Some Delicious Meals

Hello! I hope this post finds you healthy.  I thought today I'd share some delicious meals I've been eating during our safter at home time.  I must say since I do have some more time in my day I've been enjoying some pretty delicious food.  I'm also very lucky to have several local farmers that I shop from as well as relatively well stocked grocery stores when I do go. Luckily, cooking has always been a hobby of mine so the fact that I can do more is okay with me.  On with the eats...

Breakfast: Avocado toast with sunny side up egg, spinach and micro greens.  I used my homemade bread, yum and served it with a mango - a nice change of pace.

Scrambled eggs, topped with sauerkraut, kale salad, spelt banana bread and a kiwi.  

Lunch: Lentil salad with vinaigrette, tuna, celery, olives and capers.  This was nice and briney and kept me full until dinner which is  along time. 

Mini baked flaffels.  I served these with a quick sauce of cottage cheese mixed with dill, garlic powder and salt and pepper.  On the side I had pickled veggies and some local hot house tomatoes.  What a treat!

Sunday lunch outside! Tuna Spanish fritata, topped with those same tomatoes and kale salad. I also enjoyed a glass of wine in the 60 degree sunshine! Yippee!

Dinner: Red wine spaghetti with red onions and sausage. I served it with local salad greens and red wine.  This was a great way to start the weekend. Again something a little different, and new.  I think next time I might ask my husband to make homemade pasta for this.  

It's morel season! Chicken thighs with peas, ramps and morels.  I served this with wild rice and roasted parsnips - since I had some left in my veggie drawer. 

Sunday dinner was mac and cheese and celery salad.  I'll post the recipe and thought for the celery salad later this week.

I hope I have left you with some inspiration in the kitchen.  

Bon Appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

52 for 52 Week 16

Hello! I hope you are staying healthy, both mentally and physically.  That is something I pray for everyday in my family.  Well finally the weather is starting to get a little more spring like.  We're working on tilling our garden and new spring veggies are showing up at my local farmer stand.  Yippee!  As I mentioned in past posts my daughter Madeleine needs to eat grain free.  So I'm always looking for recipes that either are grain free, that the whole family would like, or recipes that I can easily convert to grain free.  We always call this Madeleine friendly food.   This last week is my grain free version of almond encrusted tilapia   from 100 days of Real Food.  I'll be honest I had to make the sauce twice because the first time the phone rang and I burnt it. Oops! However if you have all the ingredients its super easy to put together a second time.  

Almond Encrusted Tilapia with Modified Beurre Blanc

1/4 cup white wine or dry vermouth

2 T cream - divided

1 stick of butter - divided

4-5 tilapia filets (I bought mine frozen)

1 egg -beaten

1 cup or a little less of almond flour - just enough to dredge the fish

fresh Parmesan - about 1/4 cup

salt and pepper to taste. 

1. Pour white wind and 1 T cream into a small saucepan over medium heat.  Cook gently until it is reduced by half.

2. Meanwhile dredge the fish in the egg and the almond flour mixture

3. Heat a large skillet with 2 T of butter and start to cook the fish - you'll get a brown crust.  Wipe out the pan and add more butter to cook the remaining round of fish if everything doesn't fit into the pan at once.  When you flip the fish if you would like add a small bit of fresh Parmesan cheese on the top.  It is very yummy. 

4. While the fish is cooking check your sauce, and add 1 T of cream and then 4 T butter. Keep sauce on very low heat and whisk until nice and thick. 

5. The fish is done when it flakes or just a bit before, remember there is carry over cooking time.  Remove from heat and top with the sauce.

I served it with roasted local red cabbage and roasted potatoes.  We served our house chardonnay to drink. 

Bon Appétit and stay well,

and as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Art During Quarantine

Hello! As I mentioned in a past post I'm really trying hard to include time in my day for creative pursuits.  One of my favorite is drawing and painting.  I've always loved art.  I have a B.A. in Art History, and I've always loved painting. Honestly it is something I've always tried to do more.  Well now I have time.  I thought I'd share some sketches etc. that I've been working on in the afternoons.  

I picked some daffodils so I would have something lovely in the house when it was cold outside.

First time using Prismacolor pencils. I'm a fan.

Charcoal and pencil

Gouache watercolor - I love the bright pigments

Bookmarks with Gouache 

Charcoal -bananas on the counter

Oil pastels and charcoal 

What creative pursuits have you been doing?

