Not Your Mother's TV Dinner: Moosewood's Organic Vegetarian Southwest Cornbread and Red Beans

As much as I don't relish my husband's business trips (and the resulting solo childcare duties), I must admit that a tiny piece of me looks forward to a few indulgences I can only truly enjoy on my own: the ability to watch trashy TV and to eat whatever the heck I want. Now I can certainly do these things when he's home, but it's more fun when someone's not harrumphing and glowering from the couch.

Tonight I put on my terrycloth robe, fuzzy pink slippers, and hair curlers (ok, that's pulling a James Frey), and cooked up a genuine frozen dinner. But this was no Hungry Man, rather an organic vegetarian meal from Moosewood.

Moosewood, a line from Fairfield Farm Kitchens, offers about half a dozen organic vegetarian entrees ranging from Moroccan Stew to Spicy Penne Puttanesca. The recipes are based on those from the famed Ithaca, New York Moosewood Restaurant. I chose the Southwest Cornbread and Red Beans.

Overall, it was pretty good for a frozen meal. Everything held up reasonably well going from frozen to microwave reheating. The cornbread, if not straight from the oven fresh, was at least not the hockey puck I imagined it would be. It had been covered a bit by the red beans which helped lock in some moistness, and it had a somewhat sweet flavor from the sugar and "hint of orange" in the recipe. The beans, which were mixed with rice, celery, corn, tomatoes, and spices, had a mild spicy flavor. Nothing was overcooked--in fact the celery even held a bit of its crunch--but I would have appreciated more corn as there were so few kernels that they almost seemed like an afterthought. A couple of stray pieces of rice were undercooked but overall the dish was moist. It was also plenty hearty for one. I paired it with a simple green salad, and if you really want to enjoy yourself I'm sure it would go well with a nice glass of wine.

The best part is, with my husband away, there was no need to worry about the potential after-effects of a bean-filled dinner. Yet another advantage to spousal business travel, I suppose. Honey, don't rush back, 'kay?

About Fairfield Farm Kitchens: Founded in 2001 and based in Brockton, MA, Fairfield Farm Kitchens aims to provide restaurant-quality take-home frozen and refrigerated organic soups, entrees and baked goods. They manufacture the products using small batch processing techniques rather than mass-produced industrial methods. According to an Organic Trade Association profile of the company, they turned a failing dairy into their manufacturing plant and kept all 50 of the dairy workers who were about to lose their jobs. You can read the profile here.

Red Bean Sauce: Filtered water, tomatoes, (tomatoes, tomato juice, calcium chloride, citric acid), cooked red beans (filtered water, beans), tomato puree (tomatoes), onions, corn, green bell peppers, celery, potato starch, vegetable base (sautéed carrots, onions, celery, sea salt, sugar, canola oil, carrot powder, rosemary extract, potato flour, onion powder, black pepper), lime juice, garlic, canola oil, chipotle powder, spices, sea salt, cilantro.

Cornbread: Filtered water, unbleached bread flour (wheat flour), degermed corn flour, sugar, whole eggs, canola oil, yellow corn meal, orange juice concentrate, baking powder (calcium acid phosphate, bicarbonate of soda and corn starch from non-genetically engineered corn,) skim milk powder, sea salt.

Cooked Basmati Rice: Filtered water, rice

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