I’ve had some trouble getting enough protein.  Protein is not my favorite food group.  Whole grains, legumes (which yes, do give some incomplete protein), dairy, fruits and veggies I eat in almost over abundance.  But straight up protein?  It doesn’t come in many palatable forms.  Meats.  Nuts.  Fish.  Eggs.  I don’t mind any of these things, but when I’m given a choice, I’ll forget about them entirely.  So Andy has been leaving little protein presents around the kitchen hoping they’ll find their way into my lunches and snacks.  A can of cashews.  A cooked salmon burger that just needs reheated.  A container of boiled and shredded chicken.

This afternoon I poked into my kitchen looking for lunch items.  The bowlful of fresh honeycrisp apples caught my eye and I saw my chance.  I took that container of chicken and immediately whipped up some apple almond chicken salad.

It doesn’t take much to throw together.  I just finely diced up two small honeycrisp apples – leaving the peel on (a must), dumped some sliced almonds into a bowl, added the boiled diced chicken and the apples, and stirred in lowfat mayonnaise until it was my favorite level of chicken salad wetness.  (Sometimes I add a smidge of sugar, but usually the apples are sweet enough.)

I munched it stuffed in a flaky pita with a ripe nectarine and a handful of dried apricots to get some of that elusive iron, and there it was.  Yum.  Being pregnant is kinda healthy!

Through week 14 of my pregnancy (or so), I survived, culinarily speaking.  I lived in a world that knew no seasons and knew no regional vegetation boundaries.  I ate what could keep me alive and nausea-free, and whether that meant eating something flown in from some far flung locale that was covered in pesticides and ridiculously genetically over-produced to stay fresh while being horrendously overpriced… well, that really had nothing to do with me.  Give me my sliced canteloupe, man.

I lived on fresh fruit, toast with butter and preserves, cheese, crackers, and Kashi Island Vanilla cereal for two months.  I ate more strawberries and kiwi than the world is probably really able to produce in January (leaving me a little nervous as to where they were coming from, but only later once they were ingested).  Unfortunately, my list of edible foods tended to decrease rather than increase.

Then one magical day I began to suddenly envision a fresh tomato sandwich.  With mayonnaise.  And salt.  And extra cheese.  Andy searched high and low for decent tomatoes and came home with the most beautiful three roma tomatoes I have ever seen in. my. life.  The next day I awoke and began to make this dream of a delight when I nearly lost it in the cheese drawer.  I ended up with bread and cheese that day, rushing back to my bed to quell my nausea.

But the following day, I was determined.  I made that sandwich, and I ate it with relish.  Thus sparked a revolution.

Within about a week, I found myself dictating detailed grocery lists to Andy for his drive home from work without coming anywhere close to hurling over the thought of milk.  The lists were made up of 3/4 vegetables.  Andy bought me whatever spring and summer produce I wanted no matter how exorbitantly expensive, and I couldn’t keep myself out of the kitchen.

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of my latest obsession – vegetables.  There’s been cabbage and zucchini soup, tortellini with fresh tomatoes and sauteed asparagus, asparagus quiche, fresh steamed green beans, gemelli pasta with brightest green sauteed broccoli topped with fresh tomatoes, omelets filled with asparagus and carrots steeped in browned butter.

Apparently, pregnancy does not need to be the “cake fest” that I imagined it might be.  My hunger is beginning to come on with a vengeance and I’ll admit to indulging in ice cream and kit kat bars periodically.  But what I want late at night when my growling tummy demands a quick snack, is half of a fresh tomato wedged into a whole grain pita, possibly with cucumber tzatziki sauce.  Baby likes.

Please excuse me.  Andy brought home a crate of tomatoes on the vine (thank you Costco!!!) and they are calling my name.

I don’t often invent dishes from the bottom up.  I am the queen of finding a recipe and then just “altering” it beyond recognizability.  But a few weeks ago, I wanted something, I had to have it, and I knew what I wanted.  And it was not quite any recipe that I found.  And so I set out to realize my dream.

First, I started with some sliced garlic, onion (the base of all the best dishes).  I sauteed them in extra virgin olive oil until they were soft, and then I stirred in some roasted red peppers packed in oil I had drained, dried on paper towels and then sliced.  I let it all get hot and soft and brown and caramely and then I deglazed it with a good dash of red wine.  I then set it off to the side to cool.

