The cauliflowers were huge at Sam's the other day so I'm going to try a recipe for Crispy Blackened Cauliflower with Burrata and Herbs - I'll be using fresh mozzarella instead since the burrata was a bit pricey at Harris Teeter this morning. The herbs are made into a gremolata type sauce. I'm going to add chickpeas for protein.

BTW, in case you all didn't now, they latest series of Top Chef is on. They're in Portland, OR and through the first 3 episodes, I've been impressed with the chefs and the changes in format. I watch it on delay on Hulu Live.

Our dinner is leftover lima beans with brown rice and ham--no complaints!

I made a pizza in a cast iron pan for dinner.

Len I love cast iron for pizza and breads especially. I have the large (15" I think) Lodge pizza pan and love the crusts it produces. I am so disappointed that my new Breville smart oven will accommodate only up to a 13". I'm still looking for a 13" cast iron. I recommend you try the bread pan for sandwich loaves.

I wonder how long it would take us to travel to Georgia....

I made mac and cheese following an ATK recipe. It is a one pan recipe, you take 1.5 cup of water and one cup of milk, bring it up to a simmer and then add 8 ounces of mac and cook it 6-8 minutes. Do not drain, then add 1 cup shredded American cheese (from a deli block that you shred yourself as the pre-sliced singles are often made from a different recipe) on the heat and stir until melted, then take it off the heat and add 1 cup shredded cheddar, stir in, add 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard, cover and let the cheddar melt. Now it's ready but you can prepare a simple bread crumb topping it you want.

It's all pretty simple but I don't keep American cheese on hand so I subbed mozzarella from an package that was opened from my last pizza. That, I believe, is where it went wrong, maybe I should not have used the mozzarella and doubled up on the cheddar. As you can guess now, I was not real happy with the results. I'll have to give this recipe another try, this time using the correct cheeses.

For dinner on Tuesday, my husband finished up the lima beans with brown rice and ham, as there was only a single serving. That gave me the opportunity to try a Penzey’s recipe, Spanish Chickpea and Spinach Stew, which is on their website and featured in a recent email. I replaced the 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes with 3 cups of tomato sauce with olive oil and garlic that I made from our garden late last fall and froze. I used olive oil rather than avocado oil to saute the onion. I deleted the additional garlic powder. I like moderate spiciness, so I reduced the ground cumin to ¼ tsp. and the cayenne pepper to a dash. I increased the smoked paprika to 1 ¼ tsp. I used 15 oz. of the chickpeas I cooked last week and a 12 oz. package of chopped frozen spinach. The recipe specifies serving over cooked grains. I chose to cook ½ cup bulgur (to make 1 ¼ cups cooked), which I mixed into the stew. It is delicious. I was able to use the spices, onion tomatoes, and chickpeas since my husband was not eating it. I now have lunches for into the week, as well as a recipe to serve someone who is vegan.