01.08.12_Slow Cooker Lentil Taco Salads

Happy New Year! This winter I am making a conscious effort to use my crock pot more. Every time I use it I love that I literally had to cut stuff up and then I come back 6 hours later to a warm, delicious meal. On Sunday we planned on painting our bedroom so I thought that would be a good time to throw something in the crock pot and not have to deal with it. I had found this recipe for Lentil Taco salads that you make in the slow cooker so I was excited to try it since I had never made lentils before.

The recipe called for:

1 red pepper, coarsely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup brown lentils
½ cup brown rice
1 garlic clove
2 teaspoons chili powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 cups vegetable broth

When I went shopping for the ingredients it was right after New Years and shelves were barren. The red peppers looked a hot mess so I grabbed one of the only orange peppers instead. Lentils were hard to come by as well. I found black lentils, instead of brown. I did a little research later of the difference between brown, green, and red lentils but I still don't really know the difference. Something to do with the texture after they are cooked. I assumed that after cooking for 6 hours they would all end up about the same. Luckily, the black lentils worked out just fine.

After prepping the pepper, onion, and garlic, I put all the ingredients into the crock pot, turned it on high, and left it there for 6 hours while we painted and did stuff around the apt. When we were ready for dinner we crunched up some tortilla chips, then topped the chips with shredded lettuce and then the lentil mixture. I added salsa, fresh diced tomato, avocado, cheese and sour cream to mine while Phillip just added cheese and avocado. It was really really good. Phillip kept going back for more which is always a good sign. There was enough for us to have leftovers today too!

12.27.11_Fresh Corn Soup with Roasted Corn Guacamole

Happy Holidays! Man has it been a busy couple of weeks! Phillip and I just moved into a new apartment right before Christmas so needless to say we've been all over the place. We finally got the chance to cook the first meal in our new apartment. One of the gifts Phillip got me for the holidays was an immersion blender so I wanted to make something that I could use the blender for. We decided on a soup and I thought a corn soup would be good since I had never made it. We found this recipe that they served with a roasted corn guacamole so I thought that would be perfect since in my mind I wanted to soup to be tex-mex-y.

This was the first meal where Phillip and I were actually able to cook together because our kitchen is finally big enough to have two people standing in it! To get the corn ready for the guacamole we added a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper to 2 cups of defrosted frozen corn. I spread the corn out evenly on a foil-lined baking sheet before putting the corn into a 450° oven for 20 minutes. Phillip decided he wanted to tackle the guacamole so he diced a tablespoon of red onion, a seeded jalapeno, and then zested and juiced a lime over an avocado before seasoning with salt and pepper.

Phillip zesting in the new kitchen!

While Phillip was dicing, I made the soup. All I had to do was defrost some frozen corn, then blend 3 cups of it. I then had to saute half a red onion, a clove of garlic, and a jalapeno after it was seeded. After the onions were translucent I blended the sauteed veggies and added it to the corn mixture. In a pot I combined the blended veggies and cooked them for a few minutes before adding in 1.5 cups of vegetable stock. The soup simmered for 15 minutes while we finished making the guacamole.

After the corn had roasted for 20 minutes we took it out and let it sit for a few minutes to let it cool before adding it to the guacamole Phillip had made.  After the guacamole was finished and the soup had simmered it was time to eat. We ladled the soup into our bowls before putting a large spoonful of the guac into the center of the bowl. I then drizzled some good olive oil (another gift for the holidays) over the soup. It was super tasty and as always incredibly easy. The recipe didn't make as much as I had expected. I would say it was closer to 4 servings but luckily we had refried beans on the side and extra guacamole to eat as sides.

12.14.11_Butternut Coconut Stew

A group of friends and I have started having a "dinner party" once a month. We rotate who hosts and use it as an opportunity to try new recipes that we've been wanting to try. I love butternut squash. And I love coconut. So when I saw this recipe I knew I definitely had to try it. The recipe also called for quinoa which I had never made before so I was excited to try something new.

