Your Beef and Broccoli Substitute!

Are you on the Meatless Monday's bandwagon yet? If your answer is no - why the heck not? Not only has my weekly grocery bill gone down since going full-time veg, I no longer suffer from daily heart burn or cramping and gas (yeah - I know you wanted to know that!) Any-who, I have been trying to take it a step further lately and healthi-fy my family's meals, 'cause everyone knows a can of Coke and a Snickers bar is "vegetarian". It also has to do with the fact that I am never home for dinner now - so when I am - I want to try and make it the best meal possible. Being in nursing school kind of makes you want to be a better person as well! I mean sheesh - I am learning about our bodies and how they work, what kind of risk factors different types/sexes/ethnicitys people have - and it makes you want to be a better person! A better person for my patients, for my family, for myself! Just take 2 short minutes to browse through my medical dictionary - the pictures alone will make you want to change your lifestyle to the healthiest possible, in hopes that you won't develop or catch some of the scariest looking medical problems you have ever seen!

So, in my quest to make a healthier dinner, I came across the site eatbetteramerica.com, (suggested by my Aunt Mary Jo actually - she also suggested the avocado soup that turned out yummy). Yeah, sure, it's a General Mills website (so you know there's an agenda), but at least they are trying, right? AND - if you are coupon-wiz, there are tons of coupons to download and print! On this site you will find your regular-run-of-the-mill healthy recipes, and there are also "healthified" recipes, taking old favorites and substituting a few ingredients to make it nutritionally better!

The following recipe is a stir fry - Portobello-Broccoli Stir-Fry that I found in the 30-minutes or less section. And YES! It took less than 30 minutes to prepare (I hate it when it actually takes longer than the stated time because of all the veggie-prep - but this one was true to it's word!) Now that I have eaten it (obviously - lol) it reminded me of a beef and broccoli dish I used to get for Chinese take-out. Reading the reviews on the site confirms this thought as well! Okay - first things first : I make up the sauce so it can meld a bit before I add it to the dish. The sauce was simple, but I did make some changes - I used everything in the recipe - water, soy sauce, hoisin sauce (found in the Asian isle of any well-stocked supermarket, I got mine at Biggs), cornstarch and honey. My family likes rich and bold flavors, so I doubled the hoisin and honey, and added a couple extra shakes of soy sauce as well.

Then it was time to wash and cut the vegetables. Onions, portobello mushrooms, red bell peppers, and broccoli! Really this is a great combo for any stir fry!

I get out my wok and let it pre-heat. I also spray it with some nonstick spray (instead of using oil). This makes the recipe "healthier" as I am not using large amounts of oil to saute the veggies. I start out by sauteing the onions, mushrooms, and red bell pepper first along with some minced garlic.

Once the onions and peppers have started to soften (about 5 minutes) I add the broccoli and about 1/4 cup of water and then I cover the wok with the lid. This is a steaming/stir frying technique that I had never tried before but it worked out really well! I keep the cover on the veggies for about 5 more minutes, or until the broccoli has turned bright green and has softened ever so slightly.

After the veggies have been softened (but not too soft!) I add the hoisin sauce mix. I let this cook for about 2 minutes tops and we are ready to eat!

If you didn't notice, there is not a picture of rice being prepared, that's because I was already-ready this particular day. A lot of times when I make rice, I will make a double batch and put the plain leftovers in the fridge. Rice will keep for a while in your fridge and it's super easy to reheat in the microwave!

The verdict - VERY TASTY! I will say though - next time I am going to add some crushed red pepper flakes to give it a kick!

If you are ready to get on the Meatless Mondays (or Tuesdays, or Thursdays, or whenever) bandwagon, and you want to try something familiar and not too out there, make this stir fry your go-to for the first week! You won't be disappointed!!!

