Favorite Recipes from a Year* of Cooking Vegetarian

Sometime in February of 2013 I stopped eating meat at home and then lent came and I said, "Well,let's do this for realzies. No meat for lent." and when lent was over I stuck with a "buy no meat from the grocery store" rule and that's pretty much been my life with a few exceptions. If someone cooked meat for me, I ate it. I ordered it at restaurants. I'm working on doing more vegetarian restaurant choices and I think I've settled that my ultimate goal is to only buy animal products that are from animals who are locally raised/slaughtered. Right now, that's the answer that best balances animal stewardship, love for my global neighbors, and care for my own body and budget.  It's not a perfect answer, but it's the answer that I'm aiming for right now.

It really hasn't been that hard. The hardest part is just discovering new favorites. I had to throw out almost of all my "old stand-bys" that were the quick and easy things to make that I always had the ingredients for.

That said, I have found a few new favorites that I've made a few times:

Roasted beets+arugula+goat cheese. I typically either put it into a grilled cheese sandwich or I make a salad (add some kind of vinaigrette - typically red wine)

Black Bean & Quinoa Casserole:  If you touch your eye after chopping the jalapenos, turn the stove top off before you run screaming in agony to the bathroom to flush your eye out. You're going to be a minute.

Vegetables+beans+tomatoes+veg stock+leafy greens+rice Soup:   With the number of snow days we've had this winter I can't count the number of of "pantry soups" I've made for friends and neighbors as we once again hunkered down and spent a snow day grad school style:  reading, reading, reading.  While the "what's in the cupboards and fridge" versions always turned out well -this recipe in particular was amazing:  Slow-Cooker Squash Stew (Follow the recipe to a T. Delish!)

Things with Lentils: Lentil and Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie. My favorite vegan who has been veganing for a long time stopped by and shared this meal with me. She approved, so I feel like that means it was yum.

Vegetables/greens+cheese+eggs quiche or frittata: Roast your own beets  and save the greens - they are HEAVENLY in this beet greens quiche. A sweet potato and some peppers/onions cooked in a skillet and then with some scrambled eggs poured over top, topped with some greens and maybe a little cheese makes a great brunch when your grad school self casually rolls out of bed at 10 because you imagine that you have the freedom to do such things. (You don't, if you're wondering.)

Fancy Fruits: And by fancy fruits I mean mango. Love it sliced up with some red onion and tomato with a vinaigrette. For an entree featuring mango - this simple beans and rice variation is yum!


Have a favorite veg dish that you like to make? Do share! I'm still building up my recipe stash. I prefer to stay away from overly-processed veg options.

*I made a turkey on Thanksgiving and there was that one time I was inexplicably CRAVING hotdogs with sandwich relish the way my grandfather made them so I bought some Oscar-Meyer all beef bun length franks at the grocery store, and then I sat in the grocery store parking lot for four hours waiting on AAA who fixed the problem in 15 minutes. So, I think the universe got me back for that.

What I'm Into (November)

A number of blogs I read do this, and I thought it would be fun for this month. No promises on it's prolonged presence.

Books: 

For School:  I read a LOT for school - but one I'm really enjoying is Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil by Emilie Townes.  Here's a random passage I underlined:

All that we really achieve with many postmodern categories is the production of constructs such as "center" and "periphery" that reveal our vexing fixation on making a complex world simplistic and on the messiness of diversity neat and pristine when it is really a mash pit of realities. Hence, we remain the same people who want to do justice but demand safety; who want to be prophetic but fret over status and postion; who search for truth but grasp at nettling shadows. (31)

Not for School:  In the Kingdom of Men by Kim Barnes (novel).  Set in the 1960s and following the story of an American woman who moves to the Middle East with her husband to work for an oil company. Very interesting! 

TV: Parenhood has totally made me tear up a few times this season. 

Food:  I've been trying to incorporate less animal / animal-product into my diet. (But I'm pretty sure I'll settle into flexitarian rather than a vegatarian/vegan)

Here's a couple of vegan (or almost vegan) recipes that I've made and loved during this past month. 

Source: biggirlssmallkitchen.com via Nicole on Pinterest

In the name of using stuff I already had: I used butternut squash, the green lentils rather than black, and regular raisins rather than golden, and it was still good. I microwaved one half the next day and it reheated quite well!  There is mayo in the dressing - but if you swap that out/omit, you've got a yummy vegan main course!

Source: ohsheglows.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Completely Vegan. This was SO GOOD.  I roasted on a silicone baking mat rather than on parchment paper. Browned/caramelized splendidly!


On my Blog:

Starting my orphan-advocacy! Meet Martin

And, something I'm really enjoying for a variety of reasons: Short Stories

Excited for December: 

Finishing my first semester of grad school! Time off from grad school and my job to visit family and friends in the home-town.  

Linking Up!

Lentil Stuffed Tomatoes

Cook up 1/2 cup each of lentils and white rice. The recipe calls for only cooking each for 10 minutes - but I prefer my lentils/rice a bit softer - so cook to the tenderness you want. :)


Saute onions in a couple tablespoons of butter. Add rice/lentils. Season with salt and pepper.


