Vegetarian Pot Pie

Hello my dearies! Yes, I'm still alive and cooking. Just on a time budget now!

I want to share a new favorite of mine, a vegetarian pot pie. It's pretty easy, and the nicest part of it..is it reheats wonderfully!! 

You're going to need:

2 medium potatoes

2 medium carrots

A half of a white onion

1 cup of low fat milk

1 cup of broth (chicken or mushroom)

Parsley 

Peas

White Vinegar

Defrosted Puff Pastry

An Egg Yolk

Chicken or tofu (if you fancy)

You're going to start by doing a good job of chopping up your veggies. 

I like mine a little bigger, but chop as your heart desires.

 And the onions too.

 You're going to want to panfry them on medium low heat for a little while, probably 5-6 minutes, until the onions become slightly transparent.

Then turn the heat on low and coat with flour, I used 1/4 cup

Then add a cup of broth and a cup of milk, and stir and simmer until the mixture gets nice and thick and creamy. It only takes a minute.

 At this point, you're going to remove the mixture from heat and add a handful of parsley,

 and a cup of peas. As you can see, mine are quite frozen, but it really doesn't matter.

 Also, can't forget a tablespoon of white vinegar. It just brings all the flavors together so nicely.

Doesn't that look beautiful?? All those colors... This is how I do art.

 Okay, transfer into an 8x8 pan. Yes, if you look closely you can see that I snuck some separately cooked tofu into there. I won't be doing that again, Alex thought I was tricking him into eating it. Note to self: next time chicken, or nothing at all.

 Now take your defrosted puff pastery, and cut it to fit over your pie, if necessary.

 Brush the top with your egg yolk, and stick it with a fork or knife a couple times to let the steam out when it cooks.

 Pop it in the oven at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes and voila! 

Customize it, add mushrooms, leeks, whatever floats your boat.

And enjoy : )

Cheesy Quinoa Patties

Can you believe that Christmas is less than a week away??

It seriously snuck up on me so fast, I hope you're not feeling as bombarded as I am!

So today for lunch I made quinoa burgers, and wanted to share my version. 

I originally got the idea for quinoa patties here, but I modified it quite a bit to suite my taste.

You will need:

  ✓  grated cheese of your choice (I used a cheddar & gruyere blend)

✓  cottage cheese

 ✓ 3 eggs

 ✓ grated carrot

 ✓flour, sugar, pepper, cumin, salt and garlic powder

 ✓ Cooked quinoa. I try to aim for 2 heaping cups, but this batch ended up being almost 3. I just start with 1 cup of uncooked quinoa and use all that it makes.

 Mix all of your ingredients together. It looks kinda funny, but trust me when I say it smells delicious.

 Then coat a frying pan with a few teaspoons of olive oil, or oil of your choice and cook on medium low heat for about 4 minutes each side.
The mixture can be sticky, so I just use a measuring cup or mixing spoon to create the patties.

 When they are done, you can eat them with a tzatziki sauce, with ketchup and chipotle, or my favorite, on a flat bun with some lettuce, tomato and Dijon mustard.

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

Vegetarian Style Sloppy Joes

So here I am again with a quirky meal for us weirdo vegetarians! Taking the classic American meal of the sloppy joe and putting spin on it to make it friendly for us with special eating needs. 

Here is what you need:

• 1 Onion, chopped
• 1 Garlic Clove, minced
• Olive Oil
• 1 cup Bell Peppers, chopped
• 1 cake of firm tofu, crumbled
• 14 oz can diced tomatoes 
• 6 oz can tomato paste
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• a pinch of cayenne
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• pepper

Now don't get intimidated by that list! More than half are spices that you already have in your pantry!

 So we are going to chop up our garlic and onions, and saute them in some olive oil for about 5 minutes or until they are soft and turn nice rich colors.

 Then add your bell peppers in there and let it cook for another 5 minutes, and prepare yourself..

