Recipe Box: Vegetarian Edition

I’m by no means a vegetarian.  I love a good pork banh mi or bbq pork sandwich and other non-pork meats that I can’t seem to recall at the moment. Despite my devotion to formerly breathing dinner items, I find myself making quite a few vegetarian and (gasp!) even vegan dishes every week.

Temperatures started dropping in Chicago last week.  While I’m not ready to bundle head-to-toe and slog through snow just yet, I don’t mind the foods that go along with cooler weather.  Soups, stews, slow-cooker meals and casseroles always seem to take the edge off when the mercury plummets.

My inaugural cold-weather meal this year was this Moroccan-style Vegetable + Chickpea Stew by The First Mess. It’s flavorful, hearty and full of wonderful fall roots and spices. Feel free to serve it to your animal activist vegan friends – it’s totally vegan! Who knew their food could be edible? (I kid, Jenny & Lauren.)

I’m a big fat copycat, pretending to be a famous food blogger who beautifully arranges all of her ingredients beforehand.

moroccan-style vegetable + chickpea stew
serves: makes a big pot
notes: I like to slowly cook the onions and spices out in the oil before I add everything else, almost stewing them in a way. The raw-ness of the spice goes away and the onions melt into the soup in a special luxurious kind of way.

stew ingredients:
big knob of coconut oil
1 medium onion, small dice
2-3 tsp ground cinnamon
1-2 tsp ground cumin
1-2 tsp ground coriander
chili flakes (optional)
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
3-4 dates, pitted + chopped
2 carrots, chopped (1/2 inch pieces)
1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes, peeled + chopped (1/2 inch pieces)
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted)
3 cups vegetable stock (or more, depending)
1 yellow pepper, stemmed and chopped (1/2 inch pieces)
2 cups (or a 14-15 ounce can) cooked chickpeas
salt + pepper
couple handfuls of chopped greens

to serve:
chopped flat leaf parsley/cilantro
fine grated lemon zest
extra virgin olive oil
cooked brown rice/quinoa/millet/couscous

Heat the coconut oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions and lower heat until they are sizzling kind of quietly. Once the onions are a bit soft and translucent, add the cinnamon, cumin, coriander and chili flakes. Slowly sauté and stir this mix until the onions are really, really soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chopped dates, carrots and sweet potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to coat the vegetables in the spices and oil. Add the tomatoes and stir. Add the vegetable stock. Bring the soup to a boil and simmer until the sweet potatoes are just tender, about 10-12 minutes.

Add the chopped yellow peppers and chickpeas and stir the soup. Season the whole thing again with salt and pepper. Simmer until the yellow peppers are tender and the sweet potatoes are quite soft, about 5 minutes. Add the greens to the pot (and more stock if necessary) and cook for 1 minute, or until just-wilted. Check the soup for seasoning and serve it hot with cooked grains, drizzles of olive oil, lemon zest and chopped herbs.

I’m posting her recipe verbatim because I didn’t change a dang thing about it. Except I garnished with fresh mint and basil.  And shortly thereafter learned that Christian has some sort of genetic mutation (there’s no other explanation) that causes him to dislike the taste of fresh basil.

You’re obviously not here for the fine photography.

Where do eggs fall on the vegetarian/omnivore scale? Are they okay to eat because they’re not technically meat yet? Or are they taboo because they’re potential meat that hasn’t been fertilized? I clearly don’t follow vegetarian doctrine. If eggs are cool, this tasty ramen is another hearty Fall/Winter recipe to keep handy. I found the original recipe here and the extra crispy is below.

Simple Miso Ramen – with some additions

Makes 4 large servings 

4 package instant ramen noodles, toss the flavor packet. Or save it for something? I can’t imagine what.

8 cups boiling water

3 T miso paste 

4 eggs at room temperature

1 bunch, fresh spinach

8 oz sliced mushrooms

3/4 c shredded carrot

4 T sliced green onion, chopped

First boil eggs. Bring a pot of water—enough to cover eggs by 1 inch—to a rolling boil. Gently add eggs to water and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from boiling water and put into a bowl filled with ice and water to stop cooking time. Rest for 1-2 minutes in ice bath then crack eggs in half. Using a small spoon, round edge of shell and spoon out egg. Set aside. (These directions are directly from Foodie Crush. My eggs were boiling so vigorously, one of them cracked and some brains leaked out. It was both gross and cool. I had a hard time getting beautifully halved eggs, too. Oh well, they tasted good.) In another saucepan while eggs are boiling, bring 2 cups water to boil. Once water has come to a boil, mix in miso paste and stir until dissolved. (This could take some time. ) Add ramen noodles and cook 2-3 minutes until noodles have separated and have become al dente. Put noodles in serving bowl, reserving broth in pot. Add mushrooms and carrots.  Allow them to cook for another 2-3 mutes or until they mushrooms are tender. Place spinach leaves in pot with miso broth for 30 seconds. Once wilted, scoop noodles into serving bowls and top with mushroom-spinach broth. Garnish with egg halves and green onion. Drizzle with Sriracha if you know what’s good for you. Slurp unattractively while you warm your cockles. 

