Dinner - March 19, 2010

Simple salad with some boiled new potatoes. This is one of my favorite things to have after traveling to recalibrate myself.

Dinner - March 16, 2010

The other day I was trying to remember that tempeh recipe that Matt liked. I thought I should check my blog. It wasn't there then but I think this is it.

This is Curried Tempeh with Brown Rice and Peas from Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. I substituted sugar snap peas and served cauliflower on the side.

Not a power house of a dish but a nice way to make tempeh. The result is a sort of mild risotto like dish although it is definitely not risotto.

Now that I have found it, I will try it again.

Dinner - March 14, 2010

We must have been getting ready for picnic season. A meal of potato salad and coleslaw. Also known as new potatoes with sauteed shallots and herbs served with a crunchy cabbage salad.

Lunch - March 14, 2010

This is the start of a red bean chili from Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. The recipe had coffee in it. I liked it but it was more like really good red beans than chili. I think it will be some new techniques to add to my chili plans.

Dinner - February 26, 2010

This is based on Saag Tofu from my Eating Well Ipod Touch Application. You can find the recipe here. I substituted unsweetened soy milk for the yogurt. I would call it more like "not creamed spinach with tofu over rice" but still very good. I accidentally upped the cumin which I liked.

I plan on making this a regular for us. It was super fast. I would serve it to vegetarians but I wouldn't call it saag to prevent expectations of a really rich sauce. I think pan size would limit being able to easily make this for four. I think we ate all of it.

Dinner - February 24, 2010

This is a TLT (Tofu, Lettuce, and Tomato) Sandwich from Eating Well's Ipod Touch Application. In the background you can see Black Bean Soup from Eating Well Magazine's February 2010 issue. The sandwich recipe can be found here. The soup recipe can be found here.

The recipe calls for extra firm tofu but I had (and generally prefer) firm tofu. I smashed it under a pipe plate with some weight on it before proceeding with the recipe. I found the tofu came out of the oven as promised which is unusual for me and backed tofu. I used veganaise for the mayo. I thought these sandwiches were good but should never be compared to a sandwiches with bacon. The tofu tasted mostly like mustard to me.

The soup calls for prepared salsa. I did not have any so I substituted 1/2 cup diced tomato, a clove of garlic, a 1/2 tsp of adobo sauce, and 1/4 cup of bell pepper. I added the cilantro un-chopped to the food processor with the last batch of soup. This soup was easy and better than canned.

Dinner - February 20, 2010

This was going to be Indian Mango Dal from Eating Well Magazine's February 2010 issue. When I went to the pantry I had yellow split peas and not yellow lentils. I upped the cooking time but the peas were still a little firm and chalky. I liked it anyway so I am figuring the real recipe is excellent. The recipe can be found here.

I made a recipe and a half with two large mangoes. I would consider the mangoes I used ripe but not soft. I served it over brown basmati rice (1 cup uncooked).

The recipe claims you can make it in 40 minutes but I think it took me the time it took to cook the rice which is about an hour.

This made for excellent lunches as leftovers. I will definitely make this again.

Dinner - February 2, 2010

This is Berley's Wehani and Wild Rice Stew with Cremini Mushrooms, Winter Squash, and Kale from Fresh Food Fast. I substituted another red rice for the Wehani rice. I also had to substitute some fresh oregano and dried sage for the fresh sage. I am never sure what to do with the slices of ginger with the peel on them after the rice is cooked. This time I put about half of them through the garlic press and added back into the stew. I also smashed the garlic and left it in the stew.

The toasted pumpkin seeds really make this dish. I served them hot off the frying pan so they were still popping and snapping on the table. I would say this is a nice dish for real vegetarians. I will be making it again but it I am not sure I would serve it to a guest.

My produce delivery started today. I am quite impressed with the condition of the produce. It all looked better than the grocery store selection. The real test will be how long the stuff lasts. I am really excited about this service and what it could mean to my life.

From Farm Fresh Delivery into this dish:
- Carrots
- Celery
- Pumpkin Seeds
- Acorn Squash
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Kale
- Cremini Mushrooms

I forgot to turn the flash on for this picture but I tried to save it in iPhoto.

Dinner - January 31. 2010

This was Berley's Quinoa with Brussels Sprouts, Tempeh, and Toasted Almonds from Fresh Food Fast. I made a single recipe which was much easier as it fit nicely in the pan.

I used 1/4 cup of oil instead of the 1/3 of cup called for. With that modification I got 684 calories per servings for four servings.

I think this is a simple tasting dish that is very satisfying. I could serve it to vegetarians but I probably would pick something a little more fancy if I were going to being serving guests. This will remain a standard for me for week nights. The left overs make a nice lunch too.

