Fusilli with Green Lentils, Root Vegetables, and Parsley-Caper Puree

I cannot believe there was a time when I used to put bottled tomato sauce on my pasta. It's been years, but I still kinda cringe thinking about it.

Spring is approaching rapidly, so I'm trying to make unfamiliar recipes from the "Winter" section while it's still cold out. Tonight I opted for this pasta dish, which is truly delicious. I made it once a few years ago but then forgot about it. Silly me.

The sweet parsnips and carrots blend perfectly with the tangy lemon, caper, parsley sauce. And to make the meal even better, Jack also includes lentils that have simmered with garlic and bay leaves.

Flavor, nutrients, protein, and easy to make -- we're giving tonight's dinner 4 stars out of 5. Sometimes meals can weigh me down, but I feel great after this one.

New Orleans Red Beans and Rice

Well, tonight's dinner proves that sometimes cooking ability is important when making a recipe. While A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen is a cookbook of "easy" recipes, I made this dish when I first got the book years ago, and it kinda sucked. But because of my blog I thought I'd give it another try, and I have to say that I found the dish to be highly flavorful. I bet Tommie will agree when he eats it later tonight.

I doubled the amount of Tabasco sauce, but other than that I stuck with the ingredients as listed, which include carrots, celery, fresh oregano, and garlic. It's a simple meal to make, but I must not have seasoned it well enough the first time. Unsure what happened there.

Once again, Dr. Sanjay Gupta would approve of the rainbow of colors. So, for taste, nutritional value, and not a whole lotta chopping to do, I give this dish 4 out of 5 stars. I think I give a lot of dishes that rating. I worry that I'm stacking the curve too much with an exorbitantly high number of 4s and 5s, but it is my favorite cookbook, so one would hope there were a lot of tasty meals in it. So there you have it. 4 stars it is. 

Soba Noodles with Chard and Raisins

Ok. That's a fine looking picture! Dr. Sanjay Gupta would once again be proud -- so many colors! I opted for Rainbow Chard, which is just gorgeous. Each of the stems is a different color. You can see in the picture how some of the pieces are red and some are yellow, for example. One great thing about this recipe is that it calls for the whole chard piece, not just the leaves. You saute the chopped stems and then steam the leaves until they wilt.

We loved this dinner. Like last night's entree, I haven't made this one in years. My blog is motivating me to make a wider variety of recipes. Thanks to ME for that! :)

Though Tommie wanted to give this one a 5, I'm going to go with a 4. The flavors are fabulous -- raisins, chard, pine nuts, olive oil, green olives, garlic, and red pepper flakes combined with soba noodles. I went with wheat and buckwheat noodles, and they tasted great. My only issue with the dish was that the noodles were extremely starchy, which made a mushy sort of texture. I rinsed them after boiling them as directed, but maybe I need to stir them around the next time when I rinse. Something to work on...

Drunken Pinto Beans with Charred Onions and Chiles

A friend joined me for lunch today, and we decided to eat in. I've been putting off going to the grocery store for a few days, so my cupboards were almost bare, but I had just enough to make this Drunken Pinto Beans dish.

If you don't have much time to spend chopping this is a great dish, with only eight ingredients. The only things you have to chop are onions, hot pepper, and cilantro. Piece of cake.

I'm giving this dish 4 stars. Easy to make. Highly tasty. If you're looking for a simple and hard to mess up (unless your beer is skunked -- sorry about that time Tommie!), this one's worth trying.

Green Lentil and Roasted Vegetable Salad with Mustard-Tarragon Vinaigrette

For a salad, this is one fabulous dish. I've decided that roasted vegetables are my favorite food. I'd pick roasted vegetables over a cupcake even. It was a little hard to keep my hands away from the freshly roasted turnips and red onions so that there were enough left to combine with the lentils into the dressing. But, as you can see, I managed to control my desires and not just nosh on lightly browned, droolingly delicious, freshly roasted turnips.

Though this dish takes a while to make, it's very easy, and pretty much fool-proof. Oh, and I chose to use arugula for my tender green of choice. Me and POTUS have similar tastes in greens.

We're giving this dinner a 4. For a salad, it's a 5 hands down, but Tommie and I aren't the hugest salad fans. So, 4 stars it is.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Dried Cherries, Chard and Walnuts

We make this dish fairly often because it's hearty, tasty and healthy. In fact, it is the perfect carbo loading meal if you are an endurance athlete. Swiss chard (in this case rainbow chard) is extremely hearty, so when you combine it with the complex carb whole wheat pasta, you are fueling your body well. Add some garlic, dried cherries, and toasted walnuts, and now it's just plain tasty.

We give this dish 4 out of 5 stars. It's a wonderful meal, but a 5 star meal has to be one where I'm a little sad when I feel that my stomach is full, and I have to put down the fork. I wasn't sad tonight -- just happily sated.

Spicy Vegetable Tagine

I forgot the cilantro!!!!! I've made this dish many times -- it's easy, tasty, and highly nutritious, but when we sat down and started eating I felt like something was missing. When Tommie got up to clear the table he realized the chopped cilantro was still on the counter. It seems crazy, but to me the dish definitely suffered without it.

Fortunately our guests seemed to enjoy the meal despite the non-cilantro flavoring. Basing my rating solely on last night's meal, I give this dish a 4. That really reflects more my cooking than the actual meal. I can't believe I forgot the cilantro.

One more thing: our friends who ate with us are carnivores who don't often eat vegetarian meals and were surprised by how good the food made them feel. I read a question made by a nutritionist recently that seems apropos: "You wouldn't put the lowest grade fuel in your BMW, why would you do that to yourself?"