Couple a dinners

This first meal is called, cook WAY too much food for 2 people. Upper left, good ole standby Beijing style veggies from Trader joes, to the right, Moosewood vegetable tofu dumplings, cooked pot-sticker style, middle is brown rice, then bottom is tempura zucchini. 2 small zucchini's made an obscene amount of tempura.
















Because neither the dumplings or tempura would keep, I really stuffed myself. I also made a quick ponzo-style sauce, with soy sauce, veggie broth, mirin, and a squirt of lime juice. Much better than straight soy sauce, which is what I usually would have done.



















Then, this one is fake summer style pasta. Fake, in that only the cherry tomatoes & basil were the fresh summer veg. Frozen corn and green beans rounded out the veggie count. It was a quick saute of 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, then cook the tomatoes for 5 minutes, then stir in the corn and green beans until warm through. Toss in the minced handful of basil and handful of crumbled feta and there you go. I oversalted the penne cooking water, so the little bean only ate the tomatoes and green beans. But it was also darned tasty to the adult eaters...

Sort-of breakfast for dinner

Many times, too many to count, we enjoy breakfast for dinner. Usually pancakes or scrambled eggs with english muffins, tonight I had a ton of potatoes and corn tortillas to use up. So I whipped up breakfast tacos: tofu scramble with roasted potatoes and jalepeno salsa (El Pato, from a can. Cheap and darn tasty). The tofu scramble is from Vegan with a Vengeance, but the recipe is posted online, I omit the mushrooms of course, and lately have been adding a couple chopped up leaves of kale with the garlic and cooking it down. Yummo. Due to the super-savory nature of the meal, it isn't so breakfasty and is quite dinnery. It is just that I usually eat the scramble for breakfast because it is so quick and easy. I also make a bunch of the seasoning mix up ahead of time, better than measuring out the cumin, thyme, paprika and turmeric each time. Mi esposa le gusta los tacos. Bien.

The little bean's first recipe creation

The little bean is quite an accomplished kitchen assistant, she knows the basic ingredients for oatmeal cookies and pancakes and enjoys setting everything up. She can crack an egg surprisingly well, loves the egg beaters and stirs like a madwoman. But now she has graduated to recipe creation: simple but apparently good.

Plain yogurt with chocolate syrup. Snack, dessert or any old time, she and her dad enjoy a nice bowl of plain yogurt drizzled with Trader Joe's chocolate syrup. What a pair they make!

The little bean loves kale?!?!?!? and fettucini with lemon cream sauce

So I check on her dinner consumption progress, and she is devouring the fresh fettucini with butter and parmesan (Duh) and all of the kale has been removed from her plate and set on her table. She ate one bite under duress, and pronounced it "yucky". No surprise there.

Hubby and I are finishing our fresh fettucini with lemon cream sauce and he has to pick up the little honey who is crying. His seat at the table is usurped by the little bean, who proceeds to SHOVEL IN his remaining kale. About a 1/4 cups worth at least. "I'm eating daddy's kale" "I'm eating kale for dinner" is announced between mouthfuls. And during.

What!?!!?!? I mean, I go crazy for the stuff, but what toddler would? (Her dad thinks she might have scurvy) (just kidding).

The lemon cream pasta wasn't picture worthy, very bland looking, but super tasty...

2 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon earth balance
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup low fat milk
zest from one lemon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 grated parmesan cheese
fresh ground pepper, a few good cranks

Soften the garlic in the margarine. Add the flour, stir over low heat until well blended. Pour in milk, lemon zest and nutmeg off the heat, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer for a couple minutes. Stir in the cheese and pepper well and remove from the heat. We don't usually mix the sauce in the noodles ahead of time. This was about enough sauce for 1 pound fresh fettucini.

Stuffed grape leaves & German-Inspired Dinner

My mom fell madly in love with these homemade grape leaves when a young guy (Sekou)brought them to church. This isn't a real recipe, just the important ingredients. I would imagine this is a very flexible recipe.

The stuffed grape leaves

The filling

Chopped toasted pine nuts and almonds

Cooked brown and wild rice

Scallions and red onions sauteed in olive oil

Fresh zest and lemon juice

Fresh mint and italian parsley

Stuff into Mezetta's grape leaves, available at Ralph's grocery store (I'm sure lots of other places, too), roll up grape leaves like a egg roll.

Stuff stuffed grape leaves into your mouth. Man, soooo good.

Tonight I made the german-inspired dinner. Sausage, cabbage and potatoes.

The sausages were Cherry Sage Sausages from Vegan Brunch, the cabbage was from 1001 Vegetarian Recipes and the potatoes were no recipe. The sausages looked so much like meat it was scary, but of course Mr. Veggieknife let me know they did not taste like meat. Tasty, but not like meat ;) I did boil the pot dry steaming them, but they were still moist. I might even add more oil next time, to make them "juicier". I was just stoked that everything turned out, scary when you are trying new recipes. If I haven't mentioned it enough, Isa is a genius and I LOVE cooking so much more due to her cookbooks. Yay!

Greek Farfalle Pasta and Vegetables

This was adapted from Main-Course Vegetarian Pleasures, one of the very first vegetarian cookbooks I ever owned. The recipes are simple and basic, and helped both me and my parents make some great meals for our whole family. Greek-Style Bulghur and Vegetables with Feta Cheese. We have a nice stockpile of pasta (it was on sale), so I wanted to substitute. This was really great on a warm summer evening. It will definitely be in heavy rotation in the next few months.
1/2 package farfalle pasta, cooked according to the package
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup seeded, diced tomato
3 medium zucchini, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
Lots of ground pepper
~ 6 kalamata olives, chopped
~ 3 oz feta cheese, diced

Saute onion in olive oil over medium heat until translucent. Add veggies, oregano, thyme and pepper. Cook until veggies are tender yet crisp. Stir in olives, and cheese until warm. Stir in cooked farfalle pasta.
This should serve 4 people, but we didn't have any side dishes so there wasn't much left over after me and the Mr. chowed. The little bean liked it as well, but she doesn't eat enough to really count ;)

To get the little bean to try a new combination, I placed the plain pasta, the cooked veggies, feta and olives all in separate sections on her plate. Each one was a hit, so her next serving was the mixed up dish that her dad and I were eating. Awesome! She is really an adventurous eater. Last night I made indian-spiced chickpea cutlets, potato curry and quinoa. The cutlets were her favorite, but she cleaned her plate. That is just too cool.

Green and White Chili

5 tomatillos. Remove husks and wash with soap to remove sticky stuff
1 onion. Cut into 8 “chunks”, keeping layers together
1 jalapeño
2 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon cumin
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large can of hominy
2 cups white beans or 1 can, drained and rinsed
Plenty of fresh ground pepper
½ teaspoon sea salt

1. Roast tomatillos, onion and jalapeño on lightly greased rimmed baking sheet in 375 degree oven, flipping veggies as they bubble and brown on the bottom. They are done when the tomatillos are squishy and the onion is soft.
2. Using gloves, seed jalapeño. Blend jalapeño with roasted tomatillos and onion (discard any super brown and crispy onion layers) in blender in 2 batches each with 1 cup of vegetable broth.
3. Lightly toast garlic and cumin in olive oil over medium low heat in soup pot. Add beans, hominy, tomatillo blend and salt and pepper. Add 3 cups of water, bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for 45 minutes. Stir in healthy handful of chopped cilantro.

This was a bit spicy when first cooked, but it mellowed nicely in the fridge overnight. We had it for lunch with grated cheddar cheese and crushed tortilla chips.