Meatless Monday: Collard Greens & Rice

Veggie plate, anyone?

Our weekly CSA veggie basket is brimming with greens every week this time of year. We had to find some favorite preparation methods or we were in danger of dreading the basket instead of looking forward to it. We stumbled upon this recipe, and now we HOPE to see collard greens in our basket. Go figure!

Collard greens with rice

• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup brown* or long-grain white rice
• 1 tablespoon Earth Balance butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups chopped collard leaves, loosely packed
• pepper

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Meatless Monday: Lentil Burritos (reprise)

Just had these and decided to bring them back to your plate, too.

Lentil Burritos

½ package of Trader Joe’s pre-cooked lentils
1 small onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup (4 oz) shredded soy cheese
1 cup vegetable broth
About 8 small flour tortillas
1 (8-oz) can tomato sauce (with roasted garlic if you can find it)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon taco sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Toppings: Tofutti sour cream, guacamole (when avocados are in season)

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Meatless Monday: Soyrizo Tacos

You won’t believe how “meaty” these tacos are.

Soyrizo Tacos 

Hello, delicious! You won’t believe how easy and non-meaty these meaty-tasting tacos are.

  • 1 package veggie chorizo (We love Trader Joe’s Soyrizo)
  • ½ onion, diced
  • Shredded cheese (Trader Joe’s soy shredded is our pick)
  • Small flour tortillas

Toppings:

  • Tofutti sour cream
  • Taco sauce

So easy: Sauté the onion until translucent. Add the soyrizo and heat through. We like to sear our tortilla shells by holding them over the burner with tongs for 10-15 seconds per side. Don’t burn your house down, though—cover them in paper towels and warm in the microwave if you don’t want to sear them!

Put the soyrizo mixture in the shells, add sour cream, taco sauce, and any other toppings that suit your fancy, and you’ve got dinner!

(Based loosely on a recipe in The Kind Diet)

#36: Food Is Our Fuel

Do you REALLY know what you’re putting in your body?

I don’t pretend to be a nutritionist, but I am very interested in the human diet. You can exercise as hard as you can every day of the week, but if you eat a crappy diet, you won’t look as good as you want to look, and you won’t be healthy. Fortunately, usually when you exercise regularly, you tend to eat a little better because you don’t want to screw up the hard work you just put in at the gym. But there always seems to be room for improvement.

Eating virtuously is pretty much impossible, especially if you want to have a social life, or any fun at all. And you’ll recall, too, that I don’t believe in all or nothing behavior. So in terms of eating a very good diet, let’s assume that we’re talking about most of the time.

See if this will click for you the way it clicked for me: Think of food as fuel. Our cars need gas to go, and we would never put anything in the gas tank but gas. So why do we clutter our bodies with so many non-energy-producing edible things? They clog up our plumbing and make us feel sluggish, ill, or heavy. Foods that are not fuel are extraneous. They just get in the way of health.

If you don’t already, take an interest in the nutritional content of the foods you eat. When I put carrots on my daughter’s plate, I’ll say, “Oooh, these are good for your eyes, so you can see better at night!” When you know what amazing things different foods do for your body, you might be more interested in consuming them. If Omega 3s are going to help my brain function, protect me from heart attacks and stroke, and keep my menstrual cramps from being very painful, sign me up—how can I not try to find a way to include them in my diet every day?

Which leads to a thoughtful idea: Maybe you can learn to choose your foods according to the nutrients you need, rather than grabbing whatever foods are closest and then wondering (later) about what might be in them.

It’s empowering to be in control of what goes into your body. It’s empowering to know about the foods you are eating, and what they are doing for you. We are not helpless creatures, with no hope but to suffer saggy bellies for the rest of our lives. You have everything you need to run a smoothly operating system. Just don’t look for it in the middle aisles of the grocery store!

Meatless Monday: Santa Fe Pizza

Meatless Monday week 2

Santa Fe Pizza (adapted from Bon Appetit’s fast, easy, fresh cookbook)

  • 1 fully baked thin whole wheat pizza crust (we love the ones from Whole Foods)
  • 1-2 c grated sharp cheddar cheese (we use Trader Joe’s shredded soy cheese)
  • 2 c “chicken” strips,* cut into cubes and browned lightly in a T of olive oil (it will continue to cook in oven)
  • ½ t ground cumin
  • ½ c thinly sliced red onion
  • Small can of no-salt-added corn
  • 1-2 T chopped, fresh cilantro
  • 1-2 jalapenos, seeded and coarsely chopped (jarred works great)
  • Salsa of your choice

*Our favorites are Morningstar Farms and Gardein—any that sound good to you will do!

Preheat oven to 425. Place crust on baking sheet. Sprinkle about half the cheese, chicken cubes, and cumin over crust, leaving a 3/4-inch border. Top liberally with onion, corn, cilantro, remaining cheese, and jalapenos. Bake pizza until crust is crisp and toppings are heated through, about 10-12 minutes. (We like to broil the pizza for 1 minute at this point to melt the soy cheese and brown the crust a tiny bit more.) Top with dollops of Tofutti sour cream, salsa, and avocado when it’s in season!

