Frittata

This beautiful Frittata is from Super Natural Every Day.  I made it as part of a brunch for friends, along with the Baked Oatmeal from the book.  I've never made a frittata before, and it was a bit of work, but it worked out really well in the end and everyone enjoyed it!  Best of all, the recipe is endlessly adaptable - you can use whatever veggies are in season.

Mushroom Sauté

I visited the Princeton farmers' market last week on Thursday.  I like it better than the Friday markets, since I only have to go to one to see all the vendors I want, and Princeton just makes you feel good about life.  I got some cremini mushrooms at the market, and still had some asparagus from the previous week, so I made this Mushroom Sauté from Super Natural Every Day.  I made a whole bunch of (mostly minor) adjustments, but I think I was still true to the spirit of the recipe.  Mainly, I left out the seitan, which I have no interest in as of now, but who knows, I might change my mind one day.  We made a quick and simple fried rice to go along with it, from the leftover rice from earlier in the week.  This was so quick and perfect for a weeknight.  You know those recipes that pretend to be fast weeknight recipes?  This was the real deal.  I can imagine making this again, with other vegetables instead of the asparagus - broccoli, definitely.

Green-Packed Stir-Fry

This tasty Green-Packed Stir-Fry from Super Natural Cooking uses asparagus and spinach, two things I have had a lot of lately, and so I picked it out of a bunch of recipes that I was considering.  I also added snow peas, since I had them - they only added to the green.  I can see this being easily adaptable to whatever veggies are around.  I left out the tofu and used red pepper flakes in place of the red chiles - just sprinkled them in, no measurement.  Otherwise I mostly followed the recipe.  I loved the taste of the sauce.  I have never used hoisin sauce before but I really like it!  It's easy enough to change the vegetable ingredients - I'm sure I can find something to use this tasty sauce in every season.  The beige in the picture is cashews - they added an almost meaty texture to the stir fry.  We ate it with a small portion of short grain brown rice.

Asparagus Fried Rice

I knew I had asparagus, cooked rice, and a craving for hibachi, so we made fried rice for dinner last night.  Full disclosure: all I did was eat it :)

Spiced Coconut Spinach

It's time to start eating more vegetables.  Spinach is in season - so is asparagus - so you can start with this Spiced Coconut Spinach recipe.  You can find the recipe on 101 Cookbooks.  It really is as delicious as it sounds.  We only had half the amount of spinach called for, so we nearly doubled the asparagus.  I didn't chop the spinach (truthfully, I was only taking quick glances at the recipe as I went, so I didn't even know that was a step), I omitted the shallot (used 2 cloves of garlic instead) because they were literally rotting in the basket at the store, and everything worked out just fine.  In fact, I just bought some more spinach and asparagus - we're going to make this again and again.

Tortellini Salad

I chose a few recipes to make from Super Natural Every Day this week and bought all the ingredients - now I'm committed to making them!  First up this week was the Tortellini Salad, with crisp broccoli and asparagus, creamy avocado, a lemony-garlicky dressing, the bright flavor of cilantro, and crunchy toasted almonds.  It's served at room temperature, which is perfect for warmer weather.  It wouldn't be too difficult to vary the vegetables, and I could even see doing a grilled version - grilled asparagus or zucchini instead of quickly cooking it in the pasta water - even leftover grilled vegetables would work well here.  We used an asiago-ricotta tortelloni (they're bigger than the little tortellini) which brought a great saltiness that tied the outside of the pasta to the inside.  I'd like to try tortellini next time, since it would more closely match the size of the cut vegetables.  I can't wait to get deeper into this book - so far I'm very pleased with the recipes I've made.

Fettuccine with Asparagus Puree

Here's another one from Super Natural Cooking - Fettuccine with Asparagus Puree.  I've been trying to get rid of certain things in my freezer and I quickly got sick of eating microwaved frozen asparagus as a side to things.  When I saw this recipe, I thought it would be perfect to try.  I'm a fan of vegetable "pesto" on pasta - lots of nutrients without having to spear each piece.  You basically just puree asparagus, spinach, and common pesto ingredients - lemon, grated cheese, garlic - and use it as a sauce for pasta.  The recipe called for pine nuts, but since I don't have any and they are $$$ right now, I opted for blanched slivered almonds, which worked just fine.  You could feed this (and the Winter Pasta) to kids and call it Monster Pasta or something.  It's neon green, so what better way to coerce children into eating veggies?  (It might work for adults, too.)

Asparagus Salad

 I had this post all set up and ready to go.  All it needed was a picture.  When I copy photos over from my camera to my "food" folder I name them things relevant to the recipe, and I number them in case I have more than one.  I named this photo "aspsalad1" for asparagus salad, #1.

Much to my surprise I was greeted by a message asking me to rename the photo, since one already existed with that name.  I thought, hmm, maybe I misnamed the broccoli salad.

But no.  Apparently I have made this before.  With the radishes, too.  Last August.  Why didn't I remember this?

I went back and read my post about it.  It turns out I didn't like the radishes and I undercooked the broccoli.

I think it's funny that I blocked it out like that.  I haven't been cooking long, and I haven't cooked much in that short amount of time, but I made the same dish twice without even realizing.

Anyway, I used the asparagus salad recipe from 101 Cookbooks.  I should not have bought broccoli and asparagus, because they are ALMOST in season here, but I was craving some vegetables.

I do not like radishes.  Somehow THIS I remembered, so I skipped them.  The dressing was the best part... pine nuts are delicious.

I ate this all by itself because I was too lazy to make a grain or pasta to go with it.  (I also ate the entire thing in one sitting.)  I think a handful or two of a small pasta shape would work well here.  It would also be fun to experiment with some other vegetables.

Maybe next time I will remember that I already made this and already posted about it...

Asparagus Salad

I know what my mom is going to be thinking when she reads this - "asparagus is out of season!!!" Well, I saw some nice looking ones at the store and I have been wanting to try this Asparagus Salad, so I picked them up. I just couldn't wait until next year! I had also seen radishes at the farmer's market over the weekend so I went back and got them today just for this recipe. I also made some plain barley to give it some more heft as a dinner meal.

The sauteed broccoli and asparagus were nice, because they both taste better cooked. The radishes added an interesting color and dimension but they were way too large (the recipe specifies tiny radishes for a reason, I guess). The lemon pine nut dressing was delicious, although it did take two tries to properly toast pine nuts. (Oops!)

Barley takes forever to cook, and I have pearled barley, so it could have taken even longer. For a weeknight, that is no good. Luckily you can make grains ahead of time and reheat them from the fridge, so I saved some for my next endeavor.

Overall, I was not crazy about this salad. Maybe I built it up too much because I really wanted to try it. My favorite part was the asparagus. It was perfect. The broccoli could have been cooked a little more, but that's my fault for not putting it in by itself first. The dressing was delicious and you can easily serve it over any vegetable. I have never had radishes before (that I know of/remember), and they were OK. They were pretty boring. Now that I think about it, they sort of reminded me of water chestnuts, which I really don't like at all. I also wish I could have tried broccolini, but I don't remember ever having seen it anywhere. If you want to add barley (or other grains) to this, I would use just a few small spoonfuls and mix it in thoroughly. I probably won't be making this again. It was OK, but I guess just not what I was looking for!

The good news is that I still have broccoli and asparagus to experiment with something new! I just finished reading Food Matters by Mark Bittman (it's a quick read, since half of it is recipes anyway) so I am trying to keep more fresh produce in the house, and using whatever pantry items I have on hand to turn them into meals. The overall idea of his book is to eat more plants and less meat/dairy products, which is much healthier, so I am giving it a try.