Feeling a Little South of the Border

If there is one thing my family can agree on when it comes to food, it's that Mexican food is GOOD! Mexican is also one of the easiest food genre's to veggi-fy! Just replace the meat with some veggies or beans (or both) - and you are good to go! This post is no exception. I stumbled upon something similar on (you guessed it) allrecipes.com, and I decided to change things up a bit and try it. To be honest, Matt loved this so much it completely made his crappy day into rainbows and unicorns... LOL! So if that's not enough to convince you to try it - I don't know what is. To start out I chop all my veggie's for the filling: onions, mushrooms, broccoli, and zucchini.

The original recipe called for roasting the vegetables, but unless it's the weekend - I absolutely cannot be wasting time to get dinner on the table before 7:00 PM! So, instead of roasting the veggies, I used my wok and stir fried them. Letting some olive oil heat up, I add minced garlic to the oil.

Once the olive oil is hot, I add the vegetables. At this point I also add in some chili powder, cumin powder, and fresh ground pepper to the vegetables. My kitchen starts to smell like awesome-ness at this point!




All while the vegetables are in the wok cooking, I am also boiling water, some butter and milk to make instant mashed potatoes! To be honest, I have never made instant mashed potatoes before! Maybe it was my Dad's persistence that my mom make the real ones every time, but it was just something I never ate or made. If I was making this on the weekend, and actually roasting the vegetables, yeah - I would make real mashed potatoes. But to get dinner on the table quickly - I went for the boxed stuff! These potatoes are ALSO going to be for my enchilada filling!

Now that the veggies and the potatoes are done, I combine them in the wok.

Now it's officially time to start assembling the enchiladas. I used canned enchilada sauce and pour one can onto a big plate. I then dip a tortilla into the sauce on both sides. This is usually a pretty messy process and I always have a towel on my shoulder so I can wipe excess food off my fingers.

I then place the tortilla on a plate and add my vegetable mixture and a bit of shredded cheese.

To be honest, if it wasn't for the enchilada sauce, these would be more like burritos. So really, if enchilada sauce isn't your thing, you could easily just make these into burritos and serve with some salsa and sour cream! But, I AM making enchiladas here - So I assemble my filled tortillas into my 9X13 pan.

Once all the tortillas have been assembled, I pour a second can of enchilada sauce over the tortillas and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.

When they are ready to come out, I remove the enchiladas from the oven and let them sit at room temperature for about 5 to 10 minutes. I then scoop them out onto a plate and serve with a dollop of sour cream and some sliced black olives. Like I said before - these turned out FANTASTIC! A great and easy dinner for sure! To make a complete meal serve with some guacamole and chips on the side!!! Also - these are filling!!! And they made a PERFECT lunch the next day at work!

As I stated last time, I am making a stir fry - well I actually did and I took pictures - so that will be my next post for sure! Till then - HAPPY COOKING!

allrecipes.com, Will You Marry Me?

So, I don't know what it is... I have been a bit of a slacker in the kitchen. Not so much the actual cooking part, but more like the taking pictures/creating my own food part. The family get-together (almost) two weeks ago was a SUCCESS! We ended up making a Buffalo "Chicken" Pizza, a Veggie Ranch Pizza, the Pizza-Without-The-Red-Sauce, and a meaty pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, and onions. But alas... The busy day kept me from taking pictures. Then, just last weekend, we had friends from Columbus stay with us, I made lots of yummy food like a spicy hot Mexican spinach dip and artichoke/eggplant sandwiches, but once again, pictures were not taken.

Maybe it's all the coming and going, maybe it was my son being sick last week (he is MUCH better now - thanks!), but one thing I have been doing - cooking from allrecipes.com and OF COURSE taking pictures of the final product to upload on the site. If I have said it once, I have said it a MILLION times, allrecipes.com is my favorite food site! The recipe database is HUGE and I love the fact that you can upload pictures, rate and review recipes. The reviews are especially handy because you can see what other people have experienced during their attempts to make the recipe.

