I’m having a love affair with risotto. It’s easy, it’s versatile and it makes a truly elegant meal, even on an average Monday.

It’s also been a way for me to use up cups of homemade lobster stock, which I made and froze post-Christmas.

I had designs on a seafood chowder or some kind of soup, but a first, wildly successful attempt at this risotto left me wanting more – and now my stock supply has dwindled.

On the second attempt, I added a can of lump crabmeat for extra seafood flair. It was a good move.

(By the way, this is my first crack at “food styling.” Like?)

Lemony Seafood Risotto (Serves about 4)

1 1/2 cup arborio rice
1 large shallot, minced
3 large cloves of garlic, minced (or adjust amount to taste, I love garlic)
4 tbsp olive oil or butter
4 cups heated seafood stock
1/2 cup white wine (I like oaky Chardonnay)
Juice of one lemon
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp fresh or dried thyme
1 lb. fresh or frozen (thawed) shrimp
1 can of lump crabmeat

Heat 2 tbsp butter or oil in a saucepan. Saute the shallots and garlic until golden brown. Pour in arborio rice and stir so that the shallots and garlic completely coat the grains. Add thyme, pepper, wine and lemon juice and stir until absorbed. Add 1 cup warm stock, stirring until absorbed.

Continue cooking for 15-20 minutes, adding remaining liquid 1 cup at a time, until the rice takes on a creamy texture.

In a frying pan, heat 2 tbsp oil or butter and saute shrimp until pink. Saute crabmeat in remaining oil. Chop shrimp into small pieces and stir into risotto mixture, then fold crabmeat into mixture. (For presentation, you may want to reserve several whole shrimp to top risotto servings.) Remove from heat and serve immediately.

I’m so glad this one worked out. Otherwise, I may have given up on lasagna for good.

Yes, I’m going to drop that bomb here and back away. I don’t like lasagna in its traditional form, probably because of my pickiness when it comes to the flavor, consistency and volume of tomato sauce. But drown something in alfredo or bechamel, and I’ll eat every bite.

I’ve been searching for new and innovative butternut squash recipes this winter. I’ve made too many bisques. A vegetarian chili with squash and black beans didn’t do it for me, and I certainly can’t make homemade ravioli every night. But a lasagna seemed like an interesting presentation.

Word of warning: I found this to be fairly labor-intensive. As in, not something you can whip up after working late. But I imagine it stores/freezes well if you want to make it in advance and reheat.

Despite the two hours of prep and cook time, this was a huge success – hearty and comforting without heaviness and regret. The roasted squash’s sweetness shines through every layer, melding with the just-enough creaminess of the white sauce and the nutty Parmesan.

I adapted my own twists on this Good Housekeeping recipe (no Swiss chard, more herbs in the sauce, the addition of minced garlic and shallots) but maintained the majority of it. Reworked steps after the jump.

• 12  lasagna noodles
• Salt
• 1 large (3 pounds) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 2 tablespoon(s) olive oil
• 1  large onion, minced
• 2 tablespoon(s) margarine or butter
• 1/3 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) salt
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) dried thyme
• 1 shallot, minced
• 4 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
• 4 cup(s) low-fat (1 percent) milk
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Fresh herbs work especially well in the white sauce. I used parsley and rosemary; thyme and sage would probably be great additions, too.

Instructions

1. In saucepot, cook lasagna noodles in boiling salted water as label directs. Drain noodles and rinse with cold running water to stop cooking; drain again. Layer noodles between sheets of waxed paper.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In large bowl, toss butternut squash chunks with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Place squash on large cookiesheet. Roast squash 30 minutes or until fork-tender, stirring halfway through cooking. Remove from oven and, with fork or potato masher, mash squash until almost smooth; set aside.  (Alternate preparation: puree cooked squash in food processor. This worked best for me.)
3.  Turn down oven temperature to 375 degrees F.
4. Meanwhile, in 5-quart Dutch oven or saucepot, heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion and 1/4 teaspoon salt, and cook about 25 minutes or until golden, stirring often.
5. Prepare White Sauce: In 3-quart saucepan, melt margarine or butter over medium heat.  Cook garlic and shallots until soft. With wire whisk, stir in flour, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and thyme, and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually whisk in milk and cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until sauce boils and thickens slightly. Boil 1 minute, stirring. Whisk in all but 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Remove saucepan from heat.
6. In 13″ by 9″ glass baking dish, evenly spoon about 1/2 cup white sauce to cover bottom of dish. Arrange 4 lasagna noodles over sauce, overlapping to fit. Evenly spread butternut squash mixture over noodles. Sprinkle half the chopped onions on top of the squash, and top with about 1 cup white sauce. Arrange 4 lasagna noodles on top, then about 1 cup white sauce, the remaining onions and all butternut squash. Top with remaining lasagna noodles and remaining white sauce. Sprinkle with reserved 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese.
7. Cover lasagna with foil and bake 30 minutes; remove foil and bake 10 minutes longer or until hot and bubbly. Let lasagna stand 10 minutes for easier serving.