Next, it’s time to make the sauce.  I used two cans of organic diced tomatoes and seasoned them – pepper, garlic salt, oregano, basil and, of course, a dash of red pepper flakes.  Then, I stirred in a third of a cup of roasted red pepper sauce I had canned in my pantry (I think that this is just pureed roasted red peppers).  I mashed the tomatoes a few times to thicken the sauce even more.

To finish the sauce, I stirred in about a quarter cup of heavy whipping cream.  I am not a fan of excess cream, so if you make this and want more, feel free to add it.  It made my sauce a dark orange with a bit of a decadent flavor without being overwhelming to the tomato and red pepper flavor.

At some point in the process, I’d cooked up a big batch of gemelli pasta, using salt and a dash of olive oil in the cooking water to give it flavor and keep it from getting too sticky.  This is my favorite style of pasta, and it was perfect for this dish – it tastes so chewy and decadent and looks fancy.

Then, I just tossed it all together!  I cooked a full box of gemelli, but I used maybe half of it.  I started by putting pasta in a dish and adding all the sauce.  I continued to add pasta until it was the consistency I liked.  Then, I stirred in all the caramelized veggies, stirred in a good dose of parmesan cheese, and voila!

This tastes great with extra parmesan on top, and I think next time I might add crumbled breakfast or Italian sausage to give it some heft – it would probably even taste good with some grilled chicken cubed and stirred in.  This is a great side dish for meat or main dish for us wanna-be-vegetarians.

My only regret is that I didn’t have any fresh basil to chiffonade and top the dish.  But next time, right?  :)

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

8-10 oz. gemelli pasta, cooked al dente
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 jar roasted red peppers packed in oil, drained and dried with paper towels, sliced
1/3 cup red wine
2 13 oz cans diced tomatoes
garlic salt, pepper, dried basil, dried oregano, and red pepper flakes to taste
1/3 cup roasted red pepper sauce (pureed roasted red peppers)
1/4+ cup heavy whipping cream (to taste)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft.  Add sliced red peppers and cooked until caramelized.  Deglaze the pan with red wine and allow alcohol to burn off; set aside.

Combine tomatoes, spices, and red pepper sauce in a saucepan just until boiling, stirring frequently and mashing the tomatoes periodically.  Add heavy whipping cream, allow to warm, and remove from heat.

Combine pasta, vegetables, sauce, and grated parmesan cheese in a dish.  Top with extra parmesan cheese and fresh basil if desired.  Serve!

It’s time for Christmas cooking, and of course to most people round this blogosphere that means cookies.  But not for me.

I’ll admit that I love cookies as much as the next person.  But not only does my Mom have an extremely full freezer of cookies at the family home, but I completely bombed my favorite recipe of spice cookies last week, the ones that I promised on Twitter to photograph and put up.  Yeah.  No.  They tasted like black pepper flavored hockey pucks.

So I turn to my tried and true culinary love – muffins.  The perfect junction of cake, bread, and cookies.  Admit it, you could use some special holiday muffins.  You’ll have guests, and ravenous husbands/wives and children and you’ll need snacks and breakfasts and dinner sides that are NOT of the cheese and crackers or cookie varieties.

Up first, Almond White Chocolate Muffins.  I was describing these to my brother over lunch and said that they were the “taste of a dream.”  F eyed me up and said “I didn’t know that dreams had flavors.”  Oh, they do.  They do.  And I’m here to introduce you to the delights that will replace sugar plums in your dreams.

A few headnotes: my ingredient directions below are very specific… simply because these specific ingredients will make your muffins turn out not just the healthiest, but the BEST.  Substitutions result in a slightly inferior product… but owing just to the bliss of these muffins, they’ll still be simply incredible.  If you’re going to substitute anything, I would recommend:

• all-purpose flour for the white whole wheat
• 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup white sugar for the raw sugar
• full fat sour cream for the Greek yogurt
• if you use sour cream, add one extra tablespoon of butter

Next time, I’m going to stir in a half a cup of dried cherries.  Yum.

Almond White Chocolate Muffins

1 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
2/3 cup raw sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
4 T butter, melted
1 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Whisk the dry ingredients (except the chips) together; whisk the wet ingredients together.  Mix till incorporated – mixture will be very thick and hard to mix.  Fold in the chips.  Spoon into muffin tins and bake at 350 for 18 minutes.  Don’t overbake!

