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I love to both cook and eat! My morning breakfast consists of low-fat Greek yogurt, fresh strawberries or blueberries and granola. Sometimes I munch on the granola when I’m hungry; this isn’t good. I store my Christmas cookies in our front storage attic where its dry and cold, thereby keeping them fresh longer. If you want a cookie, you’ll have to work for it. As of this week, I finished the granola. Breakfast will either be cereal or yogurt with fruit. I have reduced my cookie intake to one, or sometimes two cookies per day. I snacking on Honeycrisp apples when I desire something sweet.
We had meatless Monday the other day. I wanted to try Melissa Clark’s recipe from her column “A Good Appetite,” from The New York Times for supper. Melissa developed this recipe during the COVID lockdown. Switching from braising dried cannellini beans for canned. For her recipe of “Rosemary White Beans with Frizzled Onions and Tomatoes” you’ll need: extra-virgin olive oil, one large white onion, fine sea salt, fresh garlic, red pepper flakes, two cans of white beans (cannellini or butter), chopped canned or fresh tomatoes, lemon zest and fresh parsley. I only needed to purchase the beans, tomatoes and a lemon; the balance of the ingredients were already on hand. This meal cost me just under $5.

What a hearty meal! The combination of flavors was delicious. You had a little bit of heat from the red pepper flakes and the lemon zest perked up the whole dish. The rosemary provided some peppery notes to play off the flavor of the dish. The parsley added a clean taste to the palate. A drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil on top of the finished dish would have provided additional peppery notes. I suggest having some crusty Italian bread handy to soak up the sauce. My husband was surprised how good this tasted. I thought it was delicious, a perfect meatless meal. This is a wonderful vegetarian meal.
Rosemary White Beans with Frizzled Onions and Tomato
By Melissa Clark | A Good Appetite
The New York Times, January 4, 2023
 
Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 3 to 4 Servings
 
Ingredients
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large white onion, halved and thinly sliced into half moons
Fine sea salt
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary, or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
¼ teaspoon red-pepper flakes, more for serving
2 (15-ounce) cans white beans, such as cannellini or butter beans (preferably canned with salt), drained and rinsed
1 cup chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
1½ teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves and tender stems, more for garnish
 
PREPARATION
  1. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil until it shimmers over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned all over, 7 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, transfer half of the onions to a plate and season lightly with salt.
  2. Add remaining 6 tablespoons oil, the garlic, rosemary, red-pepper flakes and a pinch of salt to the onions in the skillet. Cook until garlic is pale gold at the edges (don’t let the garlic turn brown), 2 to 5 minutes.
  3. Add beans, chopped tomatoes, ½ cup of water and 1 teaspoon salt to skillet; stir until beans are well coated with sauce. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook until broth thickens, stirring occasionally, about 10 to 15 minutes.
  4. Stir in lemon zest and parsley, and taste, adding more salt if needed. Garnish with reserved onions, more parsley, olive oil and red-pepper flakes, if you’d like. The beans thicken as they cool, but you can add more water to make them brothier if you like.