Eggplant Chana Masala

This is easily one of the best things I've ever made. It is seasoned perfectly and is perfect comfort food.  I found the recipe in Alicia Silverstone's cookbook The Kind Diet. Having never tried eggplant I thought this would be the perfect introduction since it's pretty much drowned in spices and other flavors. 

Ingredients

• 1 lg onion roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves minced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp curry powder or to taste
• 1-2 tsp cumin (I used 2)
• 1 lg eggplant peeled and chopped into 1/2
• 1-15 oz cans chickpeas drained
• 1-14 oz cans peeled tomatoes drained and chopped
• 1 can vegetarian chili
• 1 lg handful chopped fresh cilantro-1/2c
• a pinch of smoked sea salt (My addition)

I served this with wild grain and brown rice, which was perfect.

First sauté the onions and garlic in the oil until softened. Add the spices and mix well.  Add the eggplant and cook until softened. Next add the chick peas, tomatoes and chili. Stir well and simmer for 30 minutes. 

Top with cilantro and sea salt before serving over rice. 

I can't wait to try this in a tortilla tomorrow for lunch. 

  

Black Bean and Corn Quesadilla

I found a recipe for this quesadilla on vegweb.com. It's really simple but SO good.

What I used:

1 can black beans…drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
1 small onion….diced
1 medium red bell pepper….diced
2 teaspoons cumin
salt and pepper to taste
the juice of 1 small lime
Mozzarella cheese of your choice. I used Daiya, vegan cheese.

Heat everything in a pan until the veggies are softened a bit. Take a masher and mash everything up a little.  Heat a skillet sprayed lightly with oil. Place one tortilla in the pan, add a 1/4  or so of the mix to the tortilla. Top with cheese and another tortilla. Mash the top down so the mix spreads.  Once one side is toasted flip it over. The second side usually cooks faster. Repeat until the mix is gone. I made 3 quesadillas with the last being super filled for Bobby. I could have easily turned it into 2 but by then I was ready to eat!

Cut and serve. They were great as is and with salsa. Even my toddler liked it.

Creole Rice and Beans from Happy Herbivore

I recently started getting Happy Herbivore's weekly meal plans, complete with menus and shopping lists, as a way to help me stay on track with cooking nutritious meals. Here is one of the recipes I made: Creole Rice and Beans

It was pretty simple to make and it helped that I had the rice already prepared. Open up a few cans, chop a few vegetables and throw in some spices and you're done. I try not to use processed foods but canned beans don't count! Even my 2 year old liked it and that is saying a lot.

Happyherbivore.com

Spicy Black Beans, Corn and Rice

Here's a spicy, fast meal to throw together on a busy weeknight.

8 oz cooked brown rice (I used Uncle Ben's)
1 can low sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can yellow corn, rinsed and drained
1/2 a red onion, chopped fine
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
hot sauce to taste (I used Uncle Frank's Original….noticing a theme here with the Uncles….)

Heat the onion in a little olive oil, add the rest of the vegetables and spices. Cook for about 5 minutes, add rice, lime juice and hot sauce and heat on low for about 10 minutes.

The corn stays crunchy and the spices blend together for a nice spicy heat.  I ate it plain in a bowl but you could use tortilla chips, put it in a tortilla or on a salad. So easy and so good.

California Ensalada Burritos

This meal tried to do me in. Lesson learned: mandolines are sharp! I also dropped almost 1/2 the avocado mix on the floor AND realized I'd forgotten to get baby salad greens.

But it turned out to all be worth it because man was this good. It tasted so fresh and clean.

Recipe from Vegetariantimes.com

California Ensalada Burritos

Makes 4 burritos

30 minutes or fewer

1 small red onion, thinly sliced into rings (1 cup)

¼ cup distilled white vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)

• ⅓ cup plus 2 Tbs. fresh lime juice, divided
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¼ cup cilantro leaves
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 small avocados, cut into large chunks (2 cups)
• 3 cups mixed baby greens (accidentally omitted)
• 1 ½ cups shredded cabbage
• 4 radishes, thinly sliced
• 1 tomato, quartered and sliced
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• 6 Tbs. toasted pepitas, optional (didn't use these)
• 4 7-inch low-fat, low-sodium tortillas, warmed

1. Stir together onion, vinegar, 1/3 cup lime juice, and salt in bowl. Cover, and chill 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, blend cilantro, garlic, and remaining 2 Tbs. lime juice in blender until garlic is minced. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. With blender running, slowly pour in oil until dressing is well blended.