Dinner - September 21, 2009

For a starter we had a "Tomato & Bread Salad with Basil" that I made up. When I was packing Matt's lunch I cut off the end piece of the whole wheat bread that was starting to dry up. I cubed it and left it on a plate to finish drying during the day. For the salad I mashed 1 small clove of garlic with some salt. I chopped two large tomatoes (one red and one yellow) and mixed with the garlic. I chopped a handful of basil and mixed it in. I added a teaspoon or so of balsamic vinegar and tossed in the bread cubes. I tossed and served the two of us. This was good but I add some course salt when I served it that ended up being just a bit too much.


For the entree we had a curry from Berley's Flexitarian Table called "Lentil and Rhubarb Curry with Potatoes and Peas". I did not have the ginger or the shallots. I used all onion, oil in place of the ghee, and added a bit of prepared curry powder along with a bit of ground ginger. I doubled the red pepper flakes and upped the garlic cloves by one. I also used regular lentils in place of the french lentils and did no soaking ahead of time.

We both liked this. It did not work out as perfectly as the last time I made it but I thought it was still pretty good. I think trying to compare it to our carry out curries doesn't work since they rely so heavily on cream and fat to taste good. This is a nice healthy basic curry to make when ever you have some rhubarb around. I would say this could feed 4 if served with some bread.

Dinner - September 7, 2009

This would not be a typical summer meal but I had some older green beans to use up. I stated with Bishop's Braised Green Beans with Tomatoes, Olives, Capers and Basil recipe from Vegetables Every Day. From there I used a 28 oz can of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes, 20 olives, 1 tbsp capers, 6 cloves garlic, added 1 lb of eggplant, and added 1 can of white navy beans. I also had to substitute parsley for the basil.

For the 1 lb of green beans I used 12 oz of green beans and 4 oz of yellow wax beans. The eggplant were 4 small white globes with a purple blush. I only peeled the eggplant where there were blemishes and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces.

I cooked this up in my dutch oven.

Yum. I really liked this and plan to make it a regular for us. Matt said it is comfort food. Prep is easy.

Dinner - September 5, 2009

This is a version of a recipe from Eating Well modified for the produce I had on hand. The recipe is called Asian Slaw with Tofu & Shiitake Mushrooms and can be found on the Eating Well website.

I used regular cabbage for the napa cabbage. I used broccoli which I cooked in advance for the bok choy, and I used regular tofu in place of the silken. I let the tofu drain for a while and then dry it in a dish towel before marinating. I use peanut oil in place of the canola oil.

You can find my previous post here.

Lunch - Septpember 4, 2009

This is Gazpacho Salad from The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. This is the vegetarian cookbook that my mom had when I was growing up. I guess I nabbed her copy when I was in college. I recently purged my cookbooks but I held on to this one from 1972.

I added chickpeas to the salad to make it a meal. The recipe says to use firm tomatoes which would help limit all the extra liquid I had, but when you have ripe tomatoes you just can't pass them up. It is the nice dressing that makes this more than just chopped vegetables

I like chopping and I don't like turning on the stove so this is a good recipe for me. I have made a less soupy version of this for sharing at picnics.

Lunch - June 30, 2009

This was a little salad I made up for Matt's lunch. He likes bean salads to toss with a box of lettuce at work. Our local source for prepackaged bean salads has dried up.

Chickpea Salad Topper
1 cup of chickpeas drained (with 3 tbsp of liquid reserved)
2 green onions (white part chopped, green part sliced)
1 Hungarian pepper (chopped)
1 tomato (chopped)
1 yellow squash (chopped)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp of reserved liquid from chickpeas

I used chickpeas that I had cooked up following the basic recipe in Bishop's Italian Vegetarian cookbook.

Matt really liked this. He said it was the fresh tomato that made it so good.

Another Ugly Dinner

This looked a bit like worms and chewed food on the plate but tasted pretty good. The picture is from my messy kitchen just before serving.

The green beans are from my parents garden but were getting a bit older so I picked a recipe with a longer cooking time. I used Bishop's Braised Green Beans with Tomatoes, Olives, Capers, and Basil from Vegetables Every Day (page 174).

For the green beans I followed the recipe except for I cooked the garlic in two tablespoons of red wine instead of the oil. When the liquid in the pan looked a little low I added a tablespoon of the brine from the olives.

The green beans were tasty but we knew they would be. This is a standard recipe for us. Sometimes I will double the sauce part of it and serve it with pasta with the beans on the side.

