Red Beans and Rice
Posted: February 20, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: beans, beets, dinner, rice, salad, slow cooker, vegetarian 1 Comment »No our dinner had nothing to do with the Mardis Gras festivities, but it did involve red bean and rice!
When my mom and I were in Costa Rica last year, we had the most amazing black beans all of the time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They were cooked in a slow cooker and I loved combining them with a tortilla and eggs in the morning. I could not get over their creaminess and I attempted to recreate that tonight for dinner.
I cooked the beans based off a bunch of recipes in the slow cooker for 8 hours (6 hours low, 2 hours high) along with 1/2 an onion, jalapeño, salt, and 2 cloves of garlic.
I added some fresh cilantro, salsa, and a lime slice to the beans after spooning them on top of rice cooker brown rice that I doctored up with more cilantro and lime. We love cilantro around these parts, and I used to hate it!
Along with our beans and rice I made up some fresh Maryland greens with MD beet chips. I had no idea you could cook beets so fast! 475 18min thin slices aka “chips”, olive oil, s&p. They were crispy and delicious. I will no longer wait an hour for my beets to roast and then burn my fingers trying to peel them! I got the idea from my Fast, Fresh, and Green cookbook, that we got for our wedding.
I hope everyone enjoyed their President’s Day and hopefully you had the day off as well!!!
Focus on Zucchini
Posted: July 26, 2011 Filed under: dinner | Tags: farmers market, fritters, salad, zucchini 1 Comment »Time to another addition of Farmer’s Market Tuesday!
Today we have ZUCCHINI!!!
4 different varieties of zuc. Farmers tend to get over run by summer squash so you can usually get a good price for it. I got all of these plus another round light green guy for $4. So although I do love me some zucchini bread I needed something savory for dinner.
Enter baked zucchini fritters!
I started by shredding the squash, 1/2 an onion and 2 carrots in the food processor.
Then I added the dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, flax, salt, garlic powder, lemon pepper and some lemon juice.
I made this bowl into 10 patties and baked 40min – 20min a side. The flavor was a bit off but I can work on that!
Served up with a little ricotta blob.
Along with my fritters I also made a huge farmers market salad! I loooove summer salads!
Head lettuce, hierloom tomatoes, cucumber, and avocado (not from FM).
I also made a homemade dressing of EVOO, red wine vinegar, basil, parsley and S&P.
I think the salad actually stole the show but the fritters were a nice chance of pace from my usual zucchini stir fries and I am thinking about turning the leftovers into a hash for dinner tomorrow!
Spring Has Sprung!
Posted: May 4, 2011 Filed under: dinner, food, recipe | Tags: aspagus, farm egg, farmers market, Frittata, recipe, salad, yellow split peas 4 Comments »Yesterday was the first day of my local farmer’s market! I was so excited, I have been counting down the months and days! Not all of the farmers were there and the selection was limited but it was so nice to see their happy faces again! My first weeks haul was; asparagus, mixed greens, FARM EGGS!!!, apples and pasture raised ground beef from a new vendor! I am excited to make burgers I can feel good about eating! Nick will be happy to have some beef too.
Here are a few meals I made last night and tonight with my FM ingredients!
Curry yellow split peas, roasted turnip with chili powder, green beans, LOCAL pea shoots, arugula, spinach and greens.
Love munched lettuce! I actually had a spider in my greens!
Tonight it was frittata time! I bought the pan above specifically to make a frittata and this was my first one! I followed Kath’s recipe minus the sunflower seeds because I didn’t have any and I added chili powder and collard greens.
Frittata slices, FM greens with blue cheese, buttered toast.
Delicious Maryland asparagus and eggs!
I cannot wait for more produce to continue to come in as the months go on. I am also planning on picking strawberries and peaches again!
p.s. Check out my guest post on Heather’s blog to find out a little bit more about our wedding!