 You're going to add everything else. The crumbled tofu, the tomatoes and tomato paste, water, and all the spices. It may look a little watery and odd, but let it simmer for 10 minutes. Taste your concoction and add any additional seasoning it may need!

Pile it on some toasted rolls, and enjoy!

Israeli Cous Cous

Hello again my friends. Today I would like to introduce you to this wonderful little grain, cous cous. Maybe you have heard of it before, it comes in many different forms and all forms are growing in popularity. I'm going to show you an easy throw-in-whatever-you-have recipe that is great when you are needing to make dinner the night before you go the grocery store. I like to keep a box or two of Israeli cous cous for a time such as this.
Here is what I used:

• Tri-colored Israeli Cous Cous
• Red Bell Pepper
• Carrots
• Kale
• Pepper Jack Cheese

Now, I'm sure that different brands have different cooking instructions, but they all involve boiling water and adding the cous cous until it absorbs all the water. Like cooking rice.

So while that is cooking ( it usually takes about ten minutes), I like to sauté up whatever veggies I have on hand and my favorites are carrots and bell peppers. This is the throw-in-what-you-have method comes into play. Throw in an onion, throw in some garlic, broccoli, mushrooms, whatever floats your boat.

This is kale. Super food. Its pretty packed with vitamins and such, and it is pretty gnarly to eat raw, so I like to sauté it and throw it into meals wherever I can. So here i used 1/4 cup of chicken stock and cooked the kale in it until it was wilted.

Here is what the cooked up cous cous looks like. Mmmm it's making me hungry.

This is what it is supposed to look like when it's all ready.

With cous cous you can never go wrong with cheese! Unless you're lactose intolerant. In that case, I offer my deepest condolences. But I had pepper jack cheese in my fridge, but my cheese of preference for this dish in mozzarella. 

Now, while it's warm I put it all together in the pot and let the cheese melt right in there, and all the flavors collaborate.

Mix it up, put it in a bowl, or on a plate next to some good chicken breast or something. Get creative with it. Have fun and Enjoy!

Easy Stir Fry with Noodles

Hello lovelies! 

I hope that you are having a wonderful day. I am in the middle of mid-terms right now, 2 down, 2 to go! Man am I ready for a break! I have had minimal spare time, and I'm ashamed to say that my cooking has been cut out of my daily routine(okay just minimized, I can't not cook). Just for this week though, I can't tell you how ready I am for a good hearty meal, no more of this cereal for breakfast and smoothies for lunch.

This was something that I made last week, oooo what I wouldn't give for some of this good stuff right now. Easy stir fry. Now I don't claim to know anything about traditional stir fry, this is definitely a modified version. I know stir fry is usually served with rice (right?) but I like mine with noodles. So here is my version!

You're going to need:

Udon noodles

Stir fry veggies of choice (I used red bell peppers, carrots, and snow peas)

Asian marinade, or stir fry sauce of choice

Soy Sauce (optional)

Olive Oil for frying

 When it comes to Asian noodles, it is so easy to cook them just like we cook spaghetti, but resist. Make sure that you read the labeling, and cook them according to the instructions there, they all vary slightly. This makes a big difference in texture of the noodles. But it won't kill the noodles if you forget and cook them like spaghetti.

While the noodles are cooking, prepare your veggies. I started off trying to make matchsticks out of the carrots but i think i made it through one and gave up. Just cut them however you like to eat them.
Simple logic right?

Once they are all cut up to your liking, heat up a pan with olive oil and you're going to start sautéing the veggies over a medium heat. I saved the snow peas for later, because I wanted them to be barely cooked. They seem to wilt faster than the other vegetables.
Also this is when I added a tiny bit of soy sauce, maybe a tablespoon, just to cook some extra flavor into the stir fry.

This is what my noodles look like when they are just about done cooking.

And when they are strained. Forgive the shadows.

 So I added the snow peas right before I added the noodles to the mixture, to give them a quick stir around the pan, but not much more than that. And we are almost done!

