vegetarian | What's Annie Making?

Betcha’ didn’t know brussels sprouts could taste like this…

29 December, 2012 Leave a Comment

Hi friends. I hope you all had a very happy holiday season! Around here we’ve been extremely blessed to be able to enjoy time with both of our families. Time that involved presents, playing, puppies and lots and lots of food.

Any time we go home, Charlie has such a blast playing with my parent’s two Cairn terriers, Lexie and Rosie. The minute we walk in the door, they are off and running. All you see is a big ball of blonde fur.

Also a given at home, is a smorgasbord of Christmas sweets. This year, my treats from Cookies Day were also included in the mix so there was more than enough to go around. That’s okay though, more options to choose from.

When we got home though it was time for a long nap (Charlie slept for a day straight), drink buckets of water, and eat some green things.

My body was craving a healthy meal badly. I had some brussels sprouts in the crisper begging to be used. In an effort to keep things a little festive I decided to forego roasting them, and decided to shred them instead.

I followed this recipe from 101 Cookbooks exactly, and it turned out great! Shredding and sautéing the sprouts with just a little brown sugar in them really helps get rid of the bitterness. I would venture a guess that this recipe may turn the biggest brussels sprouts hater into a lover (or at least a tolerator).

I started by pressing my tofu (Trader Joe’s Sprouted Extra Firm) by putting in between paper towels and under 30 pounds of plates.

They make fancy tofu-presses for this purpose. My kitchen doesn’t need any more 1-job tools. Plates work just fine for me. Then I sautéed the tofu in a cast iron skillet to get it nice and crispy. I did everything else as specified. Served with a side of brown rice.

Yumm!!!! Who ever thought that it would be hard to stop eating tofu and brussels sprouts? I already have plans to make this again in a few days. It was that good!

And I need to give my soux chef credit…

Filed Under: dinner, puppy, quick, vegan, vegetarian

Fresh and Tasty Black Bean Quinoa Salad

22 August, 2012 Leave a Comment

School days, school days… Yesterday was my first day of classes for 20th grade for me (if you count kindergarden). That means that I’ve been going to school for 4/5 of my life! Yikes!!!! Fortunately for me, my program and grad school is awesome and I love it. I can’t believe how great school can be if you are studying what you’re interested in. Seriously people! Do what you love. It makes all of the hard work worth it.

So, truth time. When I was little (until high school pretty much) I would get so nervous the night before the first day of school and make myself physically sick. Like throw up sick. I don’t know what I was so nervous about. My first day of school outfit wouldn’t be cool enough? Nobody would like me? I would get lost? Who the heck knows. I still get kind of worked up that big night before, but lucky for me, I haven’t puked in quite some time now.

Alright, enough of that.

Another big part of school starting back up is packing lunches. Now I’m all for taking leftovers if I have them, but some times that just isn’t the case. My solution is making a big batch of grain salad in the beginning of the week and then packing it up for lunches to come. This salad is free of mayo and dairy too, so I don’t have to worry if my lunch box can’t make it into a fridge. You can eat it cold or at room temp. It’s delicious all the same.

The recipe itself is fairly basic and you could easily swap out veggies for what you happen to have in the fridge. But the dressing is delicious! The smoked paprika gives such a good flavor. And mixed with the salty feta. Mmmmm!!!

Happy first day of school to me:)

Question of the day -

— Are you happy that it’s back to school time already?

— How did you handle the first day of school growing up?

— What’s your favorite easy to pack lunch?

Fresh and Tasty Black Bean Quinoa Salad

by Annie S

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Keywords: saute entree salad side whole grain vegetarian

Ingredients (6 servings)

2 cups cooked quinoa
1 large tomato, chopped
1 large yellow pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
corn kernels from 1 cob of corn
1 t + 2 T olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
1 T lemon juice
1/2 t sea salt
1/2 T honey
1 t smoked paprika (optional, but recommended)
2 + 2 cloves garlic, minced
3 T fresh cilantro, minced
2 T crumbled feta

Instructions

Cook quinoa according to package directions (I cooked 1 c dry quinoa in 2 c water to yield 2 c cooked)

Remove from heat and place in fridge

Mix tomato, peppers, cucumbers, and black beans in a large bowl

Heat 1 t olive oil in a skillet over medium heat

Saute 2 cloves minced garlic in oil 30 sec-1 min

Add corn, cook 2-3 minutes until just cooked through

Remove from heat and stir into veggies

Stir in cooled quinoa

Put 2 t olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, honey, salt, 2 cloves minced garlic, and smoked paprika in a small bowl

Whisk with a fork until combined

Pour over salad

Toss carefully, or put a lid on and shake well

Sprinkle with feta and cilantro

Enjoy!

Filed Under: dinner, leftovers, lunch, quick, salad, vegetarian

Portobello Black Bean Chili

21 August, 2012 Leave a Comment

Oh hayyyyy!!! I’m back from an inadvertent week long blogging hiatus. It actually was more like a week without my computer because our internet was completely broken and stupid cable company couldn’t come and fix it until now. Oh yeah, and I had to move around my schedule today so I could be home for the 5 hour window that they might show up in… Lame sauce.