I went to Safeway because they always sell peeled and diced butternut squash. Of course, it was a sale item this week so they were completely sold out. I was forced to buy a fresh butternut squash which, if you remember from my butternut squash risotto, is quite the process to peel. Once the squash was peeled and cubed, the process was significantly easier. I also decided to double the recipe since there would be five of us for dinner and I always like leftovers so there was a lot of stew!

While the 4 cups of squash were cooking in boiling water for about 15 minutes, I sauteed a large onion, a jalapeno, 4 tbs fresh ginger, and 4 cloves of garlic then seasoned with a little salt. After the squash was cooked I drained it, put it back in the pot, then added the sauteed onion mixture. I then added a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, a 28 oz can of drained and rinsed chickpeas, and then a cup of coconut milk. The recipe called for lite coconut milk which we could not find so we combined 1/2 cup of the coconut milk with 1/2 cup of water to thin it out a bit. I didn't want the coconut flavor to compeltely overpower the dish. After all the ingredients were combined I just had to bring the pot back up to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I waited until everyone had gotten to my apartment before I put the quinoa on. It was super simple. I just added 1.5 cups quinoa to 3 cups of water, brought to a boil, then covered and reduced to simmer for 15 minutes. Once the quinoa was cooked dinner was ready! I scooped a little bit of quinoa into everyone's bowls then laddled on the stew. It was super yummy and perfect for a cold winter day. My photographs came out terribly for some reason so if you want to see really amazing pictures of the stew, check out the original post I got the recipe from!

12.11.11_Spinach Stuffed Shells

A few months ago I made Giada's stuffed shells with arrabbiata sauce. The recipe was in one of the first cookbooks I ever received as a gift. They were super delicious but had pancetta in them. We were trying to figure out what we could make for dinner without having to buy a ton of ingredients and I noticed that we still had half of the jumbo shells left from the last time we made these. I decided we could make it vegetarian by leaving out the pancetta but I added spinach to make it a little more than just noodles, cheese and sauce.

After bringing water to a boil and dumping the remaining half of the box of jumbo shells, I sauteed a bag of spinach. I went ahead and used the entire bag because it wilts so much. I added some fresh grated nutmeg ("That little something that makes you go, hmm what is that?" - Rachael Ray), salt and pepper. I then let the spinach cool a bit while I mixed together the cheese mixture which consisted of:

15oz of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup of parmesan
2 egg yolks
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes
Black pepper to taste
1 tsp of dried parsley 
1 tsp of dried basil
1 clove of garlic

Once the spinach had cooled, I added it to the mixture. I then drained the noodles and sprayed a baking dish with nonstick spray. I stuffed each shell with about a tablespoon of the cheese mixture then put them into the baking dish. After the shells were all stuffed, I poured some marinara sauce I had in the fridge over top of the shells. I used about 2 cups. The shells baked for 30 minutes in a 350°. The shells were super yummy and I even had leftovers to take for lunch the next day!

12.08.11_Pineapple Fried Rice

When I went to Thailand last year I think I ate fried rice more than anything while I was there. Since then I randomly crave Basil Fried Rice. A couple of months ago I made it and it came out really well, but it had chicken. I decided I would try to make Pineapple Fried Rice for a vegetarian version. I just googled pineapple fried rice and came across two different recipes that were very similar. I just randomly chose one of the recipes of the two and went for it.

I cooked jasmine rice while I chopped up 2 shallots, 3 cloves of garlic, and a green chili. While the rice was cooling, I sauteed the shallots, garlic, green chili, and a shredded carrot. Then I added an egg and basically scrambled it into the mix. Once the egg was cooked I dropped in the pineapple, added the rice and a mixture of soy sauce and curry powder. Once it was all mixed together I cooked the rice for a couple of minutes before garnishing the rice with some green onions for some color.

