Comfy Food: Veggie Risotto

Look - it's not pasta! (Although is non-brown rice much better? WHO CARES right now...I love comfort food)!

It's the Monday before Christmas and all I can think about is how I don't want to work all week and don't want to clean the house...but DO WANT to..bake cupcakes, truffles, cookies, cakes and pies. Now that I've discovered a few more bloggers that fit my sweet tooth diet, I've actually got a pile of goodies I want to tackle (thank you, Twitter).

It's not just sweets I want to tackle - I'm not much of a baker - so it's all actually a bit intimidating for me. I'm going googly eyed over the sweet potato spreads, carrot pates and potato bruschetta recipes that I'm seeing all over the place. Swoon. Appys and other pick-y foods are just the best. Can this whole blogging and cooking thing become a full-time job, please? I see all of these great foodies/bloggers/photographers/fitness-junkies and some are in med school while doing it (cough-Joanne-cough) and here I am working your regular 9-5 and can't seem to find the appropriate time or get a routine in place! (sad tuba...ha)

(Side note: Listen to Bon Iver while blogging. Or reading online. Way better.)

Anyway. There I go. I ramble. Like I said, it's the Monday before Christmas. I'm gearing up for my ornament exchange on Wednesday, immediate-family-appy-Christmas Eve, a first-Christmas-as-a-married-couple Breakfast and Christmas Day dinner (I'm on dessert duty and no one wants to eat another pumpkin pie - although it is tasty!). I've been on the hunt for some ideas for all of the above - and have found a million. Now, it's decision and shopping time. I actually can't wait. I'm secretly hoping I won't have to go to work on Thursday so I can spend the day preparing. *Fingers Crossed* 'Tis the season to be hopeful, right?

Back to tonight. J had eaten a very late Christmas work lunch, so I was on my own. I'm finally trying for Meatless Mondays and without having many groceries (including broth and coconut milk!), managed to throw together a really tasty/hearty risotto. I should stop using the term "throw together" as it sounds a bit trash-y, because it was extremely tasty (and not at all fridge trash-y). Trust me! I'm getting so, so good. :)

What Did I Use?
1 cup of arborio rice
In the absence of broth, I used 3 cups of water and 2 tsp of poultry seasoning. (Or anything really. I was going for something a little less strong-tasting than usual)
~ 1/2 cup of zucchini, sliced
~ 1/2 cup of mushrooms, sliced
1 small tomato, diced
1 shallot, diced
1/3 cup of peas
1 big clove of garlic, diced
1 tbsp of lemon juice
2 tbsp of oil
1/4 cup of white wine
1 tsp of Italian spices (Use more for more flavour!)
salt and pepper
basil

What Did I Do?
Boil the water in a pot....

Throw your shallots and garlic in with the oil. Cook until the shallots begin to brown (man...shallots make me cry!).

Add the rice. Mix around to coat it all. Add the wine and stir evenly. Once the wine begins to evaporate, start adding in the boiled water....a little bit at a time (as the water begins to evaporate/soak in, add more and so on..). Add in the poultry seasoning (or omit, if you are using actual broth!)

Once you've gone through about half of the water, add all of the veggies (except tomatoes) and the remaining water. Let it do its thing for about 10 minutes, or however long it takes for it to evaporate and cook. Towards the end, mix in the tomatoes and italian spices (Again, this can be played with).

There you have it! A successful Meatless Monday.

Do you ever do Meatless Mondays? Have any on-a-whim risotto ideas? I adore comments (although trying to figure out how to reply to your comments in a way that notifies you...?)! :)