As much as I want to be the mom who prepares great family meals from fresh, local ingredients every day, more often than not I find myself making something healthy for the boys and then throwing a frozen pizza into the oven for us once the boys are asleep. But somehow over the course of this next year, I have a goal of turning dinnertime into a family event where everyone uses utensils and eats the same meal. I assume this is going to mean kicking our frozen pizza habit.
Sadly, our CSA doesn't kick in until May (I can't wait!), so we have another month or so of deliberately shopping for produce. Our farmers market started up again last week, so I'm hopeful we're going to be inspired (as I always am) to buy fresh, local produce every Wednesday and turn that into some good eats. What with spring vegetables popping up (like asparagus!), this shouldn't be too hard.
Our friend came over for dinner last night for his birthday and we decided to whip up one of my favorite meals: roast chicken with tomatoes and garbanzo beans. It's not quite tomato season yet, so I did break one of my cardinal rules last night. But this meal couldn't be healthier (we serve it over quinoa) and is super easy and delicious. I want to eat like this every night!
What are your favorite uber-healthy family meals? You know, the ones that are so easy you can't believe you don't make it every night? The ones made from fresh ingredients (no cans!). Do share!
Since nothing is in season yet, it's canned food season! One of my fallbacks is homemade tomato sauce over pasta. I totally use canned tomatoes. And a little tomato paste to boot. Sometimes I sauté sausage with some garlic before hand, and sometimes just the garlic. I always add a chunk of butter and a bit of brown sugar. (Don't tell Joe about the butter!) It's tasty. Mix with your favorite pasta and sprinkle with shredded parmesan. And since my husband is Chinese, he complains if there are no veggies on the side.
ReplyDeleteBut the sauce is wicked easy and very tasty. And not at all local or in season.
As for in season? I'm getting there. I'll get back to you once our CSA starts at the end of May.
Oh, actually! We sauté little squash with onions and sausage (um, we like sausage), and then toss it with pasta and parmesan.
And pesto-chicken/shrimp pizza. We make our pizza dough from scratch, so it's always in season!
I know, I missed the point. But it's the truth.
And we enjoy the tomato/garbanzo bean chicken as well. Mmmmm. Joe always thinks I'm cooking Indian food when he comes home.
Please share the tomato/garbanzo bean recipe!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is "Clean Out the Fridge" Soup. I toss in whatever needs to be used up, along with a can of tomatoes (since I canned them back when they were in season, they count) and some organic MSG-free broth. Whatever herbs I'm in the mood for, a loaf of bread, and ta-daa! My kids call it "Super Soup". I don't think we've ever had a bad batch. Carrots, potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, golden beets (never the red ones, too valuable on their own to waste in a soup), kohlrabi (our CSA grows a lot of it), spinach, kale, swiss chard, etc.
Also, we learned about scrambles from you. I start with some olive oil in the pan, cook up some onions or scallions or leeks or whatever we have, saute some veggies, or greens (spinach, chard, kale, whatever), then pour over a mixture of CSA eggs with milk or cream or whatever we have, then sprinkle feta over the top. scramble it up and there you go! Sometimes we do the same thing and go the frittata route.
Those are some of our favorites.
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