So, as to not leave my faithful and AWESOME readers waiting any longer, I decided to upload and blog about a few things I have made recently from allrecipes.com. The first recipe I am sharing is the Original Blue Cheese Cole Slaw. For all the meat eaters that read my blog, this recipe was originally paired with a buffalo chicken sandwich (and I thought that sounded really tasty - if it wasn't for the whole vegetarian thing, I would be on that bandwagon!) I served this slaw one Settlers night with jalapeno melts (veggie burgers on sourdough bread with sauteed onions, sliced jalapenos, and pepperjack cheese - a burger that is made quite often at the Luckey-Meyer home). I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out really good! There is only one thing I would caution people about - the next day the blue cheese had taken over the slaw! That is all I could taste at lunch the next day and it was overpowering for my own tastes (which - you know it was strong because I LOVE cheese!) So, my suggestion would be to eat it all the same day!!!

That same Settlers night I also made these Twice-Baked Mashed Potatoes. They are a take on twice-baked potatoes, only instead of putting the potato filling back into the skin, you put it in a baking dish and let it bake with some cheese on top! I did not follow this recipe exactly, as I thought some adjustments were needed to please my particular crowd. Instead of using the green pepper and onion mixture it called for, I used about 5 green onions. I sauteed some garlic with the onion, and of course used fake bacon instead of the real stuff. These turned out better then expected and I will DEFINITELY be making these again and again and again. A bit time consuming, but they do take a little less time than real twice-baked potatoes (because you don't have to stand there stuffing however many individual potatoes), so if I were you, I would give these a try!

Finally, earlier this week I made this Really Creamy Fettuccine Alfredo. I have never attempted a homemade alfredo before, and this one seemed easy enough. Because of my lack of experience with this sort of food, I followed the recipe exactly, only adding some steamed broccoli at the end. Next time (and there will be a next time because this was like one of the easiest dinners ever!) I will cut back on the cream cheese (and by cream cheese, I mean neufchatel of course). Maybe add some more parmesan or try to substitute some with sour cream. I would only do this because the cream cheese was the main flavor in this dish, and that's not really the alfredo flavor I was looking for. Also - another word of caution on leftovers - the next day the sauce had turned clumpy and the taste was almost null. I didn't even finish it to be honest because I felt like I was eating just plain, clumpy noodles.




Next post I will have a complete meal! PROMISE! Till then - Happy Cooking!!!



***Also - QUESTION for all my computer geek friends... So - I am having trouble figuring out how to evenly space my photos, paragraphs and the like on my blog. I am only using the generic posting tools for blogger, but it's funny, because I will evenly space everything on my template, but then when I publish it, everything is all uneven again (as I am sure you have noticed! I promise I am trying to keep a clean blog!!!) HELP!?!?! Anyone?

Broccoli, Carrot, & Tofu Stir Fry

Last night was nice and relaxing. Ronnie was staying with his dad. I got home and went through the mail in peace. Yay, the new Design Within Reach catalog came in. I can't afford a darn thing in there, but it's fun to browse. (So I guess it's not really "within reach", at least not for myself.) I then proceeded to make dinner. But what to do when you're cooking for one? STIR FRY! I found a recipe in my favorite vegetarian cookbook, "Student's Vegetarian Cookbook" by Carole Raymond. I cook out of this book more than any others. It's not at all just for students, it's great for any beginner vegetarian on a budget. I stir fried some broccoli, carrots, and tofu and at the end dumped (by mistake) some soy sauce on. I also cooked up some Uncle Ben's Instant Brown Rice. I then toped it all off with some slices of green onions. The recipe calls for cashews for a garnish also, but I didn't want the added fat. I was just about to dig in and I thought, 'Why not do what all the other food-bloggers do?'. So I took out my camera and snapped a picture of my dinner. (You like my Martha placemats? I do.) I then proceeded to eat. Mmmmmm... It was yummy. After the dishes were done I sat on the couch for a minute. What to do, what to do. I went for a walk. It was close to dark already, and getting cool outside, but it was a perfect evening. I'm glad I got up and moving. The TV was still there when I got home...