Rollover Recipes: Provencal Sauce to Greek Casserole

This has been a week of food experimentation. Sure, I have my month of meals, but every so once in a while I find spare energy and it funnels itself into cooking creativity. I become a veritable vegetable-sculpting Picasso.

The Unknown Contributor started the ball rolling (Now, is that potential or kinetic energy? Kinetic, I think, once the ball started. Potential, when her recipe for White Chili was just sitting there all innocent and everything, saying, “Come on, give me a whirl.”)

Anyhow, I made the white chili using TVP instead of turkey. Total hit with the family. This gave me inspiration to throw together a new Provencal sauce the following day, that I served over whole wheat angel hair pasta. Here’s the sauce, and it was so rich I was licking the stirring spoon (don’t tell, okay?)

Day 1: Provencal Red Sauce

Sauté until lightly browned, in oven-proof pot…

• medium red onion, chopped


Add and sauté briefly…

• 2 garlic, minced
• ½ tsp oregano
• 1 TB capers
• 1 TB dark brown sugar
• a few pours red wine
• ½ jar of green olives with pimientos, sliced into rounds
• 2 links sausage substitute


Add and heat through…

• 1 jar Muir Glen Cabernet sauce
• 1 28 oz. can Muir Glen tomato puree

Put pot in oven, uncovered, and roast sauce at 350 degrees for half an hour.

Serve with whole wheat pasta, salad, and green vegetable.


Day Two: Greek Potato and Greens Casserole

Slice 8 small to medium golden potatoes, unpeeled, and arrange half of them on bottom of baking dish, with about ¼ inch of water in bottom.

Add a layer of greens (spinach, chard, or other) that have been chopped and wilted with…

• medium onion, chopped and sautéed in olive oil until golden
• 2 garlic, minced
• 1 leek, cleaned inside layers, and cut into rounds (can substitute green onion but leek is more Greek)
• salt and pepper

Add a layer of yesterday’s Provencal sauce

Arrange remaining potatoes and top with more sauce. Give a few good pours olive oil, shake on some salt and pepper. Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour (until tender).

Serve with whole wheat bread. Garnish with sour cream. Recipe for 4.

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Based on my family’s response to all three of these recipes, I’m going to have to add a fifth week to the month of meals (which leads us to a math problem after we already encountered a physics problem here… who knew cooking required not only the artistry of Picasso but also the mind of Einstein?)

Greek Casserole photo, by L.L. Barkat.

Loving a Potato

Standing over the cutting board, I hold the red potato firmly with my left hand. I feel its roundness, the smooth coolness of its skin.

Slice.

The flesh is firm.

Slice, slice, slice.

I pour all my love into slicing this potato.

Something is happening to me. I can't even slice a potato anymore without oozing love.

So when I begin reading The Supper of the Lamb, I am relieved. Comforted. I feel understood. Capon says this...

Turn a statue over to a boor, and his boredom will break it to bits— witness the ruined monuments of antiquity. On the other hand, turn a shack over to a lover; for all its poverty, its lights and shadows warm a little and its numbed surfaces prickle with feeling.

Or... peel an orange. Do it lovingly— in perfect quarters like little boats, or in staggered exfoliations like a flat map of the round world, or in one long spiral, as my grandfather used to do. pp.4-5

So I am not alone in loving a potato. Even old men know the mystery that is just now in my heart.


Potatoes with Rosemary

I love to cook with ingredients that are fresh from the farmer's market. These potatoes have spring onions, sweet beyond imagining. And rosemary from my garden.

Saute in oil until golden and set aside:

• 2 medium sized spring onions, sliced chunky, including some of green stalks


Saute until tender, about 15-20 minutes...

• 4 or 5 potatoes, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes


Add and saute 5 more minutes...

• the pre-cooked onions
• canned or diced fresh tomatoes, about 1 cup
• sprig of rosemary about two inches long, minced


Finish...

• salt and pepper to taste
• few pours olive oil

Serve with crusty whole grain buttered bread, fresh green beans, and lentil salad.

Potatoes with Rosemary photo, by L.L. Barkat.

Comfort and Care

Last January, I made the commitment to go outside for a little while each day. I can't believe it has already been almost a whole year since that decision. This journey into solitude, by pretty much going nowhere (just to my own back yard), has been truly life-giving.

Of solitude, Ruth Haley Barton says...

