Minified Meals: Mushroom Asparagus Frittata

This only sounds complicated. In truth, it’s a meal you can make in 10 minutes (with cleanup) that looks and tastes like it took much longer. In addition to a big cast iron pan (the most indispensable kitchen tool ever), you’ll need:

• One bunch asparagus
• One large handful of mushrooms (I like baby bellas)
• (substitute any seasonal vegetables you prefer for the above)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• cayenne pepper (a generous pinch)
• 8 eggs
• Goat cheese (to taste – I use a good handful)

Yup. It’s a lot of eggs. Now, preheat your broiler on high.

In your cast iron, over medium-high heat, saute your veggies in oil for a quick minute. You want them to still be crisp/crunchy, because they’re going to cook more. Whisk your eggs and pour them in with the veggies, top with your spices, and cook until they’re just starting to firm up on the outside (about 3 minutes). Drop pinches of the goat cheese on top of the frittata and pop it into the over for another three minutes or so. It should be firmed up and golden on top, and it should smell amazing!

That’s all there is to it. Simple and lovely and perfect for when you want a filling meal in a hurry. I make it for our dinner and then we eat it the next day for breakfast or pack it in our lunch. The goat cheese and cayenne balance each other out so perfectly, and it’s almost as good cold as it is hot.

pofta buna!

Minified Meals:Warm Bean Salad

Last night, I made a dinner that I thought was both satisfying and filling, so I thought I’d share, with the caveat that J didn’t love it nearly as much as I did (he’s too polite to say so, but we’ve known each other a really long time – there’s no fooling me now). As vegetarians, we have to be careful to make sure we’re getting enough whole protein (including all of our essential amino acids). One way to get whole protein is with a combination of beans and corn. I had already had popcorn for a snack,so last evening, I wanted to make sure we ate some beans to get our whole protein for the day. Here’s what I whipped up from scratch:

• 1 can Cannellini Beans
• I can Kidney Beans
• splash of vinegar
• splash of olive oil
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper

Combine in a cast iron sauce pan and stir gently over medium heat. After 5 minutes, add

• Heaping tablespoon Dijon Mustard
• Tablespoon dried dill

Continue to cook until warmed through and beans are as tender/crunchy as you like them.

Optional for the non-vegans in the crowd: add chopped boiled egg or goat cheese after removing from heat.

Enjoy!

Minified Meal: Herbed Spaghetti Squash with Parmesan

Tonight for dinner, I made the best Minified Meal yet. (I know. I’ve only posted 2. The others haven’t been Minify-worthy). But tonight I hit the nail on the head!This one takes a little bit more planning ahead than my usual frenetic, improvisational meals, but it had relatively few ingredients, was from scratch, and took about 10 minutes of active cooking (plus an hour of writing a paper while the squash baked), so I think it fits the parameters of this month’s project.

As my husband can attest, I hate pasta. Not all pasta, but definitely a majority of it. I don’t know why. Pasta always makes me feel worse instead of better, if that makes any sense. This makes my husband, a great pasta lover, sort of sad. But I’m always looking for a creative compromise. Tonight, instead of spaghetti (disgusting!) I made spaghetti squash (delicious!) I’m calling it Scarborough Fair Spaghetti Squash, and not only for the virtues of alliteration (although I am both a literature geek and easily entertained, so alliteration is a definite bonus). Read the list of ingredients and you’ll get the idea.

Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• Salt and Pepper
• Parsley
• Sage (I used fresh, because I happen to be growing some. It was DELICIOUS)
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Parmesan (all herbs and seasonings are to taste – I did maybe 1/2 tsp per herb plus 2 Tbsp. parmesan)

Get it? Scarborough Fair? No? That’s okay. Take a moment to get caught up on your classic folk music and then read the rest of the recipe.

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Slice the squash lengthwise, place it sliced ends down in a pan of water (the water should come about halfway up the squash) and cover it with foil. Bake it for about 45 minutes. Then flip the squash so it’s sliced side up, cover with foil again, and bake for another 15 minutes or so. Take it out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes, and then scoop the guts out (the seed part with the slimy pulp and liquid). You should be left with an inch or two of squash flesh. Use a fork to pull this out (it will spaghetti-fy before your very eyes). Heat it in a pan with all the rest of the ingredients, saving the parmesan for the very end) and then serve hot.

Enjoy!

Confession: I didn’t have any actual thyme, so I skipped it. I just really liked the Scarborough Fair concept because I thought it would make it easy to remember the recipe next time! If you want to make it exactly like I did, skip the thyme, be generous with the parmesan, and serve it with a glass of red wine! Pofta buna, prieteni mei!