Total calories (pre Sriracha): 289

tl;dr dump that meathead

A Quickie

I tried out a recipe tonight that my younger sister, Susie, made up for black bean burgers.  They tasted great! But remember how I said I wanted to be better about photographing food? Turns out black bean burgers are not the place to start. Also, if I’m going to use my phone instead of a real camera, I should learn to go landscape instead of portrait.  Enjoy this very unappetizing photo of a very tasty meal:

It looks like this disgusting barley or wheat hot cereal Daddy made for breakfast years ago.  I don’t know what it was but I still shudder at the thought of it.

Here’s her recipe, verbatim, if you want to give it a whirl.  I served mine with a whole wheat bun, salsa verde, a slice of tomato and some lettuce.

Chipotle Black Bean Burgers

2 cans seasoned black beans, strained

1/2 red onion

1 egg

1 garlic clove

Bread crumbs (enough until it is the right texture)

4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (found in a can)

2 tbsp cottage cheese

1 tsp Cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

Blend in a food processor until smooth. Doesn’t need to be thick enough to make into patties, will be like a thick muffin batter. Plop onto a lightly oiled medium/hot skillet. I patted mine into a patty shape. Cook until brown on one side, then flip and cook a couple more minutes. I served it with a light mayo or sour cream (tried both at different times) mixed with Texas Pete, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt & pepper mix on a bun with a thin slice of cheddar and lettuce leaves.

It was gooooood! I know you’ll prob want to take out some of the stuff like salt and bread and cheddar but it is delicious like this so hopefully if you make those changes it’ll still be good!

Unrelated: Christian frequently teases me for my shorts collection.  And by collection I mean the one pair of shorts I own and wear all.the.time. You may recall that they were my one piece of “skinny” clothing and I was thrilled to fit into them again.

The last time these shorts fit, I’d done a 12-week all liquid diet and was a senior in college. It might be time to get myself a new pair.

So, to stop the teasing, (and because it’s almost my birthday and I’ll use any excuse to get myself a present) I stopped in Loft today to try to find a new pair or two.  The shorts I currently own are size 14P so I took a few 14s and a 12 into the fitting room. I was ELATED to find that they all sagged in the butt and had room in the waist! I’m used to the butt sagging, I’m cursed with a hereditary disease called Noassatall, but the room in the waist is a refreshing change! I went back out onto the floor and brought an armload of size 10 shorts back to try on. Size 10! That’s practically single digits!

Not sure why I decided standing like Peter Pan, crowing his heart out, was a good pose.

After a few slack-jawed dressing room selfies and two second opinions (thanks, Susie and Christian!) I walked out of the store with two pairs of SIZE 10 shorts (on clearance, no less!) If I could’ve leapt into the air, fist pumped, 80s movie freeze-frame style, I absolutely would have.  What a victory!

tl;dr 

that photo’s not poop, got me some new (smaller) britches

A Few Tasty Recipes

Christian treated me to a delicious brunch this morning afternoon at Batter & Berries. I had a sweet potato waffle with maple butter, fried chicken and hot sauce.  DADGUM. It was delicious.  Christian ordered the Lobster Benedict.  Holy cow. They were both so good and so not healthy.  It’s nice to splurge now and then when you eat healthy all week 🙂

I want to be better about sharing some of the tasty and healthy recipes I make throughout the week but I usually forget to take pictures because I’m so focused on getting the food on the table before I eat everything in sight! So, bear with me while I figure out how to do this.

This week, I made 20-minute Turkey Nachos (YUM!), Shrimp Tacos with Avocado Chimichurri Sauce (featured below), Coconut Quinoa Soup (okay – the recipe is for one so I had to try to do math to multiply it and didn’t have enough liquid) and Bacon-Pear Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Kale Chips (featured below.)

 

Shrimp Tacos with Avocado Chimichurri Sauce

I found these on Pinterest and they were originally posted here.  I modified the recipe slightly to fit what I already had on hand. My modified recipe is below.

