FINALLY!!! A recipe the kids like. M even professes to liking avocados again after this one.

INGREDIENTS:
1-1/2 c orzo (whole wheat if you can find it)
5 c raw broccoli cut intros small florets & stems
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2/3 c pine nuts, toasted
1/3 c parmesan cheese
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c creme fraiche
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 small ripe avocado, peeled, pitted & sliced (do this at the last minute!)

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil for the orzo. Salt generously, add the orzo, and cook according to the package instructions. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain well again.

2. Cook the broccoli. While we’re on the subject – you can use the flowers and the stems in this recipe. Just be sure to peel the skin off the thick stems and then you can slice small coin shaped pieces. They are really tasty and that way as little as possible goes to waste.

Bring 3/4 c water to a boil in a large pot. Add a big pinch of salt and stir in the broccoli. Cover and cook for about 1 minute. Quickly drain in a strainer and run under cold water to stop cooking. Drain & set aside.

3. Make the pesto. (Yum!) Combine 2 cups of the cooked broccoli, the garlic, most of the pine nuts, the Parmesan, 1/4 tsp salt, and 2 TBSP lemon juice in a food processor. (I used my blender.) Drizzle in olive oil and creme fraiche and pulse until smooth. (I added those before I tried blending anything since I knew it wouldn’t work without some liquid.)

4. Just before serving, toss the orzo and remaining cooked broccoli with about 2/3rds of the broccoli pesto and the lemon zest. (I totally forgot the zest but will do it next time!) Thin with a little warm water of you like, then taste and adjust the salt, lemon juice and/or pesto. Mine needed more pesto.

Two ways to serve:
For a group – fold in avocados, turn out in a bowl or platter and top with remaining pine nuts & lemon slices for drizzling.

For individual servings – serve in single serving bowls with sliced avocado & pine nuts on top as well as a small sprinkle of parmesan & a lemon slice.

Ooooooooooooooo

Ahhhhhhhhhh….avocado porn!

This is a delicious & pretty comfort food. Both my kids loved it which makes it a big hit and a small miracle.

NOTES: You can make the separate parts ahead of time and refrigerate. I made them the afternoon before as I had a couple of friends coming by the next day. I ran hot water over the orzo & broccoli to take the fridge chill out and then tossed with the pesto.

Slightly adapted from Super Natural Every Day.

This isn’t a salad. It’s a vegetarian version of Shepherd’s Pie. And it is AWESOME. It reminds me of a really good pot pie.

Because I want to watch “Eastbound & Down” tonight, this’ll be a short one. I know you understand!

You know how I tend to describe my recipes as “really easy” and “simple?” Well, this one IS easy but it’s definitely a little more labor intensive as anyone who has ever made mashed potatoes knows. A friend of mine, who only had limited time after work, decided to use boxed mashed potatoes, so you can do that if you’re short on time!

Here’s what you need for the mashed potatoes:

and

POTATOES INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 pounds russet or yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
1/3 c sour cream
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg yolk (I used replacer)

1. Place the diced potatoes in a medium sized pot of water. Cover with salted, cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender but not mushy. Drain the potatoes and return them to the pot.

2. Mash the potatoes. Add the milk, butter, and sour cream and continue mashing until smooth.

Stir in egg replacer. Add salt & pepper to taste. Set aside!

Now for the filling!

VEGGIE FILLING INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
5 small carrots, finely chopped (or 3 large carrots)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons tomato paste
2 cups vegetable broth (although I have a carton of Veggie Broth in the photo, at the last minute, I used my Vegetarian Chicken flavored Bullion & water. It tends to be a lot tastier than the Veggie Broth.)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 (14-ounce) can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1/2 cup fresh or frozen shelled green peas

1. Heat oil on medium-high heat in a large pot. Sautee onion & carrots for 4-5 minutes.

2. Add garlic, salt & pepper. Stir in flour, and keep cooking for another minute if you can!

3. Stir in tomato paste, broth, rosemary & thyme.

4. Bring mixture to a boil. Add kidney beans & reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, until sauce thickens.