In the quiet listening and noticing that solitude affords, I am able to monitor the ways I allow [my body] to become a bit run down so it is not quite up to the rigors of meeting with the living God. When I am able to open up to that reality in God's presence, it becomes an opportunity to work together with God on fashioning a life where the needs of the body are cared for as a part of my commitment to the spiritual journey. (p.67-68)

I have always been a person who's fairly attuned to my body and its needs, but I realize that Barton is right. In going outside almost daily, lying back and looking at the sky, I've become even more willing to take moments of rest, to seek silence, and to accept that caring for my body's needs are part of the spiritual journey.

Indeed, I recently started running again, after almost twenty years of being away from it. Somehow, the urge to run got all wrapped up in the new things I'd begun to feel in my spiritual journey in my own back yard. This too has been life-giving. A great comfort and another level of opening up. Often, after I run, I find myself writing in my journal or over at Love Notes to Yahweh.

So the running then became a way back to another part of my spirit and the Spirit, thus beginning a new experience of prayer and worship. Who knows where this will take me? Next January I'll be back here to think it through. In the meantime, I pray for you: a renewed sense of finding comfort and growth in taking care of your own body and spirit.

Oh, and for the road, here's a little comfort food. Simple and nutritious.




Cowboy Hotpot

Layer and bake about 1 hour or until tender, covered, at 400 degrees...

- a 1 to 1/2 inch layer of baked beans (your favorite canned, or using recipe below)
- Tofu pups (soy dogs) cut into rounds and put in baked beans
- a layer of parboiled sliced potatoes (parboil 4 or 5 potatoes about 10 minutes)
- salt and pepper to taste over top

Finish by broiling briefly, after adding...
- some cheddar, shredded, over potatoes
- bread crumbs over cheese, if desired
- a few pours olive oil

Serve with garlic bread, sauerkraut and a salad or broccoli.


Baked Beans

Cook stovetop, for about an hour or until tender...

- 2 to 2 1/2 cups soaked dry great northern beans in enough water to cover


Add and cook until thick...

- 1 TB Frontier brand "bacuns"
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 tsp dried mustard
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- salt to taste
- 2 TB worcestershire sauce

NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:

LL's Taking Care

Isn't a Meal Plan Restrictive?

I handed the 30 Day Meal Plan across the table. Three people had requested them, because they or their spouses were facing various health issues. And they'd heard that a vegetarian lifestyle could be helpful.

All the while, my friend C. watched with a little smile. She told me later, "I thought you were crazy. Like, how controlling is that to make a meal plan and follow it? But when I asked if it got monotonous to follow a meal plan, you asked me, 'What're you having for dinner tonight?' When I said I didn't know, you smiled at me, and I suddenly realized there could be freedom in following a plan."

In the same conversation C. was referring to, she'd finally decided she would fall back on "chicken". I probed, "How many times will you eat chicken this week?" She admitted they'd probably have chicken at least four or more times.

So she was going to eat chicken most of the week... broiled, baked, fried, maybe microwaved. But the 30 Day Meal Plan, should I choose to follow it that same week, would take me around the world— lentils made Indian style, pasta made Provencal style, black beans with a Mexican flair, chickpeas made African style, and so on. A rainbow of culture and vegetables.

C. asked me for the meal plan.

Is a meal plan restrictive? Not at all. There's freedom in knowing "what's for dinner tonight". A healthy option is planned right into the schedule. Shopping gets easier. Meal prep becomes a snap when you're not always trying new recipes. And nobody stands over you saying, "Did you follow the plan?" So, you can depart when you want to.

The meal above, for instance, was a departure. I had left over escarole, some fresh green beans, a small bunch of broccoli in the fridge. So, voila. Escarole soup. Lentil salad. Potatoes with green beans and broccoli.

Escarole Soup

Saute until light brown...

- 1 onion, sliced thinly


Add and cook until tender...

- 1 container vegetable broth
- 1/2 bunch escarole, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- salt and pepper to taste


Finish...

- generous pour of olive oil


Potato Greens Pan Casserole

Saute...

- 1 small onion, chopped fine


Remove onions. Add the following in layers (greens in between a top and bottom layer of potatoes), cover, and saute until tender...

- 4 potatoes sliced thinly, salted and peppered
- green beans, chopped
- broccoli, chopped
- the sauteed onion & 1/2 tsp. dried fennel (can mix with the green layer)


Finish...

Top with shredded cheddar if desired, and a generous pour of olive oil.


Escarole soup photo, by L.L. Barkat.

