Weeknight Meals

I often post my culinary experiments on this blog. However, the truth is that I only post the ones that I think are blog-worthy, meaning that they took a lot of work or are pretty to look at. Since I decided to reignite my mission to get healthy, I thought I would show you a typical weeknight dinner.

Here is last night's meal: a 365 brand fajita-sized tortilla from Whole Foods (I think it was red chile flavor...?), topped with Cava's spicy hummus (can't get enough of this stuff!), cucumber, red bell pepper and baby spinach. I made roasted brussel sprouts as a side. I never liked them until I had them roasted! Here's how you do it: Cut off the hard ugly bottoms, cut the large ones in half so that they are all roughly the same size, cover them in just enough oil so that they don't stick to the pan, sprinkle with your topping of choice (garlic powder and black pepper, though I've also used fresh garlic, lemon, a veggie spice mix and parmesan cheese at different times) and bake on 375 until they're soft. Perfection! This was a great, quick meal that left me more than enough time to get in a trip to the gym!

Scenes from the Kitchen

Provencal Vegetable Soup from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. I LOVE Dorie's recipes. They are always thorough and great to cook with, as well as accompanied by great stories. This soup had it all! Zucchini, green beans, white beans, small pasta, tomatoes, carrot and a ton of fresh herbs. The cherry on top? It called for making fresh pesto and putting some on top. I prompty stirred mine in after taking this shot and it took this soup to a whole new level.

Leftover pesto turned into wheat pasta shells, pesto and fresh tomatoes for lunch the next day.

I also tried my very first vegan lasagna this week! It was from The 30 Day Vegan Challenge by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (a fantastic book, by the way!). I chose this one because it didn't call for nutritional yeast. I'm ashamed to admit that, despite knowing how good it is for you, I really just hate it. Anyway....this lasagna was awesome! It came together very quickly with the help of the food processor and, due to the tofu, has lots of protein. If you make it, definitely use the fresh basil it calls for rather than trying to substitute dried. It makes the whole dish.

Delicious Dishes

Miso Udon Stir-fry from Appetite for Reduction. Let me yet again proclaim my love for this cookbook. It gave us a bowl full of yumminess: udon noodles, broccoli, azuki beans, swiss chard, green onion, miso, and assorted spices. It also taught me a new method for cooking broccoli, which I know I'll use all the time.

White bean and artichoke salad from Color Me Vegan. This one will be making many a repeat appearance in our kitchen. It was perfection.

Jesse made a southwestern shepherd's pie from Vegan on the Cheap. Another book full of winners. This was hearty, spicy, comfort food at its best.

A vegan peach galette, courtesy of Chloe Coscarelli's website. Very easy and very tasty.

Delicious Dishes: Papa Pea's Jambalaya

Earlier this week I told you about my discovery of the Peas and Thank You blog and how Mama Pea's new cookbook arrived at my door recently. My first foray into cooking from it happened to be in the form of Papa Pea's Jambalaya.

I try to make recipes close together that have similar ingredients so that nothing goes to waste (i.e. two things with cilantro so I don't buy a bunch and only use a tablespoon). This week I used celery in my very favorite lentil soup recipe, so I searched for some other way to use the remaining stalks. Enter Jambalaya! I was leaving for a work retreat for a few days, so this was the perfect way to help stock the fridge for Jesse before heading out of town. It includes meatless sausage (in the form of Field Roast chipotle sausages) and since I hate meat substitutes (an entire post in and of itself for another day), this was a perfect time to try this one. I love that it only needs one pan too, if you used pre-cooked rice.

The final dish:

Delicious Dishes: Jesse edition

Jesse cooked last week and it was so delicious! He made the Chimichurri tofu from Appetite for Reduction, which I think is my new most favorite tofu recipe. If you like cilantro, you will love it. That cookbook is simply full of winners. If you want to eat healthier but still have things that are extremely tasty, definitely purchase it ASAP. We've tried a lot of the recipes and not a single one was anything less than stellar.

As sides Jesse prepared mashed sweet potatoes and a salad. It was so nice to come home and have dinner nearly finished. He also did the dishes! What a man!

Delicious Dishes: Pea Pesto Pasta

I love nearly everything ever posted on Smitten Kitchen (minus the meat dishes, of course). A few weeks ago I saw this post for Linguine with Pea Pesto, which I knew I had to save for an upcoming dinner. I have a hit-or-miss relationship with basil, so I sometimes love regular pesto and sometimes not so much. Jesse isn't really a fan either, but the pictures from this recipe looked delicate and delicious, with no basil in sight. It's easy too! You cook up the peas and give them a whirl in the food processor (reserving some for tossing with the pasta later) with some parmesan, olive oil and toasted pine nuts. It turns a bright green color:

Once you cook the pasta, you set aside some of the cooking water and mix the pasta, pesto, water and peas. As you can see, we had whole wheat penne in the house, so I used that instead of linguine. I added some chopped tomato on top for color and nutrition. It's yummy and very filling! It came together in less than a half hour, so this would make a great weeknight meal.