I chose to leave out the currants and the cashews to keep it simple. Apparently I was super out of it when I made this because I forgot to add the peas and coriander. I really wish I had a wok! I did 1.5x the amount of rice to have leftovers and folding all that rice into the mixture of vegetables, pineapples, and sauce was super difficult in a small saute pan. Other than the difficulties of mixing the rice and being a space cadette and leaving out two of the ingredients the rice came out good. Phillip really enjoyed it so that's always a good sign.

12.06.11_Chickpea Spinach Sliders

So I'm not sure why the recipe we found for these burgers was called Chickpea Spinach burgers. True, there are chickpeas and spinach in them, but that's only two of a long list of ingredients and they are probably two of the more subtle flavors in these burgers. I will say, however, that the name alone got me to try them. We decided to make sliders because our previous experience with "burgers" resulted in a mushy center (see Edamame Burgers, Falafel Burgers, and Ginormous Tofu Burgers) so we figured if we made them smaller that would be cute and practical.

The recipe called for:

-1 medium onion
-3 cloves garlic
-1 c. chickpeas
-3 c. packed spinach leaves
-1 carrot
-2 tbsp. soy sauce (I used Tamari instead)
-1 tsp. cumin
-2 tbsp. peanut butter
-1 tbsp. yeast
-1 tsp. sriracha hot sauce
-1/2 c. chickpea flour (I used whole wheat flour)

Cook the onions and garlic, then add the spinach and carrot until the spinach has wilted. In a large bowl, combine the cooked mixture and the remaining ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Then let the mixture cool. I went ahead and portioned out the mixture into patties and lined them up on a cutting board, because I figured they would cool faster individually then all together in one big bowl.

After the mixture has cooled some, form patties, and pan fry in some oil. I used olive oil and cooked each slider for 2-3 minutes per side. We served the sliders on potato slider rolls alongside, what else, french fries. The burgers were very flavorful. I tasted the peanut butter the most but it gave them a nice creamy texture. Phillip had an issue with the number of onions (considering he doesn't like onions) but overall they were tasty!

11.28.11_Curried Broccoli Couscous

Ok. So maybe I felt guilty for doing so few posts this month. We decided to try and fit in one more veggie meal this month to try to make up for our delinquency. Lucky for me, Real Simple tweeted out a recipe for Curried Broccoli Couscous that sounded super yummy yesterday so I decided to give it a try.

Now I know we talk about how easy all of these recipes are but really, this recipe was insanely easy. All you had to do was saute broccoli florets (I used fresh broccoli but I'm sure frozen would work just as well) in a sauce pan with olive oil then add curry powder to coat the broccoli. Next add in golden raisins, chickpeas, and water and bring to a boil. Finally, add the couscous, remove from heat, cover the pan and let sit for 5 minutes. That's it. I was afraid the couscous wouldn't cook completely because I had never cooked couscous with other food in the same pan but it came out great.

To add some more texture and flavor I decided to use more than just the golden raisins. We found a mixture of golden raisins and craisins at the store and thought that the craisins would add a nice color and tart flavor. I also topped the couscous with sliced almonds for a little bit of sweetness and for a nice crunch. We ended up making 1.5 times the recipe so that we would have enough leftovers for lunch the next day. So scrumptious!

11.22.11_Ginormous Tofu Burgers

I know, I know. It's been almost a month since our last post. We're bad bloggers. November has been crazy busy with business travel, vacation, and Thanksgiving so sadly we have not had much time for vegetarian recipes this month. After realizing it was going on a month since our last post, I told Phillip he could pick out a recipe he wanted to try. Shockingly he came back to me with a recipe from (Never Home) Maker for tofu burgers that were literally too big to bite. Phillip, wanting a burger? Never.

I was a little doubtful of this recipe at first. While I have enjoyed most of the tofu dishes we have made, I still am not a huge fan of the taste of tofu by itself. I was worried that that patties (made primarily of tofu) would still taste tofu-y and I wouldn't like them. Luckily, I was wrong and the flavors of the burger turned out great.

