Healthy Eating - Heads Up!

So I was cruising the Web this past week and found an interesting non-profit site --- Meatless Monday . Check it out. The sidebars have excellent links to articles that are informative and convincing.  I know that we should all be eating less meat and more fruits and vegetables, but for a confirmed carnivore it seems a tall order. Still, I think it's time to try... 

So, I'm jumping on this wagon! I may have Mondays that I slack a bit or forget and get all excited about some recipe that is totally meat-centered, but I think it's a good challenge to set for Silent Bob and myself. Hey, if I slack on a Monday, I can go meatless one of the other days of the week.  It ought to be a cinch to work with legumes, vegetables, rice, mushrooms, fruits, and grains to come up with a day's worth of knoshing ... it's only one day a week, for now. Who knows? If we latch onto the idea, perhaps we can expand the meatless days over time. For now, though one day a week seems do-able.

How about you? Are you already limiting your meat consumption or are you a candidate for Meatless Monday? My first offering has got to be one that I absolutely love... so this recipe from a cookbook I got when SB and I visited Colonial Williamsburg is perfect. We're having it with an herbed flatbread and a big green salad. A perfect dinner for a Meatless Monday!

Christiana Campbell's Corn and Bean Succotash - printer friendly

A word about this recipe: I don't care for lima beans, so I use edamame. I like color in my food, so I use purple onion. I like greens so I add flat-leaf parsley for some green crunchiness. These are the adaptations to the original recipe... I hope you enjoy the changes.

Christiana Campbell’s Tavern Bean and Corn Succotash

adapted from a recipe in The Colonial Williamsburg Taverns Cookbook

Ingredients:

¼ c. butter
1 small onion, small chop
½ green pepper, small chop
2 c. fresh, frozen, or canned corn
1 c. frozen edamame
½ c. fresh or frozen peas
2 c. canned hominy, drained well
½ c. black beans, cooked or canned (drained and rinsed)
½ c. dark red kidney beans, same as above
½ c. chick peas, same as above
salt and pepper to taste
¼ c. flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Making the dish:

1. In a large fry pan, sauté the onion and pepper in the butter.

2. When the onions glisten, add the corn, edamame, peas, and hominy. Toss well and lower the heat to low, cook for about 5 minutes.

3. Add the beans and toss to combine … play with the salt and pepper until you’ve got the taste right.

4. Cover and warm through. Taste the frozen veggies during this phase - tender crisp is what you're going for. When the succotash is warm, serve immediately OR get it off the heat so the green veggies don’t turn an unappetizing khaki (yuck!) color.

5. Just before serving, toss the parsley into the dish and taste one last time for salty/peppery goodness.