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Posts Tagged ‘vegetarian’

Artichokes!

Posted in Artichokes, Tofu, tagged , , on May 21, 2010| 2 Comments »

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in a Meal Plan Monday post, I had never tried fresh artichokes. Yes, I have had them in dips and I eat the jarred hearts in salads and such, but I had never actually made fresh artichokes. My husband, on the other hand, has made them, but just for himself, as I was still not very interested. You see, I had this babysitter growing up that made them frequently and I thought they had a weird smell. This made me not want to eat them. Now, almost 30 years later, I have tried them and liked them!

I have to say too, that my inspiration was my friend Heidi over at Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom. She has recently had a food revolution of her own, and on a bigger scale than just being gluten free, and joined our local CSA as part of her action plan. She has been receiving new vegetables in her boxes and artichokes were recently one of those items. Like me, she had never had them before – maybe it is because we are both from the Midwest where they aren’t as common? She was successful and her whole family enjoyed them so it gave me the courage to try them too! And so I used her microwave steam method and lemon dipping sauce recipe.

To go with them, I made an old stand-by recipe, Yummy Grilled Tofu, from another of my favorite gluten free bloggers, Sea at Book of Yum. This is one of our favorite ways to make tofu. The toasted sesame oil really makes it sing. We frequently grill this but I also put it in the oven or under the broiler. On this particular evening, I lined a glass baking dish with foil and put the tofu, in its marinade, in the oven for a while. Be careful if you put it under the broiler in its marinade as you could get a flare up from the oil in the pan.

So, the verdict is – delicious! I’ll be making the artichokes again soon. What is your favorite artichoke recipe?

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Red Beans and Rice

Posted in Beans, Quick, Rice, tagged , , , , , on May 17, 2010| 9 Comments »

This is a simple, quick, go-to recipe of ours. Be sure to turn on the rice cooker before you start chopping up the onions and peppers. You can dice the onions and peppers as finely as you wish but I like them chopped fairly coarse, like a 1/2″ chop. This is a good dish to use up bell peppers that have been sitting a little too long in the refrigerator and it uses some basic pantry staples that I try to keep around in case I need something quick. Tonight I served it with a simple tossed salad with lettuce from the garden and homemade Italian salad dressing – the recipe in the good old, red and white Betty Crocker classic cookbook.


Red Beans and Rice

1 tbsp oil

2 medium onions, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 green bell peppers, chopped

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tsp paprika

1-8 oz. can tomato sauce (no salt added if you can find it)

1/2 – 1 cup water

hot sauce to taste

2-15 oz. cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Cooked rice – we prefer white rice with this meal

Sour cream

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onions, garlic and peppers. Cook until the onions are getting soft, about 10 minutes. Stir in the chili powder and paprika and cook for about 30 seconds. Add in beans and tomato sauce. Stir in enough water to make the sauce liquid enough to simmer the beans in; start with about a half cup. Add the hot sauce (if desired) and simmer about 10 minutes. Serve over rice with a dollop of sour cream.

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Meal Plan Monday, May 17, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , on May 17, 2010| 8 Comments »

This week shouldn’t be too busy and so I am planning our usual four meals, with the other three to be either leftovers or something out of the freezer. It allows us the flexibility we need and prevents me from buying too much produce that would go bad and have to be fed to the chickens, rather than just feeding the girls the scraps.

Today I went back to my trusty recipe box for some of our old stand-bys. I also wanted to find a recipe that would work for this week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap theme of picnic or BBQ foods. This week’s swap is hosted by Heather at Celiac Family.

So for this week, we have the following lined up:

Spicy Ginger Noodles – a picnic worthy pasta salad

Creamy Chickpea Curry with Rice

Italian White Beans and Polenta

Taco Salad



As always, this menu is also posted over at OrgJunkie where you can find hundreds of other meal plans for inspiration! Enjoy!

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Lentil Salad Provencal

Posted in Beans, Lentils, Salad, tagged , , , , on May 16, 2010| 2 Comments »

This recipe is one that we have made many times. It is a light and refreshing dinner. Be sure to check out the original recipe, as I make this one as written.

Lentils are a powerful protein source. One cup of cooked lentils has 18 grams of protein. Wow! They are also high in fiber and thus fill you up for fewer calories. Only 230 calories per cup of cooked lentils. Not to mention, they make a great inexpensive meal!

Whenever I have lentils cooking on the stove, my husband comments on how good dinner smells. There is something almost meaty smelling about them. For a while I thought it was the smell of the bay leaves but even when I cook them without bay leaves, he still comments when passing through the kitchen. I think we just both like the smell of lentils!

