Meatless Monday: Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese

Hope you didn't think I forgot all about Meatless Mondays! Don't worry, I haven't been secretly hiding in the shadowy corners up to my molars on a leg of mutton. I've just been busy orchestrating a relocation. Sadly, the move will place us outside of convenient driving distance of Underwood Farms, so we'll have to cancel our CSA subscription (*sniff*), BUT it will place us within walking distance of a fantastic weekly farmer's market. Yay!

The CSA program has been terrific - it taught me to choose items that are locally grown and in season, I felt really good about supporting a local business, and the fruits and veggies have been so fresh - but I've really missed being able to choose which seasonal fruits and veggies I bring home every week. For instance, I won't miss suffering through multiple weeks of pounds upon pounds of carrots and radishes. So, I think switching to buying produce at a farmer's market again is going to be a great change for us.

So, as I alluded, while I was spending a lot of time on the road driving around looking at potential new homes recently, I didn't neglect my Meatless Monday pledge. We found some great meatless meals on the go at places like Il Tramezzino. (The soup and 1/2 sandwich special was perfect at $9.99. I got their cold cucumber soup and grilled Sicilian sandwich. Yum!) And we also had time to make a few of our own delicious meatless dishes at home. We had the corn soup I made a couple of weekend ago again (because it was so good, I had to have more!). And we finally got around to making a dish from the Food Network that a friend recommended to us quite a while ago. So glad we checked that last recipe out, because now I can share that experience with you now!

Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese
Recipe

I know what you're thinking - Bolognese? Isn't a Bolognese sauce by definition a meat sauce?? Okay, sure, this recipe does stretch the limits of traditional food definitions, but with good cause. The sauce actually does do an amazing job of mimicking the mouthfeel and appearance of a meat sauce (you know, without the actual icky meat). The porcini mushrooms - with their brown color, toothsome texture, and earthy flavor - can take most of the credit for that.

I bought all the ingredients for this recipe with the full intention of making it that same day or the very next, but we found ourselves running off to house-viewing appointments every time we turned around, so my best efforts were often dashed. By the time I got around to cutting up the veggies, I discovered that my red pepper - that still looked perfect from the outside - had mold on the inside. Ewww. We didn't really have time to run out to the store to pick up a new one, so we just substituted some tomato (with the seed goop removed). Came out great! When I make this again and have a non-mold-filled red pepper to put in it, I will probably roast the pepper and remove the skin before combining it with the other ingredients (as I've recommended before).

A bonus? This is definitely a dish that improves with reheating. Yay for leftovers!

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Falafel Pita

You know . . . sometimes, the best meals aren't elaborately orchestrated events involving complicated recipes that require trips to specialty food stores. Simple, quick, and inexpensive can be tasty and satisfying too. I know that's usually what I'm looking for when I throw together lunch most days.

Up until now, I've shared recipes that were mostly intended as dinner dishes and that require at least a little prep. Since Meatless Monday is all about going meatless all day though, I thought I'd mix things up a bit and offer some of my favorite ideas for simple meatless breakfast and lunch dishes too. This next one is one I really like for lunch.

Falafel Pita
It is often difficult to find decent falafel or hummus in a restaurant, so I was downright shocked to find absolutely delicious falafel and hummus in - of all places (!) - Costco. Yes, Costco! I know. The falafel comes in a two-pack by Veggie Patch and the hummus comes in a big ol' tub by Sabra. I freeze one pack of the falafel and my husband and I easily go through the other in a few days.

While the chickpea balls heat up nicely in a conventional oven, I slather some of the hummus inside a pita pocket and then add some freshed, diced tomatos and a leafy green like spinach or arugala. Once the falafel is done, you pop them in the pocket and voila! Yum!

Of course, some people will think this dish is chickpea overkill (since hummus and falafel are both made of it). If it's too much chickpea for you, you might consider making it with raita instead of hummus. (Trader Joe's makes a nice raita, or you can make it yourself easily enough.) Yes, you'll be mixing cuisine types - let yourself be a little creative, people! Experimenting is fun and the results can be fantastic (in the kitchen, too)! ;)

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Spinach Mushroom Pasta

In a previous Meatless Monday post, I extolled the virtues of a great searchable recipe database. I mentioned a few ways you could use the search features, but I failed to mention one way that can be a real life-, er, meal-saver - you can search by ingredients you have in the kitchen and see what comes up.

