A Spinach Feta Couscous Affair

Oh hello! I made this recipe a few days ago and it was good.

Ingredients: 

• 1 12 ounce box couscous (about 1 1/2 cups)** I used 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat couscous and I feel like it was really heavy on the couscous. I might cut it down to 1 cup or even 3/4 cup (and the appropriately scaled down amount of broth) if I make this again.
• 2 1/4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 tsp garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 bunch fresh spinach (I buy my spinach in a big box so IDK, I just used 4 handfuls. I'd maybe use even more next time.)
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes (I added these because some of the recipe reviews said this was kind of bland. It was good but surprisingly hot. Next time I might use slightly less. Don't use any if you don't like spice, duh.)

Anyway, boil the broth and put in the couscous. Cover it and turn off the heat. (If you've never made couscous before, read the package. It's easy though, just cover it in boiling liquid until it absorbs all of it, like 5-10 minutes. Fluff it with a fork when it's done. Eat it all the time. Get the whole wheat kind.)

Meanwhile cut everything that needs to be cut. Sautee the onion, mushroom, and garlic. Add the oregano & lemon juice (& red pepper). Then put the spinach on top until it wilts. Toss all that stuff in with the veggies and then finally add the feta! MMM.

Dinner and a Movie!

My friends Ryan, Shilpa, and I decided to start having themed dinner and movie nights! We started off with Howl, the new biopic of Allen Ginsberg. (It was a good movie, by the way. James Franco deserves all his accolades.) We wanted a 50s-ish vibe for the food, so we had vegetarian shepherd's pie and blueberry pie! It was delightful!

My friend Ryan made this pie:

Doesn't it look pie-y?? It was delicious. But it's not Ryan's blog so I'm not going to tell you about the pie.
 
I made the shepherd's pie and it was also delicious. Shepherd's pie used to be a fave comfort food for me before I went vegetarian, and it never occurred to me to make a vegetarian version. My friends had never had shepherd's pie before in any form, and this recipe made them believers. It's a super easy, yummy, filling recipe. I adapted it from this recipe.

Ingredients:
2 bags of Morningstar Farms Mealstarter Crumbles (You could probably get by with 1 bag and some extra vegetables, but personally I liked having a pretty big layer of fake meat)
1 onion
8 small potatoes (or 4 big ones)
2 carrots
1 cup frozen corn
1 15 oz can of vegetable broth
Olive oil
Butter/margarine
S&P

First up, peel and quarter the potatoes and boil them for 20-30 minutes.

MEANWHILE cut the other vegetables and start browning the onion in oil, for about 10 minutes. Then add the fake meat crumbles and let them get warmed up. Then add the corn and carrots, and stir in about half the can of vegetable broth. Spread this mixture into the bottom layer of a casserole dish.

THEN mash the potatoes. Add a smidge of butter and the other half of the broth. Pat them lovingly over the top of the fake meat layer.

Bake it at 400 for about 30 minutes, until the potatoes form a golden brown crust.

Then eat it!!

This recipe serves like... 4 people who like to eat, or 6 skinny people.

PS for our next Dinner & Movie party, we're planning to watch The Birds. Let me know if you have any vegetarian bird-themed meal ideas!

Roasted Pear Salad

I made this for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it! Even the non-vegetarians (i.e. everyone at Thanksgiving besides me). My mom clipped the recipe out of a magazine. Here it is on the Marzetti salad dressing website.

It's pretty easy and really fancy-looking, like restaurant food!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup balsamic vinagrette dressing (Marzetti.com would prefer you use Marzetti brand but I betcha any brand is fine)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (the original called for 1/4 cup but I doubled it because my family loves pecans)
• 4 oz blue cheese
• 1/4 cup dried cherries
• 3 firm pears
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 8 oz butter lettuce (but we just used bagged salad mix)

Preheat the oven to 375. Mix 3/4 cup of the salad dressing with the sugar over low heat until the sugar has dissolved and set aside. Toast the pecans in a skillet over low heat (making sure they don't burn), then add the cherries and blue cheese. 

