Long post of home cooked meals

We went out to dinner last night, breaking our "fast" after almost 30 days. I did a great job of meal planning and following thru, but I just couldn't bring myself to make the one meal I had all the ingredients for. It had been going to the back of the pile for a week, and I was just never in the mood to make it. Plus, my friend Liz and her family are in Mexico on vacation and for weeks she's been blogging about wonderful food and margaritas!! Oh how I want a margarita! We headed down to our favorite Mexican food "el Camino", with the best margaritas. We didn't get one, because even not pregnant it's way too much tequila for me! But the food was so good, even Lucy ate a fair share. Since it had been so long, it really did feel like a treat, instead of just something to do when I'm too tired to cook. So I think our abstinence worked the way we wanted it to!

So that meal that I kept putting to the back of the pack, I finally made tonight. And it was SO GOOD!! I don't know what my problem was. Even Lucy ate 1/2 of a "patty cake" (I called it that so she would try it!! smothered with ketchup of course. but whatever works at this age!) Black-eyed pea cakes with Beer braised Turnip Greens. I really like cooking vegetarian meals. One, I don't have to worry about cleaning up (sterilizing) after using raw meat. Two, so much more opportunity for healthy and interesting ingredients. When I asked Tim if this was a keeper recipe, he said to keep it for when we have all our vegetarian friends over. HA! Bridget, I think you're the only one we really know that's a vegetarian, so we need to have you all over soon!! :-)

(Oh, except we did add bacon to the greens...so not completely vegetarian!)

Earlier this week: Mediterannean-Quinoa stuffed bell peppers. Yum.

Even Tim loves to eat these for dinner, (even though it's vegetarian!) and even leftovers!! This was a weight watchers recipe, so I don't have a link to it. I have to go thru the effort of typing it out, because it is sooooo good.
olive oil
small yellow onion
salt
garlic
14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup quinoa
4 medium sweet red bell peppers
10 kalamata olives, chopped
1 cup canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans) rinsed and drained
store bought pesto
crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Coat a baking sheet or pan with cooking spray.
Heat 1tsp oliv oil in a saucepan (or skillet)over medium heat. Add diced yellow onion and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook until onion softens, 5-7 min. Add 1 tsp minced garlic, stirring for 30 seconds. Add can of tomatoes, quinoa, 1 cup water and 1 tsp salt. Stir well. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer covered for about 15 min (until quinoa is tender).

meanwhile, slice off tops of peppers, pull out membranes and seeds, and make a thin slice across bottom of each pepper so it sits flat.

When quinoa is done, stir in olives, chickpeas (i used a whole can, not just the 1 cup) and 1.5 tbsp of pesto. Spoon in mixture into each of the peppers (fill to full...i always have leftover stuffing) and bake on sheet uncovered for 25 min. remove and sprinkle each pepper with feta cheese to your delight. bake another 5 min.

Then It was Moroccan Chicken and squash soup. Healthy and delicious.


And one more good one: Cheesy Potato Soup, with little turkey sandwiches. (we added bacon again!)