I know it’s not very feminist of me to admit this, but I like being a Hausfrau.

In my newest role of stay at home girlfriend, I have found that my time is way better spent finding ways to improve my little family’s quality of life, and making sure that our home is in one piece. It is not that I don’t feel that bilateral financial contributions are useful and important in a family’s dynamic. However, important though that may be, I feel that it is more important to have time and energy to handle the every day.

I worry a lot about both my health and Hugh’s for different reasons.  Because I believe that health can be overhauled by diet, over the past year I have tried to make sure that our diet is mostly plant-based (we live pescetarian), organic, seasonal, and local.  Not only that, but it is very rare that we eat anything that hasn’t been cooked/baked by me.

The most important exception that we make is cheese. We love cheese.

I would like to be able to be completely vegan but my obsession with cheese and water crackers is simply out of control. For lent I decided to give up dairy.  I hope this will allow me to ease into veganism and finally make the transition.

Tonight we are hosting a few friends for dinner and I will be making a mostly vegan meal with the yummy vegetables I got from my veggie club a few days ago.

On the menu:

Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese & Herbs 
Braised Cabbage with Apples
Chile-Rubbed Corn on the Cob
Arugula, Goat-Cheese and Walnut Salad

Two of the recipes call for dairy (Cheese and butter).  To make the recipes vegan I intend to replace the Goat Cheese with raw cashews and for the butter, if possible, I’ll just try to not use any at all.

Recipes:

Roasted Beets with Cashews & Herbs
Ingredients:

6 beets
1tsp of chopped thyme
1tsp of chopped chives
3 tbsp EVOO
salt and pepper
2 oz of crumbled goat cheese OR raw cashews

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400.

Wrap the beets individually in aluminum foil and roast for about an hour until tender.  Then, peel and quarter the beets and place in serving bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix the thyme, chives, and EVOO. Drizzle over the beets and season with salt and pepper.  Top with goat cheese OR cashews and serve right away.

Braised Cabbage with Apples
Ingredients:

2 Tbsp of unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1.5 lbs of pink lady apples thinly sliced
1tsp chopped thyme
1 bay leaf
salt
1 head of Chinese cabbage thinly sliced
1/2 cup of vegetable broth

Preparation:
Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Add the onion, apples, thyme, and bay leaf and season with salt. Cook until tender. Add the cabbage and the chicken broth, season with salt and bring to a boil.  Cook, stirring often for about 20 minutes until the cabbage is tender. If the pan starts to dry out add a little more broth.  Serve right away.

Chile-Rubbed Corn on the Cob
Ingredients:

3 ears of corn
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp of chile powder
1/4 tsp of ground cumin
a pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tbsp of unsalted butter

Preparation:
Pull back husks from corn, but leave them attached to the base. Pull off and discard the silks.  Soak in cold water for 20 minutes.

Oil the grill rack.

In a small bowl stir together 1/4tsp of salt, 1/8tsp of pepper, the chile powder, cumin, cayenne, and butter.  Spread the mixture on the corn and rewrap the husks around them.  Wrap each ear of corn in aluminum foil.

Place the corn on a grill rack about 4 inches from the fire for about 15 minutes turning occasionally.  Remove foil when tender and serve right away.

Arugula, Goat-Cheese and Walnut Salad
Ingredients:

2 tbsp of red wine vinegar
3 tbsp of EVOO
1 tsp walnut oil
salt and pepper
1/2 cups of toasted, coarsely chopped walnuts
6 cups of arugula
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2lb of crumbled goat cheese

Preparation:
Whisk together the vinegar, EVOO, walnut oil, and salt and pepper to taste to make a dressing.

Place the arugula in a bowl and add the tomatoes and walnuts.  Drizzle with the dressing and toss well.   Sprinkle with the cheese.