For the burger patties, the recipe called for

• 1 package extra-firm tofu
• 1 small (or enough to make up 1 small) potato
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Pepper to taste

A couple of things to note: I drained the tofu first. The recipe didn't say anything about draining the tofu but I have yet to use tofu without draining it so I stuck with what I know. We used 5 purple fingerling potatoes to make them colorful like the recipe used. I also had yeast already but it was not nutritional yeast. I used it anyway and it still worked fine. I think you could omit this completely if you wanted.

To make the patties all I had to do was combine the tofu and the potatoes in a food processor and mix. Then in a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and the tofu-potato mixture. The mixture itself was stickier than I imagined so if yours is like that too, don't worry. After the ingredients are combined, split the mixture into 4 equal parts to form patties. Place cheese on top of one of the patties and then put another patty on top. Then squish the edges of the two patties together so the cheese is hidden in between the patties.

These bad boys were MASSIVE.

To cook the burgers just add some oil to pan and pan fry on both sides for a couple of minutes. I also covered the pan with aluminum foil so that the burger would be cooked all the way through and to help the cheese melt. Flipping the burgers was a bit daunting and challenging because of the sheer size of these honkers. They stayed together better than I expected so we were able to avoid a kitchen meltdown on my part.

We served the burgers on rolls from Whole Foods, topped with avocado (and mustard for me) but decided to put the sweet potatoes on the side (the burger was big enough already!). I could only finish half of my burger, which I had to eat with a fork and knife. You can tell from the picture with Phillip holding the burger just how enormous these things really were. Both Phillip and I agreed that if we make these again we would make them like a normal burger and not double up the patties with the cheese hidden inside. I like to be able to bite my burgers! Overall though a fun new way to use tofu in a dish.

10.27.11_Samosa Baked Potatoes

I love samosas. And I love potatoes (they are actually in my top 5 favorite foods). So when I saw a recipe for samosa inspired baked potatoes there was no question whether or not these would be made sometime in the near future. I mean honestly, who would not want these?

As always, this recipe could not have been an easier. It was basically like making twice baked potatoes but with samosa seasoning. Pierce two potatoes with a fork or knife and bake them in a 400 degree oven for about an hour. Towards the end of the hour prep the other ingredients. Saute half an onion (I used one large shallot instead), 1.5 tsp minced ginger,  1/2 tsp mustard seeds, and 1.5 tsp curry powder for about 5 minutes in a little olive oil.

Once the potatoes are fully baked, slice them open and scoop out all of the potato while keeping the skin in tact as much as possible. Combine the potato, onion mixture, 1/8 cup cilantro, 3/4 cup peas, and 3 TBS of butter. I used frozen peas that I quickly defrosted in the microwave. I feel like canned peas would not be very good in this dish, but what do I know? If you don't have fresh cilantro you could substitute the dried stuff, but don't use nearly as much! I looked up online how much dry spice to use instead of fresh and ended up using about 2 TBS of dried cilantro. It worked just fine but I think the fresh would make a big difference.  Next, mash it all the ingredients together with a fork or potato masher and add S&P to taste. Then scoop the potato mixture back into the potato skin and that's it.

I topped mine with a dollop of plain yogurt. I really liked the addition of the tangy yogurt with the flavors of the potato. So simple and incredibly filling and delicious. I originally thought I would make a vegetable or something on the side but we ended up not needing it because the potatoes were so filling on their own.

10.24.11_Paneer Jalfrezi

I'm not sure why I never cooked Indian food prior to our vegetarian adventure. It comes across as super complicated when in reality the Indian dishes I have made have been some of the easiest and least stressful out of the bunch. The Paneer Tikka Masala was straight forward and delicious, the Aloo Gobi Chana literally could not have been easier, and now adding to that list, I made Paneer Jalfrezi which involved nothing but prep work. So simple.

When I came across this recipe I was originally drawn to the bright colors of the food. Phillip and I both really enjoyed the paneer in the Tikka Masala dish so I wanted to try another dish with this. We both enjoy spicy food as well so when I read that this dish packed some heat I was excited about it. The other great part about this recipe was that I already had most of the ingredients from past recipes, all we had do buy was a little bit of produce.