Stay healthy

and as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Fruits and Veggies during Quarantine

Hello!  I'm truly thankful to say that fresh fruit and vegetables are not things we are lacking in our grocery stores. I know some people are, but thankfully we are not.  Honestly for the most part I eat local fruits and veggie that I grow or get from my farmers' market. Right now I have a great farmer who delivers to our door!  Thanks Rick!  So last Sunday my eldest daughter, Madeleine, and I thought can we still eat 30 different varieties in a week, after reading about a 30 day post in Eating Well magazine.   We decided you needed to eat about 1/4 cup of something to merit putting it on the list.  We did it.  She finished 2 meals before I did, but I still did it.  I thought I'd share some meals where I sneaked in a few more varieties.

Here's the list -

Lunch ideas: leftover pizza from the week before that I topped with olives, mushrooms and spinach. I served it with kale salad and 1/4 c radishes.  

Another day- quinoia veggie sauté. I do this alot.  The new veggie was snap peas that needed to be used soon and pea shoots. (I also had more mushrooms and spinach)

Breakfast - Harissa baked eggs. (There are bunch of tomatoes in the sauce). We served it with socca, a chickpea flour bread. This was really yummy. 

Dinner - A double veggie of roasted brussel sprouts and cranberries, from my freezer.  I served it with hummus baked chicken and pasta with lemon cream.  My husband made homemade pasta. 

Some other ideas include smoothies (we had 2 different types over the week), of course a snack, omelets with veggie filling and fruit on the side, and a fruit based dessert. Yes I think it counts.  

Give it a try!

As always with love from the Midwest and stay healthy and safe,

Beth 

Easter Menu and 52 for 52 Week 15

Hello! I hope you are all doing well.  It's blustery cold here today, but that's nothing new for northeast Wisconsin in April.  2 years ago we got 2 feet of snow; so I guess I should be thankful.  Sunday was Easter and since it rained and snowed all day what else was there to do but to eat well, read, watch some TV and be creative.  I thought I do a combo post of my Easter eats and new recipes.  The whole day was an ode to spring. 

Breakfast: Cinnamon Rolls, fruit and hard boiled eggs. The cinnamon rolls are super easy so I prepped them the day before,  pulled them out of the fridge while I went on a morning walk and then cooked them for 20 minutes.  We get local eggs and thought about dying them with natural dyes, yet the brown shells made us think better of it.  Who knows what color we'd get. I always pick up favorite candy for the family.  This year the girls wanted to try HU brand chocolate, yummy! and my boys (husband and son) love their jellybeans from Starburst.  

Lunch: Kale salad with pea shoots, first radishes of the spring, carrots, apples, smoked salmon and avocado.  I made a lemon miso dressing.  

Dinner: New recipe - lemon roasted chicken with roasted potatoes and I served it with steamed broccoli.  I've never roasted lemons before in the oven and they gave a great flavor to this dish along with the honey at he end. It was really easy, just took a little time. However most of the cooking was hands-off so no big deal.  It gave me some time to sit with my glass of wine and read. This is an easy make for a dinner party. It can mostly be done ahead of time. 

Dessert: New recipe as well.  Flourless chocolate cake.  This was super rich, yet easy to prepare. It is perfect if you are feeding a larger group of people.  I still, today is Tuesday, have 2 servings left for dessert.  My middle daughter, Sophie, and I will enjoy it tonight.  Again another must make ahead so easy for a dinner party - when we get to see people again in person. 

I hope you are inspired to cook up something delicious this week. Bon Appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth

52 for 52 Week 14

Hello!  Happy Friday to you all.  I hope you are all doing well both physically and mentally.  For this week's new recipe I have a grain free fruit crisp.  There were a couple of unusual ideas in here for me.  First the choice of fruits was just a little different: clementines, apples and cranberries.  We subbed frozen blueberries for blackberries since I still have some from last year in my freezer. No pomegranate seeds around so we did without.   We also used a grain free granola topping so my eldest could eat it.  Since I served it as a breakfast there was no extra yogurt topping.  This was delicious and a great way to use up extra fruit that might be in your freezer from last year especially if you are like me and froze a lot of fruits. We served this with local scrambled eggs and local micro greens. Delicious! 

Bon Appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest, 

Beth 

Eats and More during Safter at Home.

Hello!  Have you found a rhythm to your day yet? I have; see this recent post.  It just looks a little different yet in a way similar to my summers.   The only exception is that I have everyone at home, and I haven't for a while.  