The warm broccoli salad was a creation based on what we had around.
In a large bowl I mixed:
1 clove garlic minced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
6 green olives chopped
1 tablespoon of black olive brine
I boiled for about 5 minutes:
1 head of broccoli chopped in bite size pieces
In a colander I placed:
6 baby bok choy stems sliced
I poured the broccoli and water over the bok choy and let cool for a few minutes.
I mixed the vegetables into the dressing.
I then mixed in:
2 Tbsp of basil chopped
2 Tbsp of flat leaf parsley chopped

I liked this odd salad with the bitter and crunchy bok choy set against the soft broccoli. The mild tang of the vinegar went well with the Sauvignon Blanc we had with dinner. I think Matt just found it weird but I would say it has potential.

All of the herbs were from my parents garden - THANKS

Dinner with Jiffer

Tonight we made Jiffer eat weird food. She said it was okay.

This was menu 3 from the summer section of Peter Berley's Fresh Food Fast (page 92). In the foreground is Seared Tofu with Spicy Black Beans and Mango Salsa and in the background is Chilled Avocado Soup with Lime and Jalapeño.

Avocado soup was super easy, quite unique, and pretty good. It is suggested to serve with a dollop of sour cream which we did not do. It also calls for some crispy fried tortilla strips on top. I did make these for Jiffer but I forgot to ask if she thought they added anything. This make 4 large servings. I ate the rest of the soup several days later and it was still a very pretty green. I want to try this soup again on smaller scale.

The black beans were on the bland side. Matt and I found they needed salt. The ginger smelled great when they were cooking but maybe they needed a little bit more. We used some organic black beans which are plain to start with so perhaps I would have had more success using S&W or adding some garlic and salt on my own.

The mangoes I had for the salsa where called Champagne Mangoes. Jiffer and I stood over the sink sucking every last bit off of them. These were the best mangoes I have ever had. I am glad we enjoyed them when we did because with the jalapeño in the salsa the enjoyment was not quite the same.

The recipe calls for staking the beans, tofu, and salsa on top of rice. I make a little white rice for Jiffer but Matt and I went without. The salsa was a little to spicy for me to completely enjoy. I am guessing if I had some rice that may have worked out to the right spice level.

The black beans and tofu rely on the salsa for the majority of the flavor. So anytime I have a ripe mango or two I would probably make this recipe again for me and Matt since the rest of the ingredients are pantry regulars. I don' think I will serve it to others. Thanks for trying it Jiffer.

Matt and I had an Albarino with this meal which appears to be about the right wine.

Hot Weather Ratatouille

It was too hot to turn the oven on and it was getting late. I opted for this easy one dish stove top recipe. It is called Tempeh Ratatouille and is in Berley's book Fresh Food Fast. He calls for oil and serving it on cracked wheat but we skipped both. I also only used half the tempeh.

I was not expecting much and found I loved it. Matt was remembering a recent Ratatouille we made from Berley's Flexitarian Table and could only say this one had potential. I really don't know what to expect from the dish so the ease and flavor won me over.

We do think more effort should be made to cook the tempeh longer but this was probably due to the lack of oil. Also this barely fit in my dutch oven so I don't know what kind of large skillet he has. I used the juice of lemon as the recipe called for but I probably should have reduced this since we didn't have the oil.

We enjoyed a very nice bottle of champagne. I was surprised to find the wine was great with the raw bits of vegetable I stole while chopping, in particular the tomatoes. It didn't do too well with the lemon juice and hot pepper in the final dish but there was not much wine left by that time anyway.

When Matt wasn't looking I used a piece of whole wheat bread to sop up the great liquid left on my plate. The picture is from half way through the meal.

We ate about half of this for dinner and took the other half for lunch the next day. I thought it made a great lunch.

The First Supper

The first day out was made much easier by the bounty of my parents' garden. We enjoyed some fresh green beans and zucchini. This one we cooked together.

For the zucchini I cut the squash in half length wise and then cut them into 1/4" slabs. I browned these in a single layer in a non-stick fry pan. This took three rounds and I just stacked them up on a plate until the end when I tossed them all back in the pan to bring them to temperature.

For the green beans we used Jack Bishop's recipe for Braised Green Beans with Soy and Sesame from Vegetables Every Day (page 173). I didn't have any stock so I just used water and added a stalk of celery while it cooked which I discarded when we served it. Instead of the sesame oil I used tahini. I left out the peanut oil and instead sauted with 2 T of water in a non-stick fry pan. At the end we removed the green beans and added a drained and rinsed can of white beans to the pan sauce as we cooked it down.

The zucchini was sweet and delicious. The green beans were great. The white beans were a bit mushy but made the meal more of a meal. The green beans were a new try and I think will become part of the repertoire. Matt did the prep on the beans and somehow this still took us an hour to make.