A Week of Easy, Vegetarian Meals

I want to offer you a week of easy, vegetarian meals.

I often am asked by meat eaters what are my favorite dishes and what I commonly eat. I usually just say pasta because that's the first thing that comes to my mind, but I've been thinking about it for a few days and wanted to document some of my favorite meals. These are meals I can make on a weeknight because I usually keep these ingredients on hand and they are relatively quick to make.

You will see spinach salad on here with almost every meal because I actually do eat that all the time. I love it, it's good for me and it's easy.

For dressing, I like to make homemade peppercorn ranch dressing or balsamic vinegar. I'll share my peppercorn ranch recipe tomorrow.

1) Tri-color rotini pasta with green beans, bread and spinach salad.

I love this recipe. I have it memorized by now because I make it alllll the time. I always have the ingredients on hand for this one so it's a go-to dish.

I found the recipe many years ago on Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade website, but I can't find it now. Here it is from my recipe book:

Ingredients:

1 (1 pound) package of tricolor rotini (I like the hidden veggie kind)

1 package frozen broccoli stir-fry mix (Birds Eye brand)

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons black pepper

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups shredded Parmesan

In a large pot, bring 4 quarts water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Add the stir-fry mix to pasta water during the last 2 to 3 minutes. Drain well.

In a bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, pepper, red pepper and salt. I like to add basil too. Add the pasta mix and cheese, tossing to coat. Serve.

Here's the recipe for the Focaccia.

2) Baked Potatoes, parmesan green beans and spinach salad.

This one is easy peasy.  There's only like 5 minutes of actual cooking time for you! You just have to plan ahead to get the potatoes in the oven. I first pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. I wash/scrub the potatoes, cut up aluminum foil for each potato, rub the potatoes with olive oil, sprinkle sea salt on and then wrap them in their little aluminum foil blankets and toss them in the oven. After an hour they are steamy and ready for eating.

When the potatoes are almost ready I start the green beans and prepare my salad.

I've shared the green bean recipe before, you can find it here. They are soooo easy! It takes about 5 minutes to make them.

3) Lemon pasta, spinach salad, edamame

The pasta is Pioneer Woman's Baked Lemon Pasta. 

In the picture those are Parmesan green beans, but I like to switch it up sometimes and have edamame. It's yummy and easy (I just heat up one of those 'steam in the bag' packages in the microwave) and they have protein.

4) Pita pizzas, fresh fruit, spinach salad

This one is just fun. I like this for guests because they can put whatever they want on it. I buy the pitas when they are BOGO at Publix. :) On mine, I like pesto sauce, a little sea salt, spinach, cut up tomatoes, olives, mushrooms (if I have them), mozzarella cheese.

This is the brand of pitas that I buy, but I prefer the wheat kind.

I put them in the oven for about ten to fifteen minutes and they're good to go.

I always keep fresh fruit around the house. I like to wash and cut it up when I get home from the store so it's ready to go, so whatever I have on hand I serve.

5) Stuffed peppers, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Yes, I like cheese. I will admit this one takes me a little more time because I have to prepare the items for the "stuffing" of the bell peppers, but it's still easy.

I found the recipe I use on the blog Mom Machine. I love these peppers! I add cayenne pepper to mine cause I like the rice to be a little spicy to contrast with the sweetness of the bell peppers.

And there you have it,

Man, I could have listed even more. I didn't even get to the soups yet. Yum, soup.

Now, please don't let me mislead you into thinking that I cook every night. I don't. On days that I have improv rehearsal (yes, I really do improv) or church I usually head straight there after work and eat leftovers when I get home. These are just ideas for meals that I make pretty regularly. :) I also have the habit of when I cook, making a lot extra of stuff so I usually can eat on it for a few days and take leftovers to work so that cuts down on how often I cook too.

And sometimes I just eat this for dinner. :)

Broccoli Cheese Soup

The other day I got a hankering for broccoli cheese soup and what did I do? I made some. I thought I would share the recipe I used with you. It originally used chicken broth, but you all know I made it vegetarian. =)

Broccoli Cheese Soup (altered from this recipe from My Blessed Life):

1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. all purpose flour
4 c. milk
4 c. veggie broth
1 lb. fresh broccoli (I actually used frozen *gasp!* - the scandal!)
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 t. nutmeg
16 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Whisk butter and flour in a stock pot over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly and slowly add in the milk (heat it up a little first). Then add in the veggie broth while still whisking. Let this simmer for 20 minutes.

During this time, prepare the onion by sauteing it in 1 tablespoon of butter.

 

You can also take this time to grate the cheese.

Since I used frozen broccoli, I microwaved it for about 4-5 minutes and then set it aside.

After the mixture has simmered for 20 minutes, add in the broccoli and onion.  Cook the soup over low heat for about 20-25 minutes then add salt and pepper to taste.

