Broccoli Pasta

This was a quick and easy dish for a weekday.

We started by boiling a pot of small pasta, 16 ounces worth, chopping off the florets of 4 heads of broccoli,


and steaming the florets in a shallow bed of water until they were tender.

We set them aside and sautéed 4 cloves of garlic and a generous pinch of chili flakes in a bit of olive oil.

In the meantime we chopped up 2 anchovies. We added them, the steamed broccoli, salt and pepper, and 2 cups of veggie broth to the garlic.

We brought it all to a simmer and worked it for about fifteen minutes until all the broccoli was melted down and had turned into a thick slightly coarse sauce. 


We added it to the pasta and adjusted the sauce to just the right silkiness with a little pasta water. A little freshly grated Parmesan on top and that was it. Yum!




Pita Pizza

So this was delightful. Check it out. Spinach Pita Pizzas with a tomato salad.

It took not even half an hour to prepare.


It started out with us cranking up the oven to 450 degree Fahrenheit an cutting open 3 whole wheat pitas and placing them cut face down on oven trays. We baked them for 6 minutes.

In the meantime we halved a couple of hands full of colorful tomatoes.

We also washed and sliced up roughly 5 ounces of baby spinach

Then we cut up one quarter of an onion and minced two clove of garlic. We sautéed the onion, a few pepper flakes, and salt and pepper for a few minutes and then added the garlic for another minute. About a spoonful of this warm mixture, we tossed with the tomatoes.

To the rest we added the spinach and melted it down half way.

We turned the pitas with the cut side up and spread the spinach mixture. Then we crumbled feta cheese all over them and rounded it out with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
We shoved them back into the oven for another 5 minutes.


To the tomatoes we added fresh parsley from our yard and a little salt and pepper to taste.

That was it. Yummy crunchy pita pizzas with spinach and a tomato salad. A total winner! No left overs.

Buckwheat Miso Soup

This makes you look like an expert chef and there is nothing to it. It took maybe 40 minutes of lazy cooking.


A buckwheat miso soup. Absolutely scrumptious.


We diced up half a big onion and


sautéed it in a little sesame oil together with a grated knob of fresh ginger and


3 tablespoons of miso (a store bought concentrated mixture).


We minced 2 cloves of garlic and sliced up a handful of shiitake mushrooms.


We added them to the onion for a few minutes. And then followed them up with a quart of water and one quart of vegetable broth. We turned up the heat, brought it to a boil, and




added 5 eggs. (When you pierce a small hole on the round side of an egg, where the air bubble is, it i less likely to crack.)


We boiled them in the simmering soup for exactly 7 minutes so that they were fully cooked with a soft yolk, slightly on the runny side.


When they came out we dumped the eggs in an ice bath for a minute, took the shells off, and halved them lengthwise.


We added one half cup of uncooked buckwheat groats and one sliced carrot to the soup and continued to simmer the soup until the buckwheat was soft. (If you want to save 10 minutes on cooking time you can do this before adding the eggs, but it gets quite messy when you retrieve them.)


In the meantime we sliced up 3 leaves of bok choy and 2 green onions. We added them to the simmering soup for 5 minutes. Then we stirred in 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar and a little salt and pepper.

That was it. Each bowl of soup we served received two egg halves. An absolute winner. A soup with an umami punch.


























Stuffed Peppers and Rice


This is a winner. All vegetarian, easy to make, pulls a punch, and yummy as all get-out. Takes but 30 minutes to prepare. Here we go. 


We cranked up the broiler and prepped a pot of rice.

In another pot we started heating a big can of plum tomatoes.

Then we halved 5 red peppers and cleaned them up and out.

Face down, we arranged them on a baking dish, smothered them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and stuck them into the hot oven. After 3 minutes we turned them for another 3 minutes, retrieved them, and turned the oven down to 425 F.

In the meantime we chopped up half an onion and 3 cloves of garlic. We sautéed them in a large frying pan. Onion first for a few minutes and the garlic for another.

A third of it went into the pot of tomatoes with a handful of fresh basil, a dash of olive oil, salt, and pepper.


The rest stayed. We added a big package of fresh baby spinach, a good 10 oz. or so and let it wilt down.


Next we added 1 can of cannellini beans and 2 handful of freshly grated Parmesan, as well as,

 
the juice of one lemon.

Then we whizzed up the tomato sauce and placed it on the bottom of the baking dish. We filled the peppers with sliced small mozzarella balls and the spinach bean mixture. The whole thing got stuffed back into the oven for a few minutes until it all looked melted and ready to eat.

We served the rice with the peppers and sauce sprinkled all over. Yummo!

Chicken Fried Rice

Okay. If you need to feed the troops. And it's Thursday night and you just don't care anymore, you do this. Chicken Fried Rice. Since we have one or two self-proclaimed vegetarians banging their forks on the table, we keep the chicken separate. But if you like to get all the good gristle in there, keep it together and use one frying pan.

Here is last Thursday's version.


First we got 1 cup of rice cooking, fried up a few boneless chicken thighs in a little bit of olive oil and with a good bit of salt and pepper, and


sliced and chopped up 2 carrots and half a big onion.

Next we sautéed the carrots for a good six minutes or so.

When the chicken was done and nice and crispy on the outside we pulled it apart with two forks.

We added the onions to the carrots for a few minutes and

then 1 drained can of corn and 2 handfuls of frozen peas.

Lastly came the fun part. We added the rice and placed 3 eggs in the center.

We stirred the eggs into all the goodness until it was all over, clinging to every last spec of rice and veggie. We added a little salt, pepper, oregano, and soy sauce to round it all up.

Voila! The chicken people added chicken to their delight. And we all dug in. Let's just say there were no leftovers.