The other day, I didn't have time to run out to the grocery store and the dinner hour was fast approaching. So, I took a peek in the fridge and saw that I had some spinach and mushrooms on-hand. I thought they might be good together in a pasta dish, but I wanted to venture out a bit and not fall back on my usual preparation methods (a little evoo and garlic). So, I went to the search engine and ran an 'enhanced recipe search.' I typed 'spinach' in the search window and then chose 'pasta' under 'main ingredients,' 'main dishes' under 'courses,' 'quick/easy' under 'conveniences' (figuring quick/easy would also mean less ingredients), and 'meatless' under 'dietary considerations.' After pulling up the results for that search, I typed 'mushroom' in the 'search within these results' window and VOILA! This recipe and 5 others came up. I scanned them quickly to check ingredients and preparation requirements and this one looked perfect . . .

Spinach Mushroom Pasta
Recipe

One substitution that I made, that I would recommend, was swapping out the cream cheese for Neufchâtel. Used for centuries in Europe, the American version can be found pretty easily in most U.S. grocery stores nowadays. It's substantially lower in fat and, because it's softer in consistency, it's also easier to work into a sauce.

Another good substitution recommendation would be to swap out the spinach for kale. If you do though, keep in mind that you'll want to add the kale to the sauté pan with the mushrooms earlier than you would spinach because it takes longer to wilt.

As with most recipes, this one instructs you to "season to taste with salt and pepper." I would advise not being shy in seasoning - a fair amount of salt will really bring out the flavors of the vegetables, and a generous sprinkling of fresh cracked pepper will balance the creaminess of the sauce with a nice little kick.

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Dairy Salvation

You may have noticed that I've missed a few Meatless Monday postings in a row now. What can I say? Life intervenes. In this case, 'life' was preparing and traveling for a graduation, a baby shower, and several holiday celebrations in three different states. Very enjoyable, but it did require lots of shopping (and shipping) far in advance of the holiday and pulling work I would have done during vacation into the weeks that preceded it so I wouldn't miss any deadlines, and that left little time for writing blog entries ahead of time which I could have scheduled to post while I was gone. Technically, I could have done it, but it would have required stretching myself thinner than I like, which would have defeated the whole purpose of my becoming a freelancer in the first place. . . . Sooo, long story short, I haven't forgotten about Meatless Mondays and you'll be seeing more of them in 2009, starting with this one:

DAIRY SALVATION

During all the working, traveling, and holiday planning, my husband Matt and I came upon a food dilemma:

When you're about to go on vacation, what do you do with all the dairy products in the refrigerator that will go bad while you're gone (short of just throwing it all out)?

He came up with a couple of great solutions:


Homemade Ice Cream
I bought Matt an ice cream maker back when we lived in Pasadena for either his birthday or Christmas one year. It's what Matt's cooking idol Alton Brown would refer to as a dreaded "unitasker" and we don't use it all that often, but I would argue that it was still one of the best kitchen appliance purchases we've ever made. While we packed for our trip, the milk we would never finish before we left churned away in this puppy. When it was done, we popped it in the freezer. Then, later that month, we returned to delicious ice cream! Some of our favorite ice cream recipes have come from a book by the masters themselves - Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book.

And ice cream can be just as fun to make as it is to eat. For Christmas, I got two of my cousin's boys an ice cream maker in the shape of a ball. Kicking it around churns the ice cream!

Jilted Eggs
There are so many recipes online for easy egg dishes, but this is one of our all-time favorites. There are very few ingredients and they're all pretty basic, so you'll most likely have them all in your refrigerator. The prep and procedures are quick and no-fuss too. Once you throw the ingredients together, you can just pop it in the oven and set at timer, which is perfect for when you've got a lot of other things to do (like put vacation holds on your newspaper and mail). It's also easy to reduce or increase the number of servings.

Alternatives: The recipe notes that you can use individual custard dishes in lieu of a casserole dish. We've found using a tin for large muffins works really well too. And, if you don't have English muffins, regular bread also works just fine.

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Creamy Parmesan Risotto with Mushrooms

In my last Meatless Monday post, I recommended a 'recipe' for a fast and easy meal. We need those every now and then (ok, more like pretty often) to accommodate our fast-paced lives. However, sometimes something is just sooo good, it's worth the extra effort it may require to make. Case in point? Risotto. *Ohhh how I love risotto.* When made properly, the texture of the arborio rice is firm without being al dente, creamy, and just YUM.