THEN cut the pears in half and scoop out the middle a little bit. Also, cut a slice down the back so the pears will lie flat on a baking dish. Sprinkle lemon juice over the pears to keep them from getting brown. Fill the pears with the pecan-cheese-cherry mix and then pour the sugared salad dressing over the pears. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes and baste the pears a few times. (I had to look up what "basting" means since I don't usually cook things that require basting... just scoop the salad dressing off the bottom of the pan and pour it back over the pears I guess!)

Meanwhile put the lettuce on salad plates and then when the pears are done put one on top of each pile of lettuce, and drizzle the rest of the balsamic vinagrette over them.

That is a fancy salad, son!

Crock Pot!

Hey guys, what has two thumbs, speaks limited French, and a used Crock Pot? This moi.

So, what are your favorite (vegetarian) Crock Pot recipes?? TELL ME YOUR SECRETS.

baked zucchini fries

I adapted this from this recipe. Basically I didn't use cheese. And I halved the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 zucchini
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk (I used soy milk cuz that's all I had, and it was fine)
1/2 cup Japanese Panko bread crumbs*
Salt & pepper

* I actually bought these rather than just saying "eff it, I'll use regular bread crumbs as I might have been tempted to do" and I think it was worth it, they're really light and crispy!

So I preheat the oven to 425 and cut the zucchini into 4-inch spears. I mixed the egg and milk and dipped the zucchini into the liquid mixture, and then into the bread crumbs. At first I misread the recipe and mixed the egg, milk, and bread crumbs all together. Mistake!! It does not work and I had to throw it all away.

After the zucchini pieces were coated, I put them on a olive-oil coated baking sheet. And then I baked them for 15 minutes, flipped them over, and baked the other side for another 15 minutes.

Verdict: I have to be honest; these were not nearly as good as fried zucchini. But I guess they are healthier or whatever. And they were still pretty good. Oh and I have to say that they were not as good the second day when I microwaved, so if you are only making them for one person, maybe only do half the zucchini and dip the other half the next day? Or just eat a whole zucchini in one sitting.

The original recipe also has a recipe for a Greek yogurt dip that probably would have been awesome, but instead I just ate them with ranch dressing.

Vegan "Buttermilk" Biscuits and "Sausage" Gravy

I'm not going to even pretend this was my idea -- I found this on the VegWeb site and made them this morning...AMAZING. Seriously. I'll just copy and paste. :)

Ingredients:

"buttermilk" biscuits:
2/3 cup non-dairy milk
2 teaspoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon apple or orange juice
2 cup unbleached white pastry flour (wheat flour just won't make fluffy biscuits, I have
tried)
2 teaspoons non-aluminum baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
gravy:
1/2 tube Gimme Lean, sausage flavor
salt and pepper
2-3 tablespoons non-hydrated margarine (or olive oil)
2-3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 to 2 cups water

Directions:

Start with gravy. Put margarine or oil in pan and turn on medium. Add Gimme Lean and break into very small pieces. Sprinkle with pepper and stir fry.

Preheat oven to 400*F. In a glass cup or bowl, add lemon juice to non-dairy milk and let it rest for a few minutes to thicken. In a different bowl mix oil and juice and beat them together with fork.

Place flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and stir together. Add oil mixture and mix until it resembles bread crumbs. Then stir enough of the reserved soured milk so the dough leaves the sides of the bowl and SLIGHTLY sticky (not enough and biscuits will be dry).

Place on a floured board and roll or pat to 1" thick and cut into 2 1/2' round biscuits and place on dry baking sheet. Place in oven and bake until light golden (10-12 minutes).

Right before biscuits are done make gravy. Make sure Gimme Lean is nice and browned. Deglaze pan with 1 cup water for 1 minute then mix remaining 1/2 cup water with flour to make thin paste. Add to sausage pan, stir constantly until thick. Season with salt and pepper.

**Note: pepper should be very prominent in the taste! Add enough to really taste it. Fresh cracked pepper is the best for this.

Take biscuits out of oven and cut in half and spread liberally with margarine and top with ample amounts of gravy.

This serves 2 people with gravy on four half biscuits. This can feed more people if you use a whole Gimme Lean, and double the other gravy ingredients.

Serves: 2-4

Preparation time: 20 minutes

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I used all-purpose flour, and they turned out great. Strongly recommend this!

let's talk about chili!

