Meatless Monday and the mindblowing legume

Meatless Monday: Black eyed peas, brown rice, roasted potatoes and kale - I'm getting good at this!

I can’t praise more highly the humble bean. Jack knew what was what when he traded the family cow for magic beans.

My birthday is in January, and Zach took me on a surprise trip to a cabin in West Virginia. Hot tub, screened porch, gas fireplace, soft bed. Need I say more? We got snowed in. Best. Birthday. Ever. On our way to the cabin, we stopped at a grocery store nearby for foodstuffs (I forgot to mention the kitchen). In addition to breakfast items and popcorn, we bought steaks and as an easy side, a can of black eyed peas. Later, when snow had locked us into our winter retreat, I cooked that can of beans to accompany the steaks and they tasted so heavenly.

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Reduce & Reuse: Delicious Scrap Veggie Stock!

I mentioned that I’d saved up fresh veggie scraps as part of my food expenses exercise. About three weeks worth provided me with bits and ends and scraps of zucchini, bell peppers, cilantro stems, a few mushrooms, turnips that went soft before I ate them,  spring onion ends and stems and a soft apple. (I stored them in in a tupperware in the freezer so they’d stay fresh.) With those ingredients, plus a little fresh garlic, salt and pepper and the recipe below, I made two quarts of delicious Scrap Veggie Stock. I used some in my black bean soup last night with excellent results. Overall, it took about 5 minutes of prep for cooking, and an hour of tending while it boiled. Once cooled, another five minutes to put it into jars. It’s now in the fridge ready for soups, sautees, rice, etc for the next couple of weeks.

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