Eat Like a Rabbit

Sometimes, the best laid plans aren't enough. Remember how my menu plan for the week included pre-cut vegetarian turkey and zucchini to make a second batch of soup? Well, tonight, for some reason, soup wasn't a good idea. It is a bit warmer in Florida, and I grazed on goodies all day at the office. So, it didn't take me long after getting in my car and starting the drive home to evaluate what was in the fridge and to change my mind. What I loved about the fajita idea was that everything had been prepared already. So, it was a cinch to cook, and I had two huge fajitas on the table within 15 minutes. Moreover, my only dishes were two plates, the sauteing skillet and spatula, the cutting board and knife for the onion (they were only in rings), and two knives and forks to eat with. Thanks to an empty dishwasher, clean-up was even faster than cooking!

Recipe for Veggie Fajitas

• 2 Large/Burrito Size Flour Tortillas
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
• 1/4 large onion, diced or sliced
• 1/4 bell pepper, sliced
• 1 cup vegetarian turkey, cubed or sliced
• 1/2 cup zucchini, cubed
• 1 T Oil, olive or other preferred sauteing

Note: Proportions of veggies and veggie-meat were what I had on hand. The beauty of such a recipe is that you can always add or take away or exchange. There is no wrong as long as you like what you are putting in the dish!

Place a medium to large skillet on medium-high heat. Pour in oil and add onions. Stir until onions soften. Add bell pepper, zucchini, and turkey. Stir to coat with oil. Let sit occasionally to brown sides of veggies and stir again. Veggie-meats do not have a minimum cook time. You only need the food to be cooked through (and the veggies tender, of course). Place tortillas on microwaveable plate. Spread vegetables evenly in center of wrap. Sprinkle with cheese and roll. Microwave 30 seconds to melt cheese OR while the veggies are cooking, place the tortillas on top of the skillet so they catch the heat from the cooking. Turn often to make sure all sides are warmed. Then, you don't have to microwave the finished product.

Sometimes, the photos of a meal go up on flickr before I get around to posting the story behind it. Our dear friend, Brent, had the kids by himself over the weekend while Lisa, his wife, was away with her family. Brent saw our picture of the Mexican Pizza, guessed how to make it, and made one for the kids. He said Kyle liked it, and he loved it. Apparently, Elena wasn't so sure about it. Therefore, I can actually post the opinions of this dish beyond our household. The first photo was from our dinner and the second is from Brent and the kids' dinner. Notice that Brent had mushrooms and bell pepper on the top of his pizza. The options are endless!

Recipe for Mexican Pizza

• 2 Burrito-sized Flour Tortillas
• 1/8 onion, sliced
• 1/4 small bell pepper, sliced
• 1/4 cup sliced black olives
• 1/3 can Fire Roasted Tomatoes
• 1/3 can Refried Beans
• 1/2 cup (more or less) cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place one flour tortilla in the center of a jelly roll pan (I like a pan with edges so juices don't run). Spread refried beans over the tortilla. Lay the onions, bell peppers, and black olives around over the beans and top with one layer of cheese (optional). Place second tortilla over the toppings (like a quesadilla), and top with the tomatoes and additional cheese. Bake in oven 7 minutes or until edges are brown and cheese is bubbling.

We loved these vegeburgers. I could see putting Grillers out of business with these. But beyond that, these make something pretty rare for people on a gluten-free diet. Most vegetarian meats have gluten or wheat products in them, which makes it hard to fill that empty spot in your stomach wishing for a vegetarian hamburger. Lisa has come through with what I think is a family recipe. And Paul hopes I make it a family recipe as well. By the way, the bun in the photograph is a whole wheat and not a gluten-free item.

Notes from Lisa

Here's the veggie burger recipe as best as I can replicate it. I've never made them exactly the same twice.

TSP=Textured Soy Protein can be interchangeable with TVP=textured vegetable protein. You'll sometimes see them in ingredient lists. The TVP is sometimes a red flag for gluten because they aren't committing to what type of vegetable protein it contains. So that's something I watch for. Just search on Google or on Amazon.com. Check to make sure the TSP or TVP used is gluten-free. Unless stated on the package, TVP (textured vegetable protein) is a red-flag for possibly containing gluten since the manufacturer is not stating what type of vegetable is used to make the product.

Gluten-Free Vegeburgers

Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups chicken-style dehydrated TSP
• 3 cups water, boiled
• 1 onion, grated or diced in sm. pieces
• 1-2 tablespoons oil
• ½ cup gluten-free bread crumbs
• ½ cup rice crackers, crushed
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 2-3 eggs
• 1-2 tablespoons chicken-style seasoning [like McKay's]
• 3 tablespoons liquid aminos
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Method

Boil water and combine with TSP to reconstitute it. Fluff with a fork. In a medium sized bowl, combine reconstituted TSP with onion and remaining ingredients. Depending on the consistency of the mixture, use 2 or 3 eggs to achieve a consistency that will hold together when formed into balls (or use 2 egg whites to equal 1 egg). If mixture is too dry, add another egg. If mixture is too wet, add more bread or cracker crumbs (can
use one or the other, don't have to use both). When desired consistency is achieved, form into balls and press down into an oiled skillet. Cook for several minutes on each side until done. When the first batch is done, taste a patty to determine if seasoning if
just right. Adjust as needed. Makes about 18 3-in. patties.

This is one of Paul's favorite things. I first had it at Christmas and thought it would be a fast and easy protein dish that I had most of the items for.

Publix was having a great sale on Birds Eye vegetables the week after we returned home from Paris. The products were 50% off, which is the equivalent of buy one, get one free. I often take advantage of these sales to try and review a new product.

