What I Made for Dinner: March 16, 2009

Scrambled eggs and toast for the kids; sauteed broccoli with toasted breadcrumbs for the parents.

Suppose you and your children are on spring break, and suppose you spent the whole day at the zoo. Suppose that as a result, you ate horrible zoo food for lunch, and then when you got home you fixed your exhausted children a snack of buttered popcorn and chocolate chips. Suppose that you ate the same snack because once it was out there, you realized you were famished. If all that happened, you might not be hungry for a big dinner, and you might be feeling, shall we say, kind of unhealthy.

But then, what if you toasted some fresh sourdough breadcrumbs in olive oil, par-cooked a lot of broccoli until just crisp-tender, added the broccoli to the breadcrumbs in the pan along with some diced garlic, and sauteed everything until the broccoli started to brown around the edges? What if you added a little lemon juice and salt and pepper and just a tiny bit of grated parmesan cheese? What if you ate that for dinner? You just might start to feel a little more virtuous.