My favorite risotto is one that I get at Galletto's in Westlake. They put porcini, shitake, and champignon mushrooms in it and put Parmesan cheese on it - or, rather, they put the risotto in the cheese. Yes, that's right, they put the risotto in the cheese. They roll out a cart with an enormous wheel of Parmesan cheese on it to your table. Then they plop the hot risotto into a hole carved out of the middle of the wheel, scrape the cheese on the sides into the risotto, mix it all around, and plate it. Sure, the table-side plating gimmick is a bit much, but I don't care - if ordering the risotto at Galletto's required I withstand listening to the waitstaff sing a version of the 'The Wheels on the Bus' with lyrics adapted to suit their enormous cheese wheel, . . . I'd still do it. Seriously, it's that good. For those of you not willing to withstand the fanfare (or who don't live near Galletto's!), here is a good recipe you can make in the privacy of your own home (enormous cheese wheel optional).

Creamy Parmesan Risotto with Mushrooms
Risotto
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1038780

(This recipe calls for chicken stock, but you can obviously substitute vegetable stock.)

Mushrooms
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1534868


Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Carrot Soup

In a previous post, I mentioned that we were starting to get a box of fresh fruits and veggies from a local farm once a week. So far, it's working out pretty well. Well, pretty well with one exception. Every week so far, in with all the other things in the box, has been a rather large bunch of carrots.

Now, don't get me wrong, carrots are great! Love 'em. Really. It's just that, well, it's been kind of difficult to get through the big bunch of them in one week's time before the next bunch is sitting there in the vegetable crisper drawer in the refrigerator taunting me - "Vhat vill you do vith me dis time, ehhh?" (Yes, my carrots have a very bad Russian/French-Canadian accident.) And, you know - lather-rinse-repeat - I don't want to make the same things with them over and over. Sure, they're great by themselves or with a dip as a snack or hors d'oeuvre, they're yummy shredded and sprinkled in salad, you know how much I love them in carrot cake (see post), and most of us know about their magic in mirepoix (a.k.a., the holy trinity), but, um, . . . yea, then what?

My recent culinary adventure with carrots involved this next recipe for soup, which my husband really loved. I'm happy to share it with you, but then I'm going to have to ask for a little quid pro quo. Seriously, we're talking LARGE bunches of carrots every week for three weeks straight, . . . and I suspect I'll see more come Tuesday. I need your suggestions for other great carrot recipes!

Carrot Soup
Recipe

The recipe author encourages you to play with the consistency until you're happy with it. We made ours pretty smooth and I would recommend that to you too. Why? Because it's great in a bread bowl that way, that's why! Mmm, bread bowls can make even the best soups that much better. I highly recommend. We picked up a couple of sourdough ones at Panera and were really happy with them. After cutting off the top of the little round loaf and coring out the middle, I toasted mine before filling it with soup. *Drool* So good.

The recipe also suggests you experiment with different finishing oils. That's a great idea (and a little evoo did taste good with ours), but I would also recommend adding a dash of vinegar to sharpen the soup flavors and balance it out a little better.


Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

Other Meatless Monday soup posts:

Pea Soup
Curried Lentil Soup
Tortellini, White, Bean & Spinach Soup

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Meatless Monday: Butternut Squash Gratin with Blue Cheese & Sage

WARNING: This is yet another Meatless Monday post about squash. . . . Hey, if I'm going to have an addiction, at least it's a healthy one - I don't have to feel guilty about eating it to my heart's content and I also don't have to feel guilty about getting you hooked. Oh, and you will be hooked after you try this next recipe. HEV-UN!

Butternut Squash Gratin with Blue Cheese & Sage
Recipe

And I thought squash with goat cheese was good! This makes an amazing side dish and works well as leftovers (provided you reheat it in a conventional oven - the bread crumbs lose something in the microwave).



Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Jilted Eggs

Sorry for the lapse last week. It was one of those days when I decided that vacation meant vacation and couldn't be bothered with anything other than leisure activities with some of my favorite people. But that doesn't mean that Meatless Monday wasn't on my mind.

While visiting with relatives, my husband and I thought it would be nice to make brunch for everyone one morning, and it didn't take much debating before we decided on this next dish.

Jilted Eggs
Recipe

You can think of this dish as a more sophisticated and tastier version of a McMuffin. I love it because I don't have to worry too much about breaking eggs while trying to flip them. Once they're in the baking dish, you don't really have to manipulate them. And the other ingredients can be chopped up lickety-split. You can just pop it in the oven and turn your attention to preparing other things like a nice fruit salad and the perfect pot of coffee.

