When I start slacking in the kitchen

Lately, five o-clock has been popping up everyday and I stand in bewilderment that it’s actually showed up, as if I didn’t expect it. I haven’t pulled a thing out of the freezer to cook for dinner, and nor do I plan to run to the store to get anything at the last minute. This reaction is called Mom’s Spring Fever. So, for the past two weeks, I’ve been scrambling to find something to put on the table in fifteen minutes.(Wendy, I promise, I will post about my life-saving gadget, the pressure cooker and why you should have one, but not today. I have spring fever.) But this meal doesn’t require a pressure cooker at all.

Here is one of my fifteen-minute meals:

1. Open, drain and rinse a can of garbanzo beans. (Truly, any bean you have an hand will work. So don’t feel limited.)
2. Squirt fresh lemon juice, salt and extra virgin olive oil all over the beans.
3. Look around the spice cabinet, or my own garden to see if there are any appropriate herbs. Luckily I have some basil and chives growing in my garden, and fresh parsley in the refrigerator.
4. Wash and cut herbs and throw on top of garbanzo beans.
5. Yippee. I found some sun-dried tomato pesto in a jar, so I add that.
6. Stir bean mixture.
7. Pesto reminds me of Parmesan cheese, so I use a vegetable peeler to throw in cheese shavings on top of the beans.
8. The kids probably won’t like this, so I start to boil some water to cook some pasta.
9. Boil some soybeans as insurance. Soybeans are a full protein, so I figure if all the kids eat is soybeans and pasta, I’m covered.
10. Drain pasta and reserve some for the kids. Pour the rest over the bean mixture and stir.
11. Cover cooked, reserved, plain pasta with extra virgin olive oil and more Parmesan cheese. Extra Virgin Olive Oil has vitamin E, and I’m sure my kids need some of that.
12. The kids devour the pasta and soybeans, and reluctantly try the bean.
13. This is great… leaves more garbanzos for us.