Don't Get Saucy with Me

I am truly smitten with Smitten Kitchen.  Deb is my writing hero, a talented chef, and totally reminds me of my family in that she's witty and culturally Jewish and such a New Yorker.  In a good way.  AND she posts pictures of her utterly edible baby.  Too much.

Anyway, Deb tends to bake a lot, which makes for great food porn, but also would make me fat if I followed suit.  I love baking, but I avoid it because then I'd have to eat it.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a splurger.  I splurge all the time.  Probably to the point where it's not really a splurge anymore, and more like an indulgent lifestyle.  But whatever.  I am 80% very healthy eater and 20% sweet toothed fanatic.  I like dessert and that's fine.  There's just a difference between happily accepting a homemade cookie from a friend and happily accepting the entire pan of brownies that just came out of the oven.  Hence, I don't bake much.

So, of course, when Deb posted this recipe for tomato sauce, I was kvelling.  Easy, savory, and Deb-approved?  Count me in.  She says it all so well, so I won't repeat, but in case you didn't follow the link, the only ingredients are canned tomatoes (perfect for the winter time "no-tomatoes-anywhere" blues), onion, butter, salt (optional).  And pasta of course.  I ended up at Trader Joe's the day I bought ingredients for this dish, which meant little variety in the canned tomato arena.  Trader Joe's is wonderful, but comprehensive it is not.  I ended up with pre-salted canned tomatoes with basil.  It didn't taste way too salty or anything, and I just didn't add any extra to the sauce, but I would have liked a more pure tomato base for such a purist sauce.

I served this with steamed broccoli and some happy delicata squash, which happens to be my new favorite variety.

I have also been on a Mexican kick as of late.  I can't stop thinking about my veggie burrito from SF, and I was determined to replicate it on a much less football sized scale.  And so we have...

Mexican spiced pot of veggies!  Here is my sorta-recipe:

One Pot Veggie Burritos

1 tbsp olive or canola oil

2 small carrots, sliced into rounds (I used yellow and purple carrots from the Farmer's market)

1 cup (or more) sliced crimini mushrooms (about 10 mushrooms)

1 small yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3-4 cups spinach

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 tsp Mexican seasoning (I have a pre-fab sample from a Mexican restaurant, but if you need to mix your own, use some combo of cumin, paprika, and chili powder)

Tortillas of choice

yogurt and salsa for topping

Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan.  Add onions and garlic and sautee for 2-3 minutes.  Add carrots and sautee for another 4-5 minutes.  Add mushrooms and sautee for about another 3 minutes, or until everything seems almost done but not quite.  At this point add the spinach, a splash of water to help steam the spinach a little, stir everything together, cover the pot and allow to simmer for about 3 minutes.  Stir everything again to help the spinach wilt evenly.  Add the beans and seasoning.  You don't need to cook them long -- just enough to heat through, about another 4 minutes, covered.  Voila!  I topped mine with plain yogurt and salsa verde, but obviously anything goes.  I bought some cheddar cheese and avocado  for the leftovers, which definitely stepped it up a notch, although was significantly more calorie dense.

I have some news to get to in a bit, but that will be a separate post.  Today is kind of a special day... it's my 25th birthday!  Yikes!  Entering the quarter century club... my, oh my.  It's a beautiful day here in NY (totally lying, it's nasty out), and I have big plans for the evening.  Will obviously update later.  Adios!