I decided it would be easiest to do all the prep work at once so that when it came time to cook all I would have to do is add the next ingredient to the pan rather than ferociously chopping while something else was already in the pan. I even let Phillip help and for those who have lived or cooked with me, they know this is a big deal. We sliced up an onion (I used half instead of a full one since Phillip isn't a huge fan), two Roma tomatoes, a bell pepper (Phillip chose red), a pretty big Serrano pepper (instead of 2 Thai chilis), and minced 3 cloves of garlic and an inch of ginger root. Phillip cut the paneer into little strips as well.

Once everything was chopped I started the rice I was going to serve the dish with since that always takes the longest. After the rice was simmering for about 5-10 minutes it was time to start cooking the main course. All you had to do was add cumin and coriander seeds to some hot oil, then start adding the ingredients a few at a time. The recipe had a very specific order and amount of time for each ingredient so I did my best to stick to it. In addition to the ingredients we chopped up, the recipe also called for salt to taste, 3/4 tsp of tumeric, and 1.5 TBS of red chili flakes. I did about half the chili flakes this called for because I did not want to die from this meal.  In the end all of the ingredients ended up in the same pan and mixed together. After everything was cooked,  you remove the mixture from the heat and sprinkle it with 1/4 tsp of sugar, 1/2 tsp of garam masala, and 1.5 TBS of white vinegar or lemon juice (I used a combo).

We served the Paneer Jalfrezi over the rice and also had some naan I had put in the freezer from when we had the Aloo Gobi. The dish made more food than I expected and there was enough leftover for Phillip to take for lunch the next day. The next time you think about attempting to make Indian food I say go for it. You'll probably be surprised how easy and delicious it ends up being.

10.23.11_Fall Festivities

On Saturday we took a group of friends down to Charlottesville to go apple picking at Carter Mountain Orchard and then do some wine tasting. I hadn't been apple picking since I was a kid and was excited to go again. The views from the orchard are amazing and we had a perfect day. Phillip and I had looked up a few recipes we wanted to try before we went down so we knew how many apples we would need to pick. We ended up with 15 Fuji apples and one pumpkin, perfect for an apple crisp, homemade applesauce and pumpkin seeds!

I forgot how easy making applesauce is. The part that took the longest was peeling and coring the apples. Phillip and I both used paring knives to peel the apples. I tried to be all Top Chef and act like I was in the mies en place relay that they always do on the first episode. Sadly, if I were a contestant I think I would be eliminated immediately. I did almost peel an entire apple without picking up my knife once, creating one single curly-cue of apple skin. Impressive I know. We peeled 7 medium-sized apples, cored them, and then quartered the apples before adding them to a cup of water, 1/4 cup sugar and 3/4 tsp of cinnamon. Cook the apples of medium heat, covered for 15-20 minutes and then they are ready. I don't like very chunky applesauce so I transferred the apples to the blender and gave them a quick whirl. The applesauce was super delicious and made a good amount!


Next up was the apple crisp. We found lots of different recipes for apple crisps and we finally settled on one that had no eggs and it was super easy. While the oven preheats to 350 degrees, peel, core, and slice 6 apples (we did 7 because they were kind of small), then mix the apples in a baking dish with 2-3 TBS of sugar, 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and a TBS of flour. In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup flower, 5 TBS brown sugar, 2 TBS sugar, and a stick of butter (diced into tiny pieces). We decided to use 1/2 cup of oats in place of nuts, because Phillip and I both love oats! I also was not thrilled about using an entire stick of butter in this, but I figured we rarely eat or make dessert so we decided to splurge. We also subbed Granny Smith apples for the Fujis we had picked. The crisp baked for 1hr and 15mins and then it was ready! We served it with some ice cream we had in the fridge. Yum!