The herbes de Provence pairs well with the lentils and the cayenne pepper gives it a slight kick. We serve it over chopped romaine. And sometimes if we can’t wait, we will eat it slightly warm too. It tastes great both ways.

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Polenta with Lemony Asparagus and Chickpeas

Posted in Beans, Chickpeas, Polenta, tagged , , , , , on May 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Almost two weeks ago now, in a Meal Plan Monday post, I mentioned that we were going to be trying a recipe from Susan at Fat Free Vegan. Be sure to check out the original recipe. We have tried quite a few of Susan’s recipes and especially enjoy a couple of her tofu recipes: Chipotle Barbecued Tofu and Sichuan Tofu with Garlic Sauce.

This recipe caught my eye because we love chickpeas (but unfortunately, not asparagus). I have substituted broccoli before in other recipes calling for asparagus and so I was happy to see Susan suggest it as a substitution. And when I saw that she cooked her polenta in her pressure cooker, I wanted to give that a try too as I have only made soups and beans in my pressure cooker since I got it in January.

So I made the polenta in the pressure cooker but it didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. I usually make polenta in a heavy pot and have had continued success with that technique but I am not sure what I did wrong with the pressure cooker. The polenta began to burn on the bottom but we were able to scrape enough off the top, missing the burnt parts. I will likely try making polenta with my pressure cooker again although I am not sure it is any easier or quicker than the way I usually make it.

Instead of the asparagus called for in the original recipe, I used broccoli, which I steamed in a steamer basket on the stove. I added the lemon juice and peel just as Susan did. I made the chickpeas per the original but I doubled the amount it as I wasn’t sure it would be enough for us as well as for a bit of leftovers.

Unfortunately we were not thrilled by this recipe (although many people have reported great results over on Susan’s page). The chickpeas in their sauce were not very flavorful, although the lemony broccoli was tasty. As for the chickpeas, I am not sure if it was because I used a different ‘type’ of vegetable broth and not an un-chicken broth. I used Trader Joe’s vegetable broth, my usual broth. And so I wonder if this was the difference because I found that adding quite a bit of salt to the chickpeas helped. Perhaps my broth wasn’t flavorful or salty enough? Or was I just ‘off’ that evening? Let me know if you try it as I can’t figure out where I went wrong.

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The Melting Pot

Posted in Restaurant Review, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 15, 2010| 4 Comments »

The Gluten Intolerance Group recently announced that The Melting Pot had joined the Gluten Free Restaurant Awareness Program (GFRAP) and launched a gluten free menu. Conveniently, last week was my birthday, so we decided to go for my birthday dinner since neither of us had ever been there.

Initially I was a little hesitant as I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a guinea pig while they got ramped up on their gluten free services. But then I figured someone had to be first and decided to go for it. I made our reservation through their free online system and made a note that I required the gluten free menu. A couple of days prior the manager called to confirm the reservation and the need for a gluten free meal.

When we arrived, they noted again that we needed a gluten free menu* and took us to our secluded table for two. This table had only one burner for one pot of fondue at a time, which should usually suffice for the normal party of two. But after discussing our needs with our server, they decided to move us to a larger table so we could have two burners. The main reason for this was so we could each have our own separate entrée. As I have mentioned, I am not a total vegetarian but more of a flexitarian and thus I generally eat meat when I go out, but rarely cook it at home. My husband is a lacto-ovo vegetarian. And while their vegetarian option is great, when the gluten containing items are removed there isn’t much variety left and I wanted my husband to be able to have the full experience too. So they graciously provided us with a larger, two-burner table.

Shortly after we were seated at our new table, the manager, Tony, stopped by to check on me. We had a nice conversation about the new menu and how excited he was about it. He also told me that the next time we made a reservation to just mention that we needed a two burner table and they would accommodate us. I also mentioned to him that I had brought my own bread for dipping (shoved in my practically empty purse) and he said that was great and that they are looking into providing gluten free bread but are waiting until they see how the new menu goes over. He said the logistics of providing gluten free bread are difficult as they don’t know how much they would need and don’t want to leave it sitting in the freezer for a long period of time, waiting on the next gluten free customer, but that it may be an option in the future.

For our cheese course we shared the Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue with cauliflower, celery, carrots and apples. (As noted on the menu, you should request that it be made with cornstarch instead of flour.) I had also brought along some of my own bread and we dipped that as well. It was heavenly! The next course was the salads. We both had the California Salad and it was super yummy (although heavy on the dressing).

