When our lives kicked into overdrive with long hours at work, the gym and working on the house or running errands, the blog postings took a hit. While I still took a lot of pictures, I didn't get enough time in the evenings where I was awake enough to post them to my computer and add them in with thoughts. Although I am now jumping back in time to before the last postings occurred, there are just so many dishes and photos that I still want to share with you. So, if you don't mind, I will just describe each of them as I go without much in-the-moment stories since I can't remember what night I made what.
Before the vegan eating diet, we were still eating many vegetarian dinners on a regular basis. For myself, I feel like going meatless is a healthier, cheaper and more ethical option and I know hubs is fine with these types of dinners. Basically, as long as he's had enough to eat and the flavour is there, I don't think he cares as much if there is meat or not. One of the things I love about him is his willingness to try new foods and his openness to most meals.
Eggplant Parmesan is one of our favourite meatless dishes and one that goes over well with company, carnivores alike. Also, it fits in with my MO. Simple preparation, no fancy ingredients, inexpensive to make. Fresh eggplant is sliced into rounds and then dredged in flour, followed by egg (to hold the breadcrumbs in place) and then breadcrumbs or panko. I like to mix in some Parmesan cheese right into the bread crumbs along with garlic powder, oregano and basil.
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| eggplant prep |
Once all the eggplant slices are prepped, you have a few options. You can freeze the rounds as they are, between pieces of wax paper, for a later use. You can fry the slices in oil to crisp them up, or you can take a healthier route and avoid the oil by baking the slices on parchment paper in the oven.
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| rounds ready for the oven |
To make this dish for company, I would put some pasta sauce into a glass square pan and lay down a layer of eggplant rounds on top, followed by more sauce, some shredded mozza cheese and some Parmesan cheese, then repeat the layers. End with pasta sauce and cheese and bake until everything is hot and the cheese is melted. Serve this hot and simply scoop out portions for guests. This is great with a large leafy green salad. For a crowd, I would serve some roasted carrots, green peas, and maybe garlic toast for those that want some treat carbs.
For dinner for 2, I like to make individual slices so that leftovers don't get soggy. I simply top the fresh baked rounds with warmed pasta sauce and sprinkle with some cheese (this is my dish so I didn't add any cheese to mine). For us, a nice side was some lightly sauteed zucchini.
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| vegetarian dinner |
Lately, when I have felt like having dessert, I've been making crisps. I figure at least there's fruit in it and some oatmeal. I try not to use too much sugar and margarine. We had some frozen mixed berries that I wanted to use up so they went into a glass dish and sprinkled with a little brown sugar. The topping is a typical crisp mix: margarine (or butter), brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and oatmeal. Into the oven until bubbling and crisp.
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| berry crisp for dessert |
One of C's favorite vegetarian dishes as of late is a bean chili. I found the recipe in a Taste of Home magazine. Onion, carrots, peppers all get sauteed in a large pot until just slightly tender.
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| bean chili ingredients |
Three cans of different types of beans (I used canned mixed beans, red kidney beans, and chickpeas) need to be drained and rinsed to get off the sodium.
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| bean mix |
With the beans rinsed, they can be added to the pot with the veggies. Next, add in a large can of crushed tomatoes and a small can of tomato paste. Be liberal with seasoning. I believe this calls for cumin, chili powder (I used cayenne), Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, salt, pepper. Let this come to a boil and then simmer for as long as you can for the flavours to marry. It's even better the following day. If you like this spicier, add in some chopped jalapenos with the sauteed veggies or some banana peppers at the end. This is great served with cornbread. You could also make some homemade sweet potato fries or oven baked potato chunks, put them into a cast iron skillet, top with chili and shredded cheese and bake until bubbly. Serve with sour cream and chopped cilantro.
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| Bean chili |
Butternut squash made its way home one day and sat on the counter for quite some time, ignored. What to make, what to make. Without any real ideas or time, I decided to simply prolong it's life by peeling, chopping and baking the squash.
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| chopped squash in the food processor |
Once the squash was cooked and soft, I put it into the food processor and blended until smooth. I warn you now that this post is not very interesting but perhaps you'll be able to use the lack of product as stimuli for imagination. I now have baggies in the freezer containing 1 cup each of pureed butternut squash. So, what should I make with this? Muffins? Loaf? Pasta sauce?
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| squash puree - destined to be...? |
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| pasta before being baked |
About 15-20 minutes in the oven and the cheese melted, the pasta sauce and cheese mixture heated through and the dish was ready to be gobbled down by a hungry husband. C loved this dish and I was happy to make a treat. Another bonus, is there is enough cheese mixture left, just waiting for another chance to be a great meal.
