House Spouse

Oh, wow. What’s it been, like 18 years since I last posted? Between picking up some extra hours at work for the summer and doing an independent study in reading French, I’m not so much busy as I am drained from having to employ so much self discipline for three months in order to accomplish anything. (I hope that sentence wasn’t so long and full of prepositional clauses that it was impossible to understand. Edit: I just went back and read that sentence and it wasn’t so bad after all. See, all this memorizing of the different ways to translate “celui, celle, ceux, celles” and all of the other relative, interrogative, disjunctive and demonstrative French pronouns has me thinking only in terms of grammar these days.) I did accomplish this lovely recipe some months ago, though, and never got around to posting. It’s simple, pleasant and refreshing.

Lemon Sesame Green Beans

Ingredients
(note: The amounts are approximations. In all honesty, I just added things until it tasted right.)
1 pint of green beans
1 tsp sesame oil
1-2 T olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 T honey
1 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Blanch the green beans in a pot of boiling water for about 1 to 2 minutes. Drain and rinse with very cold water or place in an ice bath. The beans should remain tender-crisp. While they are cooling, prepare the dressing: Whisk together the oils, lemon juice and honey. Add the salt to taste (the dressing should be just slightly bracing). Toss with the beans and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.

Although my fall semester begins in just a week, I do have a list of things to cook and post about. Here’s a preview: preparing dry beans (for Louisa), lemon layer cake (for me!), and Mexican salsas.

I made this slow cooker mac & cheese a couple weeks ago, and my reaction was mixed.

There’s not any dairy in this recipe which is interesting. The “cheese” sauce is made with white beans and cashews and while creamy and tasty, it doesn’t taste cheesy. For me, that’s a not-so-good thing. For others, I think the creamy texture is what they’re looking for in a mac & cheese dish.

This picture is actually the concoction that’s about to go into the slow cooker, which is unfortunate because I think this is when the dish was at its best.

I’m sharing the recipe because I do think this is one that’s worth trying. I will be tweaking it to my liking, because it could be a nice go-to for comfort food days.

Mac & Cheese Florentine
from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker

Ingredients:
8 oz elbow macaroni
10-oz package frozen chopped spinach (cooked and well drained)
2 T olive oil
1 med yellow onion, chopped
1/2 c unsalted, raw cashews
1 3/4 c ater
1 15-oz can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 T white miso paste
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp dry mustard
pinch of nutmeg
salt
1/2 c dry bread crumbs

Directions:
Cook the macaroni until al dente. Drain. Toss in the spinach and set aside.

Heat 1 T of oil in a medium skillet and sauté the onion. Set this aside.

Grind the cashews to a powder in a blender or food processor. Add 1 c of the water and blend until smooth. Add the onion, beans, miso paste, the rest of the water, the lemon juice, mustard and nutmeg and season with salt. Blend this until it’s smooth. Pour the sauce over the macaroni and spinach and mix well.

Transfer this to a lightly oiled crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 2 to 3 hours.

Before serving, sauté the bread crumbs in the remaining oil for 3 to 4 minutes or until they are toasty. Sprinkle these over the top of the casserole.

Recently, Andrew and I decided to really hunker down and start penny pinching. We have some financial goals that we weren’t really getting any closer to.

One of the biggest money drainers for us has been take out. Sometimes we get home from work and school and we’re just so tired and unwilling to make dinner. One way I’m fighting off this culprit: peanut noodles. I’m obsessed. They’re so tasty and easy and cheap! Just cook and drain noodles (soba, whole wheat, regular spaghetti), steam some broccoli (or any other veggies you’ve got on hand) and toss with a peanut sauce.
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