#38 and 39

 Parsnip Tomato Soup and Summer Veggie Tart

Two dishes tonight.  The first was the parsnip tomato soup.  Margarine and chopped onion and minced garlic sauteed with a little over two cups of chopped parsnips.  Cooking in a pot for 5-10 minutes before I added some flour with some thyme.  Next, I added low sodium vegetable stock, 2% milk and a can of whole cherry tomatoes.  I covered and simmered with a couple bay leaves for about 40 minutes before cooling a little and blending.  I'm not sure how I like it.  I feel like I needed more tomatoes or that if I didn't blend it so much, it would make for a nice pasta sauce with a couple of artichoke hearts.

While I was letting the soup simmer I started the summer squash tart.  First, in a pan, I added olive oil and a clove of pressed garlic and a chopped red pepper.  I added a little bit of salt and pepper, sauteed for about 5-10 minutes.  I let it cool to room temperature while I took out the refrigerated pie crust (I didn't have the energy to make my own) and placed it on a pan.  Meanwhile, I had half a brick of Neufchâtel cheese thawing at room temperature and mixed some salt and pepper with a handful of basil leaves from my garden, which I chopped. I spread the mixture onto the pie crust, smeared the red peppers onto the cheese and topped with sliced zucchini and summer squash.  I folded the pie dough over the edge, wiped the veggies with olive oil and baked at 425° for about 30 minutes.  After baking, I added a few more basil leaves as garnish.  This was really tasty and I could see myself adding more veggies next time around.

#37

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

I kind of made this up after looking through pages and pages of spaghetti squash recipes. I baked the spaghetti squash after cutting in half length wise with water in the pan for 40 minutes covered in foil with the oven at 375°.

I then sauteed onions, pressed garlic cloves and some grape tomatoes and grated 1/2 of monterey jack cheese. I also picked a bunch of basil from my garden and snipped it up.

When the squash was done, I let it cool a little bit before using tongs to scrape the inside. Since it was just me, I only used one half of the cut squash. I tossed the spaghetti squash in with the shredded cheese and onion mixture in a casserole dish and topped it with basil and 1.5 tbsp of breadcrumbs before sticking it back in the oven for 10-15 minutes. I put some parmesan cheese on it after serving.

While I crave carbs and love my pasta, this was a great, low-cal alternative that was pretty darn flavorful.

#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.