I love chili! And it's soo easy to make. In college I looked up a recipe for chili because I had no idea what I was doing. The recipe I found called for a packet of onion soup powder mix, which tastes awesome in chili (but that stuff is too expensive in the DR). My mom likes to put Reese's peanut butter cups in chili, but I feel this is a waste of Reese's peanut butter cups. What are your CHILI SECRETS? Tell me them.

Here's a super basic vegetarian chili recipe. I just made it yesterday with what I had lying around. It was delicious! The recipe is nothing special, but it's a place to start if you've never made chili before.

Ingredients:
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 onion
some garlic
hot sauce to taste (I use three or four good shakes)
pepper to taste
(At home, I loved to put celery in chili! But celery is hard to find in the DR.)

First, chop the onion and garlic and sautee them together in a little bit of oil.

When the onions turn clear, take them off the heat. Dump all the ingredients into a pot. Don't drain the beans or tomatoes, just pour the liquids into the pot too. I don't add any water besides the tomato and bean juice.

Yumm. Bring it up to a boil and let it simmer for like half an hour. Stir it occasionally or it will burn to the bottom of your pot. Trust me :( Anyway, that's it! You made chili!

But wait! There is the question of chili TOPPINGS. Some people say sour cream. Others, shredded cheese. Or corn chips. Of course, none of these are terribly healthy. Nutritionally speaking, your chili is better off without any of those things. Whatevs! Here's my new favorite chili topping:

 

QUESO HOJUELITAS. Hojuelitas ("little sheets/pieces") are this awesome snack food that for some reason is not widely available in the US. It's basically a combination of a Cheeto and a Frito. And they are perfect on chili.

Yum!

Roasted Garlic and Pumpkin Seed Pesto

I got this from vegweb.com's recipes; it is AMAZING.

Ingredients:
1 head of roasted garlic (I bought mine pre-roasted from Sunflower Market)
1-3 cups of basil (up to you how much you want; the original recipe called for three cups, but there's no way I was fitting three cups into the magic bullet)
1 cup + a smidge of Olive Oil
2 cups pumpkin seeds
1 cup walnuts (or other nuts)
salt and pepper
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (which makes it cheesy-like)

Blend all ingredients, gradually adding the olive oil and garlic -- make sure it's the right amount of garlic for you (I would guess I used about...10 cloves? Roasted garlic is milder than raw, so don't be afraid).

Use on pasta -- though we're considering also trying it on the vegan eggplant I posted about a few days ago!

I didn't measure the olive oil, just kept adding, and I think I added too much -- but it was so delicious. Highly recommended, and our new favorite vegan "thing."

veggie peanut noodles!

My friend Amanda taught me how to make this sauce and my friend Stephanie taught me how to make noodle stir fry with ramen noodles. But I was the one who combined them!! This recipe is sooo good and pretty easy. But it feels so fancy to make your own sauce!

Peanut sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup peanut butter
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup-ish water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ginger (the sugar and the ginger are optional & to taste. You could also try some garlic powder or whatever suits your fancy)

 

Put everything except the water in a bowl and stir it. Stir in the water a little bit at a time until you get the consistency you want.

 

Saucy! Make this first and set aside. OR, buy some pre-made sauce and skip that part of the recipe.

Noodle stir fry ingredients:

Some vegetables. I used 1 carrot, 1 onion, and 2 little peppers. Broccoli would be good but it's really expensive in the DR.

2 eggs (optional. Meat could also be optional here, I guess)

2 packets of ramen noodles (any flavor--you won't use the seasoning packet)

5 cloves of garlic, or a few spoonfuls of pre-minced garlic

Sesame oil (sesame oil is a little expensive but I must emphasize how totally delicious it is. If you must, you could use a different type of oil here).

I forgot to put the eggs in the picture, but y'all know what those look like, right?

Hey, maybe the reason Roland hasn't posted much at CB the last few years is that he's been busy building an oil empire!

Anyway, cut all the veggies up into bite size pieces. Mince the garlic.