Delicious Dishes

Summer Lovin' Curried Corn and Veggie Chowder from Appetite for Reduction. Veggie-filled, easy to make and delicious. This will definitely make a repeat appearance in our summer menu rotation. I can't recommend this cookbook highly enough and I tell everyone I know to go get it NOW, NOW, NOW! Isa, feel free to hire me as your publicist. You can pay me in scrumptious vegan eats.

Lemon Bars from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Perfectly tart. These are the best lemon bars I've ever had, vegan or not. This is a great book for learning to veganize all of the classics. Please forgive the presentation. The recipe says to sift powdered sugar over the bars just before serving. I don't own a sifter and the organic powdered sugar I had was a little clumpy. I tried sprinkling it onto the bars and well, you can see the results. I promise they taste way better than they look!

Delicious Dishes: Jesse Edition

Now that Jesse no longer has to study for the MCAT every day, he has decided that he is going to start cooking for us one night a week. Last Friday night, he made this: a Southwestern chowder from Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson. This book uses well-known, easy-to-find and cheap ingredients to make yummy dishes. I appreciate being reminded that vegan food can be quick, cheap and healthy. There is a sidebar "Splurge a Little" section that tells you ways you can kick the dish up a bit by adding a few things here or there. This one suggested adding diced avocado on top of the soup. You don't have to ask me twice to add avocado! Mmm. Overall, this was a really good, healthy dinner that I can see us making over and over again as a weeknight staple. And a special thanks to my Love for making us dinner!

Delicious Dishes: Summer Squash Soup

Every spring and summer, I have an obssessive love affair with zucchini. Last year I think Jesse was at the point where he was going to kill me if I brought even one more zucchini into the apartment. Since it's been awhile, the Summer Squash Soup was the first recipe that caught my eye when I got Heidi Swanson's beautiful and inspiring new cookbook, Super Natural Every Day.

The price of this book is worth it for this recipe alone. A delicious mix of ingredients that include yellow squash, zucchini, Thai red curry paste and coconut milk, it's topped with tofu croutons. Jesse proclaimed that it was one of the best soups I've ever made (and, since I am a soup fanatic, you can be sure that I've forced him to try a ton of them over the course of our relationship). Best of all, it came together in about a half hour, so it's a perfect weeknight dish.

Delicious Dishes: Hamburger Buns

Would you believe me if I told that I never ate a hamburger bun until recently? It's true. I've never eaten red meat and I don't like veggie burgers unless they look like vegetables (as opposed to fake meat) and I've made them myself so I know what is in them, so I've simply had no reason to eat hamburger buns in last 29 years. All that changed in the past week or so.

First, I made Analiese's "Best Ever Black Bean Burgers". I love cilantro and avocado, so I made the "zesty" variation. Burger, baby spinach, tomato, lots of avocado and salsa on a Whole Foods' whole wheat burger bun, Deeeeeelicious! And more than just nutritious and yummy, these burgers are also very filling. Here's a picture of our dinner (with some simple mashed sweet potatoes):




Since burger buns come in quite a large pack for just the two of us, I wanted to find another way to use the remaining ones. Inspired by a wrap that I had at Soul Vegetarian awhile back, I decided to try barbecue tofu. I love barbecue sauce and eat it pretty infrequently since I gave up chicken a few years back. So very easy! I pressed the tofu in my handy Tofu Express, brushed it with sauce and baked for about 40 minutes on a baking sheet. I flipped and basted one time at the 20 minute mark. I served them with baby spinach, tomato, and a ton of pickles. I added a little sauce to the tops of the buns so that they wouldn't be dry. This would be a terrific thing to add to our weeknight recipe routine--quick and easy! (Forgive me for the paper plate--our dishwasher is out of commission and we had some left from a Superbowl gathering we had!).

What are some vegetarian-friendly ways you use hamburger buns?

Delicious Dishes: Biscuits

This weekend I was inspired by this post on the Orangette blog, so I tried my hand at biscuits for the first time. Light and fluffy. Warm and golden. Perfect! (Now I am on a mission to find a much more calorie-friendly but equally as delicious version.)

Delicious Dishes: 2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma

I made the "2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma" from Appetite for Reduction last night. The more I cook from it (and the others written by her), I am convinced that there is nothing that Isa Chandra Moskowitz can't do, or at least nothing that she can't make taste AMAZING.

