#36

Acorn Squash and Apple Puree

A recipe from Emeril off the Food Network website. You will find the link to the recipe at the bottom of this post, but I did not follow it completely.

I cut the acorn squash in half and took out the seeds. I then placed a little bit of butter (margarine) in the middle and sprinkled each half with cinnamon and nutmeg. I put the acorn cut side up in a casserole dish, filled it with about 1/4 cup of water, covered with aluminum foil and baked at 350 for 50 minutes. I then removed it from the oven and took the foil off to cool.

Meanwhile, I peeled and diced up 2 apples, put a little but of butter (margarine) in the pan and sauteed the apples for about 3 minutes. Then I added some water (about 1/4 cup) and cooked the apples until mushy (about 8 minutes).

I then took the acorn squash out of the skin and into my bullet, added the mushy apples and poured some more water into the bullet blender. Pureed it for a minute and what I got was a tasty, sweet acorn squash and apple puree. Perfect for this fall-like evening.


Acorn Squash and Apple Puree Recipe

#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.