3. Toss avocado chunks in separate bowl with 1 Tbs. dressing. Season with salt, if desired.

4. Toss baby greens, cabbage, radishes, tomato, and carrot in large bowl with remaining dressing.

5. Arrange greens mixture and pepitas (if using) in center of each tortilla, then spoon avocado chunks over top, mashing down lightly to keep from spilling out of burrito. Remove onions from marinade with fork, and divide sliced onions among tortillas. Roll up tortillas, burrito style.

I used the mandoline to slice the radishes (goodbye part of thumb!), red onions and the tomato.  It's a lot of steps but it really didn't take that long. It would be great just as a salad.  

Ancho Black Beans with Peppers and Rice

Adapted from a recipe found in Vegetarian Times Magazine.

1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 each red, yellow and green bell pepper, cut into thin strips
3/4 cup cooked brown rice
1 1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder (less or more to taste, it gets pretty hot)
1 1/2 teaspoon cumin (less or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Saute minced garlic in oil. Add black beans and spices and peppers.  Cook until peppers are crisp tender.  Add rice and cilantro and heat through.

This is super fast and very tasty. It's spicy so mind your chile powder!

Avocado Spinach Panini

The couple of people who actually check out this blog might be wondering why I do it. Basically, I'm the heaviest I have ever been and the only way to get the weight off is to eat right. And to eat right I have to completely change my approach to food. That involves serious motivation and I've found that I stick to it better if I document it here. Lately I've had great success drinking green smoothies (try incrediblesmoothies.com for great smoothie ideas) for lunch and breakfast and having a vegetarian meal at night. I was a vegetarian many moons ago but since I didn't enjoy many vegetables it was a sad existence. I'm enjoying it much more this time around.

This recipe was adapted from a Vegetarian Times recipe.

1 flat bread cut into sandwich sizes
1 avocado, sliced
red onion slices (about 1/2 a small onion)
raw spinach leaves (I used about 1 loosely packed cup for 2 sandwiches)
California Sun Dry Sun-Dried Tomato Spread (or julienne sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil)

Cut open the flat bread (or bread of your choice) and spread the tomato spread on both pieces. Layer the rest of the ingredients.

Use a panini press or cook them in a skillet the way you would a grilled cheese. You want it really flattened out though. I struggles with this because half the time the ingredients ooze out more than I'd like but I think the bread has been too thick for my cheap panini maker!  It still tasted great. I love the crunch of the bread with the creamy avocado.  And the sun-dried tomatoes give it zing.  The onions were perfect and I couldn't even taste the spinach. I added bacon to the sandwich for the non-vegetarian eater in the house.

Squash and Goat Cheese Pizza

This is a take on Vegetarian Time's Zucchini Goat Cheese Pizza. I had squash I need to use up so I substituted it for the zucchini.  It was really simple and absolutely delicious. I served it with a quick spinach and red onion salad.

Pizza

• 2 Tbs. olive oil, divided
• 8 oz. (½ pkg.) prepared refrigerated pizza dough or pre-made crust
• 
  
• 1 3.5-oz. log goat cheese, thinly sliced or roughly chopped
• 1 summer squash, peeled into thin strips
• 1 small red bell pepper, cut into rings

Sauce

• 1 6-oz. can tomato paste with garlic
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• ½ tsp. red wine vinegar

1. To make Pizza: Preheat oven to 450°F. Brush large baking sheet or pizza pan with 1 Tbs. oil. Spread pizza dough in prepared pan.

2. To make Sauce: stir together all ingredients with fork in small bowl.

3. Spread Sauce on dough. Top with half of goat cheese. Spread squash strips over goat cheese, 
top with bell pepper rings, then remaining goat cheese. Drizzle with remaining 1 Tbs. oil. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Cool 10 minutes, then cut into 6 slices

Before baking….

After baking.

I should have cooked mine longer to melt the cheese better but I was hungry! And it smelled so good it didn't matter. This was the first time I used this crust. It was very good. Not too thick or thin.  There were 2 individual sized crusts in the package. I could eat this again and again. 

Tex-Mex Squash Casserole

Original recipe can be found at Eatingwell.com. It didn't have black beans and just used cheddar, but I wanted a protein and didn't have enough cheddar.

This is as good as any nachos I've had and much healthier. It was also an excellent way to get squash into my diet since it is not a favorite. I couldn't even taste it.

Pre-heat oven to 400.

3 summer squash (yellow squash), cut into quarters and diced
1/2 a medium yellow onion, diced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeds removed, diced
1 can chiles, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 to 1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese
3 tablespoons flour

Mix all of the above ingredients to coat with the flour. Place in casserole dish and cover with foil. Cook 25-30 minutes.

Remove from oven and spoon 3/4 cup salsa in top. Cover in shredded cheddar. Bake for another 20-30 minutes.

I served this with tortilla chips and could have eaten half a pan. It would be great over rice or in tacos or tortillas.