The final task of the day was carving our pumpkin! When I was a kid, my mom would always clean and roast the seeds while we carved our pumpkins so that when we were all done, the pumpkin seeds would be ready for us! They were never anything fancy but I loved them. After scooping out all the seeds and cleaning off the gook from the pumpkin, we put the seeds on a baking sheet, sprinkled with salt, then baked on 300 degrees for about 45 minutes, flipping the seeds every 10 minutes or so. So simple and so good. While the seeds were in the oven I was able to carve our pumpkin. We decided to do Sylvester and Tweety since that is what we are dressing up as for Halloween! Such a fun Fall weekend!

10.18.11_Caulifower Cakes

Now that we are doing fewer vegetarian meals per month I've been wanting to choose recipes for things that I have either never had or never made before. While I like eating vegetarian because it generally makes me feel better, I also like trying to make new things to keep it exciting for me. I found this recipe for cauliflower cakes and I was intrigued for multiple reasons: 1) They reminded me of latkes or potato pancakes, which I love. 2) They had garam masala in it and now that I have a huge amount of this from when we made the Paneer Tikka Masala I was excited at the prospect of using it again.

As always the recipe was super simple. Combine the following ingredients in a big bowl, mix them together, then drop 2 tablespoons or so of the "batter" into a 1/4 cup of oil in a skillet.

• 2 cups grated cauliflower (1 medium size head of cauliflower)
  
• 1/2 large yellow onion (approximately 1 cup chopped)
  
• 3 tbsp flour
  
• 3 eggs
  
• 3/4 cup milk
  
• 1/2 cup panko crumbs (optional, for texture)
  
• 1/2 tbsp garam masala
  
• 1/2 tbsp salt

Each cake cooked for a couple of minutes on each side. I felt like Hanukkah came early this year and I was frying up the latkes because it was exactly the same process. I was able to do four cakes at a time and transferred them to a plate with a paper towel after they finished cooking to get rid of some of the oil.

The recipe called for 10 minutes prep and 10 minutes cooking time. Either I'm extremely slow or the girls who wrote this recipe are crazy! The prep didn't take that long but grating the cauliflower took a while. I contemplated roughly chopping it and putting it into the Cuisinart instead but decided not to. I wish I had. I think the result would have been the same but in half the time without bits of cauliflower flying all over my tiny kitchen. The recipe also did not say how much this would make. Being delusional, I thought this would make a couple of cakes. I used 2 tablespoons per cake instead of the tablespoon listed in the recipe and I ended up with 18 cauliflower cakes! I ate 3 and Phillip had 4 to give you an idea of serving size, so needless to say, it took me a while to fry up all of these cakes when they take a couple of minutes per side for each cake.

I decided to serve the cakes on top of a simple salad. I wanted to make a homemade lemon vinaigrette to toss the salad with and also wanted to make an aioli to drizzle on top of the cakes. I realized after making this decision that I did not have dijon mustard, an ingredient that typically both of these would have in them. For the vinaigrette I just left out the mustard and whisked together 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 1/2 tablespoon minced shallot, 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, and S&P. I tossed the salad with the vinaigrette before plating it and sprinkled with a little coarse salt before placing the cakes on top of the salad.

For the aioli my original thoughts were to make my own from scratch. However after spending longer than I thought frying cauliflower cakes I decided to cheat. I took about two tablespoons of store bought mayo, added fresh lemon juice, a little squirt of regular mustard, a pinch of garlic powder and some S&P. My fake version of an aioli came out much better than I anticipated and was surprisingly good. I drizzled the sauce over my cauliflower cakes, cracked some fresh black pepper on top and called it a day. I really liked this dish. I could really taste the garam masala in the cakes and I thought the addition of the vinaigrette and the aioli complemented the cakes well.

