what's for dinner

When I am really on my game, I prepare dinner in the morning. Our afternoons are busy and I love having dinner ready to go before everyone gets home from school and the afternoon rush begins. We are trying to eat a plant based diet these days. Low dairy, very low meat, high whole grains and fruits and vegetables. Tonight we're having the Pioneer Woman's Quinoa with Buttery Roasted Vegetables. It might not feel like fall outside yet (still in the upper 90s here in Arizona-blah), but it's the season for roasted vegetables and I couldn't be happier.

I've made this recipe before and loved it, but I'll be honest and tell you that I make sure to serve it with lots of whole wheat toast so that Oliver doesn't go to bed hungry. :)

some things we've eaten lately

I am determined to perfect my biscuit making abilities. I have the fondest memories of my grandma B making buttermilk biscuits each time she visited. In my memory, hers were tender and fluffy and warm (and served with molasses, of course). Her recipe called for crisco, which I just can't bring myself to use, so I am always on the hunt for another recipe. My favorite so far is this one:

Buttermilk Biscuits, from the kitchn

6 tablespoons butter (I use salted, so I omit the salt called for in the recipe)
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus a little more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk, plus a little more for brushing

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Cut your butter into little pieces and stick in the freezer while you assemble the other ingredients.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut in the very cold butter with a pastry cutter, or with your fingers. Add the buttermilk and stir until just barely holding together. (It should be a mess.)

Dump onto a lightly floured surface and press the dough into a rectangle. Work fast and don't handle the dough too much. Cut it into three even pieces, stack them on top of each other, and with the heel of your hand, press it into a rectangle again. Repeat once.

Then roll or press the dough into a rectangle that is about 1/2 to 1 inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut the rectangle into 6 or 8 pieces, depending on how big you want the biscuits to be. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush with a little buttermilk.

Bake for about 12 minutes, or until golden and starting to brown.

I have always used a biscuit cutter to make round biscuits (like in the picture), but I made them last Sunday with this method of cutting them with a knife. I loved that there were no leftover bits that had to be re-rolled to form another biscuit. I'll be making them square from here on out. Also, don't substitute whole wheat flour, please. Biscuits are only biscuits if they're made with all-purpose.

Two other things we've liked lately (both from Cookie and Kate):
Banana Nut Waffles (minus the nuts)
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burgers

happy weekend

My friend and I took advantage of our terrific weather and hiked Camelback Mountain yesterday. I am not really a hiker, but I love hiking Camelback. It is steep and difficult and it just feels really good to climb those boulders all the way to the top. During Spring Break I want to try some of the hikes Kayla listed on her blog with my kids. I know there are a lot of beautiful things to see in this desert, and we're going to find them.

For dinner this week, we tried these Little Quinoa Patties and some really great pasta. I'll share the pasta recipe below. We ate the quinoa patties like hamburgers with a side of roasted sweet and regular potatoes.

My friend (and everyone's friend), Ellen, sent me this pasta recipe and I am totally going to add it to our favorites:

Farfalle Alle Erbe e Panna Rosa, from Lisa Ure
1 pound farfalle (bowtie) pasta
4 tablespoons of butter
2 teaspoons of fresh basil, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of fresh sage, finely chopped (I didn't have sage, so I skipped it.)
1/2 beef bouillon cube (I used a teaspoon of chicken Better Than Bouillon.)
2 pounds fresh ripe plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon of salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup of heavy cream

Peel, seed, and cut the tomatoes into a 1/4 inch dice.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the herbs and bouillon and stir with a wooden spoon for one minute or until the bullion has dissolved completely. Don't let the butter burn. Add the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the tomatoes have reduced and separated from the butter. Raise the heat to medium-high and pour in the cream. Cook, stirring frequently, until it has reduced by about half. Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.

While the sauce is cooking, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot and cook your pasta al dente. Then drain it and toss it with the sauce.


This weekend Oliver will be off on a scout campout while the rest of us recover from this long, tiresome week. Hopefully there's some good food in there somewhere, too.

Have a happy weekend!

happy weekend

It's the time of year when the citrus is ready to be picked and juiced. Yesterday I juiced a few bags of oranges and my house smelled so fresh for the rest of the day. We got so many lemons this year! I used to freeze the juice to make lemonade all year long, but do you know what's in lemonade? Lots and lots of sugar, so I don't make it as often anymore, and now our main use of the lemons is to squeeze them on top of our Sunday morning german pancakes. Must research how to use more lemons (outside of my favorite lemon deserts: warm lemon pudding cake, lemon cake, lemon squares, and lemon poppy seed muffins).