During the car ride to the grocery store yesterday, I facetiously tweeted: “Hope they haven’t sold out of vegetables.”

And then I walked into ShopRite to find this:

That was just the bagged salad display. The entire produce section was similarly decimated. Damn it, Resolutioners, save some for the rest of us.

It just speaks to everything I hate about New Year’s resolutions: the false urgency to end bad habits, the compulsion to stock the fridge full of healthy foods, the mad rush to the membership desk at local gyms. If you want to improve yourself, do it, but no one says you have to meet all your goals the second the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1. Do it bit by bit throughout the year. Make it manageable.

Maybe I’m just pre-emptively cranky because I know all the treadmills will be taken at Planet Fitness for the next four weeks.

I didn’t realize tofu would be such a polarizing ingredient when I started this vegetarian experiment. And that’s fine. To each their own, but I’m loving it.

If only it didn’t take so damn long to drain. I’ve found that it’s best to freeze a package, defrost the block and cut it into usable strips/portions, and then press those pieces between two cutting boards with a cloth towel on top (absorbs more liquid than paper towels.)

But once it’s dried, you’re ready to go. This time, I decided to see how tofu would do with a classic buffalo-wing sauce and blue cheese dressing. After grilling the slices, I tossed them in Frank’s Red Hot Sauce with a touch of Tabasco for some more heat.

The verdict? So-so. I do enjoy deep-fried boneless buffalo wings on occasion, and maybe this was just too healthy for me, or not crispy enough. I think I would have been better off making baked buffalo chicken tenderloins.

Nor did I love my chosen brand of “healthy” blue cheese dressing: Bolthouse Farms, with yogurt. I’m not a fan of processed salad dressings to begin with, but it just tasted odd. Another blogger suggested making your own “dressing” by blending blue cheese crumbles with nonfat Greek yogurt, and I think I would have enjoyed that quite a bit more.

I don’t have any photos to share, because I am delinquent. But we finished another semi-vegetarian week and guess what, we’re starting to like it.

Monday: I cooked this curried lentil soup with lemon from Vegetarian Times, adding handfuls of baby spinach for more leafy greens. (I absolutely love spinach in soup.) Great success; I enjoyed eating it for lunch over the next few days. I bought a big loaf of wheat bread to serve with it.

Tuesday: Black bean and butternut squash crockpot chili. I personally didn’t love it. But Rob did, so at least it got eaten. If we’re being totally honest, I’m not a chili fan to begin with, but I figured I might enjoy a version without tons of beef.

Wednesday: Margarita pizza with fresh mozzarella. Basic. Easy. And my pizza stone did not divide itself in the oven.

Thursday: Black bean burgers, again. They were a little too spicy. I need to cut back on the chipotle.

I ate meat on Wednesday (pork banh mi and rare-beef pho at Huong Viet in Hartford) and Friday (my beloved chicken korma at Pintu’s in West Springfield.) And all was fine until Saturday, when we decided to pick up some grass-fed ribeye to cook at home. First, I wasn’t thrilled with the outcome of my red-wine reduction sauce. Second, the flavor of the meat didn’t excite me nearly as much as a good steak used to. Third, I had an upset stomach for the remainder of the night. While I’m not positive the meat caused it, I suspect that it could have been a culprit.

But yesterday, all I wanted for lunch was a turkey sandwich. And so that’s what I ate, returning to vegetarianhood at dinner with handmade butternut squash ravioli and roasted Brussels sprouts.

And while I’m sure this has coincidence written all over it, this is the week where I’ve reached two major running milestones. I’ve been following the Couch to 5K training program on and off since May and began hitting a wall around week 5, where the first of three runs (alternating 5-minute runs and 3-minute walks) jumps rather inexplicably to an 8-minute run/5-minute walk interval and then to a 20-minute run with no walk breaks. I spent months stuck on the first run of that week, mastering the five-minute run and feeling too intimidated to move on.

