Fish on Fridays

Those of you who read this blog because you actually know me, know that A. and I were vegetarian for more than five years - including during my pregnancy with W. and the first three years of his life. As he weaned, though, W. decided to eat meat (he started with salmon and went down the slippery slope of pepperoni and bacon, before settling on elk as his favorite) - and we decided to join him. We did for lotsof reasons -- we didn't want him to feel guilty for eating meat, when the reasons we had become vegetarian were primarily ethical; we had been really sick, with lowered immunity, since moving to Iowa, and some folks suggested that adding meat to our diet would help; we missed pulled pork; and, it was difficult and expensive to be vegetarian in Iowa.

We've moderated our meat intake again, after a couple years of omnivorous eating, and nowadays we follow these general rules: meatless mondays and fish on fridays. The first is from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (hey! have you signed the petition?), the second a longstanding tradition from my Catholic-raised mom.

Tonight's meal tasted so good, and was frugally elegant, so I'm sharing it with you, here.

I soaked a pound of dried pinto beans overnight and through the day. About 4pm, put them in a big pot and covered them with water, boiled them hard for 10 minutes (I borrow this simple recipe from Deborah Madison's brilliant Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which is honestly almost the only cookbook you'd ever need), then reduce the heat to low and partially cover, simmering for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I started some brown rice cooking (I used 2 cups Lundgren Farm's brown rice [this blog will NOT feature product placement, but this is the best rice I've ever used to cook with, I won't buy any other kind, and am thrilled that Costco sells 20 lb bags of it).

This, with good local whole wheat tortillas, some queso fresco, and a salsa (we had cilantro salsa tonight!) would make a great frugal meal (less than 1.00 per plate). BUT, since it was "fish on Friday" day, I splurged on 1/2 a pound of little scallops (cost me $4.50). After the beans had cooked for those 30 minutes, I added 1 1/2 tsp of salt, and cooked them another 10 - 15. While they cooked, I melted a tablespoon of butter in a small cast iron skillet, added a clove of garlic (pressed), and the scallops. Fried them quickly for 3 minutes, added a squirt of lemon, and turned them off.

We had brown rice-pinto bean-scallop burritos with locally grown orange heirloom tomatoes, and fresh strawberries. It was yummy :-)