Shrimp Tacos with Avocado Chimichurri Sauce

Yield: 8 tacos

Chimichurri Sauce:

1 c. roughly chopped cilantro

2 T. olive oil

2 T. Cholula green hot sauce

2 garlic cloves

1 t. honey

1/2 t. cumin

1 1/2 avocados, pitted and peeled (I had a half of an avocado leftover so I threw it in)

Tacos:

1 T. olive oil

1 sweet onion, thinly sliced

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced

1 lb frozen, cooked shrimp, thawed and de-tailed

2 c. torn lettuce leaves

1 jalapeño, sliced

8 corn tortillas, taco sized

Combine sauce ingredients in the food processor until smooth. Set aside. Heat olive oil in a large skillet and cook the peppers and onion for 3-4 minutes or until softened. Add the shrimp just to heat through.  (If you’re using raw shrimp, you’ll obviously want to cook them for real.) Heat the tortillas according to package directions* and top with the shrimp/pepper/onion mixture, lettuce, a dollop of chimichurri and slices of jalapeño. Eat.

Bacon-Pear Grilled Cheeses with Kale Chips

I made up the grilled cheese recipe and found the kale chip one here and modified it ever so slightly.

Sandwiches:

Yield: 2 sandwiches

4 slices wheat bread

2 slices cheese

1 T. dijon mustard

4 thin slices of a fresh pear

3 slices of turkey bacon

Cook the turkey bacon until crisp. Break in half and set aside for a second.  Spread the dijon mustard evenly over the four slices of bread. Top two slices of bread with a slice of cheese, two slices of pear each and 3 halves of turkey bacon. Top with the other slice of bread.  Cook in the same skillet you cooked your bacon in but don’t add any oil or butter.  Grill until cheese is melted and both sides are golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Cut in half and serve hot.

Kale Chips:

1 bunch kale leaves

1 T. oil (recipe calls for olive but I ran out so I used canola)

black pepper

cayenne pepper
(recipe calls for salt but I don’t cook with it anymore and I didn’t think they needed it.)

Preheat oven to 325. Tear kale into bite-sized pieces and wash.  (The pieces will shrink so use a giant’s bite as your guide.) Pat them try and dump into a large bowl.  Massage with oil and spices.  Spread them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (I used foil because I’m not a fancy baker or old-timey letter writer who keeps parchment on-hand.) Bake for 20 minutes.  Next time, I’ll do less time because mine were a little over baked.

Pre-baked kale chips

Dragon scales. I mean baked kale chips.

*Or boyfriend directions.  I am told that heating them in the microwave or in the oven is unacceptable.  I am to heat them in a hot, dry skillet until juuuust right.

tl;dr this stuff was good

Meal Planning: The most helpful pain in my ever-developing butt

**I started writing this two Fridays ago and am just now getting around to finishing it! I’ve been incredibly busy (in a good way!) which makes this even more applicable.**

The two biggest foes I’ve faced in my weight loss journey are poor planning and poor attitude.  I could probably write seventeen posts on my attitude roller coaster so for today, I’ll just focus on the planning aspect.

There’s a girl in my office who has a homemade sign up at her desk.  It says, “Proper planning prevents poor performance.” It’s in an awful font, it’s aligned terribly and capitalized poorly but the sentiment rings true. Any time I’ve decided to wing-it with what I’m eating, I make less than ideal decisions.

Before we committed to getting healthy, I wouldn’t have any idea what I was going to have for breakfast, lunch or dinner until I was hangry (hungry + angry) and then I’d grab something in a crazed fury that rivaled a pregnant woman’s 2 AM quest for fried pickles. I rarely ate breakfast at home, would buy lunch out every day and faced with an empty refrigerator each evening, would order out or pick up a frozen pizza for supper. I realized I had a problem when the lady behind the register at Dunkin Donuts saw me in line, smiled broadly and said, “Large coconut iced coffee, cream only and a sausage egg and cheese on a croissant?” Uh… no, thank you.  Just a hot, steaming bowl of shame this morning, thanks.  But I digress.

Soooo buttery

Obviously, I had to drastically change my ways in order to reach my goals.  I’ve heard tell of people who can lose weight and never eat at home but I am not one of those people.  If faced with the decision between the grilled chicken salad and the spicy sandwich with waffle fries and Chick-Fil-A sauce, it’s no contest.  I don’t have the willpower to turn that buttery piece of heaven down in favor for something more healthy.  So what could I do instead? I planned my meals, grocery shopped for the whole week, purchased healthy snacks to keep on hand at home and at work and I bought this lunch container so I’d pack a lunch every day.

Meal planning was kind of fun at first. There are so many great ideas on Pinterest and in healthy cookbooks! But after a while, I got real tired of having to pick, shop for and cook 5-6 recipes a week.  It got more and more difficult to be creative and I got super resentful. But for me, it’s like laundry or cleaning the bathroom.  I hate doing it but if I don’t, I’ll end up on a TLC special.

