Tag Archives: vegetarian food

Summer eats and treats — Part 2

Tom and Jo invited us to dinner on Sunday night.  Grilled pizza was on the menu — a summertime classic! 

My pizza contribution involved a combo of homemade pizza sauce and pesto as the base, topped with red bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and walnuts.  Tom suggested the walnuts, and they added a lovely crunch.  I added some small pieces of fresh mozzarella, keeping it low cheese.
 And for dessert, homemade ice cream sandwiches, featuring triple chocolate cookies and strawberry ice cream!  As we feasted, a summer storm rolled in, and we’re finally getting some relief from the heat.  Ah, summer.

Fast food, green and healthy style

Sometimes you just need an easy-ish meal.  The delicious fresh produce available at this times of year helps in this quest.  The other night, we assembled our delicious beet salad (recipe here) and some dressed-up grilled cheese sammies.

Roasting the beets takes a bit of time, but it’s worth it — chop the beets* and get them roasting first, then work on the rest of the meal while they roast.

The co-chef made the grilled cheese sandwiches, with local cheese and our homemade whole wheat bread, dressed-up with sauteed spinach* and fresh green onions*, while I worked on the salad.  He added a fried egg to his sandwich for a twist.  Good fast food requires a bit more time and effort than traditional fast food, but the result is delicious and nutritious!

* From our garden, as were the greens for the salad.

Flighty Friday

As I write this, our brick oven apartment approaches 85° F. Not quite hot enough for my yoga session to technically be “hot yoga,” but we’re getting there.  It doesn’t feel too bad under the ceiling fan, but between the heat and the music from downstairs that I’m trying to block out, serious writing eludes me.

"Feels more like summer" rolls

Try your hand at homemade spring rolls for a cool summer meal.  Don’t forget the peanut dipping sauce!

Sunbrella

The hat alone just wasn’t cutting it.  Enter the sunbrella . . . just watch out for the creepers.

Black-eyed peas

So, back on the first of the year, I wrote a post about a new soup I planned to make.  I said I would post the recipe here if it turned out well, and, nudged by the fact that I made it again last night, I’m finally getting around to it.   Black-eyed peas and kale form the base for this simple, delicious, and healthy soup.

Click here for the recipe for “Southern New Year’s Day Soup” from Vegetarian Times.  A few notes on my adaptations:

  • I used onions instead of leeks both times.  I’m sure leeks would be good, but they’re not something we keep around.
  • I used a liberal amount of garlic (shocker, I know!).
  • The recipe calls for dried black-eyed peas and never tells you to cook them.  If you start with dry peas, you need to soak and cook them just like you would any dried bean (although I think they cook faster than other types of dried beans).  Otherwise, if you can find them, you can start with canned black-eyed peas.
  • I used water and the cooking liquid from the peas, along with a bit of extra poultry seasoning, instead of the quart of vegetable broth.
  • The soup is good both with or without the pasta.  If you add pasta, cook it separately and add it to just the portion that you will be eating at that meal, otherwise it will get soggy.
  • As before, both the peas and the kale were locally grown 🙂

June Eating

I really like food — eating food, cooking food, talking about food, thinking about food.  Fortunately, the husband shares these interests, so we usually cook together.  When my sister asked me for recipes awhile back, I was stymied, because we don’t often cook from recipes.  Sure, we have a shelf with lots of lovely cookbooks sitting on it, but except for some tried and true favorites, the cookbooks get little attention.

We prefer to cook with what we have on hand, trying ingredient combinations based on what sounds good and variants of dishes we enjoyed in the past.  If we have any ingredient we’re unsure about, well, that’s where internet searches come into the picture.  We also prioritize local foods which are abundant here right now, so without further ado, here are some recent creations.

  1. Sauteed swiss chard* with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, served with quinoa.  Side of broiled asparagus**.
  2. Broccoli* and celery* stir fry with garlic and peas, served over rice.  Side of roasted beets*.
  3. Chanterelle mushrooms* sauteed in butter and olive oil with garlic.  Served over homemade bread with a side of steamed asparagus**.
  4. Salad of mixed lettuces* and arugula*, topped with roasted beets*, goat cheese**, and homemade poppy seed dressing.
  5. Whole wheat cappellini with homemade basil* pesto.  Side of grilled beets* and sweet potatoes.

* Food we grew (or foraged, in the case of the chanterelles).

** Food grown locally that we purchased from the farmer’s market or farmer.