At this point, you can puree your soup in a blender. I recently bought a Kitchenaid immersion blender from Target for $50 so I just used that and it worked really well. If you use a blender, return the soup to your pot after and set the stove to  low heat. Add in your cheese and stir until well blended.  Then add the nutmeg.

I served the soup with some tasty bread.

The finished product:

I loved this soup! It was everything I dreamed it would be.

Pan-Fried Potatoes

I love mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, baked potatoes.... Pretty much any kind of potato, haha. But the other day I wanted to try something new - pan-fried potatoes. I had a bag of cute, little gold potatoes and cut them in half to pan-fry.

I heated up 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then tossed in the potatoes, letting them brown without stirring for about 10 minutes.

Then I just used tongs to flip them over and let them brown up some more.

After they were cooked through I added basil and a little salt and pepper.

I had these with carrots and green bean casserole (how Thanksgiving-y, right?)

I thoroughly enjoyed these potatoes (just like any other potato dish, but still). This weekend I'm heading off to a youth retreat so I'll get to spend some more time with my awesome sister McKenna, woo-hoo!

What are you up to this weekend?

Fake Grilled Cheese

Growing up my sister and I spent a ton of time at our grandparent's house and my grandma would cook and bake for us all the time. I took it for granted as a kid, but once I got into college I really appreciated it. The university I went to required those of us who lived on campus to buy a meal plan that was pretty expensive and to use up all the money I had to eat in the cafeteria almost every day. After eating in there for about 2 weeks I was cafeteria'd-out.

Every weekend that I got a chance I would drive the hour away to my grandparent's house and spend the weekend with them. Of course during these weekends my grandma would cook for me and sometimes for a snack she would make me her "grilled cheese" sandwiches that we always had growing up.

As an ode to my nanny (what we all called her), I made fake grilled cheese this weekend. I call it fake grilled cheese because it's baked instead of grilled in a pan on the stove. They are so easy to make and cook pretty quickly.

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees and spread a little butter on one side of each piece of bread. Put your cheese on one piece of bread and then put another piece on top.

Bake for about 3 minutes and then flip. Cook for 2-3 minutes more and then you're done!

Both sides should be golden brown and you have a crispy, non-greasy "grilled" cheese sandwich.

One of my to-dos this weekend was to make soup. I made a double batch of the same tomato-basil soup we served at our Halloween party so that we'd have extra for throughout the week and we had some yesterday with our "grilled" cheese sandwiches.

Thanks grandma for another go-to recipe!

Another exciting thing that happened this weekend was that McKenna's soccer team placed first in their division today! I know in sports it's not all about winning, but that is quite an accomplishment and her team played really well and had great sportsmanship. =) I'm a proud sister.

Party Decorating/Food

I thought I would share a little more about our decorations and food for our Halloween party. Our menu for the party was:

Fresh Apple Cider
Tomato Basil Soup
Broccoli Cheddar Soup
French Bread for dipping
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

And of course, plenty of candy corn.
 

For decorations I had several mini pumpkins and for a table runner I used a scrap of fabric I had intended for a project, but didn't end up using.

For the broccoli cheddar soup, I found the recipe on Eighteen25. This soup was pretty quick to make and very tasty. The tomato basil soup recipe was found on allrecipes. I doubled the recipe and really enjoyed making the soup - it made the kitchen smell sooo good!

The apple cider recipe was found at Food.com. Now this took a loooong time to make. You have to boil the apples for one hour and then let them simmer for 2, but the end product is so worth it. We all really enjoyed the cider.

As for the living room, I added a few touches there as well. I mimicked the banner I had made for the dining room and placed another one on the bookshelves as well as adding some mini pumpkins.

You can see all my "new" (well, new to me) Nancy Drew books that I received from my grandmother. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I feel like they kinda fit the theme.

And of course I put my spider web picture back up for the party.

I decorated this little bookshelf too a bit although I suppose it's more fall-like than Halloween-like. =)

So there you have my Halloween/Fall decorations. I guess pretty soon I'll be decorating for Christmas!

Tofu!

As a vegetarian, I search for protein in forms other than meat (obviously). I love tofu and don't eat it too often, but when I do it's a treat for me. I don't have a lot of recipes for preparing tofu, but here is a new one I recently discovered here. I altered the recipe a bit (surprise, surprise, haha).

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package extra-firm tofu, drained and pressed
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Cut the tofu into 1/2-inch thick slices; then cut again into 1/2-inch wide sticks. Put the tofu in a bowl and pour the broth over the top. Let soak for about 5 minutes.
In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, yeast, salt, pepper, basil, parsley and cayenne.
Heat a griddle (or pan) and spray with preferred cooking spray.
Remove tofu sticks from broth, and squeeze most (but not all) of the liquid from them. Roll the sticks in breading (I rolled the tofu in the breading twice to get it fully coated). Place the tofu in the griddle or pan and cook until crisp and browned on all sides.

I served the tofu with roasted carrots and pasta. This is my favorite tofu recipe that I have made so far as the tofu pieces were so crispy and the texture was really nice.