5. Stir in corn & peas.

6. Pour veggie mixture into an 11×7″ baking dish (or something close to that.)

7. Top with mashed potatoes, smoothing the edges with a spatula to prevent it bubbling up and over in the oven.
This looks soooooo good. It has butter & sour cream but do you know what it’s missing?

Cheese. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top if you have some. All it needs now is hot fudge to be the perfect meal!

8. Put baking dish on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown and filling is bubbling.

Holy cow! When George got home I told him, “I just made the best dinner of my life.” to which he raised one eyebrow quizzically. Little did I know he was sick that night so I need to make it again for him. No problem!

The girls loved it.

“Here, YOU try it.”
Apparently, Bea is the Royal taster for her older sister.

She likes it!

And she’s still alive…

Adapted from Ezra Pound Cake

I know, it’s wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too early in the year to start making potato salad. Hold on a minute? Says WHO? I felt like making this salad in March and so I did.

Lord knows, G will gag and possibly need to be hospitalized if he so much as smells mayonnaise. Also, although I love almost ANY kind of potato salad, I wanted to try a brighter, lighter version. This one is AMAZING and can be eaten room temp, warm or cold.

This salad has NO mayo.

All you need is:

and these:
Please excuse that basket of junk in the back.

Here’s a gratuitous shot of the parsley from my garden:

INGREDIENTS:
8 oz green beans, trimmed & cut into 1-1/2″ pieces
3 lbs small red-skinned potatoes, unpeeled, halved (if yours are medium-sized, then quarter them)
2 TBSP dry vermouth
2 TBSP white wine vinegar
1 large shallot, chopped
1 TBSP coarse-grained Dijon mustard
2/3 c olive oil
2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley

1. Boil beans in large pot of salted water until crisp/tender, about 4 minutes.

Drain. Transfer to a bowl of ice water. Drain. Pat dry with a towel. (Or let drip dry, like I did!)

2. Cook potatoes in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 12 minutes. Drain. Transfer to large bowl (I put them back in the pot to save dishes!) Sprinkle vermouth over hot potatoes. **NOTE: I had medium sized potatoes so I ended up cutting them into quarters. I think I overcooked them a tad but they were still excellent.**

Toss gently and let stand for 5 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, shallot, and mustard. Gradually whisk in oil.

Uh, YUM!

4. Pour over potatoes and toss gently to coat.
Obviously, pre “tossing to coat.”

Cool completely. Mix in green beans and parsley. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

I love this salad!! It’s a little more “refined” maybe? Fresher & definitely lighter than the mayo based potato salad we all know and still love. (Except for those of us who gag and throw themselves on the floor at the sight or even thought of mayo ((Christina Lynch & George, you know I’m talking to you…))) Wow, those parenthesis are blinding me!

Source: Epicurious.com

Yesterday  in L.A. it was cold out. And grey. What I mean is, we had to wear socks & jackets. But we didn’t – we wore flip flops.

Anyway, what better meal to come home to at the end of the day than a thick, warm soup with homemade croutons? Try this for your next Meatless Monday (since it’s now Tuesday…)

I made a barley vegetable soup a few month ago and it was really good but this one is WAY better. I had bought a bag of dried split peas a few weeks earlier because I thought they’d be tasty but I wasn’t sure exactly what to do with them. Since I still had some barley in my cupboard, I looked for a recipe combining the two and VOILA! With some adjustments I had a hearty, thick and really tasty soup. It called for croutons and since I didn’t have any I made ‘em! This is the first time and I want to tell you – make croutons as often as you have soup. They are REALLY easy to make & add that extra something that soup sometimes needs.

Here we go! You’ll need these items:

SOUP INGREDIENTS:
2 c dried yellow split peas, rinsed & drained
6 carrots, chopped
6 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 c pearl barley, rinsed & drained
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper, to taste
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-1/2 TBSP olive oil
5 TBSP bouillon (I used vegetarian chicken flavored – you can also use vegetable broth or whatever you have on hand!)
10 c + 8 tsp water (adjust for desired thickness)

Let’s get started!

1. Saute chopped onions in the olive oil until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add crushed garlic for another minute. Be sure to stir occasionally to coat with oil.

2. Add carrots and celery. Stir to coat with oil and sauté for another 3-4 minutes.

3. Add split peas and powdered bullion/water to pot OR vegetable broth. Cover and bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat, add bay leaf and barley.

