Piggies, green dinners, & dinner bowls

Lately I've found myself eating a lot less meat. This is for a couple of reasons: making sure to eat everything I get in my CSA, saving money, and lastly, wanting to start really "eating what I preach." After reading a bunch of really great books on the subject of the food industry I can say that it's pretty grim. I recently went to go see Food, Inc. - great movie, I highly recommend it - and while I knew about much of what the film discusses, it does a good job presenting how government agencies, food corporations, and American farmers interact and what it means for us as consumers. I won't go preaching about it all but it's definitely worth checking out.

As a result of my deciding to eat less large-industry farmed meat, my meals have taken on a vegetarian turn:

This was my green dinner -- Zucchini pasta with fresh greens. Again, super simple and only takes maybe ten minutes to prepare. All it requires is:

• grating zucchini with a mandoline so you get strips of zucchini
• heating up sliced garlic in a couple tablespoons of olive oil
• adding zucchini to olive oil/garlic and cook for ~5 minutes
• grating some fresh parmesan on top
• enjoy!

Another super easy dinner is what I call my dinner bowls. All you do is cook a few ingredients, together or separately, and then combine in a bowl. One of my old favorites is a brown rice, sliced zucchini, and italian sausage bowl. This week I made a potato, corn, and zucchini bowl.

For the potatoes:

(based on the Amateur Gourmet/Jacques Pepin's homefries)

• potatoes
• onions
• olive oil (I used ~1-2 T, original calls for a lot more)
• s&p

Dice the potatoes into large bite-sized chunks, cover with cold water, bring to a boil and cook until just fork tender (about 5 minutes depending on chunk size). Drain and cool slightly. Heat up oil in a pan and add the potatoes. Don't move them and cook for about 5 minutes. The amount of oil in the pan will impact the "crustiness" of your potatoes. Flip the potatoes, add onions and salt & pepper, cook another few minutes. Set aside.

For the zucchini & corn:

• zucchini slices
• corn (fresh off the cob is ideal)
• garlic
• olive oil

Slice the garlic and add with the olive oil to the same skillet as used for the potatoes, heat up slightly. Add the zucchini, sautee for a couple of minutes, add the corn, sautee about a minute more. Take off the heat, combine with the potatoes, and enjoy!