veggieTOT

Vegetarian Recipes For Kids + Adults

Lemon Pepper Parmesan Orecchiette

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Lemon Pepper Parmesan Orecchiette
I was going to call this Cacio e Lemon Pepe Orecchiette, but I figured someone out there would have a rage stroke over it because: 1) cacio e pepe isn’t made with lemon; 2) cacio e pepe isn’t made with Parmesan cheese; 3) cacio e pepe isn’t made with butter; and 4) cacio e pepe isn’t made with orecchiette. So let’s just call this a very loose adaptation of the Italian classic.

Why Parmesan? Well, the traditional version uses Romano cheese, but I haven’t been able to find a vegetarian version of that locally, so I opt for Parmesan instead (which, as I explain in this post, can be vegetarian if it’s not made in Italy). And I swapped out the spaghetti with orecchiette because spaghetti is unwieldy and I’d rather not have Little Pea with noodles plastered to her body by the end of the meal. Orecchiette is the perfect pasta for toddlers, in my humble opinion, because it’s not too small to pick up with fingers, but it’s not too big to need more than one bite or pre-cutting by mom or dad. Also, orecchiette means “little ears,” which is adorable…but I guess a little macabre if you think about it too much. Let’s not!
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This Week’s Eats

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Last week, something awesome happened. The co-op we belong to had a Facebook giveaway and I was one of the winners. The prize was two big bags full of local foods. It was like Christmas, my birthday, and Thanksgiving (because: food) all rolled into one glorious day.

I can’t really put into words how much I love Willy Street Co-op. If I could wrap my arms around it and give it a hug, I would. We do nearly all of our grocery shopping there and I just love what they do for the community, I love their selection of produce, I love that they support local food makers, and I really freaking love their brownies. It’s one of the things that makes me happy to live where we do.

ANYWAY. Since we had two bags full of unexpected groceries, I decided to skip shopping for the week and use what I had gotten and what I already had on hand to make our meals instead. Which was fun! Here’s what we had:

Apple French Toast BakeApple French Toast Bake from King Arthur Flour
We had a baguette from Batch Bakehouse and lots of apples to use, and since French toast is always a winner with Little Pea, I thought I’d give this recipe a try. I enjoyed it because it wasn’t cloyingly sweet and the apples got tender in the oven without becoming mushy.
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Banapple Bread

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Banapple Bread
It’s been a crazy few weeks full of teething toddlers, illness, and more teething. OH MAN, the teething. When I was pregnant, I used to have weird dreams about Little Pea being born with a full set of adult teeth and I’d wake up feeling creeped out, but now I’m kind of wishing that had actually happened. Would it be unsettling? YES. Would it be worth it? YES.

Back to the topic at hand: Banapple Bread. I have a vegan banana bread template that I make when we have overripe bananas on hand, with different tweaks and add-ins—usually blueberries or chocolate chips, sometimes chai spices. I’ve never made it with apples, but since we’ve got a crisper drawer full of them from apple picking, I thought I’d put them to use in our favorite banana bread. And it was good!
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