This is the basic recipe, but feel free to add toppings you think sound good—I’d love to hear what you come up with!

Meatless Monday is back!

Make a big pot of this soup and enjoy for dinner as well as lunch the next day. You’ll love it!

Tortilla Soup 

  • 1 t olive oil
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 jalapenos, seeded and thinly sliced (we use jarred, pre-chopped)
  • 1 poblano or green pepper, seeded and chopped into ½-inch pieces
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • ¼ t red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 1 t salt
  • 24-oz can whole tomatoes
  • 24 oz vegetable broth (we love no-chicken broth)
  • 2-ish cups baked tortilla chips
  • 1 T ground cumin
  • 15-oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can no-salt-added corn, drained
  • ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • Juice from 1 lime

Heat the oil in a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions, jalapenos, and poblano pepper in the oil until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Use a little nonstick cooking spray or broth if needed. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt, and sauté for another minute.

Break up the tomatoes with your fingers and add them to the pot, including the juice. Fill the tomato can with the vegetable broth and add that to the pot. Mix in the cumin. Crush 2 ounces of the chips into crumbs (some bigger pieces are okay) and add those. Cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, add the beans, corn, and cilantro, and let simmer for 5 more minutes.

Add the lime juice and taste for salt and seasoning. Ladle the soup into bowls, crumble the remaining tortilla chips over the top, and garnish with cilantro. YUM! (Thank you, Isa Chandra Moskowitz—Appetite for Reduction)

#33: A Nod to the Chickens

This Thanksgiving, we are thankful for seasonal foods.

So we embark on our first fall/winter without eggs in the fridge. As we get more and more committed to eating seasonally, we decided that’s as it should be, since chickens lay fewer eggs in the colder months, when the days are shorter. Rather than add to the stress of the chickens—who have to be tricked into believing the days are longer with artificial light and the like—we decided to just go from almost no eggs to no eggs for a while.

Since Mike and I were just using them in recipes once in a while, we don’t really notice a change. It’s Bella, who loves her egg burritos once a week or so, who must adapt. What’s been so wonderful (once we distracted her with an equally tummy-pleasing meal) is listening to her explain to people that eggs are for warmer months, because in the cold the chickens don’t lay as many eggs. She says it just like that, and it makes sense to her. So although it’s only November yet, it seems like it won’t be too hard to convince her to wait out the season for her burritos.

Now if we could just convince the kids to try cauliflower…

#29: Another Meatless Monday Dish! Pasta e Fagioli

Hearty, easy, and perfect for the fall.

Pasta e Fagioli

  • 1 T olive oil
  • 2 links Tofurkey sausage
  • 1 ½ T bottled minced garlic
  • 1 c water
  • 16 oz vegetable broth
  • 1 8 oz can no-salt tomato sauce
  • 1 c uncooked seashell pasta (about 4 oz)
  • 1 ½ t dried oregano
  • ¼ t salt
  • ¼ t white pepper
  • 2 15-oz cans cannellini (or other white) beans
  • Crushed red pepper (optional)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and garlic and cook till brown. Remove from saucepan and set aside.

Add water, broth, and tomato sauce to saucepan; bring to a boil. Stir in pasta, oregano, salt, pepper, and beans; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 8 minutes or until pasta is done. Add cooked sausage. Let stand 5 minutes. Garnish with red pepper if desired.

(Adapted from a Cooking Light recipe.)

#28: Vegetarian Sloppy Joes

A kid- and skeptical partner-friendly meatless Monday meal

Vegetarian Sloppy Joes

  • 1 T olive oil
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 1 bag Morningstar Farms or Quorn crumbles
  • 1 6-oz can tomato paste
  • 1 ½ t chili powder
  • 1 t cumin
  • 1/8 t cinnamon
  • 1 t kosher salt
  • 1/8 t freshly ground black pepper
  • Burger buns (we love the new sandwich thins)
  • ½ c grated cheddar cheese (Trader Joe’s has great grated soy cheese)
  • ½ c sour cream (try Tofutti!)

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and red pepper. Saute until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the crumbles and brown. Stir in the tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened slightly. Spoon onto the buns, sprinkle with cheese, and top with a dollop of sour cream. We like to eat ours open-faced!

(Adapted from a recipe in Real Simple eons ago.)

#27: Vegan Pancakes

So good, you’ll never go back to your old pancake recipe!

5 Minute Vegan Pancakes

These are SO GOOD. You seriously may never go back to your old pancake recipe.

  • 1 c flour
  • 1 T sugar (organic cane works for us)
  • 2 T baking powder
  • 1/8 t salt
  • 1 c soy milk
  • 2 T vegetable oil (as you might imagine, I use about half, and even olive sometimes!)

1. Combine all ingredients and whisk until smooth.
2. Spray a pan with a little Pam if you used less oil in the recipe, then heat on medium high heat.
3. Spoon batter onto pan and flip when the middle gets bubbly.
4. Add chocolate chips, flax seeds, cinnamon, or anything else that touches your fancy!
5. Repeat until batter is gone!

(Adapted from Food.com)