I like my kitchen a lot.  Seriously.  And I’ll admit that even though I end up with SAD every winter like most other women out there, I really do enjoy drawing the curtains against the dark and cold, flipping on the low lighting and cooking away at something warm and spicy.  With that as my excuse, I am going to apologize in advance for the poor quality of these photos.  Just enjoy the food and imagine being in my warm kitchen with the smell of warm butter and that amazing sound of popping, sizzling food.  Imagine me wrapped up in an apron and bent over a stovetop lit only by a surface light and with about sixteen wooden spoons and pans scattered everywhere making delicious food just for you.

Here we go.  One of the best benefits to my new kitchen is that I actually have room for stocking up on pantry items.  I have this cabinet that is even bigger that it looks that I can dedicate entirely to canned goods and a few overflowing boxed goods from my other even bigger (yes!) large cabinet devoted to dry goods.  Oh and Mrs. J, if you read this, that red rice cooker you gave me at my bridal shower has been the single most used appliance in my kitchen from Day One.

This plethora of ready ingredients plus a well-stocked freezer (thanks Dad and Brother F for the venison) means that I can decide day-of what I feel like cooking for dinner.  This is simply awesome because it means I can actually produce side dishes, that I absolutely never remember to plan or buy for.

So I’m going to share with you some awesome, pathetically easy side dishes from last night – beans and zucchini.

These mexican beans may be something that everybody makes and I just don’t know it, but I did mostly invent them in my own kitchen after being able to only ever order the enchilada plate at the Cheesecake Factory because they had these incredible black beans alongside it.  I cannot tell you the bliss of realizing that I don’t have to pay $16 plus tax plus tip for this anymore and I can have them oh, about once a week.

Start by draining (not rinsing) a can of black beans and plopping them into a heavy bottomed sauce pan.  Then plop in a 10-oz can of Rotel diced tomatoes and chiles (a regular can of diced tomatoes would be way too much, trust me).

Take the following spices, which just happen to be my most favorite spices in the entire world, and sprinkle them in to taste (I go pretty heavy, especially on the oregano which simply makes the beans).

Then, all you have to do is stir ‘em, boil ‘em, and once they’re good and hot, grab a big spoon or potato masher and mash most of ‘em to pulp, then turn them onto low and let ‘em cook while you make the rest of your meal.  They’ll get deliciously thick.  Easy, right?  They’re going to look like this horrible picture while they’re cooking (remember, picture the smells and heat emanating from this pan!):

Then grab yourself one zucchini and slice it into half moons:

Goodness, zucchini is probably the most awesome vegetable out there.

This here, this is the best part of cooking.  Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter and 1/2 tablespoon olive oil together in a heavy pan (cast iron would be best but I just don’t have one yet – Christmas, Mom???):

Yes.  This is why Andy loves coming home from work every day.  Warm kitchen, warm wife, warm butter and oil in a pan.

Let that zucchini sizzle for a good long time:

Until it starts to look like this:

Blacken it, baby, and it won’t need any spices.

Then whip yourself up some huevos rancheros using corn tortillas.  I had every intention of photographing this for you but two things happened – Andy tried to flip one and ended up getting egg all over the stovetop so I had to take over, and two, my camera battery died after two photos so you will just have to wait until next time for this my absolute favorite egg dish.  And this is what you will, finally, end up with, in your cozy low-lit dining room:

I love making these beans alongside eggs because one really can only eat so many eggs and I, personally, still need some heartiness after I’m egged out.  Honestly, Andy and I eat the entire pot of black beans between the two of us with veggies and a couple of eggs to supplement.  That might seem like a lot for you all and I’ll bet that if you serve them with meat or something else they could easily serve 4-6 people.

Mexican Black Beans:

Pinch of garlic salt
Pinch of pepper
Pinch of oregano
Pinch of cumin
Pinch of chipotle powder (chipotle is key – you want that smoky flava!)
10-oz can of Rotel tomatoes with diced green chiles
1 can black beans, drained but not rinsed

Put everything together in a pot and bring to a good boil.  Mash most of the beans to form a pulpy mass and turn to low to cook until it is thick like mashed potatoes.  Enjoy.

Zucchini:
This is so shamefully easy I can’t even post a recipe.  Just blacken it, honey.