Meatless Monday Meal
Posted: April 18, 2011 Filed under: Meatless Monday | Tags: beans, dinner, Meatless Monday, rutabaga, salad Leave a comment »Happy Meatless Monday! I haven’t had a Meatless Monday post in while but I seem to have a ton of food in my fridge at the moment (probably why my grocery bill was $40 more than usual this week 
). This led me to make some beans and chickpeas from “scratch” and make hummus and a giant salad with bean toppings.
Sautéed onion with navy beans, spinach, mixed greens blue cheese and homemade mustard and vinegar dressing.
Rutabaga fries of the side with more dressing.
Delicious and finished off with an Adora disk aka my calcium supplement.
Off to watch a new House and work on wedding things! The wedding is really excited but weighing very heavy on my mind.
Happy end to Monday!
Back to The Grind
Posted: October 12, 2010 Filed under: dinner | Tags: english muffin, lentils, salad 1 Comment »I hate getting back to work after a long weekend. Especially when I got to go home and spend time with my mom and Nick!
The only good thing about coming back to Maryland is Sissy cat. She is so happy to have me back to snuggle with.
I was also happy to have some pumpkin oats this morning!
I got to go to the farmers market as well, which is one of the only good things about week day markets. I will be so sad when it ends in a few weeks 
For dinner I wanted something simple that used ingredients I had on hand.
Enter lentil pizzas
2 english muffins toasted and topped with tomato paste, cooked lentils, fresh grated cheddar and tons of fresh herbs.
I love lentils!
To get my veggies in I added a lovely side salad with feta and garden tomatoes.
Time for Glee!!!
How do you recover from a long weekend??? I need some tricks!
Amazing Toast
Posted: September 28, 2010 Filed under: dinner | Tags: almonds, honey, ricotta, salad 2 Comments »3.41 miles, negative splits, done!
I tackled a few hills today, which were major because I hadn’t run hills in over a month. I thought about how important running is to me. It is the only thing challenges me and gives me power the second I step out my door. The runners high that you get cannot be described it can only be felt. Biking and swimming are fun but they are not the same. I am honored that I can run because I know how quickly it can be taken away from me.
After my run I had planned a basic tofu, broccoli and rice dish but when I saw Jenna’s appetizer from her date night I had to recreate!
Toast with ricotta cheese, honey and chopped almonds.
Wow! This combination was amazing! I love this cheese with honey and a crunch of almond. Try it!
Along with my toast I had a huge salad.
Greens, yellow squash, purple pepper, tomatoes.
One more shot of the toast…
Glee time!
Britney on Glee was dancer for Britney Spears, did you know??? That is how she was discovered in the first place!
Slow Down Dinner
Posted: September 20, 2010 Filed under: dinner, food | Tags: salad, salmon, sweet potato 1 Comment »I did a crazy brick workout today! I swam 1200m and then took a 45min spin class. It was hard, but so good! Something different to add into the mix!
Dinner had to be just as good.
Wild Alaskan King Salmon marinated in mustard, balsamic, S&P and a little EVOO.
Slow sweet taters with rosemary.
Finished off with a lovely side salad of greens, FM mater – these are coming to an end , sweet peppers, cuc and feta.
I find that swimming totally works my arms. I can feel my triceps as I type this, crazy! I always thought swimming would be harder on my legs. Not so much. I don’t mind because I looooove defined arms.
What is your favorite body part?
I am so beat! Heading to my book and bed!
Night All.
Salmon Take Three
Posted: July 6, 2010 Filed under: dinner | Tags: quinoa, salad, salmon Leave a comment »Another salmon story.
Tonight was another Sockeye Salmon night! It has been on sale at Whole Foods a lot recently, and because it is only seasonal I want to take advantage of it. I am trying to eat more fish, but I am scared of Salmon’s oily little friends.
From the past two times I cooked the Sockeye, I realized it needs to be baked because it is so low in fat ie. moisture.
