saturday – potato and carrot mash, sausage, and green beans

sunday – cornmeal crunch and cherry tom and green bean salad

monday – mixed grains, chard, and ginger carrots

tuesday – salmon, green beans, and grains

wednesday – salad nicoise

thursday – caprese and pizza!

We had a little cold snap this week, so I took advantage and made my favorite sweet potato and salmon hash (for which i roast the potatoes first) and an apple-pear crisp (using up the mountains we still had).  The cold snap is gone, but I’m planning to use the slow cooker today anyway.  Dave’s running a grueling trail marathon this morning, and I wanted to have a special dinner waiting for him tonight.

Now that we’ve found good pizza in the neighborhood, we’ve fallen into a Thursday night thing, and with Friday an impromptu night, that leaves only a few days to plan:

Saturday – Slow cooked spicy shredded beef sandwiches with fries

Sunday – Leftover beef tacos with black bean corn salsa

Monday – walnut arugula pesto with linguini and a salad

Tuesday – cabbage, canelinni and sausage soup

Wednesday – eggplant, tomato gratin (Martha Shulman’s Provencal Light, p 316)

It’s a pear emergency.  Here are some ideas:

• pear sauce
• pear crisp
• pear clafouti
• roasted pears
• pear bread
• pear bread pudding

Looks like we’re gonna need some icecream around here…

I came up with this lentil, chickpea and mizuna soup this week and it was pretty nice.

1 bunch mizuna rinsed and chopped
2 leeks
2 cloves garlic
1 carrot
1 cup lentils (black or green– black look really nice)
2 cups broth (vegetable or chicken)
1 can chick peas

Slice the white ends of the leeks and sautee in butter and EVOO. Add in chopped garlic and season with thyme, oregano, marjoram.  Throw in a bay leaf if you have it. Add the chopped carrot and stir. Add lentils and broth; cook till lentils are tender.  Add water as needed.  Stir in chickpeas.

To serve, fill a bowl with chopped mizuna.  Ladle soup over greens.  Don’t worry if it looks lkike too little broth in the bowl, the mizuna will wilt and it will all come together.

Drizzle with EVOO. Add shaved parmesan if you like.

Emily was born Jun 28, and kitchen blogging has been on highatus. We’ve been getting by on the casseroles I froze in June (bleh, but good try), some frozen lasagnas purchased by my mum (meh, but ever so thoughtful) and great meals prepped by my sisters and Dave’s folks.

Now that we’re on our own, we sticking with simple dishes that can be prepped then thrown together when there’s an opportune baby break. It’s more important than ever that I keep track of the good, easy recipes now, so I’m typing one-handed to get this down.

First up, good stuff from the last couple of weeks. (If I can even remember….)

• This spinach, cannellini and leek soup adds in a cup of couscous and cooks up in a snap.
• “Fried” eggplant with mayo and breadcrumbs, baked.
• Greenbean and potato salad.

And this week:

• Sunday – Lindy made grilled tuna steak with avacado and soy-mayonnaise on sourdough.
• Monday – I improvised with Italian sausage, white beans, and cherry toms over polenta.  I added a little sherry to the ragout (?) but that was it.  Finally figured out the right ratio for good polenta is 4:1 liquid:grits. I did half and half milk and water.
• Tuesday – roast chicken (purchased in a pinch), mashed potatoes, and something else I can’t remember.  (mmmmm.  thanks, Dave!)
• Wednesday – Zuchini and blackbean quesadillas, corn on the cob.
• Thursday – Parsley garlic spaghetti with leeks and white beans
• Friday – zucchini frittata and tomato salad

Sun – steamed artichokes, spring mix with sliced steak, mini beet roestis with goat cheese

Mon – Chickpea curry with couscous

Tues – cilantro chicken stiry fry with carrots and baby bok choy

Wed – cucumber soup and poached salmon

Thurs – Zucchini gratin and a side salad

My mother is a woman of many amazing qualities. But she does not cook. I honestly don’t even know what she eats day to day, but she must eat something. Whatever it is it does not involve a stove or an oven. Mom’s coming to stay with us after baby arrives, and she has valiantly offered to cook. I’m going to take her up on it. (It will help us out, and I’d be thrilled if she learned a few easy healthy recipes she would use again.) I’m trying to remember all of my fool-proof, under 20-minute recipes. The trouble is, when I want to make dinner quick, I improvise; I don’t pull out a recipe. I fear my own instructions for easy meals may assume too much…

Oh well, here’s a start:

• Pasta Pomodoro
• Lentil Salad with feta and salmon
• Black bean and zucchini quesadillas – cut zuchinni into cubes, sautee in olive oil with a bit of chipotle, chopped garlic. Add (drained) black beans and some cumin.
• Chickpea potato Curry
• Pasta with shrimp and artichokes
• Cold peanut sesame noodles

This last week was a blur. Dave was away for the weekend climbing Mt. Whitney and our dear old cat died. Life seems a bit more normal since Dave is home, but the house is still really quiet. I feel like I just woke up and we’re at 36 weeks and there’s a baby coming any minute.

This weekend I plan to get our pantry back in order — using up the bazillion carrots floating around and making some casseroles to freeze. (This will spare us all from my mother’s ‘cooking’ right after baby arrives.) Here’s my ridiculously over-ambitious plan for the weekend.

Steel Cut Oats – I started making a big pot and throwing it in the fridge. Cheaper than breakfast cereal (though maybe not once you add in the dried fruit). Better for you anyway and not full of corn.

Carrot Puree – I don’t think I have the energy for full-on carrot cake, but this recipe looks pretty easy. Maybe I’ll make a batch of cupcakes- some for now, some for later, and then puree the rest of the carrots and freeze for an easy soup in the weeks ahead.

Blueberries – We got less than a cup of bluberries from the CSA yesterday, but I feel we simply MUST make muffins. or possibly scones. Life would be so nice if I could make a decent pancake. Maybe waffles?

Strawberries – I already have a stash frozen for smoothies, and we got more yesterday. Sounds like the perfect time for Elise’s strawberry frozen yogurt.

ok. So that stocks up up for breakfast and dessert now. How about some real food for later? I’ll need to clean out the freezer and buy some (utterly house-wife-ish) aluminum pans for freezing, but I think these will be good bets:

• Creamy chicken-noodle casserole with spinach and mushrooms
• Polenta and black bean casserole
• Potato and salmon casserole

Sunday – Green salad with sliced steak and radishes, steamed artichokes

Monday – Grilled salmon, salad with sliced beets, goat cheese

Tuesday – carrot soup with crab, green salad

Wednesday – chard and shrimp tacos, radishes, black beans

Thursday – beet green fritatta and fried potatoes

FLESH. Flesh is for dinner. I can’t seem to consume enough calories these days, and our quasi-vegetarian diet is just not enough for a big ole pregnant lady. We are also, however, drowning in lettuce (as always), so here’s the plan:

Friday – Spring salad with roasted beets, boiled eggs, and poached salmon

Saturday – chard and ricotta casserole with sausage, side salad (if this turns out well, i’ll make one and freeze it before baby arrives.)

Sunday – STEAK, caesar salad, and steamed artichokes (we got two beauties from the csa this week!)

Monday – chicken and kumquat tagine over cous cous with a salad

Tuesday – KRAZY BURGER (cook’s night off)

Wednesday - carrot and sweet potato soup, small salad, and scallion biscuits

Thursday – Pasta bolognese, zucchini

Friday – Chard and ricotta frittata, more salad