So, how do I plan my meals?

1. Make time
2. Gather the necessary tools
3. Assess my schedule
4. Assess my stockpile
5. Find recipes
6. Put them on the calendar
7. Make a list
8. Shop

Time

I like to devote about an hour on Saturday or Sunday to planning. This doesn’t include grocery shopping time.

The Tools

The internet and cookbooks, Google calendar, OneNote (or other list-making app or pen/paper)

Schedule

I try to figure out what I’ve got going on this week.  What nights am I busy? Those are the perfect opportunity to make a low-prep salad or a slow cooker meal. What nights do I have free? Those are great for experimenting with more labor-intensive recipes. Do I have plans to eat out with friends? That’s a night of no cooking!

Stockpile

I look through the fridge, freezer and pantry to see what I’ve got on hand and then try to find recipes that use those ingredients.  That way I can keep my shopping costs down and I’m not throwing away rotten vegetables every week.

Recipes

My first stop is Pinterest. I also check out a few of my favorite cooking blogs.  Pinch of Yum is a great resource for flavorful, healthy recipes and she even has an eCookbook! If I don’t see anything that strikes my fancy, I’ll pull down my Cooking Light cookbook and pick out a dish or two. Occasionally I’ll make up a recipe.  This is kind of rare but usually yields decent results.

Calendar

Once I’ve chosen my recipes, I put them on the Google calendar Christian and I share.  If I found it online, I include the link in the calendar event so I’m not searching through hundreds of pins and links when it’s time to cook. If it’s something I found in a cookbook, I include the cookbook name and page number in the body of the calendar event.

List

Finally, I go through the recipes one by one and assess what ingredients I need to purchase.  I like to organize my list the way the grocery store is organized.  I’ll list frozen first, then dairy, then dry goods, meat, vegetables and fruit.  But that’s because I adore grocery shopping and I have my store memorized.  This isn’t a necessary step but will probably cut down on how long you spend wandering the aisles or dodging other carts. If a recipe calls for something that’s optional or I’ve got something similar, I usually omit or substitute to keep my bill low.  When making a list – don’t forget about breakfast and snacks! Lunches take care of themselves because you can just eat dinner leftovers.

Shopping

I’ve found the best time to grocery shop is super early in the morning and the worst time to shop is a Sunday afternoon or right after work. I’ve also found it’s best to not bring Christian with me.  He hates it and I love it so it’s mutually beneficial to leave him behind.

Viola! I’ve now got my whole week figured out! I’ve copied this week’s menu below as an example.

Monday

Breakfast: Crunchy oat squares (3/4 c) with (1/2 c) 1% milk and blueberries

Snacks: Chobani peach yogurt and (1/4 c) unsalted, roasted nuts

Lunch: Boneless skinless chicken thighs with tomatoes and mushrooms and (1/2 c) brown rice

Dinner: White bean turkey chili*

Tuesday

Breakfast: Peach Melba overnight oats (minus vanilla extract and chia seeds)

Snacks: Chobani pineapple yogurt and (1/4 c) unsalted, roasted nuts

Lunch: White bean turkey chili

Dinner: Edamame and Tomato Grilled Cheese with sweet potato fries*

Wednesday

Breakfast: Bran flakes (3/4 c) with (1/2 c) 1% milk and blueberries

Snacks: Dannon Fit & Light yogurt and (1/4 c) unsalted, roasted nuts

Lunch: Edamame and Tomato Grilled Cheese with sweet potato fries

Dinner: Leftovers or make a salad

Thursday

Breakfast: Pineapple Coconut overnight oats (minus chia seeds and honey)

Snacks: Dannon Fit & Light yogurt and (1/4 c) unsalted, roasted nuts

Lunch: leftovers or a salad

Dinner: Mediterranean Chicken Bake (minus cashews and cheese)

Friday

Breakfast: Bran flakes (3/4 c) with (1/2 c) 1% milk and blueberries

Snacks: Dannon Fit & Light yogurt and (1/4 c) unsalted, roasted nuts

Lunch: Mediterranean Chicken Bake

Dinner: Seared Indian Chicken over coconut rice

Weekends

I go a little more make-it-up-as-I-go on the weekends.  I finish up leftovers and will usually make an omelette with eggs substitute for breakfast.

 

What helps you stay on track? Do you find all this planning too rigid? What are your go-to recipes for a quick and healthy dinner?

 

*Recipes I made up.  Let me know if you’re interested in any of them.

 

tl;dr plan ahead or eat like that garbage disposal dinosaur from The Flintstones