2 Days of dinner!

Last night I got home late from teaching and Musty was starving... so he wanted to make pasta with red sauce. That is his favorite thing in the whole world. It's not my favorite, but it is quick... so I went along with his plan. For the red sauce we used one of the extra jars of homemade sauce that we had left over from a few nights ago. Yum! I also put some of Gopal's Rawmesan on my pasta. It's made with walnuts, pine nuts, nutritional yeast, and salt. I really like it. Also, I cut up some carrots and some orange bell pepper for a few veggies on the plate!
Tonight I had a bit more time and I made a recipe that I've had my eye on for a few days, Green Paella. The recipe is from a fun cookbook called "The Big Little Vegetarian Cookbook" that my friend Geraldine got me a while back. One thing I like about it is that every recipe has a picture. I think I'll make a few more things from it this week. I was inspired to pick it up after talking in the comments with Jen about how I tend to use the same cookbooks over and over.

Well, the Paella turned out great! It's full of veggies: green bell pepp, spinach, peas, tomatoes, onion, garlic, pine nuts, saffron, veggie stock, rice, ... and all cooked up together. Really nice. Here's the recipe:

ingredients:
1 lb fresh spinach
2 onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
2 T pine nuts
1 dried red chile, crumbled (seeded for less spicy)
8 oz tomato, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded & sliced
1 1/4 c arborio rice
S & P to taste
1 t sweet paprika
1/2 t saffron, soaked in 1 c boiling water for 15 min
2 3/4 c. veggie broth
3/4 c peas (frozen is fine)

Wash the spinach, and then cook it up with just the water left on the leaves until it's all wilted (5-7 minutes). Drain, squeeze out any excess moisture, and chop up. Set it aside.

Saute the onions and garlic in the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat until the garlic is pale gold. (I reduced the oil from 6 T to 1 T and just used a little water to continue cooking the onions and garlic).

Add the pine nuts and chile, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Lower the heat, and add the tomatoes & bell pepper. Cook for 6 minutes, stirring often. Add the rice and saute for a minute or two. Season with a little S&P, then add the Paprika, saffron water, and the stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed... stirring occasionally so the rice doesn't stick.

Add the spinach and peas and mix well. Cook for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover, and let rest for 5 minutes.

Serves 4. Yum!!