Until last Monday, when I decided to just go for it and attempt the 8 minutes. When I finished with ease, I felt like a damn superhero. And after completing two more of those runs on Tuesday and Friday, I got on the treadmill Sunday and went for broke. I passed 8 minutes and kept going. Re-evaluated at 10; kept going. Gave Rob the thumbs-up at 11 minutes when he stopped by the water fountain. Shortly after that, I just entered a zone. At the end of the full 20 minutes, I just started dancing on the treadmill. I don’t even care who was watching.

Let me assure you, the last time I ran that far – and long – I was in training for junior varsity cheerleading during my sophomore year of high school, when I was trying to come back from a nasty knee injury. And I thought it would take me another few months to reach this goal. I believe I’ll be signing up for a 5K sometime next year for sure now.

I thought my first taste of meat after five days of vegetarian eating would be nirvana. And while I didn’t have any major cravings during our meatless week, there were a few moments where I just wanted to rip into a burger. We decided to indulge this weekend at Max Burger in West Hartford, figuring if we were going to eat beef, we’d do it right.

We committed the faux pas of ordering virtually the same meal (Kobe Fun Guy: with medium-rare Kobe beef, truffled cheese, French onion aioli and au poivre dipping sauce – hold the mushrooms for me.) And when the burgers arrived, they looked as gorgeous as they did in my dreams.

But something was off. As Rob tore into his and pronounced it the best ever, I found myself treading more lightly. Yes, it was incredible. Yes, that meat was utterly perfect, juicy and the ideal pink-red through the center. And yes, the rich aioli and earthy truffle cheese elevated the decadence factor. At the same time, it was almost a little too much for me, after a week of grains, vegetables and tofu. I ate half and brought home leftovers – something I hadn’t planned to do.

I guess I should have known what was coming when the restaurant’s “Grateful Veg” burger – with quinoa, sunflower seeds and lemon-tahini vinaigrette – looked especially good that night.

No way am I going full vegetarian, but I think we’re going to continue on this part-time meatless kick. We both agreed the experiment made us feel better; gave us more energy. (I fit in five workouts in seven days; almost unheard-of for me.) I didn’t feel sluggish in the late afternoon like I normally do.

And I had a much more successful round of tofu-cooking last night. Several people told me they’d had better results when freezing the tofu first, and they were absolutely right. It took extra time to drain it, but once it dried out, it pan-fried up beautifully. We planned to save a portion of the unmarinated slices for future meals, but we couldn’t resist – it all disappeared in a matter of minutes.

This week, I’ll be fashioning some kind of black bean and butternut squash chili, and a potential red-lentil soup. I may even make quinoa meatballs again. And there’s a lonely eggplant in my fridge, wondering when it’ll get its time to shine. Suggestions?

Before...

The best thing about this experiment has been the feedback from friends and readers. Who knew so many of you were into vegetarian cooking and eating – even occasionally? Even legendary meat lovers (hi, Dave’s Cupboard!) have come out of the woodwork to admit they like tofu.

The fun part has been searching for recipes and inspiration online. For Tuesday dinner, I looked to Twitter friend Katie’s blog, The Small Boston Kitchen, remembering that I’d seen several delicious-looking meatless options on there when I first started following. (Katie and her boyfriend, Richard, also run The Skinny Beet, a catering/private chef service in the city.)

With a bunch of leftover cooked quinoa from Monday’s dish sitting in my fridge, I lit upon Katie’s Quinoa Veggie Meatball recipe. I followed it as closely as possible, with a few substitutions: leaving out the mushrooms (I still can’t get into them,) the pine nuts (I had some in my cupboard, but couldn’t locate them quickly enough) and using Swiss chard for spinach. I didn’t have a fresh red pepper on hand, so I sauteed some frozen bell pepper strips from Trader Joe’s.

I also threw in a tablespoon of minced garlic and left out the rosemary. The oregano was key, though, adding a little extra infusion of Italian flavor. Basil or marjoram (fresh or dried) would have been great, too.

After.

I had my suspicions about the outcome. Would they be bland? Mushy? Dry? Overly crunchy?  Would I miss the meat? But I should learn to just sit back and enjoy, because these were fabulous. With a basic Trader Joe’s tomato basil marinara, the “vegballs” were more hearty, moist and subtly spiced than I ever expected.