We made the recipe just as it is written, but you should feel free to experiment because this sort of recipe leaves you lots of room to play. After the egg and milk are in the dish, you can pretty much substitute or add whatever you like. For instance, next time I make this, I'm thinking I might try some mushrooms and/or spinach instead of the basil and tomato.

If you try this and make substitutions, please feel free to post a message in the comments to let us know what your results were like!

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Spinach-Strawberry Salad with Goat Cheese Bruschetta

Last week, my husband and I picked up our first box of fresh fruits and veggies from Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark (CA) as part of a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program that we joined. Now, weekly, we'll be getting a mystery box of delicious, locally-grown produce that was harvested from the field just the day before. Let me tell you, I have not tasted such fresh fruits and veggies in a LONG time. Yum! Seriously, it's remarkable just how good everything has been. It's as if my taste buds had completely forgotten how fruits and veggies were really supposed to taste. And it was so fun to open the box not knowing what might be inside. (Of course, it will be a selection of what's in season every time, but it's still a surprise.) This week, it was spinach, purple cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, Easter radishes, leeks, Albion strawberries, romaine lettuce, and red leaf lettuce.

The box is bigger than it may appear here. You can only see one layer, but there's an entire other layer under there. In other words, it's a whole lot of fruit and veggies for only two people to get through in just one week! But we're up for the challenge. If anything, it should make it more likely that we get our daily recommended servings of fruits and veggies. And hopefully, it will also mean that we end up eating more fruits and veggies than meat, choosing healthier snacks, and making more really great recipes like this next one.


Spinach-Strawberry Salad with Goat Cheese Bruschetta
Recipe

This recipe was a great choice for us this week because it made use of two of our CSA box ingredients - spinach and strawberries - and also because . . . it calls for goat cheese! In an earlier post, I mentioned how much I love goat cheese, so it's not surprising that I've since posted a couple of recipes with goat cheese in them. What is surprising is that it's taken me so long to share this particular recipe containing goat cheese with you because it's one of my favorites. I was also surprised to realize that, since this regular Meatless Monday post started with its first post back in October, I haven't introduced even one leafy salad recipe (although there have been a few other types of salad recipe posts). So, in short, I'm overdue in sharing this with you and, for that, I apologize. (And I do feel the need to apologize - people, it's that good!)

Three notes about this recipe: 1) be very careful when toasting the almonds; if you don't watch closely, they'll burn before you can blink an eye; 2) use baby spinach if you can because it's more tender; and 3) did I mention this stuff is delicious? Even the salad dressing on its own is so good you might consider carrying a secret flask of it in an inside pocket, dabbing it behind your ears, writing it a love letter, . . . or, at the very least, using it on other sorts of salads too.

With the California Strawberry Festival just around the corner, I definitely see more of this salad in my immediate future. . . . That's right, Albion, I've got my eye on you!


Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: "Mostly" Meatless and Other Musings

Less than two weeks into the new year, I'm still doing a lot of unofficial goal setting for the next 365 days. While I'm not really making a list of resolutions or goals, I am spending some time thinking about my intentions and the direction(s) I want to go. After stating last week that my weight has nosed its way into the unhealthy zone, not surprisingly, something I've been spending a lot of time contemplating is my eating habits. So I thought I'd share my thoughts about that with you this week in lieu of sharing a recipe.


In the grand scheme of life, a little weight gain is not a big deal, I know, but I haven't been able to get away from this sinking feeling of utter defeat. After all, hadn't I made a serious pact with myself to be healthier just a year and a half ago? Two years before that, hadn't I taken off almost 15 lbs. through Weight Watchers and vowed to keep it off? Don't I say every New Year's Day "This year is going to be different?" What exactly is my problem??

Just in time to coincide with my (and almost everyone else on the planet's) New Year's resolutions to be healthier in 2010, Michael Pollan (renowned author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, whom I've spoken about on here before), has come out with a new book that promises to give us all easy-to-understand-and-implement food guidelines to live by, 64 rules in all. The book is Food Rules: An Eater's Manual and, I have to say, I'm intrigued. In an interview with New York Times writer Tara Parker-Pope, Pollan seemed to nail my problem right on the head:

"[I]n the end, so much of the discussion about nutrition is a way to avoid talking about how much people are eating. People would rather talk about anything else than quantity."

Yes! That's exactly it. It would seem that what I have been willfully ignoring is the fact that I'm just eating too damn much. I've been putting too much on my plate (and finishing every bite) and eating when I'm not really hungry, like when I'm bored or procrastinating. (That last one is a big work hazard for freelancers who work from home. The stocked refrigerator and pantry shelves and a kitchen full of handy appliances are just far too conveniently located.)

