Cheese Please

Well my house is full of treasures trash.  Not treasures, straight up trash.  I feel like a horder and it’s disconcerting.  I swear it is for a limited time though since I’ve been collecting trash/recycling for the Earth day party I’m throwing this year!  I’ve wanted to do an Earth day party for years now (I had the idea at the beginning of 2020…)  Since we are finally back to normal activities for the most part I thought this would be a good time to throw a party for everyone I haven’t seen in person in 3 years…

The cool “motivation dice” Amy made me!

So that’s why I am collecting trash.  Though Will will tell you I’ve always collected trash, which really, really made me unhappy to hear.  The other day I told him he couldn’t throw out a bunch of things and jokingly mentioned to him that he needn’t worry, it wouldn’t last too much longer.  His response was that “he was always afraid to throw away the weird things that I didn’t put in the recycling or trash” for fear that I’d “ask where some bits and bobs have gone”.  He’s right.  It’s a problem.

Good news though, while I may have developed a new affliction I might have a cure for another one.  Amy made me some cool dice to solve my motivation problems!  One die tells me what type of project to work on, the other one tells me what it needs to be related to/for.  The first one was “Patricia’s choice – edibles”.  I’d like to say this post was entirely inspired by that, but it was originally inspired by a combination of Julius and Patricia.  Patricia and Julius both love mac and cheese, and Patricia loves beans (though honestly, her favorites are not usually chickpeas, maybe I make too many of those.)  I wanted to combine those into a healthier version of mac and cheese with more nutritional value.  That’s where I came up with ‘peas and cheese.  The kids seem to like it, admittedly they don’t wolf it down quite as readily as mac and cheese, but I also don’t have to bribe them to eat it.  To make it a bit more kid friendly you could add 3 cups of cooked pasta at the end without changing anything else (some small pasta like medium shells would be perfect).  Oh also, this one cooks up in less than 30 minutes.

Not much to look at (unless you count that bowl), but I swear it’s tasty.

‘Peas n’ Cheese

Ingredients

• 2tbps butter
• 2tbsp flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (I’ve both shredded my own and used the ones in the bag – fun fact the hannaford brand now says it uses microbial enzymes!  Not sure if that’s because I asked them a couple months ago or it’s just a coincidence…)
• 2tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp minced garlic (I used the ones in the jar)
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I use low sodium)
• 3 cups of frozen peas

Melt butter over medium heat with minced garlic.  Cook for 30 seconds until garlic is fragrant.  Add flour and onion powder.  Cook, stirring constantly for about a minute.  Slowly pour milk into the butter/flour mixture, whisking constantly.  If mixture starts to get blobby, stop adding the milk and whisk quickly until lumps are gone then continue adding milk.  After all milk is incorporated, lower heat to medium low and let simmer, stirring occasionally until thickened slightly.  Add lemon juice and cheese, then salt and pepper to taste and finally add chickpeas and peas, return to medium, and heat for 10 minutes or so until peas are cooked and chickpeas are heated through.  If desired, stir in 3 cups of cooked, drained pasta before serving.

Wait!  You made it this far?!  Check out my sweet mug I made last time I went to the pottery place…