Wednesday night dinner: it's gotta be easy

There’s something about Wednesday night. It’s frustratingly mid-week, which, in family-speak means evening PTA meetings, piano

Claire loves putting everything she eats on a bed of fresh leafy greens. Fiesta bake is no exception.

lessons and sports for the kids. No weekend hours to lovingly prepare a healthy dinner that will be eaten slowly and enjoyed as a social experience rather than as just a chance to refuel.

Thank goodness for people like Lindsay Nixon, author of The Happy Herbivore and Everyday Happy Herbivore. In the “need to get dinner on the table with minimal fuss” department, Nixon’s got it goin’ on.

Here’s a great Wednesday night recipe that stands up to our plant-strong standards, and sure beats pulling chicken nuggets from the freezer.

Be sure to grace this casserole with plenty of leafy greens, steamed spinach, kale or Brussels sprouts to round out the fresh vegetable factor. Or just throw it on top of your staple multi-vegetable salad like Claire does for pretty much every meal.

Try it out on your dinner table the next time you hit the Wednesday dinner blues, and if you like it, there is plenty more where that came from. You can download Nixon’s cookbooks to read on your Kindle app across all your iDevices. Genius!

Fiesta Bake: easy, plant strong, done deal.

Fiesta Bake

From Everyday Happy Herbivore by Lindsay Nixon

Serves 4 or more

½ lb whole grain pasta

1 11-oz can corn, drained and rinsed (or use frozen)

1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 4-oz can diced green chiles, drained (optional)

1 ¼ cup nondairy milk

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

2 T yellow miso (you can leave this out if you don’t have any)

2 T cornstarch

1 tsp onion powder (or small amount of diced onion)

1 tsp garlic powder (or 1-2 cloves diced garlic)

½ tsp paprika

¼ tsp turmeric

1 cup salsa

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cook pasta, drain and rinse under cold water.
• Whisk nondairy milk, nutritional yeast, miso, cornstarch, onion, garlic and spices in a saucepan over medium heat until it thickens (this takes just a minute or two.)
• Add salsa, starting with 1 cup. Add more if you like.
• Mix sauce with pasta, beans and corn.
• Pour into casserole dish and bake 20 minutes or so, until a crust forms on top.
• Garnish with cilantro and sliced tomatoes.

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