfuls of grated parmesean to the warm, cooked noodles and stir to combine.
Yum.
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