Friday, September 17, 2010

Eat Your Vegetables... and Pasta!

The other week I stumbled across a recipe and photo that featured a bright green sauce atop a nice bed of rotini pasta. Having started a new menu plan to steer myself in the direction of more vegetables and whole grains, a pasta sauce made primarily of broccoli and feta cheese had my attention immediately.

I’m not terribly adventurous with vegetables, generally sticking to green beans, carrots, and peppers, but since I do enjoy steamed broccoli and I obviously can’t say “no” to pasta and cheese, I couldn’t resist this recipe. It only required a touch of oil to cook down some garlic and shallots before adding the broccoli, lemon juice, and parsley. I then combined it with just a bit of feta and some reserved pasta water. It was a huge deal for me to cook with onions, but I figured since they were going to be obliterated in the food processor anyway, I could handle it. It is another vegetable, after all.

I used whole wheat angel hair and it was seriously delicious, but I think next time I would either add a little more water to thin it out or use sturdier rigate pasta. Served with a sliced tomato and some little gems from the Fairway olive bar, I managed to find a dish that satisfies both my vegetable plan and my obsession with pasta.

The left over feta enjoyed a successful second life in a vegetable dip I made for lunches this past week. Using some left over sun dried tomatoes and a little milk, the result was a slightly addictive dip that a coworker described as tasting like “Jersey Shore pizza.” Yet another delicious trick to eat more vegetables!


Monday, September 13, 2010

F is for Fall

In addition to a scratchy throat and all the rest that comes with a cold, this weekend brought a few other signs of what is now my favorite season. I used to love summer for obvious academic reasons, not to mention it encompasses my birth month, but since moving to NYC and feeling the swelter of a subway platform in August, I have effectively fallen for fall.

I’ve been itching to make my own granola and fill my little space with the luscious (and very fall) fragrance of cinnamon and brown sugar. I picked up the rest of the short ingredients list and was all set to fire up the oven on Saturday but realized I’d forgotten parchment paper. I needed to get out of the house anyway on Sunday despite the rain (one facet of fall that I’ll admit I’m not totally in love with) and ran to Target. The impulse purchase of a caramel apple spice drink from the attached Starbucks did wonders for my fall fascination, not to mention my sore throat. It’s one of the only non-alcoholic beverages for which I’m willing to pay over $3.

Back in the kitchen, just a little measuring, crumbling (by hand!), and flipping produced a nice golden tray of my very own granola, plus the aroma to prove it. Welcome to fall, now bring on the sweaters and scarves!