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| baked pasta |
Speaking of a second life for the filling...why not stuffed in some mushrooms? C also loves stuffed mushrooms so this was another bonus that the cheese filling provided. I would absolutely encourage you to make some sort of filling like this that can be used in a variety of dishes. Not only does it save time, but it also prolongs the life of the mix without creating boredom of eating the same dish over and over.
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| cheese stuffed mushrooms |
Aha! The fruit smoothie! C and I have been making these daily now for part of our breakfast. I ended up with a boatload of bananas one week so was throwing them into everything before they turned. Here is what you need to make a low calorie (about 150 per serving) fruit smoothie: 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 2 single serve fat free silhouette yogurt (flavour as you like - I went with peach or vanilla), 1 cup of frozen strawberries, 1 whole banana. Put all of this into a blender and puree until smooth.
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| smoothie ingredients |
This week, with C and I cutting out dairy, we've eliminated the yogurt and simply added more almond milk. You could also substitute another type of frozen fruit for the strawberries. Cinnamon, a little vanilla flavouring could also be added to spice things up. If you or your partner don't eat much raw fruit, this might be a good way for you to add more vitamins to your diet.
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| smoothie for breakfast |
That boatload of ripe bananas wasn't just prime for smoothies. I had been eyeing a recipe in my ice cream book for a while now: banana peanut ice cream.
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| fresh ripe bananas, ready to become a creamy cold dessert |
Butter (yes, I actually had butter in the fridge) was heated in a skillet until lightly browned.
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| butter! |
The sliced bananas were then added to the butter with some sugar and caramelized.
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| bananas, butter and sugar |
The sweet bananas were not added to a blender with peanut butter, some cream and whole milk and blended until smooth.
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| ingredients blended until smooth |
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| ingredients in blender |
The blended mixture was then poured back into a saucepan to heat until just steaming the poured into a clean metal bowl, plastic wrap pressed down onto the liquid so a skin won't form, and placed in the fridge until cooled completely. Once the cream mixture is cool, it can be added to the churning frozen drum of the ice cream maker,
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| ice cream maker, churning away |
The ice cream was smooth and creamy and the flavour of bananas and peanut butter was actually quite subtle and very unique. C tasted it and said it was good but not his favorite. I liked it fresh from the drum but didn't eat much of it after that. We'll pass on making this one again.
Later, with Christmas season exploding from every store, I decided to make my own concoction of a candy cane ice cream and used a vanilla base but steeped some candy canes in the cream to release the flavour then added crushed candy cane oreos to the ice cream in the last stage of churning. Much better!
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| banana peanut butter ice cream |
Another food that we seemed to have an abundance of was carrots. I decided one afternoon to peel and shred what was left of the carrots so I could buy a fresh new bag. I love having items like this prepped at my disposal as they are so versatile. Shredded carrots could be added to salad, a stir-fry, baking...
I opted for some healthy banana bran muffins with shredded carrots to ramp up the health factor and moistness.
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| shredded carrots being added to muffin mix |
Bran muffins are one of my favorites for work because I can take them in the morning with my fruit shake and have a more filling healthy breakfast on the go.
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| shredded carrots, at the ready |
Fresh from the oven, these little nuggets of bran are so tasty! If you want, a little dab of margarine or some sugar free jam and you have yourself a guilt free afternoon snack.
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| banana carrot bran muffins |
Phew!! We're finally down to the last blurb of this post. A side dish. I had fish as the main protein and some sauteed cauliflower for one side but needed one more side. I wanted a carb and decided to use some of the organic quinoa. I had seen a similar recipe in a magazine and decided to use the flavours that I had. Lime, cilantro and some sweet dried apricots.
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| quinoa side dish |
I finely chopped the cilantro and zested the lime after scrubbing it well. I wasn't going to use the juice so wrapped the leftover fruit in some plastic wrap and stuck it back in the fridge for later use. You can freeze and leftover zest if you have too much in a little baggie or tupperware if you like.
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| lime and cilantro |
The quinoa simply cooks the way lentils or couscous does...in some water in a pot, just to absorb the liquid and puff up. I added in some chopped dried apricots to this cooking process so that the dried fruit could reconstitute a little to be plumper and more flavourful. Once the grain was cooked, I added in the herbs and zest and served it as a hot side to a light meal. Very tasty!!
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| fruit and herb quinoa salad |
Well, that's all folks! Actually, once again, I have just finished my post for the evening. It's almost 11pm (far too late for an old gal like me, heehee) and C is in the tub calling me. Mrs B is tuckered out and so, I bid you adieu and goodnight and until the next free evening. I have 2 more long posts to catch up on old "material" and then, ladies and gents, we are back to "live"! I look forward to being able to share more moments with you all later.
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| bedtime, mom |
