Tag Archives | white beans

BBQ Spice Blend (and what to do with it)

BBQ Spice Blend (and what to do with it)

The idea for making my own BBQ spice blend was born out of trying to block BBQ chips from becoming the norm at my house. I’m not proud of it, but when I was pregnant I had cravings for salt and vinegar chips that I could not shake, and no matter what I tried, no healthy substitute would do.

BBQ Spice Blend (and what to do with it)
BBQ Spice Blend (and what to do with it)

I didn’t eat them as much as I wanted to (good thing because I would have given birth to a potato chip or worse, a Costco-sized bag of them) (let’s be honest, it kind of felt like I did anyway), but when I did, I got my husband his own bag because I was not sharing. I got him BBQ, because that is his thing whether or not he’s pregnant. He was in hog heaven because chip-eating was not a regular event in our house before then.

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Roasted Summer Potluck Veggies with White Beans

Roasted Summer Potluck Veggies with White Beans

If you’ve ever been to a steakhouse and aren’t a steak person, you’ve probably noticed that the veggies are an afterthought. Under/over-seasoned, under/overcooked, generally unattended to and unloved. I don’t know if this is because they assume nobody eats them anyway, but if you’re only really eating the veggies, it’s not that cool. And even if you’re there for the steak, why should the guys it’s sharing a plate with be overlooked, especially with all of the menu brags that the steak quality gets?

Roasted Summer Potluck Veggies with White Beans

I think about food too much, but I do still think this is a strange oversight. And I’m definitely not telling you to go to a steakhouse; I’m actually hoping to show you how to show up to a friendly, omnivorous bbq without being the guy who brought the hummus.

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Navy Bean, Artichoke & Olive Tapenade Dip

Navy Bean, Artichoke and Olive Tapenade Dip

One thing I spend far too much time thinking about is how to coax more vegetables into our/other people’s/people with temporarily strange palates lives. I could probably speak French and Italian by now if I were to have put in the same amount of time and effort. But who needs to be understood in the countries of love when you can….eat more veggies?

Navy Bean, Artichoke and Olive Tapenade Dip

Anyway, this dip is my latest obsession. I am now in my last week (hopefully?) of pregnancy and have been making up for the all but complete lack of vegetables in the first half of my pregnancy. That stretch of time brought me a deeper understanding of my clients who were going through treatment who only wanted beige food, but it also meant this baby got a lot more beige food than I was happy with (thank goodness for smoothies).

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Artichoke & White Bean ‘Ravioli’

Artichoke and White Bean 'Ravioli'

There isn’t a lot that is better than homemade pasta. I have a hand-crank pasta maker and occasionally make it at home, but it keeps a pretty solid layer of dust on it most of the year. Part of the problem is it’s easy to be lazy about pasta-making when the healthy alternative is just so damn easy.

Artichoke and White Bean 'Ravioli'

Zucchini, the ultimate peasant food, the vegetable that (almost) anyone can not only grow, but grow to the size of their car, somehow makes a really good whole-food pasta substitute.

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