Vegetable Puffs

Another Meatless Monday has come and gone! 

I wanted something different this week that was not going to be a production, and considering how much we have been going out to eat, I definitely wanted to kick up the healthy factor!  What I really loved about making this dinner was all of the beautiful and rich colored foods that go into it - it was a real pick me up for a gloomy day!  This recipe makes 6 thick slices if you are serving them along side something else, but if you are eating them on their own, I would say it makes 3 generous servings.

I was also beyond excited at the grocery store when I came across two new products that helped this dish along - Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cooking Cream and Pillsbury Seamless Crescent Roll Dough!   So with that being said, let's get to the recipe and pictures!

Vegetable Puffs
Yields 6 hearty slices

Ingredients 
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 broccoli crown, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 small onion, peeled and diced
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
6 ounces of spinach leaves
10 ounce container of Philly Cooking Cream in the Italian Herb and Cheese Flavor
2 rolls of Pillsbury Seamless Crescent Dough

To Prepare the Puffs
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Pour the bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, onions, and black beans into a large skilled over medium heat. 
3. After approximately 10 minutes of cooking, add the spinach.  It will look like A LOT of food, but the spinach will cook down quite a bit! 

4. Cook for approximately 10 more minutes, being sure to stir it often. 
5. Add the cooking cream, and coat the veggies completely.

6. Shut the vegetables off. 
7. Spread out one of the crescent dough sheets on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet.

8. Spoon the vegetable mixture onto the dough, being sure to leave a one inch border. 

9. After all of the vegetables or spooned on, fold the dough up onto the veggies to create an edge or barrier.

10. Place the other dough sheet on top of the vegetables, and tuck and pinch it under the puff. 

11. Bake the puff at 350 degrees until it is a deep golden brown color!

 

Vegetarian Stew

Last night my grandmom had our family over for dinner.  We had a DELICIOUS enchilada casserole, and will be posting that recipe soon!  That being said, Meatless Monday had to be put off until tonight!  This week, for Meatless Monday, I made a vegetarian stew.  With my favorite produce store going out of business, I was forced to buy frozen vegetables.  When I am put in a bind like this, I always opt for frozen over canned.  Frozen veggies are a smidgen better for you and retain a good portion of their nutritional value!  If you are using frozen veggies for this recipe, be sure they are defrosted, and if you are using canned veggies, be sure to strain the excess liquid off of them before adding them to the pot! 

Vegetarian Stew 
Yields 6 generous servings


Ingredients 
1 small onion, peeled and diced
2 large potatoes, washed and cubed
1 carrot, washed and diced
8 ounces corn kernels
8 ounces green beans
8 ounces peas
28 ounces pureed tomatoes
3 cans water
8 ounces of whole wheat pasta (I used fusilli) 
Salt
Pepper
Paprika

To Prepare the Stew
1. In a large stew pot, add the onions, carrots, and potatoes.  Heat them over medium heat while constantly stirring. 
2. When the onions have started to become translucent, add the corn, green beans, and peas. 
3. Stir everything together well. 
4. Add the pureed tomatoes and 2 cans of water. 
5. Cook over medium heat.
6. When the liquid comes to a boil, season with the salt, pepper, and paprika to taste. 
7. Add the pasta. 
8. Add the last can of water as needed to make the stew as thick or runny as you prefer it to be.  
9. When the pasta has cooked through and the potatoes are soft, your stew is ready!

Just Another Meatless Monday

My grandfather always tells me to K.I.S.S. - Keep it simple, stupid!

The kitchen is the one place where I seem to forget that nice little acronym...

I should probably start by explaining that I come from a meat and potatoes family.  We have always had meat of some sort, a veggie, and a grain or potato at every single meal for most of my life.  There were, of course, rare exceptions.  I also had my attempts at vegetarianism while I was in college.  For me it was never about the cruelty of killing the animal, but more so about the fact that I really do not enjoy eating meat.  Call me crazy if you must, but I hate steak and I hate seafood!  Every time I tried to become a vegetarian I would do well until one of two events struck - Thanksgiving and 4th of July.  I just cannot turn down turkey and juicy burgers!  A one day slip would turn into a landslide of meat no matter how hard I tried to find my way back to the vegetarian path. 

