Four years ago as my husband and I were nearing our first wedding anniversary and preparing to become parents, I added a mix of frozen vegetables to a box of Pasta Roni.  A little taken aback, I think my husband wrote it off as a pregnancy craving.  We weren’t exactly adventurous in the kitchen.  We thought we cooked, but to us cooking was a box of Pasta Roni with a fried chicken breast on the side.  Growing up in rural Minnesota, that was cutting edge.  A more typical meal was meat (venison stake, meat loaf, or the like) and potatoes (russet, boiled or baked).

My veggie infused Pasta Roni wasn’t a pregnancy craving, but my first run in with “mommy guilt.”  I’d just had a pie and ice cream date with an old friend from high school who was an experienced mother.  She casually mentioned it as a staple meal at her house.  Then it hit me.  We didn’t eat vegetables.  (At least not on a regular basis.)  I was depriving my baby of vitamins and minerals in eutero and was destined to continue into her childhood unless I started today.

As soon as I got home, I dug through the freezer and, to my relief, found a bag of mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, and green beans) and threw into the boiling pot of Past Roni.  My new recipe added to the mix about once a week or so was enough to shake the mommy guilt for awhile.  Fortunately, over time, we’ve added a few more recipes to our repertoire, began keeping a stocked pantry, and are proud to say we developed this baked fish and rice pilaf recipe on the fly.  I’m even more proud to say the mommy guilt, at least in the way of vegetables at dinner, as gone the way of date nights now that we’re parents of two under four.  But that’s another story.

Bell Pepper and Black Bean Rice Pilaf

• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 6 chives, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, seeded, chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper, seeded, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup Jasmine rice
• 15-oz. can black beans, drained, rinsed

Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat.  Add chives, bell peppers and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes.  Add cumin and chili powder, then stir.  Pour in vegetable broth and rice.  Bring to boil stirring occasionally.  Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer about 10 minutes.  Add black beans, stir, and cook for 3 to 5 more minutes, until rice is tender and broth is absorbed.

Baked White Fish with Cumin Butter

• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 6 chives, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• fresh ground black pepper and salt to taste

Cream above ingredients.

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 4, 4-oz. fillets of white fish

Preheat oven to 350F.  Coat baking pain with olive oil.  Place fillets on pan and cover with half of the butter.  Bake about 6 minutes, flip fillets and top with remaining butter mixture.  Serve on a bed of rice.