 

Now! The timing here is a liiittle tricky, but not too bad. Put a pot of water on to boil. Then, start stir-frying the vegetables and garlic in some sesame oil. When the water starts to boil, put the noodles in. Don't cook them all the way! Leave them in the water for about a minute and take them out. (Throw the seasoning packets away unless you are super super thrifty and have some alternate use for ramen seasoning. I don't.) Meanwhile, crack the eggs into the veggies and scramble them in, and then dump the peanut sauce over it.

 

Mmm, almost ready! OK, after the noodles have been in for a minute-ish, take them out with a slotted spoon (or drain them) and toss them over the veggie-egg-sauce mixture. Stir fry the noodles in with everything else for a few more minutes.

Mmm-mmm good!! This serves 2 Renatas. It might serve three light eaters.

Vegan Taco Dip

This literally takes 10 minutes to make. Mmmmm, and it's delicious.

I used the smallest baking casserole dish I have because I don't need a GIGANTIC TACO DIP for two people. But, next time I go to a party, I'll use a bigger one to share.

Ingredients:
1 can red kidney beans OR chili beans if you find them (I got mine at Sunflower Market)
1 package of mexican tofu "meat" -- I'll edit the note when I'm home and can tell you the brand
Vegan sour cream (Tofutti is the best)
Vegetables -- I used cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocados, but feel free to use what you have
Black olives (optional, of course)

I cooked the beans to heat them up, then blended them and used them as the bottom layer.
Heat up the tofu using the package directions and use that as the second layer.
Cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocado came next. If I had olives, they would be on top.
Sour cream on top of the vegetables.

You can chill first, or you can dig right in! It's seriously delicious. I bought corn chips to use, and made them into nachos, essentially, and there are plenty of leftovers.

My no recipe biscuits

I'm calling this a no recipe biscuit because I really make them without any recipe, just an idea of what proportions of what are needed to have a yummy biscuit. The only constant is around 2 tsp of baking powder.
During our storm this week (I know, I'm talking about it again, but we just broke a snowfall record and I got two whole days home from work out of it) I would hurry off to the gym early in the morning only to return starving. My darling other half can not cook. Will not cook-- honestly, I'm kind of happy with it-- so when I return home and he's still asleep, I know I've got to whip something together. From the time that you procure the ingredients, preheat, mix and bake, it takes about 10-15 minutes tops.
I think the basis of this recipe or proportion comes from a biscuit topping that I put on vegetable stew, but who knows. These are drop biscuits, so once you mix the batter you simply drop spoonfulls onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Here's the basics:

2 cups some flour combination
2 tsp baking powder
salt
about a cup of liquid
1/4 or 1/3 c of an oil/lipid of some kind

HI. That's it. My favorite combo was one I made yesterday. These were the lightest, fluffiest, most delicate biscuits I'd ever had. I think. The cake was only lightly flavored so it really showcased the add ins:

2 cups all purpose white flour
2 tsp baking powder
salt
1 cup soy milk
1/3 cup olive oil
-after mixed I added in freshly grated Parmesan cheese and quite a few cranks of the old pepper mill. Parmesan peppercorn biscuits if you will. Yum!

falafel, dominican style

Ingredients
1 can of chickpeas
1 medium-ish onion
2 spoonfuls-ish flour
1 egg (if you want to make this vegan you can drop the egg and use more flour, but the egg makes it less crumbly)
Spices of some sort... I use whole cumin seeds, because I just happen to have a big bag of them and I like the texture. Don't go out and buy cumin seeds, though. You could use regular cumin. Or garlic powder maybe, whatever.
S&P
Oil (I like to use like half sunflower oil and half olive oil, but whatever)

So, you're actually supposed to use parsley and stuff for falafel? But this recipe works with what's readily available in the DR, and it's delicious and super easy.

Make sure the onion isn't too big! Or don't use a whole onion if you have a big one. It will make your falafel TOO ONIONY D:

Anyway, first step is mash chickpeas! I'm posting a picture of my mortal & pestle again because I can! But you can use a fork or blender.

Mash mash mash!  Then, dice the onion (or I guess throw it in with the chickpeas if you're one of those fancy "food processor" types) and mix them together in a bowl. Crack in the egg, shake in the spices, and stir it all together. Add in some flour a spoonful at a time and keep stirring. You want it to be solid enough to hold together in balls. Heat up some oil for a few minutes, then toss in some golf ball-sized patties.

