Meatless Monday!

Mondays at our house are meatless...at least for dinner anyways!  Still working on making breakfast and lunch meatless too, but for now at least one meal is.  Part of the logic behind meatless Monday is of course to consume less meat, but also because, well, Mondays are hard.  They are not my favorite day.  It's always hard to get back in the swing of things after a weekend.  For me, I want something easy and fast for dinner, because the rest of the day I usually spend playing catch-up on all the laundry I didn't do over the weekend.  I don't have a lot of time to devote to thinking about dinner, so I need something brainless.  Granted, not all vegetarian meals are super easy to make, but at least I don't have to worry about whether or not I remembered to thaw out the chicken. You know what I mean?


So, tonight's menu is beans and cornbread!  I am sure glad I married a man who loves beans and cornbread.  Plus mac and cheese for the kids.  Actually, Grace loves beans, so I am sure she will eat a whole bowl.  Thomas, however, is not a bean lover.  So, I always make mac and cheese for him.  And, who doesn't need a nice cheesy bowl of mac and cheese on a Monday?  So, the beans are soaking (I'm doing cranberry beans this time) and all I have to do is cook them for a couple of hours, the cornbread is easy to whip up, and the mac and cheese...easy too!  I think I have some spinach in the freezer, so I'll throw that on the table too.  There you have it, a no-brainer Monday meal!


I'm posting my recipe for the cornbread, because it's from my mom.  J 
You can also add in some canned corn, making it extra tasty.


Mom's Cornbread
2 c. cornmeal (yellow or white or both)
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
2 eggs, beaten
2 c. buttermilk
2 T. oil


Combine cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Add eggs, buttermilk, and oil, stirring until moist.  Pour into well greased iron skillet and bake for 25 minutes in a 450 degree oven.  Let your iron skillet heat up in the oven while it is preheating.  Also, I use lowfat buttermilk and you can't tell the difference!


Oh, and to follow up on the cinnamon roll dough....it rose perfectly in the refrigerator overnight, and on Saturday morning we enjoyed some perfectly delicious cinnamon rolls!  I have decided that is the only way I will be making cinnamon rolls from now on.  

I also made an apple pie on Saturday.  As you can see, I forgot to take a picture of it before we ate it!  Someone was obviously trying to be healthy by not taking the whole piece that was cut, huh?  This pie is my mom's recipe too.  I like using golden delicious apples, but I find that ginger gold are good too. Really, any good cooking apple will do.


Mom's Apple Pie
8 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
dash ground nutmeg
dash salt
2 T. flour
2 T. butter
pie crust


Combine sugar, flour, spices and salt; mix with apples.  Let sit while preparing pastry.


Pie Crust (makes 2 crusts for 9 inch pie)
3 c. all purpose flour (I really prefer White Lily)
1 1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. oil
7-9 T. cold water


Mix flour and salt in large bowl.  Measure oil, then add cold water.  Pour all at once into bowl.  Combine with fork until dough comes together and forms a ball.  Add more water or more flour depending on dough consistency.  Divide dough into two portions.  Roll out between sheets of wax paper.  


Line pie pan with bottom pastry and fill with apple mixture.  Dot with butter.  Adjust top crust, seal the edges, and cut slits in top for steam to escape.  Sprinkle with sugar.  Bake for 50 minutes at 400 degrees.  Best served warm with vanilla ice cream on top!


And that folks, is all I have for this Monday.  Have a good one!


Until next time,
Muncho Mom