Thanks to your comments, I tried a few new recipes this week. Rollup Blender Pancakes from Mel's Kitchen Cafe were probably the biggest hit (even though they were for breakfast and not dinner). We also tried Mel's 30-Minute Quinoa Enchilada Skillet (Mabel and I loved it), Our Best Bite's Black Bean Soup and Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos. I would make them all again. Thank you! Oh, and we brought these Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins to Sunday dinner and they were gone in a flash.

I printed out lots more recipes from those sites to try next week, too. Hurray!

This is the best time of year to be in Arizona, so we are going to do our best to soak it up this weekend. Yard work is on our to-do list, and hopefully we'll actually do it instead of loafing around like we usually do on Saturdays. Ha!

Have a happy one!

happy weekend

I think Elliot really thought he could beat Mike at stick pull the other night during Stella's volleyball practice. He certainly gave it everything he had. Look at that face! Mike surprised us and showed up at Stella's practice. We seriously never see him anymore, he is so busy at school. Honestly, I feel like a single mom most of the time. (I have enormous respect for real single moms. You are strong, capable ladies.) It is hard but it will be worth it, I think.

A list of things I have found upon waking in the last three weeks:
a bat flying around my kitchen
a rat hiding under my kitchen table
a rat under our dresser, being chased by our cat*
and the worst one-- a rat trying to escape out my opened but screened bedroom window, inches from my head.*

*occurred in the middle of the night

Our cat is officially (I mean it this time) fired. It used to drive me nuts that she'd bring dead birds and lizards into the house, but I'd take that over the live animals she's been bringing in lately. I can't even. . . I mean, I'm just glad we found and caught these things before Mike left for the day. Otherwise I'd really have to put my brave face on, and I don't think I could do it.

Have your kids picked out their Halloween costumes yet? We are still trying to decide on a few at our house, but time is running out!

Some recipes I tried and at least half of us liked this week: Ree's Quinoa with Buttery Roasted Vegetables (I doubled the vegetables), Ree's Veggie Tortellini Soup (this came together in like 20 minutes), Cha Cha's White Chicken Chili (minus the jalapeno), and Pumpkin Magic Cake (go heavy on the glaze).

I wish I could say it felt like fall here, but we have another week or so of hot (and I mean hot) weather. And then, then, it will be in the 70s! Happy day.

I hope you have a good weekend full of fall things. We have the school carnival, which is always a good time.

falafel

Truth: Falafel in Paris is a lot prettier than falafel in Mesa.

Mabel has been sending me recipes, mostly vegetarian dinner ideas, which is the best! Deciding what to make is always the hardest part about cooking for me. This week, we tried falafel. Mike and I had the best falafel in Paris, which we ate in the most beautiful garden. What I made last night doesn't even come close, but it was still pretty good and I think I'll add it to our regular dinner rotation.

I used Sean's Falafel and Cucumber Sauce from allrecipes.com, but I'll post it here, too.

for the sauce:

6 oz plain yogurt
half of a cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely diced
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon mayonnaise

Mix all together, then chill for at least 30 minutes.

for the falafel:

1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained (Or, I used 2 cups of cooked lentils instead.)
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 egg
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
pinch cayenne
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup dry bread crumbs (or about one cup of whole wheat flour)
oil for frying

Mash the beans or lentils. In a food processor, blend the onion, parsley, and garlic until it's smooth. Add to the mashed beans/lentils.

In another bowl, mix the egg, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon juice, and baking powder. Add to the bean/lentil mash along with the oil. Mix in the bread crumbs (or flour) a little at a time until it's the consistency you want. The original recipe says you should be able to form balls, which you will then flatten into patties. Mine never reached that point, and I didn't want to add too much flour, so I left it at about thick pancake batter level.

Heat some oil for frying (cover the bottom of your pan generously). I used my cookie scoop and scooped the mixture into the hot oil, one scoop per patty. Cook until golden brown and then flip and repeat. This made about 25 small patties (enough for our family of 6 plus leftovers for Mike's lunch today).

I fried mine early in the day, then stuck them on a cookie sheet in the fridge until we got home hungry from piano lessons at dinner time. I broiled them for a minute to warm them up and we were good to go.

Serve wrapped up in a nice warm piece of naan, with the cucumber sauce, sliced red onions and tomatoes.

And then pretend that you are wandering around secret gardens in Le Marais. :)

(Full disclosure: Oliver didn't like it.)