Lions and Tigers and Veggie Products - Oh My!

If you're wondering about the sweet potato waffles apologies, we haven't gotten to that recipe yet. Not that we don't eat breakfast, we do it's a bit more involved than we have time for during the week and my husband doesn't like sweet things for dinner (unless of course it's dessert). So at the moment it's on hold.

We have however taken a trip to the local Whole Foods Market to check out their meatless "meats".  First, I was impressed with the number of meatless options. There is a full compliment of veggie burgers, sandwich "meats", and turkey "roasts." We purchased a number of items to try out.

I'm not a fan of the Tofurky sandwich slices – the texture is bad and the to me they taste like the cardboard on the back of a tablet with salt and pepper – Sorry Tofurky we won't buy those again. I did however, like the Gardein sweet and tangy BBQ "wings." They were easy to prepare flavorful and I'd definitely buy them again. There were 9 "wings" and we had those and a green salad which was perfect for both of us.

We have a few things in the freezer, that I'm ready to try out the first is the Engine 2 Tuscan Kale and White Bean burger and the other is the Engine 2 Thai Basil and Edamame burger. Both are plant based and the ingredients sound intriguing, I'm hoping to find my way to one of those this week.

My friend Maria turned me on to Quorn a few years ago and I like it. It absorbs the flavors of your sauce and is very satisfying – so it must have enough protein right?  I'm also a big fan of Morningstar Farms Asian Sesame Burgers, which I grab when I need a quick dinner.

With all that being said, I'm not a huge fan of prepackaged food – even the vegetarian kind. I like to know what's in my food – and I like to be able to pronounce what's in my food. So tonight it's Spicy Bean and Lentil loaf – which my hubby's youngest daughter Mary is till reserving the right to not like it – but she has agreed to give it a try. Now we just need to find a time to make it for her.

If you're cooking up some vegetarian or vegan goodness I'd love to hear from you.

Have a Great Week!

Adventures Culinary and Otherwise.

In my first week of meat free eating I had a couple of veggie adventures. This past week, well let's say the adventures were not the culinary kind.

I spent the better part of the past 2 weeks serving on jury duty. For those of you who have been there you know it's like watching paint dry, you wait and wait and then you wait some more.  I met a couple of interesting people and was able to get some work done in the down times but for the most part I was bored silly.

My sweetie took charge of the cooking and surprised me with a wonderful vegetarian chili that had a smoky and spicy broth, which included ancho chilis and cinnamon. While not a common chili ingredient, cinnamon adds a nice depth to the broth and he made a large pot, which has fueled us through the week.

Today however, I'm ready for something a little less intense so tonight I'm making Dragon bowls. I'd not heard of Dragon bowls until I came across a recipe for them on Pinterest but they contain everything I'm craving at the moment so their on the menu for tonight. 

My base recipe comes from The Blenderist's blog you can check out the recipe at the link below. The concept seems pretty simple and flexible you start with roasted veggies, add some steamed greens and raw veggies and then top it off with a spicy sauce.

http://theblenderist.com/dragon-bowls-vegan-gluten-free/

I'll be roasting cauliflower, sweet potatoes, zucchini and brussel sprouts then we'll add some steamed kale, raw cucumber, peppers, shredded carrots and finally top it off with a spicy coconut/peanut sauce – I'm actually hungry just thinking about it.

Just a quick edit to this post so you can see how delicious they turned out. We made a couple substitutions from my original thoughts; we added onions and beets instead of the brussel sprouts - definitely a keeper!

 

For those of you who might recall my last post hinted at something with cinnamon spice and sweet potatoes, never fear that will be a reality this week.

Until next week

Ciao

Adventures in Soup and Spiralizing

Tomorrow I will complete my first week as a vegetarian – no cravings or desire for any kind of meat or fish so far so good.

For those of you who live in the Midwest you know it's soup weather, which brings me to my first veggie adventure. I'd been hungry for forest mushroom soup so I headed off to the local big box grocer for supplies. I was surprised at the cost of dried mushrooms and came home empty handed (from a mushroom perspective that is) I couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money for soup. 

During dinner my husband mentioned the little Asian market near our house might have dried mushrooms so I headed over there and OMG I was overwhelmed. An entire isle of dried mushrooms to choose from and at a fraction of the cost – I was in mushroom heaven. I ended up purchasing 7.5 ounces of dried shitake mushrooms for less than 1 ounce at the big box grocery store – I know it's supply, demand and profit margins – go figure.

I came home and spent the next hour chopping, mincing, sautéing and simmering to result in what I'd say is the best forest mushroom soup I've ever made.  The broth was a rich and flavorful vegetable broth base with garlic, a little butter, salt, pepper and white wine. To that I added carrots, onions, 4 kinds of mushrooms (baby portabella, white, shitake and black mushrooms) and let the pot simmer until I couldn't stand to wait any longer – and of course the veggies and mushrooms were cooked.  

My second cooking adventure resulted from a Christmas gift from my husband Dan. A few years ago our friend Leila mentioned that they had a Spiralizer and being the dutiful techie that I am I immediately did a Google search. I was fascinated by all the veggies you could twirl and spin around it that gadget to make noodles; carrots, butternut squash, zucchini, turnips, potatoes the sky seemed to be the limit. Yet for whatever reason I never got around to buying one until one showed up under my tree this year and I've been spiralizing ever since. :-)

I found this great website called Inspiralized, with lots of good information, short videos and recipes oh the delicious recipes, my bookmark collection grows every day. After browsing the collection for what seemed like forever I settled on the butternut squash noodles with caramelized onions, shredded brussel sprouts, and toasted walnuts adding my own spin with cauliflower and some goat cheese instead of Parmesan it was delicious!

So what's next -  check back next week to find out. I'll give you a hint tho, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie spices and maple syrup. 

Stay warm and thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year and Welcome!

Happy New Year and Welcome to my blog: A Vegetarian for One Year!

Back in 2010 I started a tradition. I decided that in that year I would do 10 things that either made my life better or someone else's life better. I wasn't looking to make grand gestures and I didn't have list, I wanted to act on opportunities as they presented themselves.

At first I though it would be hard but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't. I didn't have to search for opportunities they just presented themselves it was up to me to act on them or not. And like I said they weren't grand gestures; improving someone's life can be done with a kind word, a random act or giving of yourself.

I've continued the tradition, adding one additional thing for each subsequent year. Here I am on day 2 of 2015 and I've committed to doing 15 things one of them is to follow a vegetarian diet for the entire year. It's something I've thought about for a while now not because it's fashionable but because I find myself reaching for the salad and veggies over the chicken, turkey and pork at the dinner table.

The one thing I could miss is fish, I like fish and it's good for you. I could say that I was going to be a pescatarian or use the "fish is really just a vegetable that swims" logic but I won't I'm going to give it a try without my little swimming friends.

Since this is kind of a big deal for me, I've decided to blog about my meatless adventures. I'll try to post once a week maybe even with photos and recipes (well the ones that turn out and I like anyway). I hope you'll stop by and check out my posts.

If you're so inclined to share recipes, thoughts or comments I'd love to hear from you.