Mozzarella Sticks

I love quick snacks and I had been browsing Pinterest for some new ideas and I saw a picture of homemade mozzarella sticks. I was intrigued. This creative person used eggroll wrappers to cover the mozzarella and then fried them, but I wanted to bake them instead.

I headed to the store and got some mozzarella and some wonton wrappers instead of eggroll wrappers as I wanted them to be mini-sized. I began by cutting the mozzarella sticks into 3 pieces each. I laid out a wrapper and then placed a piece of mozzarella in it and just rolled it up.

When I got to the middle I would tuck the edges in and keep rolling -- kinda like a burrito.

Rolling them up was actually pretty fun!

If you're wondering about all the receipts on the fridge, they're my trophies from my couponing adventures. Haha. Looking at them makes me happy.

Once I finished rolling, I would brush a little water on the edge to seal the wrapper.

Then I lined them up on a baking sheet. They were so cute and little!

I baked them at 350 degrees for about 7 minutes. I flipped them halfway through to prevent sticking.

The sticks turned out golden-brown and with the addition of some warmed up marinara sauce, they were quite tasty!

I always love adding recipes like this to my collection - quick, easy and tasty. =)

Easy Breakfast Ideas

The blog world is full of talented people with brilliant ideas, like you! So I want your ideas. More specifically, I want your breakfast ideas.

On a typical morning, I will eat a waffle or a bagel on the way to work. During the weekend it's usually cereal or one of the following:

Pancakes and eggs. I have a most wonderful recipe for pancakes and it's quick and easy too. I'll have to share it some time.

Egg and cheese on whole wheat bagels.

Omelettes. Standard.

And a southern classic, biscuits and cocoa. If you're not from the South then you probably wouldn't understand. I grew up on my grandma's biscuits and for breakfasts on the weekend our grandparents would make us biscuits and cocoa. I got the recipes from her and now from time to time I make this.

I would like to branch out from these staples though and try some new breakfast ideas, so lay them on me! What are your favorite breakfast ideas?

Herb Stuffed Bell Peppers

Since the beginning of Summer I had been wanting to try a stuffed bell pepper recipe, so back in July I actually got around to trying one. I searched a few sites, but all I found were non-vegetarian recipes. I finally decided to just alter a recipe to fit what I wanted, since I pretty much do that every time I cook anyway, haha.

Here's what I came up with (altered from here):

Herb Stuffed Bell Peppers

4 large sweet red peppers
1/2 chopped onion
3 cups cooked brown rice
2 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 cup vegetable broth
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan 
1/4 cup grated mild cheddar

Wash the bell peppers, cut the tops out and remove the seeds.


Bring a pot of water to a boil and put the peppers in for 10 minutes.

Cook onion in a pan over medium heat until brown. Remove from the heat and stir in the rice, parsley, salt, cayenne and oregano.

In a small saucepan, bring the broth to a boil. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, basil and parmesan cheese.
Mix all ingredients and then spoon into the peppers.

Place the peppers in a shallow baking dish, cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Sprinkle cheddar cheese over the tops and bake uncovered for 5-10 minutes.

We really enjoyed these and I thought they were quite hearty for a vegetarian meal. There's a lot of flavor packed in to them and they are very filling.

College Food

I was looking through some of my older pictures the other day and I saw several I had taken during college of food my roomie and I had made.

This is my college roommate Sharon. We went to high school together, played trumpet in band together for many years and then went on to share a dorm room. We were very poor in college.

We pretty much always shopped at the Wal*Marts and we bought food as cheap as we possibly could. Standards were: cheap pasta, cheap pasta sauce, cheap Wal*Mart brand frozen vegetables, frozen edamame, Knorr side dishes (when they were on sale), big boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios or regular Cheerios, huge packages of peanut butter crackers (I'd get a box of 14 packages for about 2 dollars), peanut butter, jelly, bread. Hmmm... yeah, that was the standard stuff.

Here's a typical meal:

Mac n cheese with squash, pasta roni, and some green giant broccoli.

Another dinner - more green giant vegetables, pasta roni and corn.

Of course every now and then we would get fancy. We had a "dinner party" one night and we made tomato soup, corn casserole and "gourmet" grilled cheese. I made up this grilled cheese sandwich were you take fancy bread and add some sliced american cheese and strips of orange bell pepper (so colorful!) and then you grill it in a pan. Simple, but sooo tasty and I did always feel fancy eating it, haha.

The sandwiches were especially good dipped in the tomato soup, of course.

Here's another typical week night dinner. We have some pasta, edamame and those amazing Wal*Mart brand vegetables.

And if I visited boys in college, this is what I got to eat for dinner:

 

Haha. Is it just me, or are college boys just not as creative when it comes to cooking dinner? Well, I guess it is easier to just throw a pizza in the oven, but still.

What kind of things did you eat in college? Were you broke like me and my roomie? Haha.