5. Simmer covered for about 2 hours.

No, it’s not 1:20PM. 60 minutes + 60 minutes.

D’OH!!! That’s a long time.

6. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Add water/broth as needed. I like my soup sort of thick so I didn’t. Sprinkle some croutons on top & serve.

How to make the croutons??

You’ll need:

CROUTON INGREDIENTS:
6 oz whole grain bread, cut into 1/2″ cubes
Olive oil
2 TBSP butter (or, you can just use 2 more TBSP olive oil which is just as tasty)
1 TBSP Dijon mustard

NOTE: I used one of my homemade breads that I froze a few weeks earlier. If it doesn’t get eaten within the first day or so, I freeze it for croutons. I hadn’t actually made any croutons, EVER, but I knew I would! That said, you can use any old bread you have – so next time you have a couple of heels from your Oroweat sandwich loaf – wrap them tightly in plastic wrap or a ZipLoc and freeze ‘em!)

This is so easy!

1. Preheat oven to 375. Cut bread into 1/2″ cubes.

2. Heat olive oil in saucepan. Melt butter in oil over medium heat. (Incidentally, you can also just use oil if you prefer.)

3. Pour heated oil/butter and mustard over bread cubes & toss to coat.

4. Spread bread cubes across a cookie sheet evenly.

5. Bake for about 12 minutes. Taste one – it should be crunchy, not chewy. If it’s chewy return it to the oven for another 2 minutes.

Sprinkle atop soup. YUM!

My helpers:

Soup adapted from Food.com
Croutons from Annie’s Eats.

How many Sunday nights have I found myself making promises? To myself.

“Starting tomorrow, I’m going to cut out all sugar.”

“Starting tomorrow, I’m going to do 100 crunches every morning.”

“Starting tomorrow, I’m going to finish _____________.” (Fill-in the blank with one of any countless unfinished projects.)

Screw that! I’m going to make one goal that’s easy to accomplish. I’m going to eat something healthy.

Here’s a simple, yummy recipe for “Meatless Monday.” I think I ate the whole thing myself.

You need:

Too bad, Libby!

INGREDIENTS
2 large eggs (I used egg replacer)
1 c cottage cheese
1/2 c sour cream
1 tsp Dijon style mustard
Salt
1 TBSP olive oil or unsalted butter
8 oz crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 c cooked wild rice (and/or brown rice) Btw: it’s a little embarrassing to reveal what a flake I am but I actually boiled 3 c of dry wild rice. Do you know how much COOKED rice that is? A ton. You are supposed to end up with 3 c of cooked rice. But if you do accidentally make a few vats of rice, just put it in some freezer Zip-locs and chuck it in the freezer for next time!
1/3 c grated Gruyere cheese
1 tsp chopped fresh tarragon or thyme

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a medium-large baking dish with olive oil or butter. (I used an 8×11 casserole dish.)

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream, mustard, and a scant 1/2 tsp salt.

3. Heat olive oil over high heat in a large skillet with a pinch of salt.

Stir in mushrooms.
After stirring to coat with oil, leave mushrooms sautéing for about 5 minutes.

Continue cooking, stirring every couple of minutes.

4. Add onions to mushrooms & cook for another 4-5 minutes, until onions are translucent.

Add garlic, stir and cook for another minute. Remove pan from heat.

5. Add rice to skillet & stir.

6. Add rice mixture to the cottage cheese mixture and stir until combined.

7. Pour mixture into greased baking dish.

Sprinkle with two-thirds of the grated cheese and cover with aluminum foil.

Sometimes I don’t read the directions closely, so I added my tarragon at this point. I actually had fresh tarragon for the first time in my life, having just planted it in my backyard. Even though this is the wrong order, doesn’t this look delish?

Anyway, bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 20-30 minutes, until the casserole is golden brown.

This is seriously so good! Serve with a green salad. I didn’t because I never have time to make more than one component. But I would! If this didn’t turn you on, stay tuned for REALLY easy chocolate cake. Remember my No Knead Bread? This is the No Knead Bread of Chocolate Cakes.

Here’s a gratuitous kids shot. Valentine’s Night.

From Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day.