In Pollan's NYT's interview, he also mentioned the flack he's gotten for an eating rule he included on the cover of his book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

"The adverb 'mostly' has been the most controversial. It makes everybody unhappy. The meat people are really upset I'm taking a swipe at meat eating, and the vegetarians are saying, 'What's with the "mostly?" Why not go all the way?' You can't please everyone. In a way that little word is the most important. It's not all or nothing. Mostly. It's about degree. But in the whole food discussion, I've learned the most from that, that little 'ly' and people's reaction to it."

This really resonated with me because I feel like I get the same reactions to my Meatless Monday posts sometimes - meat eaters and vegetarians alike are offended. But I'm not trying to criticize anyone else's eating habits or philosophies; I'm just trying to find my own personal balance between that 'all' and 'nothing.'

Finding that balance is definitely a struggle. I've mentioned before that I sometimes wish I could go fully vegetarian, but it's years later and I'm still not any closer to making that commitment. Maybe I never will. My husband has been talking about it more lately though too. As I've mentioned before, partners can be allies and saboteurs when it comes to eating habits, so maybe his influence - or our combined influence on each other - will lead us more in the vegetarian direction. And if he doesn't sway me, maybe another book I recently added to my to-read list will --
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. A description of the book on Goodreads.com says:

"Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between carnivore and vegetarian. As he became a husband and a father, he kept returning to two questions: Why do we eat animals? And would we eat them if we knew how they got on our dinner plates?"

Again, I'm intrigued - and I'll be sure to share my reviews of both these books with you once I've read them, . . . which, unfortunately, may not be for a couple of months because I'm up to my ears in work right now, I have a monthly Amnesty International book club obligation, and I've already got a list of other books I want to read that's about as long as my arm. Then again, Pollan's book is only 112 pages long, so I should be able to squeeze that in sooner than later. So, stay tuned!


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Meatless Monday: Potato-Corn Cakes

I've decided to institute "Meatless Mondays" in my home as a way to be a little healthier and to help out the environment. Yes! Another excuse to buy way too much at the farmers' market on Saturdays. :) (Have a farmers' market near you? Not sure? Check out this site - Farmersmarket.com.)

Since we'll be cooking more vegetarian dishes now, I thought I would introduce a new regular post type on this site called "Meatless Mondays" in which I'll share some of my favorite vegetarian recipes. Here's one I found at Sunset.com which I tried out over the weekend:

POTATO-CORN CAKES
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=682759

I love almost any recipe with cumin, and this one was no exception. These are soo delicious! They make a great main attraction for a brunch menu or a crowd-pleasing side dish for lunch or dinner. (Note: I skipped the cilantro because I think cilantro tastes like toilet. If you don't like cilantro either, like with most dishes, you can just do without it or substitute parsley.)

Got any favorite vegetarian recipes?? Please share!

Related Post: Lamentations of a Non-Vegetarian

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Meatless Monday: PB&J

In this post, instead of a recipe, I offer a reminder of how easy it is to go meatless for just one day.

Feeling like there's nothing meatless in the house that sounds appetizing? Oh, come onnn. You must at least have a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly on hand. Who doesn't love a good PB&J now and again?? Who, I ask you?! I say there's nothing like a PB&J and a tall glass of milk to make you feel young again. So simple, so satisfying, . . . and (who knew) also very good for the environment. Check out the details at The PB&J Campaign.

Opening up and carving your knife into a new jar of peanut butter has to be right up there on life's list of simple pleasures. And there are so many different nut butters and brands to choose from! My husband likes Laura Scudder's brand peanut butter, which is an old-fashioned peanut butter with no hydrogenated oils and no trans fats. It's tasty but a little high-maintenance because the oil separates from the peanut butter in the jar and you need to stir it with every use. That's why I bought him the Witmer peanut butter mixer (model 100) as a stocking stuffer a couple of years back. Works like a charm. Others adore Nutella (a hazelnut butter). Personally, I find it a little too sweet for a whole sandwich.

If no brand satisfies you, you can always make your own nut butter from scratch too -



And there are tons of jellies and jams from which to choose as well. There is everything from the jam your grandma makes from scratch, to the tiny jars of exotic fruit preserves dressed up in gingham cloth and ribbon at gourmet boutiques, to the big-brand standbys in new squeezable bottles, to the Frankenjam concoctions of jelly and peanut butter in one jar (for the truly lazy . . . and, apparently, taste bud-impaired).