Cut off the tops of 4-6 medium tomatoes and gut the inside - reserving all the parts for later use.



Chop up the tomato guts. Mix with 1 tbs olive oil and a crushed clove of garlic. Place tomatoes in a greased baking dish. Fill tomatoes with lentil/rice mixture, drizzle some of the tomato gut mixture over the top. Put the top of the tomato back on.

Drizzle some more tomato guts over the top of it all. (I like saying "guts" in my cooking entries. Kind of fun)

Bake for about 10-15 minutes at 450.

Yum!

Vegetarian Weekends

I'm trying to eat more veggies and less meat. I'm nowhere near desiring a complete vegetarian lifestyle - but I want to start incorporating "vegetarian days" into my life. For practical reasons - I'm thinking of making Friday/Saturday/Sunday vegetarian days. I typically eat with the house the other days of the week. I'm not always the one cooking and I don't really see everyone else getting excited about vegetarian meals ;-).

So, I'm going to start a list of some vegetarian food that I know I enjoy or that sounds like something I'll enjoy (or at least give a chance!). This will help me with my weekend meal planning and grocery shopping as well. I'm not doing vegan - so eggs, dairy, etc are in. I'm going veg because I think I should eat more plants - not because I think it's wrong to use animals for food. Feel free to give me some your favorite veg recipes.

Here's a list of things I know I like - I'm just throwing them out as I think of them - so breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. :) Trying to think of quick and easy as well as actual meals. Yes, it's a bit of an odd combination.

Tomato Sandwiches.
Eggplant Croquettes
Ratatouille
Pasta Primavera
Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches
Onion Pie
Goat Cheese and Arugula Pizza
Omelets with various vegi-fillings
Yogurt and Granola

Once the farmers' markets start up around here in May I'm planning on heading down early in the a.m. once a week and hopefully scoring some great fresh and organic veggies.

First eggplant, now okra

Another vegetable which I previously dismissed has been reclaimed! I've grown up in the south generally despising "southern vegetables" - okra being at the top of my list.

I had a bag in my CSA box a couple weeks ago though and knew I needed to do something with them. I found a lovely recipe for Indian-style okra on All Recipes and thought I would try that.

SO. GOOD.

You just melt butter in a skillet. Chop on onion and saute it until tender. Slice the okra and throw it into the mix. Sprinkle on cumin, coriander, ginger, salt, and pepper. Cook that for a few minutes - stirring often. Serve and enjoy!

I was quite sad when okra did not appear in my CSA box the next week.

You can find the full recipe with actual measurements and specific times here: Indian Style Okra

I take back everything bad I thought about eggplant

So I was not very fond of eggplant. It looked funny. Felt funny. Smelled funny. Was a disappointing shade of dirty white that turned brown and old-looking fast once peeled. It doesn't really have a redeeming quality in and of itself.

However, I am getting two to three eggplants per week and I need to do something with them! So I went in search of some recipes. I stumbled across one on www.allrecipes.com with the rather presumptuous name of Eggplant Croquettes. I just called them "Eggplant Patties" in my head as I was making them as I did not think eggplant deserved such a dignified name.

I followed the recipe with the exception of adding cumin and baking the patties rather than frying them. (10 minutes on each side at 350 F)


oh. my. goodness.


Croquettes they are! These things are delicious! I was lazy and did not take pictures (thinking it wouldn't be anything to write home on the blog about anyway) but they are amazing! Go! Try them! If you're local I'll give you an eggplant!


As this is the single domestic - I did not cook up the whole batch but froze a few of them to enjoy at a later date.

I think I found a new favorite meal.

Ratatouille

I went looking for what to make with my eggplants from my CSA box and found a recipe for Ratatouille. Despite the fact that the movie of the same name rather creeped me out with the whole rats in the kitchen thing, I thought I would try out the recipe.

It's a VERY easy recipe. You just chop up the veggies and throw them all together. I did have to add some tobasco at the end because it wasn't spicy enough for me - so I think next time I'll throw in some peppers to the veggie mix.

I cooked up some plain white ricce to serve alongside of the dish and it was quite yummy!

Here's my new thing - recipe cards with all the info! Enjoy! Is it readable? I may have to try a different way of uploading the image. Let me know!

New Potatoes

I learned something new the other day via my CSA newsletter. Potatoes can wilt! I got a bag full each of fingerling potatoes and red potatoes - and the newsletter said these were "new potatoes" - or young ones. They were more tender and their skin was thinner than the ones you usually buy in the store. Those in stores usually stay in the ground longer for their skins to thicken up to make shipping safer for them. However, when the potato is just coming to me from the farm down the road - it doesn't need a thick skin. Anyway. The newsletter informed me that these potatoes can wilt and should be kept in the fridge.

(Here is where I take a side note to give a shout out to Tupperware's Fridge Smart series (pictured). They are great storage things for fruits and veggies (and potatoes!). I put all of my produce in them now and they stay fresh for weeks. Amazing. Really!)

