#35

Tofu & Hummus Sandwich

My version of a tofu and hummus wrap I had at a restaurant a few weeks ago. I made my own hummus out of chickpeas, garlic cloves and some lemon juice. The hummus is what looks like peanut butter on the bread. I topped the hummus with feta cheese, then layered on two pre-cooked "steaks" of tofu and lettuce. Not as easy to eat as a wrap and I have yet to perfect making hummus- it just tastes off, edible, but off.

#34

Split Pea Soup in Slow Cooker

I've made vegetarian split pea soup before, but this time I tried a different recipe and used the slow cooker.

-split peas

-TJs organic vegetable broth

-2 peeled and chopped potatoes

-2 celery stalks

-2 peeled and chopped carrots

-2 peeled and chopped parsnips

-3 bay leaves

-chipped onion

-2 garlic cloves, pressed

-1/2 tsp thyme

-1/2 tsp cumin

recipe also called for dry mustard and sage but I didn't have those, so they were omitted.

Tossed it in the slow cooker and cooked it for 8-10 hours on low. When it was done, the peas were mushy (soupy) and decided to skip the blending part, so the carrots, potatoes, parsnip and celery were chunky in a sea of soupy split peas.

Tasty and super easy, I just have to remember that I'm not a fan of thyme, so next time I'll add less or omit altogether.

Here's the recipe I used http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetariancrockpotrecipe/r/crockpotpeasoup.htm

#33

Meatless Tacos

Craving Mexican food I flipped through my Better Homes and Garden Cookbook and found a meatless taco recipe. No beans required and I had all the ingredients on hand.

Lentils, onions, water cooked together for 30 minutes. I then fried the tofu using some taco seasoning and added 4 oz of tomato sauce. After the lentils were done, I added the rest of the tomato sauce and taco sauce to the pot, heated it for 5 minutes before adding the tofu. I then used a pan to heat my whole wheat tortillas before putting the "meat" and piling on the lettuce, tomato, avocado, cheese and sour cream. Oh so tasty and no beans and served with a mojito.

#32

Orzo Salad with Grape Tomatoes, Mint and Feta

If only you could see my kitchen after making this dish! I think I'll be spending more time cleaning up than what it took me to make this dish. A rather simple recipe really and yet I managed to spill and drop every ingredient somewhere in my kitchen during the 30 minutes it took me to make this dish.

From Good Housekeeping, I tweaked it a little (as usual) and it was really tasty and surprisingly filling.

I started off boiling the water for the orzo. Meanwhile, with a blob of olive oil, I heated the grape tomatoes for about 10 minutes. I used two different kinds of mint from my garden, regular mint and orange mint and chopped the leaves up. I accidentally poured 3/4 cup too much of orzo water in the pan so I did my best to drain as much as I could after I realized the mistake (this is what I get for using my laptop instead of printing out recipes). I threw 2 cups of cooked orzo in with the tomatoes, a tablespoon of lemon juice, my mint which I didn't measure and I used reduced fat feta and only used 3/4 cups instead of the 1 cup the recipe called for. I also didn't use pepper or lemon zest since I didn't have a lemon and used the plastic lemon container for the juice the recipe called for. And since I had green olives stuffed with feta, I chopped a few of those up instead of using the kind the recipe calls for.

I'm stuffed and really don't want to deal with the kitchen, but a glass of Cab is going to get me through it. For the recipe from Good Housekeeping click here.

#31

I'm going to call this Bean Margherita Rotini. I found the recipe from Fitness Magazine's weekly emails I receive and tweaked it a bit. I used whole wheat Rotini instead of penne b/c I didn't have any. I cooked the pasta and using my fresh basil and one tomato from my windowsill garden- chopped them up and added 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 4 crushed cloves of garlic and drained/rinsed white beans to a bowl. When the pasta was done, I drained and added some pasta to the bowl, mixing the ingredients and letting it sit for a few minutes for the flavors to soak into the pasta and the hot pasta to warm the ingredients. I served with Parmesan cheese and enjoyed an Argentine red blend glass of wine. Delicious!

#30

L's Green Drink

Last weekend I was up way late, like past 2am when there is nothing on the telly except infomercials. I got sucked into watching one for the NutriBullet which is similar to the Magic Bullet that I own, only they claim with the NutriBullet it "completely breaks down ingredients in to there most nutritious, absorptive stage" something blenders and juicers do not do. I can understand that juicers leave out the healthy part of the fruits and vegetables as all the fibrous parts go into the discard canister. I listened to the infomercial and thought "Now wait a minute! I have the Magic Bullet. Instead of paying over $100 for this NutriBullet, I'm going to see if mine will do what the NutriBullet does."


So, tonight I tried it. I added 4 baby carrots, a frozen banana, a handful of kale, half an apple with about a cup of water and used my Magic Bullet. Low and behold, I had a nice smooth green drink that had all the nutritional value of the fruits and veggies as if I ate them in their raw form. Only 186 calories! [Of course, the banana was 105 of those calories, so next time I'll use only a half.] Now, I just made this recipe up, the NutriBullet website lists some recipes like "Toxin Cleansing Blast", "The Immune Booster", "Life Boost Blast" that I may try in the future now that I know what I have will do practically the same thing.

#29

Baked Kale

I bought a bag of kale to make a healthy protein smoothie but because I haven't bought some bananas and apples, the bag just sat in the fridge. So, after talking to Suz a few days ago, she told me about making kale chips. I decided to give it a try. The only time I've ever had kale was in a juicer with carrots so I was a little hesitant to try them. For 10 minutes I baked the kale at 300°. I didn't use oil or salt and OMG, it was delicious! I ate the entire bowl. I'll be making some more and probably cook a little bit longer so everything is crunchy. No need to season either, I like it just as it is.