Everyone seems to have their favorite ingredients when it comes to PB&J, even celebrities. For instance, most folks know that Elvis loved fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. But did you know that Jerry Seinfeld will only eat one kind of peanut butter? They make it at Peanut Butter and Co. If you're in the NYC area and feeling just too lazy to slap some PB&J on two slices of bread yourself, you can check out Jerry's favorite yourself at the company's sandwich shop in Greenich Village. Some of their sandwiches sound more like desserts (e.g., the Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Sandwich), but to each his own.

Me? I'm happy with a plain ol' tub of Jif. And I usually go old-school with a jar of Welch's Concord grape. But I do mix it up once in a while with raspberry, strawberry, or blackberry jelly . . . or even . . . FLUFF. Ohh, the Fluffernutter! A whole other topic for another day.

How do you PB&J?


Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: The Mission

Holy moly, people, these past few days I've been sicker than I've ever been in my life. When I wasn't avoiding food at all costs, I was lucky to hold down a few crackers or a piece of plain toast. Those are, of course, technically 'meatless' meals . . . but not exactly inspired recipes worth sharing with you.

I'm starting to feel human again, . . . but not adventurous enough to introduce my stomach to a new recipe. So, instead, I'm probably going to revisit the blog vault and remake one of my old favorite Meatless Monday recipes. Hey, I know what you're thinking - "This is the equivalent of one of those sitcom episodes where they just slap together snippets of previous episodes in a "memories montage. I feel cheated!" Well, I'm sorry, but it's either this or I may just pop open some store-bought mushroom soup. Yes, that's right - I said STORE-BOUGHT. . . . People, it's not always about culinary mastery. Sometimes, it's just about staying true to your mission, and my mission is to go meatless on Mondays.

So, instead of a recipe, I share this with you this week - a video by MeatlessMonday.com that reminds us all what we're doing and why:

Meatless Monday: Neiman Marcus Popovers & Strawberry Butter

In a former life, I was an acquisitions editor for a textbook publisher. While at a convention in San Francisco one of those years, I was looking around for somewhere to take one of my authors to lunch and discovered The Rotunda. I was surprised to find out that it was located in a department store (Neiman Marcus), but it had been rated very highly in the reviews I read and the menu sounded really inviting. I decided to take a leap of faith and was not disappointed.

The Rotunda lunch was memorable for two reasons. Reason #1: As my marketing manager friend S- and I sat there having a great conversation over a delicious lunch with my author friend Dr. H-, we noticed Dr. H- quietly wave the waiter over and start whispering to him and subtley motioning to us. I thought he might be slyly trying to pick up the check, so I tried to pleasantly and politely interject. When he realized he wasn't going to be able to keep his secret, he calmly pointed to the back of the booth, right between S- and me, and there, I kid you not, was THE biggest grasshopper I've ever seen. You know, just hanging out there on the back of the seat between our shoulders.

Now, I'm not very good with insects when they're in the proportions that nature intended, so, needless to say, I was more than a little taken aback when I turned my head and Jumbo Jiminy in all his orthoptera awfulness was staring me in the eye. Okay, maybe I was a little more than "taken aback." Closer to the truth? I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I did indeed let out a yelp and jump from my seat . . . to the annoyance of a woman seated very close to our table. She said in a very snarky tone, "It's just a grasshopper. . . . You know, they're actually good luck." I mean, come on! Even if I were okay with insects, that was the last place I would have expected to see one - in the middle of the city, in the middle of a restaurant, on the third floor of a department store! And, again, this thing could have easily scored a role opposite one of those giant ants in a Creature Double Feature movie. Anyway, the waiter quickly collected our party crasher (and, I like to think, kindly escorted him to the door where he released him without squishing him) and we got back to talking business.

Reason #2: The popovers . . . Ohhh, the popovers . . .


Neiman Marcus Popovers
Recipe

Strawberry Butter

• 1 pound unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups strawberry preserves

Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the preserves and beat until well combined. To serve, spoon or pipe into one-ounce ramekins or bread-and-butter plates.


*If you're looking for something a little more hearty this Monday, meatlessmonday.com is featuring chili recipes on their site today.


Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Fast Food

So, as I may have mentioned, I'm in the process of moving. The prospect of doing such a thing always sounds so easy, but of course it's not. The movers come tomorrow, so I've been frantically trying to get every little trapping of my material life stuffed into boxes over the past couple of days.

