The Joyful Housewife

Since I’m finding it impossible to keep up with blogging during this very demanding and needy stage that my son is currently in, I’m just going to have to do a few posts where I catch up on the meals I’ve wanted to share with you. Today, I’ll start by sharing some of the lovely vegetarian things we ate this weekend – my second Mother’s Day as a mom. Basically, these are just more examples of the delicious meals that my meat-eating husband cooks for me – I am truly feeling lucky and spoiled of late. (Please try to look past the quality of these photos. Right now this is the best I can do with my iPhone and the lighting in our house.)

Breakfast Egg Enchiladas

Yesterday morning Tim let me sleep in and got up with Sebastian. When I got up an hour later the coffee was made, and then Tim cooked scrambled egg enchiladas. He used a store bought, jarred sauce, and our opinion was that it was – meh. It needed more heat. We’ll have to tweak this meal, but didn’t it look pretty!

Easy Supper – Farro Salad, Veggie Chorizo, and Sauteed Greens

Last night was yet another example of Tim’s genius in the kitchen. He had bought a ton of greens at the local farmer’s market – mustard, turnip, kale, arugula…. While chatting with some of the people about greens, somebody mentioned that he loved to eat mustard greens with chorizo sausage, but that he couldn’t since his wife was vegetarian. Tim is not one to be deterred, so even though we’ve tried vegetarian chorizo in the past and it wasn’t that great, Tim remembered that there was still a brand we hadn’t tried. He picked up some up on the way home and sauteed them in olive oil. Chorizo and mustard greens is a great combo!

But the real genius of the meal was the farro salad. This was our first time trying this mostly whole grain (I guess it’s pearled, so part of it is removed or sanded down – I have to do more research into it) and Tim’s preparation was inspired. He tossed it with grated parmesan cheese, arugula, peas, olive oil, salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice, which I couldn’t really taste. It was a very satisfying meal.

Mother’s Day Breakfast – Veggie Sausage Scramble

Mother's Day Breakfast!

The not-so-great picture above, is of the breakfast that Tim made for me this morning (again, he got up early with Sebastian and let me sleep in – squee!): Scrambled eggs with veggie sausage (a different one, apple and fennel flavor, I think) and greens leftover from dinner last night (mild mustard greens and turnip greens, sautéed), with a small cheese quesadilla, and a slice of honeydew melon.

Mother’s Day Lunch – Farro Salad and Sardines

Mother's Day Lunch!

As I said, last night Tim made farro for the first time and it was a huge success. We are thrilled that it makes a great leftover lunch and we are going to start making bigger batches for Tim to pack in his lunch throughout the week. As for the sardines, I prefer smaller sardines, but these have a mild flavor and taste good if I just try not to look at them. I pretty much chopped them up with my fork and mixed them into my farro salad. It was like a very grown up tuna-noodle casserole.

And by the way, Sebastian is quite fond of sardines too! I can’t find the photo I took of the first time he ate a sardine, but here is another cheeky pic of him instead.

As you can see, we’ve been eating a lot of eggs and veggie sausage lately. We’re actually trying to find some alternative proteins to that – but this is what you end up with when you have an open-minded meat-eater and a “pescotarian” that hates to cook.

(I wrote this Sunday morning.)

I love it when my husband cooks breakfast on the weekend! And this was partially leftover from our delicious vegetarian fajitas last night – he cooks most of our dinners too. And most of those are great. With only a few misses.

We actually ate green eggs from a local farm. Look at these eggs! Green, blue, and dark brown.

Huevos Rancheros with leftover seitan fajitas and homemade, roasted chile and grape tomato salsa.

 I am one lucky lady!

(P.S. The eggs look normal once you crack them open. Once in a while when there’s a few to many crazy colored eggs, I almost lose my appetite, but the bottom line is – whatever their color – fresh, local eggs really do taste better!)

This had been the year of fruit infused vodka for my husband – ever since he read a post about it early in the summer on a blog called Punk Domestics He has made strawberry, raspberry, and peach flavors so far. The process really brings out the essence of the fruit.

It has been so cool to use organic local fruit from nearby orchards for this process, and to change the fruits with the seasons.

The process is quite simple. Just stuff a bunch of fruit into a jar and cover it with vodka (lately we’ve been using Tito’s Handmade Vodka for the value, but we first made it with Prairie Organic Vodka, after out Minnesota relatives visited, and that honestly tasted smoother) then agitate it twice a day for two weeks. To agitate, you turn the bottles upside down and then upright ten times. Then strain it through a cheesecloth and funnel it back into a bottle.

I know that pineapple infused vodka has been popular lately. Let me know if anyone tries any other off-the-wall flavors – like peppers or cucumbers!

Quinoa with black beans, sesame oil, soy sauce, raw carrots, and raw snap peas.

I’ve been taking baby steps toward keeping healthful, whole foods, and tons of veggies prepped and ready to eat.

My current goal has been to keep a batch of cooked beans, and a batch of cooked whole grain, such as quinoa, in the fridge at all times. We cooked these black beans with a bay leaf and salt and they taste pretty good on their own.

My husband has been eating the quinoa and beans for breakfast with a little bit of sesame oil and soy sauce. We originally got the idea to eat savory whole grains, instead of oatmeal  for breakfast, from Mark Bittman. Wheat Berries are delicious prepared this way. We also try to keep some sliced green onion in a bag in the the fridge so that he can sprinkle them on top. (FYI – he ate breakfast at the hospital today, eggs, potatoes, with green chile and fresh fruit, and he texted me at 11:00 saying he was WAY more hungry than usual. So skip the potatoes and eat whole grains instead!)

I had been eating the black beans and quinoa for lunch and having cut up veggies on the side, when I had the idea to put the raw veggies in the quiona.

The result?

A perfect 2 minute meal!

This has been my lunch for the past two days:

3/4 C. Quinoa

2/3 C. Black beans (made from dry beans cooked with bay leaf)

2 tsp. Sesame oil

Splash of Soy sauce

1 Raw carrot, diced

6 or 7 Raw snap peas, sliced

This is the perfect 2-minute-meal and a healthy alternative to fried rice! It really did taste like fried rice, and the black beans were a surprisingly fine substitute for the scrambled egg that it usually contains. We cooked a large batch of both beans and quinoa at the beginning of the week and I am able to microwave a portion while chopping carrot and 6 or 7 snap peas (and in the future I’ll do this ahead of time too), WHILE holding Sebastian on one hip.

If you’re like my sister and you don’t use the microwave, it will still take very little time to heat them up on the stove.

What’s the big deal, you ask? Well, try as I might, I continue to hate cooking and it is a constant effort for me to be motivated to do it. And I couldn’t believe how quick, easy, and delicious this was!

Also, my husband and I are trying to lose weight. I joined Weight Watchers a few weeks ago and he has been trying to eat foods with a low Glycemic Index. This is an excellent meals for both weight loss strategies.

(For those interested in Weight Watchers Points Plus, 1.5 cups of fried rice is 15 PP while this is about 9-10 PP for almost 2 cups of food!)

This meal is a win, win, win, all around!