Wilderness and Swimming Zeepies

microscopic organisms


Christianne's Wilderness thoughts got me musing about the resilience of life.

Take the swimming zeepies, for instance. (That's what my daughter calls microscopic organisms.) Many of these little fellows will not die if their water dries up. They just enter a different mode of existence that can withstand extreme temperatures and total drought, until conditions change again.

In this altered existence, they will sometimes be carried by the wind, to new places, with new climates. Here, they open up, emerge into life again, and go on. Even if it takes a century.

As people, we may not have a century to make it through our wildernesses, but I believe that we too have remarkable resilience when we wait upon God. And He reminds us with tender loving care, "waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool...And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing... sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isaiah 35:6, 10)

If you're in a wilderness today, here's some healthy comfort food to take along, while you wait for the wind and for the rain...


Potato and Broccoli Casserole



Saute lightly:

- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 head broccoli, chopped
- 1/2 tsp fennel seed
- salt & pepper


Parboil 8 minutes, or until almost cooked:

- 4 to 5 potatoes, sliced about 1/4" thick


Layer in baking dish:

- pour olive oil
- potatoes, salt & peppered
- broccoli mix
- potatoes, salt & peppered
- pour olive oil


Bake all until tender, about 30 minutes covered. Top with grated cheddar if desired and bake until melted. Serve with Provencal Lentil Salad and crusty whole-grain bread laced with olive oil.


Provencal Lentil Salad



Boil 20-30 minutes, or until tender:

- 1 cup brown (green) lentils


Add & mix:

- carrot, chopped small
- a bit of scallion or onion, chopped fine
- small handful sage or parsley, chopped fine
- a few good pours olive oil
- a few small pours brown rice vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
- salt & pepper to taste

About Lentils and Potatoes.

Photos by L.L. Barkat.

Myth & Meal

On vacation, I go to the Leu Garden in Orlando. My family and I pass by the starfruit tree. It is heavy with golden, liquid sweetness. Smashed fruits lie beneath the tree. The children ask, "Pick one! Please?!"

No signs forbid it.

So I pick.

A cry and laughter burst, "You picked the fruit! You are Eve!"

Later, I meet Christianne for dinner (a blessed privilege). I tell her my forbidden fruit story. And how my family and I decided that if we were the owners of the Leu, we'd put the fruit in baskets with signs that say, "Take. Eat. Enjoy."

"Good idea," says Christianne. "No one's going to eat it anyway."

"Yes," I say, biting into my Greek salad. Then a thought comes, "I bet Eve thought that in the garden— 'look at all that Tree-of-Knowledge fruit just falling to the ground. If I don't eat it, who will? What a waste!'"

Bite.

Today, as I write this, I'm reminded of the Greek Pandora myth. We humans open some boxes, eat some fruit, pillage some of creation's resources thinking, "If not us, then who?" Open. Take. Eat. And we become Eve of Eden, all over again.


On a different note, here's a delicious Greek meal. Nothing forbidden. Deliciously healthy. Make. Serve. Eat. Enjoy...




Potatoes & Olives



Add and saute briefly in large pot:

- small pour olive oil
- 5 red potatoes, unpeeled, washed and chopped into 1-inch chunks
- 2 garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

Add and boil for about 20 minutes or 'til potatoes are tender:

- 1 28-oz. can Muir Glen organic pureed tomatoes
- 1/2 to 1 cup pitted kalamata olives
- water to cover all

Finish:

Salt and pepper to taste, plus a few pours of olive oil. Serve with orzo, lentil salad, and something green.

About Potatoes: Full of fiber that lowers cholesterol, as well as potassium, potatoes are a heart-healthy food choice. (French fries don't count, but I knew you'd ask.)


Lentil & Feta Salad



Boil 'til tender, 20-35 minutes, depending on age of lentils:
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups lentils

Drain lentils, add & mix with:

- 1 cup or so roasted red peppers
- olive oil, generous amount
- 4 or more TB red wine vinegar
- large handfull dill, chopped fine
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- salt & pepper to taste

Garnish:

- olive oil
- feta cheese

About Lentils: These legumes were one of the first crops ever cultivated. At about 18 grams of protein per cup (compared to 15 in a 3 oz. beef patty), lentils hold their own in the health department. They also have an excellent balance of fat and carbohydrates. High in calcium, magnesium, vitamin A, and potassium, they're a great choice for both kids and adults!

Photos by L.L. Barkat. Original recipes, modified here, were taken from The Greek Vegetarian