Last night, I packed up the last of the kitchen items. As you might imagine, it's a little difficult to cook without pots, pans, spices, utensils, and whatnot. Couple that with the dilemma of not having very much time to eat and an inevitable evil looms in the near future . . . FAST FOOD! How's a girl to eat healthy and, today, meatless with the kind of options available at your average fast food restaurant, where sometimes the "healthy" items rack up just as much fat and and as many calories as a burger-and-fries combo meal?!

I'm not going to eat at your average fast food restaurant, that's how! In California, I've got some great options . . .

California Crisp
This small chain only has 7 locations, but they're worth seeking out. A lot of items on their menu come with chicken, but you can always ask them to hold it. Try their BBQ Chicken Wrap sans chicken. The sauce is yummy and the jicama adds a great juicy crunch. LOVE jicama.

Natural Cafe
This restaurant only has 10 locations, but, as with California Crisp, they're worth seeking out. Their menu offers a HUGE list of vegetarian options. I'm a big fan of the "Mr. Natural" - fresh, seasonal vegetables steamed and served over short-grain brown rice. I get it with sauteed tofu. I don't know what they cook the tofu in, but it is DELICIOUS!

Orean's Health Express, Inc.
Where I'm moving is relatively close to Pasadena, which means I'll finally get a chance to check out Orean's, which touts itself as "the first vegetarian fast-food take-out." Their menu is definitely more fast-food-y than the first two places I've mentioned here, offering items like burgers, dogs, burritos, and fries. Their website says they're open from 9:30a - 9:00p, but I remember trying to go at least twice when I lived in Pasadena and it being closed. If memory serves, I think both times might have been a Sunday, so maybe they're closed on Sundays. I drove by a couple of Saturdays ago when we were still house hunting, though, and saw that they were open. So, fair warning, African Burrito - You Will Be Mine!

Hopefully someday on-the-go vegetarian places will be as ubiquitous as McDonald's. Until then, . . .

If you know any good fast-food vegetarian places (or fast-food places with good veggie options), please share!

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Meatless Monday: Spaghetti Squash with Edamame-Cilantro Pesto

In my house, this next dish is one of our go-to comfort foods.










Spaghetti Squash with Edamame-Cilantro Pesto
Recipe

We skip the cilantro. (As I've mentioned before, I'm not a fan.) The dish doesn't miss anything without it, but you can substitute parsley if you really want. You can fiddle around with the ratios of vegetable broth, pepper, and garlic to find the combination that suits you best. I tend to like dishes more garlicky than most, and although I usually go light on pepper in most dishes, I like a lot of it in this one.We also use a food processor to get the pesto consistency really smooth.

The instructions advise preparing the squash halves a day or two before because it's easier to remove the flesh when it's cold. It really is so much easier to do when cold, so I highly recommend doing that part early. Doesn't need to be a day or two ahead though; doing it a few hours ahead and refrigerating works just as well. The way the spaghetti squash flesh really does looks like spaghetti is just so fun.

We typically run out of spaghetti squash before we run out of pesto. But that's okay because you can, of course, put it on regular ol' spaghetti too. We've also used it as a dip. And, on a whim, I even tried it as a sandwich spread the other day and LOVED it. Sooo versatile.

Got any favorite vegetarian recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Baked Goat Cheese & Roasted Winter Squash Over Garlicky Fettuccine

I have been known to say, "Put cheese on a pile of $h!t and I'll eat it." Am I proud of that statement? No. Is it true? You betcha. (Sorry if that last phrase caused any traumatic flashbacks to the presidential election campaign.) Okay, okay. It is a bit of an exaggeration, . . . but I do love me some cheese. One of my favorites? Goat cheese. It's just so tasty and so versatile. I love it hot, cold, spread on a piece of nice crusty bread, sprinkled throughout a salad, "in the rain, on a train" . . . and, in today's recipe - breaded, baked, and served on a bed of fettuccine!

Baked Goat Cheese & Roasted Winter Squash Over Garlicky Fettuccine
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1559238

Recommendation: When a recipe calls for peppers, I typically like to roast them and take the skin off. The body doesn't digest pepper skins that well and the texture and flavor of the roasted pepper is just nicer anyway. Not sure how to get that pesky skin off? It's actually easier than you might think. Or, easier yet, you can pick up a jar of roasted and peeled red peppers at most any run-of-the-mill grocery store.