As much as it was inconvenient to not have immediate access to the internet (what did we ever do without it???) it was also kind of nice to disconnect for a little while. Between school, work and blogging it’s really easy for me to just sit behind my computer for hours and hours each day without even stepping outside. Today before they came I worked out, mowed the lawn (yeah I know!) scrubbed my floor, and read a book. It was wonderful! I need to remember to disconnect every now and again, even though I have full access to technology.

Okay, over that. I made this chili almost 2 weeks ago now. It was the season opener for the Packers and I had a chili craving. Forget that it was the middle of the summer. Football=chili and cornbread, and brownies. Period.

The thing is, I don’t really like beef in my chili. I can handle it every once in a while, if it’s in very small amounts, but I would just rather leave the cow out of the picture.

So I used mushrooms instead. Portobellos to be exact. And it was amazing! I loved the meaty texture and flavor that the mushrooms gave this standard veggie chili. Button mushrooms would be fine too, but I had ports, so that’s what I used.

And the secret ingredients besides the mushrooms, brown sugar and cocoa powder. They give such a great flavor balance and depth the chili. Don’t worry, it doesn’t taste like chocolate at all. Promise.

I made this alongside my all-time favorite cornbread and we had the perfect football season meal.

If you don’t have time to simmer all of these ingredients on the stove, I’m sure you could throw everything in the crock pot on low and let it cook all day while you’re at work. In fact, I’m pretty sure I will be doing that exact thing several more times this year. And so should you!

Period.

Portobello Black Bean Chili

by Annie S

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Keywords: saute entree soup/stew vegetarian

Ingredients (8 cups)

1 14 oz can black beans
1 14 oz can garbanzo beans
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
2 T chili powder
1 1/2 t cumin
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 lb mini portobello mushrooms (or button mushrooms), diced
1 1/2 t sea salt
1 jalapeño, finely minced
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2 c water
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
2 T tomato paste
1/8 c brown sugar
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
shredded cheddar cheese
cilantro
plain greek yogurt, or sour cream

Instructions

Heat oil in a large dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat

Saute chopped onion in oil until it starts to sweat (edges should be translucent)

Add chopped mushrooms, peppers and salt, saute 8-10 minutes until mushrooms start to cook down

Add canned tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, beans, water, bouillon, and tomato paste

Bring to a boil

Reduce heat to low, cover, cook 1-2 hours

Stir in brown sugar and cocoa powder

Cook 30 more minutes

Serve, top with cheese, cilantro and yogurt

Filed Under: dinner, man friendly, soup, vegan, vegetarian

Grilled Portobello Sandwich

25 July, 2012 Leave a Comment

Morning lovelies. I hope your week is treating you well. We’re half way there folks. That means it’s Friday eve eve??? I like to think so.

Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m in a bit of recipe slump. Life has been crazy between school, clinic, and trying to be a good newlywed Speaking of which, I’ve had a blast doing the wedding recap posts for you guys! I hope you are liking them too. Anyhow, recipe slumps. Why cook inside when you can heat up something outside that won’t leave the house on fire afterwards?

Fortunately, last weekend when we went to Madison I got a little inspiration. The Great Dane has a sandwich on their menu that is the best portobello sandwich I’ve ever had. So. much. flavor.

The star is a marinaded mushroom, topped with roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella, garlic basil aioli on toasted ciabatta bread. It is to die for. Everything there is amazing, but this is my go-to meal by far.

Unfortunately The Great Dane is not located anywhere near me.

Fortunately for you, I figured out how to make a dead ringer for this sandwich at home!

I made it using a homemade aioli that I made in my Vitamix (recipe coming tomorrow!) but if you don’t want to make your own aioli you could easily use store-bought mayonnaise mixed with some garlic and minced basil.

These sandwiches look complicated but they’re actually pretty simple to put together.

Recipe slump officially over.

Grilled Portobello Sandwich

by Annie S

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Keywords: grill entree vegetarian

Ingredients

2 portobello mushrooms
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 t olive oil
1 t sea salt
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 red pepper, cut into large slices
mozzarella cheese
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
garlic basil aioli
ciabatta bread

Instructions

Scrape the gills out of the mushrooms

Place in a large shallow dish

Pour balsamic vinegar, 1 t olive oil, salt and pepper on top

Cover and shake to coat mushrooms completely

Let marinade 20-30 minutes

Heat grill to medium

Prepare garlic olive oil by putting 2 T olive oil and 2 cloves of minced garlic in a small dish, let sit

Put mushrooms on grill, cooking 12-15 minutes on each side

Put red peppers on grill, cook 2-3 minutes per side

Cut ciabatta bread in half, spread with garlic olive oil

Grill 1-2 minutes until just toasted

The last 2 minutes of the mushrooms cooking, put mozzarella cheese on top and close the grill lid to melt the cheese

Remove from grill and assemble sandwiches

Spread ciabatta with aioli, place mushroom and red pepper on top and the top of the ciabatta

Enjoy!

Filed Under: dinner, grilled, quick, sandwich, Uncategorized, vegetarian

Betcha’ didn’t know brussels sprouts could taste like this…

Fresh and Tasty Black Bean Quinoa Salad

Portobello Black Bean Chili

Grilled Portobello Sandwich

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