Coming out of a winter food rut, I’m thrilled that our CSA with Care of the Earth Farms starts delivering on April 11. It will provide a bounty of fresh cooking inspiration.
I’m always asking my farmer friend (AKA Farmer Megan) what she made for dinner last night, with the same produce she grew, harvested and delivered to my door. So in reverse, I’m going to start doing a weekly post spotlighting what my family ate for dinner – featuring a meal we all liked.
But before I share my first “What we ate for dinner last night” post, I should explain a bit about how dinner works at our house, which I’m sure other moms can relate to.
Meals have to be doable in a short amount of time, using mostly what I have on hand seasonally, and in my kitchen (meaning no rare, complicated ingredients). I have to be able to make it while overseeing the happenings of three children during the most challenging pre-dinner parenting hour when bellies are hungry and brains are tired. There has to be at least one thing that I know everyone in my family will eat, where some of us are vegetarians and some of us are not. Everyone has to eat at least one serving of vegetables.
I strive to have dinner made by 6:30 and we all eat together as a family as soon as my husband walks in the door from work. I’m a stickler about eating together. It’s important to me.
Here’s what we ate for dinner last night
Amy’s California Veggie Burger, cooked in a panini maker with cheese, sautéed onions and fresh spinach. First put some chopped onions on the panini maker to sauté them. Remove them and then put in the frozen veggie burgers. Once cooked, remove them, and add burgers, onions and cheese to a whole wheat hamburger bun. Return the whole thing to the panini maker like you would a grill cheese sandwich. Then remove and add fresh spinach, ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise if you like. Some women love their crockpots – I love my panini maker! Lots and lots. Link for Amy’s California Veggie Burger with no soy.
Broiled asparagus. Simply yummy. Cut ends off asparagus, put on cookie pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Broil on high for five minutes. We eat them up like our favorite potato chips.
Boiled corn and blanched brocoli. I try to avoid over cooking veggies, so they retain as much nutritional value as possible. While waiting for the corn water to come to a full roaring boil, I threw in some broccoli for about five minutes. Then I cooked the corn in the same water for about seven minutes.
On the side, for the kids, I made a box of Annie’s mac and cheese plus one “cheese burger” with a bun and melted cheese in the panini maker. All the kids had servings of all the vegetables and a glass of whole milk by the local Cruze Farm.
It was a nothing fancy, quickly come together organic dinner. It made us all happy.