For our entrée, I ordered the Signature Selection and my husband got The Vegetarian. The Signature Selection typically comes with filet mignon, shrimp, teriyaki sirloin, chicken breast and salmon. It is noted on the gluten free menu that you should request a substitute for the teriyaki sirloin and so I requested scallops. We cooked each in our own separate fondue pots to avoid gluten contamination in my pot as well as meat contamination in the vegetarian pot. The dipping sauces they provide are also gluten free except for the teriyaki.

For desert, we chose The Original, which is a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter. The chocolate fondues usually come with a lot of gluten filled items for dipping (cake, brownie bites, Rice Krispy Treats) and I wanted my husband to be able to have all the other goodies, so the manager suggested that we could order one dessert but place it in two separate pots, one for me and one for my husband, thus eliminating the cross-contamination issue. It was wonderful! They brought me strawberries, cherries and bananas for dipping and I had also brought along some cubes of lemon pound cake that I had made at home. The menu says that they will provide plain marshmallows and pineapple also, but they didn’t give us those items, and I was so happy with the strawberries and bananas that I didn’t miss them. In fact, I asked for more bananas because they tasted so good with the chocolate and peanut butter fondue.

All in all, it was wonderful! And as far as I can tell, I was not contaminated. Our server, Les, was very conscientious and in fact, he had a shellfish allergy so he seemed to understand allergies and noted that he did not want to get me sick. My husband and I were both completely stuffed and loved it so I am sure we will be going back another time. If you plan on going, be sure to join Club Fondue through their website for special offers and a free chocolate fondue for two.

Kudos to The Melting Pot and especially Tony and Les at the Albuquerque location!

* One side note – in order to view the menu on the website, you need to type in a zip code to get the restaurant  nearest you and from there you can click on the ‘menu’ button to see the different menus. The gluten free menu is listed separately. It initially took me a bit to figure this out.

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Meal Plan Monday, May 10, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , on May 10, 2010| 8 Comments »

Just to keep you all inspired, here is our plan for the week with the usual four meals, three of which are tried and true and one is new-to-us.

Red Beans and Rice

Stir-Fried Tofu with Bok Choy  and rice from This Can’t Be Tofu! by Deborah Madison

Greek Lentils and Pasta from The Daily Bean by Suzanne Caciola White

Egg Noodles with Vegetables from Complete Book of Thai Cooking by Linda Stephen – this is new to us and I will be modifying it to be gluten free and vegetarian.

Don’t forget to check out OrgJunkie and the other Meal Plan Monday posts.

I will be back later this week with a restaurant review and some new recipe reviews.

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Spicy Tofu with Vegetables and Cucumber Salad

Posted in Asian, Rice, Stir Fry, Thai, Tofu, tagged , , , , , , on May 4, 2010| 8 Comments »

I originally found these recipes in one of those free magazines you can pick up at the health food stores. There were a couple of recipes that we tried from this one cookbook and I thought they were so good that I was inspired to buy the cookbook from which they were from. But I am not as enamored with the cookbook as with these specific recipes. If you are a flexitarian or carnivore, you may appreciate the cookbook more as there are a lot of meat based Thai dishes. I also need to pull the cookbook back out and look through it again.

The tofu dish we have had quite a few times before and we really like it. As usual, I added more vegetables to this recipe. I also changed the sauce slightly from the original.

This was the first time I made the cucumber salad and my husband dug into that right away. He gave it ‘two thumbs up’ before I even got sat down in my chair. I’ll admit that I couldn’t keep my fingers out of it while I was making the tofu.

Spicy Tofu with Vegetables and Rice

Adapted from Complete Book of Thai Cooking by Linda Stephen

3 tbsp canola oil, divided

1 pound of extra-firm tofu, sliced

3 shallots, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups baby carrots, sliced into thin slivers

1 large red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

2 cups french green beans, fresh or frozen, in 1-inch pieces

3 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp black pepper

Turn on rice cooker. Slice tofu into 8 slices and place between the layers of a clean, dry towel. Place something heavy on top and let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Slice each tofu slice into 8 squares.

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in large wok or skillet. Carefully add tofu – it will splatter. Let cook for 3-4 minutes and then flip and let cook for 3-4 more minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan and place on a paper towel covered plate.

Add 1 tbsp oil to hot pan. Add shallots and garlic. Stir fry for one minute – careful not to burn the garlic. Add the carrots, bell pepper and green beans. Let cook for 3-4 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and let cook for a couple more minutes or until carrots are tender-crisp. Add tofu back to pan and cook until heated through. Serve with rice.

Cucumber Salad

Adapted from Complete Book of Thai Cooking by Linda Stephen

3 tbsp rice vinegar, gluten free

1 tbsp soy sauce, gluten free

2 tsp sugar

1 large English cucumber, sliced

1 shallot, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

2 tbsp roasted peanuts, chopped

Mix together vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. Add remaining ingredients, except peanuts, and let sit for 15 minutes. Serve topped with peanuts.