10.17.11_Tostadas

Apparently October has been busy because this is my first post this month! Luckily I plan on having several vegetarian dishes this week so look for several updates over the next few days. Yesterday while thinking about what I wanted to eat this week I had a strong craving for fajitas. Phillip doesn't really like bell peppers or onions so fajitas are never that exciting for him so then I started thinking about refried beans.  Then I thought of tostadas. I haven't had tostadas in a very long time and I had actually never mad them so I thought this would be a great dish to try. Phillip suggested that instead of ground beef we could use Lightlife's Smart Ground veggie crumbles. We had tried them at Caitlin's a few weeks ago when she made us a Vegan Shepperd's Pie and we really enjoyed them.

After doing a little Googling Phillip told me that it seems that tostadas were almost always made with corn tortillas rather than flour so we decided to get these while shopping. I wasn't exactly how I should crisp up the tortillas. I figured I could either do it in a toast them up in a skillet, shallow fry them, or bake them. I searched online and found recipes that used all three methods. We decided to bake them to make them a little healthier than frying them and I figured it would be super easy, and it was. All I had do do was put a little oil (I used canola) on a baking sheet, rub the tortillas around in the oil coating both sides, then put them in a 400 degree oven. I baked the tortillas for about 15 minutes, flipping halfway through. They ended up super crunchy and nicely toasted. I would probably cut the time back a little next time to make them a little less browned.

While the tortillas were crisping in the oven, I cut up an avocado and some lettuce that I would use for topping my tostada. Then I cooked the Lightlife crumbles. This was fascinating. You cook the crumbles for a few minutes in a skillet after spraying it with nonstick spray. It looked exactly like ground beef, just without the oil pouring out of it. I seasoned the crumbles with cumin, cilantro, a little cayenne, Adobo seasoning, and S&P, the same as I would have if I were using ground beef. They actually sell Mexican flavored crumbles as well which would have been perfect but Whole Foods didn't have them.

Lightlife's Smart Ground Veggie Crumbles

After the tortillas came out of the oven I topped them with refried black beans, then the Lightlife crumbles, and then topped them off with shredded cheese. I put the tostadas back into the oven for another minute or so to let the cheese melt and then they were ready! They were super delicious and really satisfying. I topped mine with some salsa, lettuce, avocado, and sprinkled a little cilantro on top. The thing that's great about the tostadas is you can put whatever you want on them, just like a taco. I would definitely recommend making these if you are looking for a quick and easy meal and want to just use up somethings you have in the fridge. Delish.

10.11.11_Vegan Shepherd's Pie

For those of you that are frequent followers, you know me as “vegan Caitlin”. I was beyond excited when Jonathan and Phillip told me that they would be going vegetarian for a month, and am so happy that they’ve kept up with it pretty well since then. And after various shout-outs over the blog posts, I finally got the opportunity to contribute my own meal and post.

When the three of us went to the pride festival this summer, I picked up a PETA “Starter Kit” magazine. Once I got past the horrible pictures of mistreated animals, I found a few recipes that sounded really good. Jonathan even pointed out ones that he thought looked good (this was before the vegetarian experiment, so I was shocked that pictures of vegan meals got him interested). One of them was for Shepherd’s Pie, which I finally got around to making for all of us a couple weeks ago.

The recipe was really easy and didn’t require a lot of time or effort. I had to cook up some potatoes and then mash them with Earth Balance buttery spread, soy milk, salt and pepper.

Then I had to mix up some Lightlife veggie protein crumbles, vegan mushroom gravy (the recipe suggested Campbell’s, but I shop at Whole Foods, and they don’t sell Campbell’s, so I got something organic), mixed peas and carrots, and then a little garlic powder and cayenne. The recipe called for canned peas and carrots, but I used frozen and even without defrosting them, everything turned out fine. Once all of this was mixed up, I poured it into a casserole dish. Then I just spread the mashed potatoes on top and cooked the dish for about 40 minutes at 350.

Like I said, this was a really easy recipe, and turned out hearty and tasty. Jonathan and Phillip seemed pretty impressed with the consistency of the fake beef, and have used it again since. I served Tofutti Cutie ice cream sandwiches as dessert and even the imitation ice cream was a hit. If I can get them to enjoy nondairy cheese, I just might make vegans out of Jonathan and Phillip yet.