Not having much experience with vegetarian dishes, I have viewed Meatless Mondays as a bit of a challenge.  The only exposure I ever really had to vegetarian meals was in college.  I attended a college that really put forth an effort in making appealing vegetarian meals and even had a vegetarian food line.  For those that were not vegetarian, the food was there to be played with while they waited for their turn in the sandwich line - I think it reminded people of play-dough sometimes!  Another reason I view Meatless Monday as a challenge is partially because I always feel like I need to present a completed "traditional" meal.  I also always feel like cooking should consist of a certain amount of work.  This week my dad and sister proved me otherwise...

While writing my grocery list on Saturdays, I always ask "Is there anything in particular you guys want for dinner this week?"  Normally I get groans and stares and they tell me to do what I want.  This week my dad actually chimed in with a request!  While writing my menu and list I was still pondering over Monday's meatless meal.  When my dad mentioned baked potatoes this thought hit me - there are so many meals that I make throughout the year that don't have meat in them that my family enjoys so much!  I quickly realized that I could swap out what little meat I do use in my Loaded Baked Potatoes and use that as a vegetarian meal.  Last week my sister's suggestion of an Ultimate Garden Salad was pretty straight forward, too. 

I have to sit back and wonder why I sometimes make simple things like that so difficult for myself.  I don't know if I just get caught up in the cooking and planning process, or if it is about enjoying the challenge.  What I have realized though is that sometimes there is an easy, yet delicious way out!  As much as I love being in the kitchen, sometimes I like an easy way out meal, too!  I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed throwing the potatoes in the microwave and just heating up a few things on the stove top - what can I say, sometimes a girl just needs a break! 

For our baked potatoes, we enjoyed toppings that included cheddar cheese, onions, sour cream, broccoli, vegetarian chili, and Bacon Bits.  I should probably point out here that Bacon Bits are not actually meat, but rather, soy!  Sorry if I ruined them for you! 

What did I learn this week?  Despite the fact that I should K.I.S.S., my mind is already revolving around what next Monday's dinner will be!  I think after two weeks of vegetarian gone easy, I might need to pull out a showstopper next week...

Cranberry Sauce and Meatless Monday

Over the years, I remember my mom and I having a few failed attempts at making delicious tasting cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving.  We always ended up reverting back to the classy stuff that jiggles out of the can for the big day!  This year I finally got smart about it, and got it to not only work, but also taste pretty delicious!  I have actually ended up serving cranberry sauce more since figuring out how to make it, and love roasting chicken breasts in it - in fact, that is what I made it for tonight!  We will be enjoying it tomorrow night alongside some chicken and a salad.  This sauce is best served the next day after it has chilled in the fridge overnight!

Cranberry Sauce 
Yields approximately 3 cups of sauce

Ingredients 
Approximately 12 ounces of cranberries
2 cups of orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
6 ounces of Craisins
1 teaspoon of cornstarch or flour

To Prepare the Sauce 
1. Pour the cranberries, sugar, and orange juice into a saucepan and turn on high heat.

2. Boil and stir it.  You will start to see and hear the cranberries pop!
3. Once most of the cranberries have popped and started to break down, pour a few teaspoons of the liquid from the pan into a small bowl and mix it with the cornstarch or flour until it makes a paste.

4. Add the paste to the saucepan and stir well.  This will help your sauce thicken and turn a nice consistency.

5. Cook over medium heat for a few more minutes, and then stir in the craisins.
6. Turn off the heat and leave on the stove to cool off.  Your sauce will thicken and turn that deep, clear color as it cools!  Cover it and move it to the fridge overnight! 

Tonight was also our forth Meatless Monday.  So far, they have been going well, and there have been no complaints from my dad or sister!  This week, I let my sister pick the meal and she asked for a huge garden salad!  I mixed 3 kinds of lettuce - iceberg, green, and red!  We used provolone cheese as our protein.  We had bell pepper, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, red onion, tomato, broccoli, mushrooms, and black olives as our toppers!

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!