Here are some delicious recipes my eldest daughter and I have been trying.  She likes to make lunch a few days out of the week for me.  I love this.  I try something new and don't have to cook 3 meals everyday.  

Lunches: Carrot miso soup with hummus deviled eggs.  I loved these eggs.  I really don't care for mayo that much and henceforth don't care for deviled eggs.  These were a game changer.  

Tomato white bean soup.  I served it with some leftover kale salad, artichokes from a previous dinner and roasted brussel sprouts. 

Breakfasts: I love my local eggs.  Chanterelle omelet topped with micro greens, peach muffins and apple slices.  

Waffles topped with peanut butter, hemp and flax seeds, banana and maple syrup.  This kept me full all morning.  I also swapped about 1/4 buckwheat flour for white flour in the waffles.

Dessert: Pink lemonade cupcakes.  Both the cupcakes and the frosting had a great lemon kick. I found this recipe in an older cookbook of mine, Dessert of the Day by William Sonoma.  

What I've watched:  Just Eat It. This is a documentary about a couple who lives off of food waste for 6 months.  It really made me think about the state of my fridge and pantry.  

What I read: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.  I love it.  This is a great spring break read. 

I hope your week has been treating you well and that you are staying well.

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

52 for 52 Week 13

Hello all!  I hope this post finds you well.  We're staying home and going for walks, runs and bike rides like most people around here.  Luckily for the moment the weather has been lovely, 50 degrees and sunny, so that helps a lot.  With all of the extra time on my hands my son suggested that we make Poutine for lunch one day.  This is not my usual lunch fare, but why not? It sure is good comfort food.   If you don't know what Poutine is it is a Canadian specialty of french fries, cheese curds and gravy. So one day the two of us had a lunch of Poutine.  

For Poutine

French fries - I just used oven baked fries. Super easy

Cheese Curds

Gravy

Gravy: 

2 T cornstarch 

1 1/2 T water

mix together and set aside.

Make a roux:

4 T butter - 

3 T flour

2 cups beef broth - I tried with chicken, but I would like heartier taste

Melt the butter in a sauce pan and then add the flour.  Bring the ingredients together and let cook for about 1 minute.  Slowly add the beef broth.  Bring to a boil and let the gravy thicken.  When it looks to be done add the cornstarch mixture to thicken up the gravy even more.

To serve:

Place hot fries in a large bowl or platter and top with a bit of gravy. Stir this around to get every fry covered.  Add the cheese curds so they melt a bit and and add more gravy to your preference.  Enjoy!

This could be made with may styles of potatoes, cheese curds and various sauces, even tomato.  

Stay well and safe,

and as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Anatomy of a Safer at Home Day

Hello! I hope this post finds you well.  I love my lists and a minor schedule in my life.  I don't like to be super busy ever! However I know I need a bit of structure in my day.  It does help that I teach online and have virtual office hours I need to keep.  But I thought I'd share what the rest of the day looks like. 

6:00 am - Yup I'm still up early.  I either run 3-5 miles or do yoga in my basement.  

7:30 am - I'm usually ready for breakfast.  I make some coffee for the household and figure out what delicious food I want.  Today steel cut oats in the crock pot. I served it with frozen local cherries from last year, peanut butter, 1/2 a baked apple and chia & hemp seeds.  Yummy!

8-9 am I get ready for the day.  Honestly I try to not lounge around in my yoga or running clothes all day.  However it doesn't always work.  

9-11:30 am I work.  Teaching French at home is a lot different, but I'm adjusting. 

11:30- 1 pm I make lunch and relax.  For this lunch my daughter made me cauliflower fried rice which we served with PB toast for a bit more protein.  I also just take time to read and if there is an essential errand to run I do it usually now.  

1-3 pm I'm back to work.

3- 4 pm A walk.  Usually I go with my husband and our oldest daughter.  It's always good to get some fresh air. We go for either a mile or 2, depending on the weather. 

4-6:30 pm -Art, knitting or reading time or a combination of the three. Most days I get my art supplies out and do something.   

6:30 pm Yup its wine time! I pour my self a glass of wine and then start making dinner.  I set the table like this every night, candles and we listen to relaxing music.  Tonight's dinner was mac and cheese with roasted brussel sprouts and shredded carrots, for more veg! We have dinner around 7:30. 

8-10 pm - Sometimes we linger at the dinner table a little longer if we are discussing something, but if not we watch a little TV or a movie or more likely my husband and I read together.  At 10 pm I'm off to bed.  I might as well be well rested.

What is your day like?  

Stay safe and well.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth