Not your mother's *special* casserole...

This is what we had for dinner tonight (pardon the dark photos- 2 of my 4 kitchen bulbs are out and Matt is out of town so cannot replace them for me.... big strong hero husband that he is...):

Garlic rosemary Flageolet heirloom beans and roasted chicken breast with goat cheese and broccoli.

Flageolet beans are a really cool heirloom bean from France that is lime green in the package, and can be found at Amazon (Bob's Red Mill brand is best) or at nice grocery stores (El Rancho in the Valley). When they cook up they are still green, but not as gorgeous as they are when dried...


I soaked them for several hours, then cooked on low for 2 more hours. Drained them then in another pan melted some butter and added a clove of garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary and a bit of lemon juice and threw in the beans. Added simply roasted chicken with goat cheese and a veggie. Some variation of this is what we have most nights for dinner:

a protein

(chicken/shrimp/tofu/fish)

usually with some kind of sauce

(apricot-ginger/honey whole grain mustard/garlic white wine/tomato-garlic-basil/rosemary cream)

a whole grain

(brown rice/pasta/dried bean-- I have been way into funky heirloom beans lately)

and a veggie

(roasted brussels sprouts/broccoli/peas/carrots/salad)

When we are done with dinner, my mind starts spinning about what to pack the kids for lunch before I clean up the kitchen. The only day they order lunch is Thursday (pizza and salad day). The other days they serve total CRAP (nuggets, corn dogs, burgers, with cherry popsicles for "fruit", ugh, don't get me started), so I make the kids lunch almost every day. They are adventurous eaters with mature palates, but Little Miss refuses to eat any bread so sandwiches are out (unless I make them on corn tortillas, which somehow is acceptable. Imagine a PB&J on a corn tortilla for a moment......sigh........). I frequently do a protein/veggie mosh, like the tofu/red pepper/carrot/teriyaki sauce main dish for today.

So I took the leftover chicken and chopped it, added the beans, more lemon juice to make it brighter, and to make it more "cold summer salad-ish" added chopped red pepper and tomato. It was wicked good. The tomato we added was Maclaine's and my favorite type of tomato from our garden, a Hawaiian Pineapple. These luscious heirloom tomatoes are the very best, and Miss Mac loves them!

Lunch for the kids (and me) tomorrow:

That's all!

Love you,
L