I used some of the potatoes to try a recipe from my America's Test Kitchen book and they turned out wonderfully as always.

The recipe is pretty simple:

Preheat oven to 400

Wash potatoes, cut into bite-size wedges

Toss potato wedges in olive oil, salt, and pepper

Put potatoes on a rimmed cookie sheet with one of the cut sides down. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake 20 minutes.

Remove foil. Bake 15 minutes

Turn potatoes to the other cut side. Sprinkle with oregano Bake 8 more minutes

Remove from pan and toss with 1/2 cup feta cheese, minced garlic clove, salt, 1 tsp lemon juice, and some olives. Yum!

Green and not so leafy

I feel quite proud that I can now open a box of miscellaneous leafy green things and confidently identify the leaves within. Kale! Arugula! Mizuno! Chard! However, after weeks and weeks of mostly leaves - I was quite excited this week to feel the weight of my CSA box and know that there were other vegetables inside.

I had potatoes, squash, zucchini, onions, cabbage, and lettuce.


With the onions I made an onion pie - which I must admit I was not all that excited about but since I had an abundance of onions I figured I should experiment. It turned out fabulously! I think I'll make another one day.

Here's what you need:

Crust:
1/2 tube ritz crackers, crushed
1/2 stick butter, melted

Mix together and press into a 9" pie plate

Saute 1 cup vidalia onions thinly sliced in 2 tbs butter until onions are translucent. Place in pie crust.

Whisk together 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/4 cup milk, salt, pepper, and 2 eggs. Pour over onions.

Top with 1 cup grated cheddar cheese, sprinkle with paprika.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.




I had some broccolli left over from earlier CSAs - so I decided to make a potato broccoli quiche. This turned out ok. I like things a little more spicy. Since it wasn't all that great I'll skip the recipe. You can find it on www.allrecipes.com if it sounds interesting though.


With the zucchini and squash I made fried patties that were DELICIOUS and very very simple.

I made a batch for each - but I'm sure you could mix them together if you'd like.

For one batch:

Grate one squash or zucchini. Mix in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup cornmeal, 1 egg, sage, ginger, cloves, basil, cinnamon, salt, and pepper.

Drop batter by spoon fulls into an olive-oil greased skillet and fry until brown and crispy on both sides.

I'm going to be prepared this time!

First of all - a number of you are missing out! You've never had home-made carrot cake? You're missing out! I don't even like store-bought carrot cake because I always remember the yummy icing-less variety my mother made when I was a child.

From the CSA newsletter: What’s in the box this week? English Peas, Arugula, Green Onions, Chard, Kale, Turnips and Lettuces of various varieties.


I have prepared a grocery list (see picture for evidence!) and will actually make new and interesting meals using my very cool veggies this week! I am determined! We'll just call week one a flop as I wasn't prepared - the next 17 weeks will be better! CSA pick-up is literally next door to the grocery store I like - so I have no excuses.


Ok, so, menu plans for the week:

recipes from the CSA newsletter:

"Turnips and Onion Gratin" and "Green Tacos" (I'll post the recipe if they turn out well)


and recipes I found on my own will include: Arugula and Goat Cheese Pizza with pesto sauce, Arugula and goat cheese over penne pasta, Sweet and Savory Kale, Swiss Chard with Garbanzo Beans (note to self: add Garbanzo beans to grocery list.)


That leaves the peas. I'll probably just throw them into the Chard and Beans thing.

So here's hoping to a more successful CSA week #2!

Week One of the Veggies

I picked up my first CSA box this afternoon. The newsletter tells me that the first couple of weeks are greens-heavy and on the small side. Here's what I got!





Newsletter also tells me that those green things are arugula, swiss chard, kale, and lettuce. Anyone care to identify which is which for me?

I'm planning on trying a few recipes over the next couple of days - - I'll share any good finds with you!

Consumer Supported Agriculture

I am excited that I will have a new blogging topic here soon - and perhaps one that will keep me updating this thing on a fairly regular basis.

I have purchased a half-share in a local farm's Consumer-Supportd-Agriculture (CSA) crop.

Beginning on April 30th I will receive a box full of seasonal veggies and some fruit for the next 18 weeks. So, I'm going to have to get a bit creative to cook up all these veggies. I have about resolved to not buy meat after what I have in my freezer is gone and do my best to do a vegetarian summer. I think it'll be a bit of an adventure to try to cook in a whole new way!

This is an audience partiipation post - - if you have a favorite recipe involving any of the vegetables listed on the right which have a check in the "S" columns - please share!

Likewise - I'll share tasty recipes I discover over this vegetarian summer.





A number of these vegetables I recognize as being "southern" vegetables - - but though I grew up in the south my mother is from Michigan and I'm rather unfamiliar with what one does with such things as collard greens and the like. When they serve collard greens in the school cafeteria they look like a bowl full of lawn mulch collected after a heavy rain. I'm sure there are more appetizing ways of presenting them though that make me actually want to ingest the things.