Meatless Monday - January 3rd

This week brought the first Meatless Monday of 2011 and, much to my surprise, my family gulped down their plates of vegetarian fare!  I have had a bit of a struggle serving vegetarian food at the house for a few reasons.  My dad and sister feel that meat is an essential at EVERY meal, so they look forward to it, while my brother and I could care less either way.  My sister is also a bit of a picky eater, so I struggle finding vegetable heavy meals that she will eat.  Usually I can consider tomatoes, mushrooms, any cucumber or zucchini type veggies, onions, and peppers out of the question!  My dad and sister are also extremely against tofu.  I have to sneak things into food all of the time, but I accept their challenge!  Game. Set. Match.

This week I opted for uncommon foods in common forms.  Burgers and chips sounded good, but needed to fit into the Meatless Monday theme, not to mention, I am out of propane for the grill.  I decided to replace the burgers with falafel patties, store bought buns with homemade organic white buns, a dressing plate of red onion, tomato, and spinach, and homemade yam potato chips. 

Falafel
1 Box of Near East mix yields approximately 4 burger sized falafel patties

Falafel is made of either fava beans or chickpeas that are mashed down and mixed with an array of herbs and spices!  As far as falafel goes, I have never tried making it from scratch, but it is definitely something I would like to try this year!  Since I don't make it from scratch, I use the Near East Falafel mix.  What I really love about this mix is that all you need to add is water.  I also like that it can either be fried or baked, and I opted for baking my patties!  I made the patties the size and shape of a burger, which helped with my dad and sister being more willing to eat them. 

Yam Chips
Yields approximately 5 servings

I had originally planned on making plain potato chips, but the selection of yams at the grocery store was great this week!  Since the falafels have such a savory flavor, I though the yams might be a nice contrast - just enough sweetness!  I try to keep in mind that the more colorful a meal is, the more vitamins and minerals are in it, so the yams just had to come home with me!  I ran two large yams through my mandolin slicer on the thinnest setting.  I then heated vegetable oil in a large skillet.  I don't use a thermometer for heating my oil, but rather water.  If you put a drop or two in the oil when you think it is ready it will do one of three things: Sit on top of the water which means that your oil is not hot enough, bounce once which means that your oil is just right, or skip several times which means your oil is too hot.  I cooked my chips until they had almost stopped bubbling, which means that most of the water has cooked out of them.  I then placed them in a bowl that was lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil!  They cooled quickly.  I put salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg on the table so everyone could season their chips to their own liking.  We all opted for cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg! They were great!  If you are looking to cut back on calories, you can also bake them.  Since I was in a bit of a time crunch, the oil was the quicker route for me!