Coming in at just 180 calories a serving (without the rice I added), it is a keeper. It feels like comfort food. Rich, spicy and warm. And it comes together in about 30 minutes (less if you are a quick chopper) and makes enough to have a ton of leftovers. Next time I am going to try adding some dry pan-fried tofu, as Isa suggests on one of the sidebars. Yum!

Delicious Dishes: Weekend Edition

Last week, while wandering Borders after the Kris Carr event, I picked up Dr. Neal Barnard's Get Healthy, Go Vegan cookbook. I love Dr. Barnard's work. The recipes looked great, had all of the nutritional information and, since I am trying very hard to limit the amount of sugar, oil, etc. that I am eating, seemed like a great one to add to my collection. This cookbook also has several breakfast recipes, which was great since I typically eat Puffins cereal with almond milk for breakfast and had been looking for some new ideas.

The first recipe I tried was the Spiced Pumpkin Oatmeal. I love oatmeal and I love pumpkin, so how could this one go wrong? It also has a bunch of spices, raisins and dried cranberries. The recipe made a TON, so even after feeding Jesse and myself there were still leftovers. It wasn't as sweet as I am used to having my oatmeal (again....I need to step away from the sugar!) but it was still good.

Then for dinner on Sunday I decided it was time to break in my new Zojirushi rice cooker. This time it was to make brown jasmine rice, but I have big plans for this new toy. My rice cooker cookbook says I can make oatmeal, risotto, cake, beans, etc. in this thing!

I used my brown jasmine rice in the Butternut Coconut Rice recipe from Appetite for Reduction. Rice, butternut squash, coconut milk, etc. SO GOOD! It was almost the consistency of a risotto (with a fraction of the calories). If you try this one, don't be tempted to skip out on the lime zest like I almost was. It makes the whole dish.

Oh collard greens, I love you so. I don't make these nearly enough. Particularly these Pineapple Collards. They came out perfect--light, still a bit chewy and beautifully green with some spice and pineapple pieces.

To go with my rice and greens, I also made some Broiled Blackened Tofu. Mmmm. It would've been fantastic with just about any side dishes, but I made the ones that the author herself recommended for a complete meal. The combination of the three was just perfect! I can't recommend this cookbook enough!

Delicious Dishes for Snow

Yesterday my office closed early due to the giant snowstorm we got here in the DC area. I came home and immediately thought about how delicious some lentil soup would be. I made a giant pot of this red lentil soup, which is easily one of the best I've ever had (and so easy to make!)

Doesn't it just look so perfect for a freezing cold night?

After dinner I got the urge to bake. I looked at what ingredients I had handy and began searching online. I decided to go with this recipe from Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen for Banana-Maple Oatmeal cookies. They turned out pretty well--not too sweet and very chewy. Plus the recipe only made a little over a dozen cookies, which is more than enough for this household. And I only ate one! Must be good if I want to reach my get healthy goals.

Today both Jesse and I are home from work due to a snow day. I can't wait to cook some more and curl up on the couch and read to my heart's content. Hope you are warm and safe, wherever this Thursday may find you!

Delicious Dishes: Appetite for Reduction

Over the weekend I decided it was time to give Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz a try. The cookbook has 125 recipes for dishes that are all under 400 calories per serving. I've been reading positive things about it in many blogs and on the Weight Watchers' vegetarian message board. Plus, I've never tried a recipe of hers that I didn't like!

I made the Red Thai tofu, Bhutanese Pineapple Rice and the Green Beans with Thai Basil. All three dishes used similar ingredients and came together within an hour. Each one was very good, but the Bhutanese Pineapple Rice was absolutely stellar. I could have eaten just this one dish as my meal.

There are many other recipes in this cookbook that look delicious. I can't wait to try ones such as the warm mushroom salad with cranberries, the OMG Oven-Baked Onion Rings and the Caribbean Curried Black Eyed Peas with Plaintains. Once again, I've been reminded that anything Isa cooks up will be worth trying. I already can't wait for her next book!

Given my intention this year to get healthy, I very much appreciate that each recipe in this book contains all of the nutritional information. Lately I've been gravitating towards the cookbooks that do have this, such as Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook, Color Me Vegan and Cooking Light: Way to Cook Vegetarian. I wish that more cookbooks provided this vital information.

Delicious Dishes: Pesto Bread

You MUST make this pesto bread! Here is why:

1. It's super easy, requiring only a mixing of ingredients, 8 minutes of kneading, 2 hours of rising and some spreading of pesto and parmesan.

2. It's beautiful. By rolling it up like a jelly roll, slicing it down the middle and braiding it, it comes out looking like a professional made it. The recipe even has a full page of pictures of a how-to.

3. It's delicious. It's like garlic bread's grown-up, sophisticated cousin. I could eat this every day and not tire of it.