I baked it in a foil pouch for 30min @350 with S&P, garlic powder, rosemary from my garden and slices of heirloom tomatoes. Then I quickly seared it to get that crunchy coating in a pan I had already been using to cook some veggies.
It came out great! It is amazing how much I used to dislike salmon, but I think I was just eating the wrong kind! I saw Arctic Char in the market and that might be my next step. It is actually a trout with a similar flavor of a mild salmon. Get those Omegas!
Along with my salmon I had a quinoa, onion, zucchini, patty pan, S&P and thyme pilaf.
Nick is not a quinoa fan, but he actually ate this. I really liked it!
I rounded everything out with a little side salad.
- Organic greens from the farmers market
- sugar snap peas
- tomatoes
- organic cucumbers
- organic peppers
- EVOO & balsamic
- S&P
All together now!
Time to watch Jillian and read a new book on the Flextarian Diet.
I will review!
Have a great night!
Buns
Posted: June 21, 2010 Filed under: Nature's Pride, salad, veggie burgers | Tags: dinner, Foodbuzz, salad, veggie burger 1 Comment »I received something on my doorstep from the FoodBuzz Tastemakers program over the past week and tonight was the night to use them!
I used the buns as the mode for our veggie burgers tonight. They were soft and smelled great, but they were huge!
Where’s the beef? Does anyone remember that commercial? Well I do not but I did feel that way when I bit into my burger. I had read Sabrina’s review of the buns so I knew what to expect, but even with added spinach, mushrooms, onions, cheese and hummus you can see there was a lot of extra bread.
I enjoyed the taste and they toasted really well, but the thing that concerns me is that with these growing bun sizes, does that mean that America’s burgers are growing? I know there are some big ones out there, but are the every day burgers becoming 1/2 pounders?
This is nothing against the bun itself, just something I worry about in America.
From Nature’s Pride:
The Nature’s Pride Premium Harvest Hamburger Buns and Deli Rolls are the latest addition to our 100% natural, 100% delicious breads. [They] are the only all natural buns and rolls available across the country, and they are the perfect addition to your cook-outs this Summer–and beyond!
To go with my burgers I made a large side salad and leftover sautéed onion, mushroom, spinach and our first baby zucchini!!!!!
I had a nice little furlough day today so back to the grind tomorrow. Off to enjoy this first night of summer!
When It Gets Too Hot to Cook
Posted: June 20, 2010 Filed under: picnic, summer meal | Tags: bruschetta, hummus, olives, picnic, salad Leave a comment »When the temperatures get hot, the last thing I really want to do is spend a lot of time in the kitchen on a Friday afternoon.
Enter the picking picnic.
I stopped by Wegmans after work and picked up some olives, hummus and a whole wheat baguette.
I sliced up and toasted the baguette with EVOO S&P and while that was cooking I mixed up a little burschetta topping with tomato, basil, evoo, S&P, garlic and a little balsamic. I also chopped up some carrots to dip into the hummus so we weren’t going too bread crazy.
We also had a small cheese plate with goat, gouda, and a mushroom herb cheese from Whole Foods. Sissy was also invited to the garden picnic.
I love have lots of nibbles of different things and trying new combos on flavors.
The best combo that Nick and I came up with was – goat cheese + burschetta + toasted baguette.
Amazing flavor combo.
We needed a little more veg to go with dinner so I made up a giant salad for us to share from the bowl.
Garden lettuce, mixed baby greens, patty-pan, cucumber, avocado, golden beets.
Lots of goodies to go around. Nick likes to hunt out the avocado.
To wash it all down I double fisted it.
A little white wine and a glass of tangerine lime bubbles.
This was Nick’s 3rd vegetarian meal of the week and when I reminded him of that he said he was ok with that. I’m glad my boy has come so far! A year ago I am sure he would have never been drinking spinach in his smoothies or believing that a vegetarian meal could fill him up. I am thankful for having someone that is willing to try everything at least once and be willing to eat everything I make.
Lastly…
Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there!
