Vegetable and Rice Casserole

Here is another recipe I found on vegweb.com. Jotting this down via my iPhone before I forget.

1 cup cooked brown rice
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup chopped broccoli
1 zucchini, chopped
16 oz salsa
1 cup vegan cheddar (Daiya rocks!)

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat the beans and salsa on the stovetop about 5 minutes and then add the other veggies. Cook them until slightly softened, 5-10 minutes. Add the rice and mix. Place in a casserole dish, mine was 9x9. Top with cheese. I divided the cheese and put some in the middle so the cheesy taste would be all through it. Bake 20 minutes.

The zucchini and peppers stayed a bit crunchy, which I prefer, so cook them longer if you like them softer.

I am not a fan of broccoli. Luckily, I couldn't taste it. So this is a good way to get a dreaded vegetable into a picky child (or adult). Just chop it up fine and maybe they won't notice. This would make a great burrito filling, which would also make the veggies even more hidden.

Enjoy!

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. 

  

Stuffed Zuchinni Lunch and Plan To Eat

There was one chorizo stuffed zucchini left over so I chopped it up and added some of the Cheeze Sauce from a different meal.  Heated it up and put it in a flatbread. That's one of the things I am loving about vegan cooking. Almost everything I make works the next day in a tortilla or a sandwich.

I've found Plan To Eat, a meal planner and recipe keeper, that makes planning meals fun again. Coming up:

Eggplant Chana Masala
Black Bean and Rice Casserole
Spinach and Bean Quesadillas
Chickpea Summer Burrito
Black Bean Polenta Cakes

What are you making?

Chorizo Stuffed Zuchinni

Ever head of The Sexy Vegan? He has a YouTube channel and a cookbook. I found this recipe while looking around and decided to try it out. It's really great. The only thing I would change next time is the amount of cloves. It really stood out.

Ingredients

• 3 large zucchinis split lengthwise, seeds scooped out
• 8 ounces tempeh, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 2 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 2 pinches cinnamon
• 2 pinches salt
• couple grinds of pepper
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• couple splashes of red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup shredded vegan cheese of your choosing ( I used Daiya mozzarella)
• teaspoon olive oil

Put a little oil on the zucchini and grill them face down for a few minutes to soften them. You can use a grill pan. 

 Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350.  In a bowl add the tempeh and spices and moosh up. 

 Cook it in an oiled skillet until browned.  Add the veggie stock and the red wine vinegar and cook until the liquid cooks out. 

This happened very quickly. About 5 minutes. 

Remove it from the heat and add the cheese. Stir to blend and then spoon it onto the zucchini. Top with a bit more cheese and

 bake for 10 minutes. The recipe calls for mango salsa to go on top but mangos make my mouth itch so I went with regular salsa. 

The original recipe called for sherry vinegar but I wasn't in the mood to spend $8 for an ingredient I wouldn't use that often.

 

Tasty!

Black Bean Pizza on Flatbread

Black bean pizza

Cheeze sauce

I urge you to check out the above links for a wonderful pizza. It's a black bean, bell pepper and red onion pizza on a tortilla. Although I used a whole wheat flatbread. I used Classico Traditional Pizza Sauce and Daiya Mozzarella Cheese.  The avocado was omitted by forgetfulness.

When I tasted the cheeze sauce on its own, I felt it was too salty. All my own doing of course. But actually it worked perfectly once combined with the other ingredients.

The Daiya was creamy and cheesy if not exactly mozzarella-y.  I loved how crispy the flatbread got. It was just like a thin crust pizza. Thankfully I put dairy cheese on the husband's pizza or I would have been tempted to eat more than one!

Pizza on the left with dairy cheese.

It looks prettier but mine tasted just as good!

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.

Snobby Joe's

Snobby Joe's

Tonight I made Snobby Joe's from the Post Punk Kitchen. Basically it's sloppy joe's with lentils instead of beef. They were very tasty.  It has a tomato sauce base with mustard and maple syrup. Although I used Agave Maple Syrup. Chili powder gives it just enough spice but it's not hot at all. And it was sloppy enough that I ended up eating it with a fork. I didn't have proper rolls and used Flax Sandwich Thins, which were indeed…thin. I can see putting this in the rotation.