Got any favorite vegetarian recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Spinach Calzones with Blue Cheese

A couple of weeks ago, both my husband and I were really busy with work. With our limited time, I knew putting together dinners for the week was going to be a challenge. My solution was to find and print out a bunch of yummy sounding but simple recipes with limited ingredients lists. I did all the shopping at the beginning of the week. Then, each night when Matt called to say he was on his way home, I'd take a break from work and prep the ingredients for one of the recipes. When he got home, he'd take over doing whatever mixing, constructing, sauteing, etc. that was needed to finish the recipe and I'd go back to work. In this manner, we put together some tasty dishes that neither of us had to exert too much effort to make.

This next dish is one of the one's from that week's menu. It only calls for 7 ingredients, two of which (cooking spray and garlic) you'll likely already have in your pantry!

Spinach Calzones with Blue Cheese
Recipe

When I think of calzone, I think of the traditional calzones I grew up eating in a very Italian suburb of Boston, the kind that look like large flat logs that you cut into slices to eat. The calzones we made with this recipe looked very different from those traditional ones, but I liked them because they were very pretty (see pic) and were sized for individual consumption.

We used gorgonzola (an Italian blue cheese) because we had it left over from two dishes we'd made the previous week. And we drizzled some fresh pizza sauce from a local Italian market on top. They were pretty good! When I make these again though, I will probably try a more traditional cheese like mozzarella or provolone and a bag of fresh pizza dough from the bakery. I thought blue cheese might be a little too strong a choice for a recipe like this, and, while the canned pizza dough is quick and convenient, real pizza dough has a better taste and texture.

Another option you might consider - make much smaller versions of these as hors d'oeuvres for your next gathering!

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Edamame & Barley Salad

Matt had been looking for some pearled barley for a recipe he wanted to make and we had a really difficult time hunting some down. When he finally brought a bag home after work one day, he discovered that the barley wasn't 'quick-cooking' (which the recipe requires). So, we were back to square one . . . but, in the meantime, with a bag of pearled barley that needed a new purpose. I decided to try to find a recipe that used barley and edamame (another recently orphaned ingredient in my kitchen), and eventually found this:


Edamame & Barley Salad
Recipe

I was drawn to this recipe because it reminded me, in some ways, of the southwestern quinoa salad, the curried couscous with broccoli and feta, and garlic-toasted quinoa with vegetables dishes I've highlighted here before that we really liked. Each uses a base of some sort of grain, and they share some similar veggies.

I'd never made pearled barley before, and the recipe simply instructs you to follow the cooking directions on the bag, so I did. Unfortunately, the bag didn't say to cover the pot once you got to the 'simmering' stage. Since barley is similar to rice, quinoa, etc., I assumed I was supposed to, because you do with those grains, but I've been pretty wrong making assumptions in the kitchen before. Sooo, I let it simmer for a while, lid off. But it was clear after a little while that all that water was never going to be absorbed or evaporate in the time allotted continuing with it uncovered, so I popped the top on. Good decision.

The recipe asks you not to put salt or fat in the water with the barley (as some bags may instruct) but to add salt later when you're combining your ingredients. Again, I did as I was told, but when I make this again, I probably will add the salt to the water - maybe some lemon zest too - my reasoning being the same as for wanting to put soy sauce in the water with the quinoa the next time I make the southwestern quinoa salad - I think the flavors will infuse the dish better.

I'm much more apt to swap out ingredients (as I've encouraged doing here before) than I am to mess with method instructions in a recipe. Substituting a little onion if you're out of shallots will probably produce palatable results, but broiling something for 20 minutes instead of baking it for 20 could be disastrous. Sometimes, it's not as clear-cut as that, but the more you try out new recipes and new ingredients, the line between when it's necessary to 'follow orders' and when you can unleash your inner creative chef should become a little less fuzzy.



Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Curried Lentil Soup

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm a big fan of soups - most anytime, but especially during the fall. Plenty of soups are hearty and can help warm you right up, but on those particularly blustery, chill-you-to-the-bone types of days, nothing hits the spot better than a soup with an extra punch in the heat department - spicy heat, that is. This next soup fits that bill.

Curried Lentil Soup
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=222620

Recipe modifications I would recommend:

• Use 6 cups of water (or, better yet, vegetable stock) instead of 7 cups.
• Use twice as much curry (and this is a suggestion from someone who tends to be a big wimp when it comes to eating spicy foods).
• Use a can of roasted diced tomatoes; it adds a nice smokey flavor that compliments the curry. BUT only use half as much as the recipe calls for.

Got any favorite vegetarian recipes?? Please share!

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