 

Fry that shit until it's golden brown (1-2 minutes on each side). You will only be hurting yourself if you get impatient and take them out sooner! I know from experience.

Okay like 1/4th of these end up getting eaten almost immediately after getting taken out of the oil and salted and peppered. SOOO GOOD when they're fresh!  Another option? On a wrap with some lettuce and tomato and whatnot. Also it's great with tahini sauce (1 spoonful tahini + the juice of one lime + a little water), but I didn't have any limes so I just used ranch dressing here. Also good!

 

Fun fact: I worked at Subway when they first unveiled their "low carb wraps." I was always getting yelled at by the manager for not being a very good wrapper, a trait that continues to this very day. Other fun fact: this is a spinach wrap, not just moldy.

This would probably serve four people. I usually get three meals out of it, but that's because I'm a total fatkid with the fresh falafels and eat like half of them then. They are good cold in wraps or sandwiches, too. 

Fried Eggplant

If you love fried eggplant like we do (Nicole misses eggplant parmigiana...), you will love this recipe, ESPECIALLY the grapeseed oil part.

INGREDIENTS:
Eggplant
Flour
Cornstarch
Breadcrumbs
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Water
Grapeseed Oil
Lime (optional)

We peel our eggplant, but you can leave the skin on if you'd like. Slice the eggplant -- not too thick -- and soak in salt water. I probably soaked the eggplant for about thirty minutes or so.

Pat dry the eggplant with paper towels.

There will be three steps before you get to the frying pan:
Step 1: Flour, paprika, a generous amount of salt and pepper
Step 2: Cornstarch and water (You want this more liquidy than gooey, I learned)
Step 3: Breadcrumbs (if you're trying vegan, make sure your breadcrumbs don't come with cheese inside!), salt, and pepper

Dip, dip, dip, set aside. I liked doing all of them at once and then frying, but that's a personal decision.

Heat a generous amount of grapeseed oil (trust me on this one: tastes SO MUCH BETTER than olive oil) in a pan, and fry accordingly.

Make sure you don't burn them! If you've done everything right, you should have a delicious, soft, fried eggplant patty.

I put a little lime on top, but I'm sure there are other things you can use. Tomato sauce, perhaps?

Simple Bean Dip

Sorry for the lack of pictures, y'all. Our puppy chewed the camera cord, so we have technical difficulties.

Anyway, here is the simple bean dip I made for Super Bowl today:

1 can of pinto beans, cooked, drained, and rinsed
1 tomato, peeled and seeded
3 cloves minced garlic
2-3 TBL of lime juice
Cumin (I didn't measure)
Salt, pepper, cayenne (I didn't measure)

I used the Magic Bullet (yes, from all of those really lame infomercials) to mix this all together. Play with the spices, and feel free to add others, or perhaps lose the lime (Nicole isn't a fan of lime, so I'll try it without next time). I really liked the "kick" the cayenne gave this.

The Super Bowl is over, and it's all gone!

garlic hummus

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas
1 lime/lemon, or like a spoonful of lime/lemon juice
2 spoonfuls tahini
5 minced cloves of garlic (less if you don't like garlic that much, more if you want to ward off vampires)

Oh man, do I love hummus. This is a super easy recipe that you can make even if you are in the Peace Corps. The tahini is kind of a splurge (it was like $6 for that jar) but it is worth it, because it lasts a really long time and makes hummus sooo much better than just plain mashed chickpeas.

Anyway, here's what you're going to do. First, mash the chickpeas! I use a pilon (mortar & pestle) which is pretty fun. You can use a blender if you have one, or a fork.

Yeahhhh. Then, add the garlic and mash it a little bit. (Tip: crush a garlic clove with the flat edge of the knife before you peel it. It'll make the skin easier to peel off and will start crushing the garlic a little bit. Other tip: if you are in America and cook with garlic often, just buy a jar of pre-minced garlic. So much easier than dealing with chopping and garlic-scented hands all the time.)

 

Then, add the citrus juice and the tahini! Stir it around real good and eat it!

 

Yum! I like hummus on tortilla chips, carrot sticks, bread, crackers... basically anything is better with hummus on it.