 You're going to turn off the heat and add your still warm noodles to the pan along with your marinade/stir fry sauce and mix it all together! Let the flavors all blend for a few minutes.

And there you have it. This is a great picky eater's meal too, because it is easy to customize according to likes and dislikes. Don't add the peppers, or for protein add chicken or tofu. Its endless!
Whenever I make this, I make it in big batches so that I can have it a few more times throughout the week. Like a lot of meals, this one is ten times better as warm-ups because all the flavors just marinate together, and steep into the noodles. You just can't go wrong.

Now for the health aspect of this meal, you have your vegetables, and your noodles, neither of which are bad for you. The sauces that you choose are going to make or break this meal in the healthy department. With the addition of soy sauce, you are adding a good amount of sodium. You have to be careful of that with the sauce you choose. The other item to watch for on the label is the sugar. Pass on sauce that is over 15% sodium, and over 10 grams of sugar, and you've got yourself one darn good meal.

Enjoy!
Terra

Vegetarian Lettuce Wrap

       Ohhh man just look at this beautiful sight. I love food so much and this meal is something that I cook probably every month. Now I have to give credit where credit is due, I found the original recipe at Pioneer Woman's blog, but modified it a little. Oh if I could sit down for coffee with anyone on this earth it would be this lady. Sometimes I wish I was her... shhh don't tell anyone. 

Sorry, confession time is over.

Hopefully this recipe we are going to conquer some food fears. Today it's called tofu. Coming from someone who was raised on tofu, here is the secret: it tastes exactly like whatever it is cooked in. There you go, nothing to be afraid of! 

And if you want a little nutrition background on the benefits of tofu, I'll give it to you and if you don't care feel free to skip ahead. Being a vegetarian, I am always looking for ways to incorporate more protein into my diet. Now protein is categorized into two different types: complete and incomplete. Your body can only use complete protein, and complete protein is only ever found in animal products, and tofu. So being vegetarian that limits me to eggs, milk, and tofu. Needless to say I love to find different ways to cook tofu, and here is one of my favorites. Thanks for sitting through that. Now onward!

To begin, I used one package of firm tofu however, if you are cooking for more than one person, I advise using more than that.

So I rinsed it gently, and tried shake out as much excess moisture as I could, before I put the whole thing on a frying pan greased with olive oil. Great stuff.

Now mush it with your spatula. Mush it real good.

See all that liquid in there? You are going to let the tofu simmer until it is all cooked out. Just don't forget to stir it around every once in a while.

While my tofu is simmering over there, I break out my water chestnuts. Now maybe this is another weird food for you, let me tell you that it legitimately has less flavor than a cucumber, it is light and airy and completely there for the extra crunch. But if you can't get over the weirdness you can leave it out.

This is what they look like, I would have bought them slivered but the store didn't have them. P.S. you can find these little guys in the oriental foods section.

Here they are all cut up.

And what do you know, my tofu is ready.

So now add some corn, fresh or frozen it doesn't matter, but I prefer frozen sweet corn. 

Once that cooks for a little while add your water chestnuts.

And stir that up.

Add some seasoning if you'd like.. Translation: season that baby like crazy. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder if you're feeling crazy.

Now pour soy sauce on the mixture and let it sit for a little while. Soy sauce is extremely high in sodium so I always use low sodium, because that is still 25% sodium..which is crazy. This is not a low sodium meal.

How many times did I use the word sodium in that paragraph? Too many times.

So now, to add some extra flavor I drizzle on some sesame marinade.

Stir it around and give it another 30 seconds for good luck.

Now just choose some romaine lettuce leaves that are going to serve as good taco shells, stuff, and eat!

Don't they look delicious? They taste even better.

P.S. I've got to tell you, this meal looks long and complicated but it took me 20 minutes to make and the clean up was soooo easy. Simply put, it's the perfect mid-week meal.

Enjoy!