supper 3/13.

So, daylight savings time is currently sucking the energy right out of us around here. Before that could happen, we had this weekend, which was full of projects. I planted a BUNCH of things - I'll put up details in my next post - went to the farmer's market, cleaned the house and finally cooked a fresh meal.
It's pretty sad how long I have gone without proper grocery shopping which for me is the start of bad, bad eating habits. I'll go all day and realize I had a slice of bread with peanut butter and SweetTarts. Disgusting. I'm hoping it was just a winter thing...really, really hoping considering these terrible choices and lack of proper food led to a 15 lb weight gain. Yikes.

On Sunday, we had some buddies over because that's what we do every Sunday and I love it. Seriously...stop on by anytime. Mark purchased some chicken for him and our friend Shaun but they got so distracted with fantasy baseball, they hadn't started doing anything with it by the time everything else I had made was done so I offered to cook it. I haven't cooked meat in almost five years and it is gross. I became a vegetarian because meat was too expensive and I hated beef and I thought I could live without everything else. I tried it as a new year's resolution and never missed it. Except Chicken McNuggets and the two cheeseburger meal at McDonald's...I know, disgusting, but I'm just trying to be honest.
Anyway, cutting chicken really is the grossest. Mad props to carnivores everywhere because I can't stomach it anymore.
Mark purchased some Panko crumbs awhile back because he wants to make some fried onion/potato thing so I knew we had those. I melted butter and mixed it with lemon juice and dijon mustard in a bowl. After cutting the chicken, I dipped the slices in there and then dipped them in the Panko with some fresh herbs and parmesan and baked the chicken at 425 for 15 minutes. The guys said it tasted great so I would definitely cook it if you are a meat eater looking for a quick meal. I made a sauce out of mayo, dijon mustard, a little soy sauce and a little sesame oil to dip the chicken in and that was really good. I may use that for potatoes in the future.

I also cooked some brown rice in my rice cooker with vegetable stock, garlic infused olive oil and fresh herbs from the window. I chopped up some shittake mushrooms I got from Delvin Farms at the market on Saturday - they were huge! - and baked them with olive oil and garlic for about 15 minutes, stirring a few times part way through.

I put them and sauteed spinach on top of the rice with some lightly toasted slivered almonds, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.

Finally, I grated three turnips and made this Spring Turnip Frittata from this month's Eating Well. I didn't have any broccoli raab but I would like to try it again when it appears at the farmer's market. I added goat cheese to the mix and it was really, really good.

Everything on the plate (I ran out of spinach for the picture) was sort of the same color, which I try not to do, but otherwise it was a very good meal and most important of all, made me excited for fresh food over the next few months! It's spring on Sunday so it won't be long...I'm really going to miss my SweetTarts, though.