Returning to my roots

When I was little, we lived simply, with food we grew and stored. Most of our meals consisted of pasta (if you didn't guess where I grew up) and greens, and an occasional taste of meat. We grew and canned our own tomatoes and tomato paste, made our own sausages, and grew a variety of legumes to last us all winter long. We made our own bread and pizza too. Very few meals needed ingredients or spices that came from the local store.

So, with such background, you'd think it would be easy for me to cook vegetarian meals at my daughter's house. Absolutely! I did think though that I would miss the sausage in the meat ragu, the chicken in the fajita, and the ground beef in the chile. I did not.

What I did, before I even left the house to be with my daughter and her new baby, I made a list of meals that I could adapt easily.  Instead of meat, I used mushrooms and more herbs to flavor my sauces; Instead of eliminating a dish, I adapted it to adjust to a vegetarian lifestyle.

These are the meals I prepared:

Minestrone, Lasagna, Pasta primavera, Provencal Tan, Spaghetti with Tomatoes and Basil, Split Pea soup, Crepes with savory ricotta, Lentil Soup, Falafel,  Risotto with peas and spinach, Kale and beans, Burritos with spinach, rice and beans, Roasted root veggie chips with hummus, Cabbage, potatoes, onions and peas casserole, Tabbouleh salad with fresh basil, parsley, pine nuts, Citrus salad with pecans, Apple and carrot salad, Farro with cauliflower and walnuts, Pizza and vegetable soup, Eggplant parmigiana, Mixed Greens, beans, rice and roasted peppers enchilada.............................................................

I made enough for dinner to have leftovers for lunch.
Salads and cheese quesadillas were the back up lunches.
Cereals, eggs, pancakes and granola were the breakfast choices.

I relearned lessons I had as a child, to think on my feet and combine what I had in the refrigerator to put a meal together. The Provencal Tan was such a meal: Odds and ends, more zucchini than potatoes or eggplant,  layered with onions instead of leeks and baked in a very hot oven
turned out to be a very tasty dish for supper with brown rice on the side; and a sandwich filler the next day with a slice of cheese.  It didn't hurt to have the internet around for recipes such as the granola, the Filafel, even banana muffins when too many bananas needed to be used up.

None of these dishes were new to me.
I just had to return to my roots to get into the groove.