My littlest tenant (not Orville) is a bit too fond of my cooking and has been hoovering my food at an alarming rate this month. Tonight, I needed to put my foot down and cook the healthiest, most granola dinner I could think of and use up the bits & bobs from the fridge at the same time. After  googling random keywords like: chickpeas, asparagus and every sort of healthy whole grain I had in my pantry (quinoa, millet, couscous etc), I came across this brown rice and asparagus meal from 101 Cookbooks. PERFECT.

I set the brown rice on the stove as soon as I got home and let it cook away for 40 minutes. Heidi suggests using frozen brown rice - I have *never* seen that in a grocery store.. and frankly, ick. While the rice cooked away, I blended up a batch of gazpacho, prepped the veggies and whipped together the dressing for the rice.

Everything came together really nicely. I think there’s a little too much lemon juice in the dressing recipe or else I over-zested it - I needed to add a bit of honey to balance out the tartness. Other than that - I would definitely make the asparagus and brown rice dish again. Take that my little tenant/hoover.

Boyfriendly rating: 4/5 “Go easy on the lemon juice / zest”

Must run, my freeloading fur-tenant, Orville, just crashed into something. Cats are supposed to be graceful, no?

We picked up some fancy shaped pasta to make this dish (President’s Choice Memories of Piemonte Casarecce) just for something a bit different.  I’ve been keen to make this recipe since I saw the recipe posted over at Simply Recipes - it just seemed so easy and a guilt-free way to get a creamy pasta sauce.

The only thing we added to the recipe were sundried tomatoes.  We tossed them into the boiling pasta for the last few minutes to soften them up (we alway buy dry - never the oil-packed sundried tomatoes).  Just don’t ask how long we spent in the cheese section selecting the ricotta.  Let’s just say it was long enough to make the husband fidgety.

Boyfriendly (and peanut) rating: 5/5 and everyone went back for seconds.  Just be generous with the cracked pepper to serve.  Mmmm cracked pepper.

The boy tended to the meat and dessert for dinner and I forged ahead with a vegetable dish. I saw this recipe for a veggie shepherd’s pie over at BBC Good Food and thought it would be a good way to use up all of those carrots in our fridge.

I did skew from the recipe (as always!). I used fresh tomatoes and lentils instead of canned. It was an extra step to cook the brown lentils, but I prefer fresh. The canned ones are pretty mushy. I probably used more cheese than I was supposed to.. the recipe calls for 85g. I don’t have a scale, so I went with the “as much cheese as it takes to cover the pie” measurement. (Probably 3/4 cup.)

It’s definitely a keeper. The Sweet potato is my runner-up vegetable after parsnips. Don’t be alarmed by the ’safety orange’ colour of the cheese - it’s just really hard to take good photos at night in our kitchen.

In an effort to use every last vegetable from our vegetable box this week (and some other cupboard staples), I whipped up this soba noodle dish.

It was pretty good. The recipe that I found online didn’t call for peanuts or peanut butter, but I really think it needed some serious peanut action. I found the original sauce too orangey.  I think this recipe has a lot of potential if I can figure out the perfect peanut sauce for it.

Boyfriendly rating: 4/5

Ingredients for the peanut-ginger sauce 

• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2-3 tablespoons natural peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce

Ingredients for the Stir Fry

• 3 ounces buckwheat soba noodles
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 6 ounces extra-firm tofu cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 4 green onions sliced on the diagonal
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 2 grated carrots
• 1/4 pound snow peas
• 1/2 red bell pepper thinly sliced
• 6 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 4 ounces baby spinach (about 2 cups)
• Lime wedges
• Peanuts

Method

1. Combine all sauce ingredients in a small pan, using chili sauce to taste. Heat to a simmer and cook for 1 minute. Set aside.
2. Cook the soba noodles 1 minute less than directed on the package, drain and set aside.
3. Heat the sesame oil in a nonstick skillet or wok over high heat until hot.
4. Stir in the tofu, green onions, garlic, carrots, snow peas, peppers and mushrooms.
5. Stir fry for 2 minutes
6. Lower the heat to medium; add the sauce.
7. Stir in the spinach and soba noodles.
8. Cook just until the spinach wilts.

Serve immediately, garnished with peanuts and lime wedges.

In the quest to use up all of our carrots, I found this recipe for a carrot casserole.  It was easy to put together and fulfilled my two main requirements: carrots and cheese.  In the end, I think it was too eggy.  It tasted ok, but I don’t think this is going to become my staple carrot sidedish.  The search continues.

The quest to use up all of the vegetables from our veggie basket continues with a basic cauliflower and broccoli casserole.  When dinnertime rolled around, there were three main requirements for this meal: we needed to use up a head of cauliflower, a head of broccoli and there had to be cheese.. lots of cheese.

A quick Google search turned up this Cauliflower and Broccoli Cheesy Bake.  It easily fit all of my criteria.  Yay!

Putting it all together was pretty quick and painless.  Not.  On Sunday, I turned into Betty Butterfingers and dropped everything.  In the morning, I broke the bottle of maple syrup and dropped an egg on the floor.  For this recipe, I dropped cauliflower bits all over the floor as I tried to empty them into the garbage.  Disaster after disaster I tell you.

In the end, it looked great as it went into the oven.  And topped with homemade bread breadcrumbs to boot.  That new bread machine is the best toy ever.

And the final result?

Cheesey and gooey with a crispy topping.  I think it could have used more flavour.  It’s probably my fault - the recipe called for a sharp cheddar and I only had a mild cheddar on hand.  I also used cinnamon rather than nutmeg.  (After the potato muffins, I think nutmeg and I might be breaking up.)

Boyfriendly rating: 3/5  “cheesy, but probably not a keeper recipe”