I served mine in spaghetti-and-meatballs fashion, with a side of roasted broccoli. Katie served hers on a grinder roll with marinara and mozzarella, but suggested making smaller veggie balls as a potential party appetizer. I think that’s an excellent idea.

This recipe is certainly open to customization, and it’s a great way to pack tons of vegetables into the mix. I predict this will be a frequent staple in our kitchen from now on. Thanks, SBK!

I’m not exactly a type A personality. You’d recognize that immediately if you saw the disarray of my closet. But I do have this annoying perfectionist tendency, where I feel like giving up if I can’t do something right the first time. And in the kitchen, sometimes that means bailing on ingredients or techniques.

And sometimes that means I get frustrated too easily. Remember the ciabatta, which turned out to be a blockbuster? I was about to go the same route with tofu tonight.

Starting out with an extra-firm block, I drained the tofu and then pressed it to remove more of the moisture. I must have pressed too hard, because the center of the block crumbled inward, and there went my visions of cutting perfect domino-sized slices for my stir fry.

But after a little research, some Twitter crowdsourcing (and if we’re being honest, some creative brainstorming for obscene tofu-related epithets) I was able to slice the remaining intact section of the block. To drain it further, I placed the slices between two cutting boards, with a paper towel to sop up the water, topped with a heavy frying pan for weight.

It worked well, and the drier slices later pan-fried beautifully in a little vegetable oil. Once the tofu finished cooking, it went into an amazing soy sauce marinade with fresh ginger, lemongrass, garlic and shallot. I really love the way tofu soaks up flavor.

Served atop quinoa with steamed broccoli and red pepper (and sauteed mushrooms for Rob), it was quite the surprising success.

That doesn’t mean my pre-Thanksgiving craving for a burger has disappeared, though.

We have a running joke in our house. When I’m trying to plan dinner, I ask Rob what he wants to eat and he always responds, “Chicken.”

And no, we don’t really eat an exorbitant amount of chicken. It’s just that more often than not, we typically default to the old protein-starch-veggie kind of menu, and keep a lot of meat in the house. Any day of the week, I would be easily able to whip up some sort of chicken dish. Or chicken sausage. Or pork tenderloin, or ground turkey.

But lately, we’ve been reconsidering that. We’ve realized that we’re just eating too much animal protein. So we’re trying out a week of vegetarian cooking – embracing beans, lentils, chickpeas, quinoa, squash, sweet potatoes, green vegetables and tofu.

Here’s my first entry: Spicy Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burgers

(Recipe isn’t totally exact; feel free to change ingredients and preparation to your own liking.)

• 1 can black beans
• 1 sweet potato, roasted and chopped
• 1 canned chipotle pepper, diced (with 1 tbsp of adobo sauce)
• 1 poblano pepper, roasted and chopped
• ½ onion, chopped and sauteed
• 5 cloves of roasted garlic
• 1 cup of baby spinach, sauteed
• ½ cup of oats (I used quick oats)

Mash black beans and sweet potato into a paste. Add other ingredients; shape into patties. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

I froze the burgers slightly before cooking, and it firmed them up a bit. I served these on hard rolls (bulkie rolls if you’re from Massachusetts) with lettuce, tomato, goat cheese and avocado. Seriously tasty. The peppers added great spice and smokiness, enough that Rob said it reminded him of chorizo.

This veggie thing? It’s not a full lifestyle change. It’s more of a challenge for me to expand my kitchen repertoire, learning to let go of expensive meats and exploring the versatility of other ingredients. I hope to come out of this with several new go-to recipes and techniques, a renewed appreciation for vegetables and maybe a new love of soy proteins.

But I will not give up the dairy. You’ll have to pry the cheese from my cold, dead hands.

WTF

An unexpected outcome to Saturday night pizza: one of our stones cracked right in half as I pulled the second of our two pies from the oven.

Don’t worry. The pizza was salvaged. (That would have been a true disaster.) But I was still left utterly puzzled.

Amid several Moses/golden calf jokes, my Facebook and Twitter friends began to share their own broken-stone stories. Apparently this is relatively common. And when I thought about it, the now-shattered stone was the one we used when making pizzas on the grill. I guess it wasn’t sturdy enough for high heat.

We do have another stone – a pretty high-quality round Pampered Chef one that I received for my birthday last year. But I’ll be looking for another one soon, now that I’m obsessed with making pizza dough with quality 00 flour. Recommendations?