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Greek Quinoa and Avocado Salad

Posted in Avocado, quinoa, Spinach, tagged , , , , , on May 3, 2010| 6 Comments »

Here it is, finally!  A review of the Greek Quinoa and Avocado Salad that so many people commented on when I initially posted it for Meal Plan Monday almost two weeks ago. We both liked it. It wasn’t fantastic, but it was good. I wasn’t a big fan of the avocado despite liking avocados a lot. I think the strong, sharp taste of the feta overpowered the avocado and it just got lost. So I have been thinking of modifications for next time.

Also, when I looked at the nutrition facts over on the original recipe, I was a little concerned with the fat content. Yes, I know the fat is mostly from ‘good’ fats, but I was still concerned. I reduced it by using low-fat feta and less oil so that we could still indulge with the avocados.

So you’ve never tried Quinoa? (Pronounced: keen-wah.) Well, quinoa is a high-protein, gluten free, pseudo-grain. (Technically it is a seed.) You can read more about it here and here. It is a nutrition powerhouse. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization compares quinoa’s nutritional content to that of whole dried milk. Read more. Quinoa is a great addition to a vegetarian diet for these reasons. Many gluten free bakers also use quinoa flour to add nutrition to their baked goods. Since I am not much of a baker, I haven’t tried that yet.

Most quinoa recipes I have seen all seem to be along the same theme, so I was excited to see this recipe as it initially seemed a bit different. Thanks to my mother-in-law for sending me this recipe. She knows of my love of quinoa and has bravely eaten it at our house! We chose to eat this as a main course. There were no leftovers, even with my modifications below. Next time I will make more. I also think I will double the amount of quinoa, remove the avocado and add some chopped kalamata olives instead.

Greek Quinoa and Avocado Salad

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

2 cups water

1 cup uncooked quinoa *

3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped

2 cups spinach leaves, torn

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil *

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup low-fat feta cheese, crumbled *

2 small avocados, diced

Bring water to a boil in saucepan. Add quinoa and stir. Reduce heat and simmer, covered for about 12-15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Set aside to cool.

In the meantime, place tomatoes, onion, spinach, lemon juice and oil in a bowl and stir. Sprinkle with salt. When quinoa is cool, stir into vegetable mixture. Top with avocado and feta.

Notes:

* I buy Bob’s Red Mill quinoa from Costco in the large bags. It says that it has been rinsed already. Some quinoa will need to be rinsed to remove the saponin from the surface of the grains, check the box or bag.

* I reduced the amount of oil to try to reduce the fat content as well. It was plenty of oil.

* I use Trader Joe’s low-fat feta and like it. I can’t tell the difference.

Please let me know if you try this recipe too and what you think of it!

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Meal Plan Monday, May 3, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , on May 3, 2010| 33 Comments »

This week is going to be another busy one. And we are going to be eating out a few times at the end of the week, so I am only planning three meals this week. Plus, there is always stuff in the cabinets and freezer to make if we need it. I’d rather make something out of the cabinet instead of let produce go bad in the refrigerator. Weeks like these though, I do try to keep salad fixings in the frig so that we can have something ‘fresh’ tasting with our cabinet and freezer staples.

On another note, I am going to try to wean us off of bottled salad dressings for our summer salads. Over the years we have tried to eliminate excess sugar in our diets where we can because we ARE such sugar addicts. We’d rather enjoy our sugar in sugary treats and not in places where you don’t even know it is there. So this is another step in this process.

My husband’s dressing of choice is Wishbone Italian. Does anyone have a good homemade Italian dressing recipe they would like to share? My personal favorites are red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar dressings, and those are easy. I just need to find one for him.

So for this week, we’re going to have some things from a few of my favorite bloggers:

Yummy Grilled Tofu from Book of Yum with Artichokes and Salad – we will probably bake or broil the tofu instead of grill. This is our favorite tofu marinade and it has convinced non-tofu eaters that tofu can be good. Thanks, Sea! And I am going to attempt to make artichokes after Heidi gave me the courage.

Polenta with Lemon Asparagus and Chickpeas from Fat Free Vegan – since we don’t care for asparagus we’re going to use steamed broccoli instead. Maybe we will try asparagus one day again. But this week the new vegetable is artichokes.

Pasta with Tomato-Blue Cheese Sauce from The Pioneer Woman with Salad

And of course if you don’t find something of interest here, be sure to go on over to OrgJunkie and check out all the other Meal Plan Monday postings.

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