Finally, a Food Post

Recently, I added a little detail to my blog by adding this description "Health, food, and the rollercoaster of mommyhood". The problem with this is I realized I really don't talk about food much. It's not because I don't cook. I LOVE to cook. I remember when Amelia had colic and I was stuck holding her all day, I was literally depressed when we would watch cooking shows because I wasn't able to do it anymore.

Things with a nine month old are a bit easier and I get to make dinner much more often. However, documenting it for my blog is a struggle. It seems like whenever I'm just about done making our meal and reaching for my camera, she is starting to get bored and whine. Or, stories about my race training and her development seem to push my food posts off to the side.

With that in mind, today I will post what I made for dinner one day last week. And, somehow I will figure out a way to do this regularly. Maybe something tacky sounding like Food Fridays. In any case, we had linguine with red peppers, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts. My most used source for cooking inspiration is www.allrecipes.com, but I would say my second most used source is 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes: Delicious, Easy-to-Make, Healthy Meals for Everyone. We are not a vegetarian family, but I would say that we eat vegetarian meals about 25% of the time. It is generally less expensive than meals with meat and I enjoy cooking with fresh vegetables, especially in the summer. My husband is great about it and often raves just as much about our vegetarian meals as he does all our other dinners.

I got the basics for this dish from the above cited vegetarian cookbook. I didn't really follow it exactly, just glanced at the ingredient list and whipped it up. Here it is, the best that I can put it into words:

1 jar roasted red peppers
8-12 oz fresh mushrooms (I used portabella, you can use whichever type you prefer)
1 can quartered artichoke hearts
1 tablespoon fresh minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
a dash or two crushed red pepper flakes
a couple tablespoons olive oil
1 package linguine
feta cheese

Spray a medium sized frying pan with cooking spray or use a little olive oil. Saute mushrooms over medium heat in the frying pan until almost cooked through, then add chopped roasted red peppers, garlic, and artichoke hearts. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper (I put crushed red pepper in almost all our pasta dishes, Jon likes spicy dishes, and I think the red pepper has a nice amount of heat without going overboard). Heat through until garlic is sauteed. In a separate pot, heat water to boiling for the pasta and cook linguine. After pasta is cooked to al dente, toss it with the cooked veggies and drizzle olive oil over the mixed pasta and veggies. Toss again, taste, add seasoning and more olive oil if needed. Top with feta cheese.

We dish out our own pasta then put as much feta as we each want on our personal servings rather than dumping the whole container of feta into the final pot of pasta and tossing. You could also top with parmesan cheese if you aren't a fan of feta.

I have to add in a picture of the flowers I bought myself at our farmer's market this week:

Guess how much? FOUR DOLLARS. Awesomeness.