back to work

well, maternity leave was great. me, j. and p. all hanging out together, every day for 10 weeks! naps, flip flops, not knowing what day it is and laughing about it. but now it's back to the real world. j. is back to work, and i worked mon and tues this week, then i'm back full time next monday. i was super, super depressed about taking p. to day care. j. and i checked out at least 6 different child care centers and only found one that we even considered taking him to. it's really a beautiful place, the staff is super, super friendly and they are all so nice to p. that i feel better about it. i wish i could stay home with him and work at the same time, i miss being my own person but it was dreadful to be at work without him. the last half an hour went so slow and i was giddy with excitement to go pick him up.

anyway, back to food. i've cooked dinner a few times in the last few days, namely two dishes. the first one was chilli, which i made with yves meat crumbles. i've never tried to cook with them before, j. and i aren't really big on the fake meat usually. i thought they were good, j. had to warm up to them. we agreed that the texture was pretty authentic but j. thought they had no taste and that weirded him out a bit. that said, he took chilli to work for lunch and we also ate it for dinner too. i took canned black beans, pinto beans and kidney bean, rinsed them and then heated them in some veggie broth. i added a large canned of stewed tomatoes, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano and parsley. i sauteed some onion and garlic and added those and the meat crumbles to the pot. i just heated everything to boiling and then simmered it until we were ready to eat. it made about 6-8 servings, depending on the size of your bowls.

then last nite i made pasta and tried to use up some veggies that were going bad. i used green beans and mushrooms, i also threw in some fennel. now, i've never cooked with fennel before and only knew how to cut it because i saw it on the food network. i think the pieces were too big and i may not have cooked them long enough, although they added a good texture being kind of crunchy against my beans, pasta and shrooms. anyway, i sauteed garlic (4 cloves) and 1/2 an onion in some olive oil while my pasta boiled and my green beans cooked. i threw in the mushrooms and about 1/2 way through cooking them i added the fennel. i threw it all together in a bowl, added olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh lemon juice. i ended up added more lemon juice and salt once i sat down to eat it, but all in all it came out really good. we're having it again for dinner tonite! this one made about 4 servings.