Previously, I have made this soup and loved it. I'm not sure what went wrong this time around, but we weren't as excited about it this time. So I will probably be spending my time trying new soup recipes, which makes a lot of sense when it isn't cold that often in Florida. So many soups, so little time! However, I think the mixture of flavors is still creative and fun for those with more experienced taste as the egg and lemon are quite unusual. For people who have more calendar time to eat soups that warm the inside, I think the creation is worth a try from your own stove.

Pot pie is another recipe that falls under the Mom and Me group. Every time my mom asks me what I want for my birthday dinner, you can bet she already knows and has secretly stashed away the ingredients for this incredible one-dish meal. It is time consuming and requires lots of vegetables and seasonings; so, it is a rare treat. I am always grateful when I can get it. The pie crust recipe is definitely not original. My mom has seen it in a number of cookbooks and collected it from a friend of hers about the time I was born. Not sweet at all, the crust is fabulous for savory recipes, but can easily be adapted to sweet recipes. I have even used it as a crust for apple pie that was amazing. By all means, pot pie falls under fantastic winter comfort food. And my mom's is the best! (This I know for a fact because we have tried the miniature store-bought vegetarian pies. You likely won't see a review of those on ELAR. Believe me the love put into this dish is well worth it.)

Our friends, Frank and Emily had seen the movie, Ratatouille, enough that they wanted to see what ratatouille<

This salsa went over so well at the group dinner, that I decided to take the same recipe and make it again in the form of enchiladas. Paul was confused because I used flour tortillas--which made it look more like burritos--instead of corn tortillas. However, it was quite the success because a few people came up specifically to shake my hands when it was done. As was common on those nights, there was a line for the food when I arrived, which gave me no time to take pictures. The above picture was a plate of leftovers we made for someone who was late. On the night of the enchiladas and Spanish rice, there wasn't a bite of anything left except the chips and salsa.

This post refers to the product in the very front of the photograph. The plate was a sampler platter at a buffet. I created the dishes. Hopefully, recipes for the other dishes will be available soon.

This post focuses on delicious, quick meals and the estimated prices for making them. My goal is to help families prepare healthy menus in spite of the depressed economy.

When I first acquired my "Moosewood Restaurant New Classics" cookbook, I feared it would be a waste because I felt the recipes took too long to prepare, but my patient mother-in-law pointed out that there was an excellent fajita recipe in the book. It did call for tofu, which we omitted because we didn't have any. I'm sure we could have substituted another veggie meat, but I didn't think of that at the time because it was getting late to eat anything resembling a dinner. Other vegetables and flavors included onions, garlic, bell peppers, and tomatoes. I did have grated sharp cheddar available and served the fajitas with salsa and multi-grain chips.

These are the absolute cutest cheeses I've ever seen. They come individually wrapped and in large numbers in Costco's Special Cheese section. Paul can easily take one to work. They look adorable sitting beside a dinner plate. And they make an ordinary salad definitely look unusual. The cheese is very soft and mild. I love to sprinkle a bit of black pepper over the cheese to highlight its true white color.

Baked potatoes are good for you and have so many options for changing the style and taste. Our microwave even has a "Baked Potato" setting on it so I can turn it on and forget about them until it beeps telling me they are perfectly done. Granted, most people say microwaved baked potatoes are technically steamed, but they still taste soft and rarely mushy. Real ovens take around an hour to bake completely and risk overcooking. I have been told loading a crockpot down with potatoes yields very nice baked spuds. Note, that when there is a big crowd and spuds are small, the more toppings, the farther the dish goes.

I love scrambled eggs. Who doesn't? As a child, I watched my grandparents put chives in theirs and it made me sick. Now, I can't eat my eggs plain. Paul put his eggs on top of his English muffin, poured Cholula Sauce over it, and garnished it with Raspberries. All of my items were neatly separated. The differences between a husband and a wife! I will say, I was out of spinach this day. I missed it.

I was feeling guilty about not having cooked a good, solid meal in a week as we had eaten out a lot with friends and had been on vacation. So when I came across a new variety of frozen vegetables in the grocery store, I took a chance.

I prefer Bird's Eye vegetables to other frozen vegetables because most of them come with some form of seasoning already added. You are actually allowed to experiment with flavor. In this case, we had sugar snap peas, asparagus, carrots and red bell peppers in a lime cilantro sauce. The dish could be microwaved or steamed on the stove. I chose the stove--however, you must watch the meal more closely in that case.

The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet has a recipe for two onion pizza. We had yellow and red onions. Now, we absolutely love onion pizza provided it is made well and does not include a lot of skins. I knew we would already vote for this recipe so, I added some red and orange bell peppers. I loved how pretty it came out. Food has to look inviting to convince anyone to taste it. I used Classico Spaghetti Sauce on the bottom and topped the vegetables with Jarlsburg cheese.

From "Easy Weeknight Favorites" by Southern Living. Tonight I had too many eggs and looked for a recipe to use them. Egg Foo Young came to mind. To cook Ramen noodles without the non-vegetarian flavor packet, I mixed McKay's Chicken Style Seasoning and onion powder into the water before it boiled. I added white onions, carrots, broccoli, and orange bell peppers for additional food value. I also substituted Fri-chik for the chicken. I was greatly disappointed in the flavor of the sauce. Also, I think the recipe should have recommended the Ramen noodles be slightly undercooked due to the fact that they would be cooked more in the skillet. Plus, I had to use three pots and a large mixing bowl to complete the task. I'd say that's too many dishes to be easy.