Meatless Monday: Soyrizo and Potato Tostadas

September 26, 2011 by 3 Comments

Hi friends!  It’s time for another Meatless Monday!

 

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Have you ever tried soyrizo?

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I know what you’re probably thinking, but it is really really good.  My carnivorous brother actually told me that I needed to try this because it is amazing.  He insisted several times that I try it, so I finally did.  And he was totally right!  He says that it tastes just like chorizo.  I’ve never had chorizo, so I’m just going to take his word for it.

I try not to do too too many processed soy products, but this is one that I do have occasionally because I love it.  And I almost always make tacos or tostadas with it.

 

Soyrizo and Potato Tostadas (yield: 8 tostadas)
(Print this recipe!)

Ingredients:
1 medium potato, cubed
1 small onion, diced
1 package soyrizo
8 corn tortillas
Cooking spray- a few spritzes
topping suggestions: non-dairy cheese, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, avocado, salsa, sour cream

Directions:
First, prepare your tostada shells.  Preheat oven to 300 F.  Spritz a baking pan with cooking spray, place tortillas on pan and spritz top of tortillas with cooking spray and sprinkle with a little salt.  Bake tortillas until crisp on each side, flipping tortilla halfway through.  Time will vary- watch them closely so they don’t burn!  Set aside until you’re ready to top them.

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Next add cubed potatoes to a medium stock pot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are fork tender.  Drain potatoes and set aside.

 

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Sauté onions in skillet over medium until tender (I like to sauté in a little veg broth- it adds an amazing flavor to your vegetables and no extra fat!).

Add soyrizo to the onions and break up with your spoon.

Add potatoes and stir until the potatoes are incorporated.  It’s okay if the potatoes mash into your soyrizo mixture a little, but don’t stir too much because you still want chunks of potato.

 

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Time to top your tostadas!

Layer your tostadas however you choose- I used a little Daiya Pepperjack cheese, as much lettuce as I could get on there, tomato, and salsa.

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And I served it with black beans on the side.

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So. Good.

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Meatless Monday: Giveaway Winner + The Perfect Spaghetti Squash

September 19, 2011 by 7 Comments

Happy Meatless Monday! 

I have a giveaway winner!  The winner is entry number 25, so the 25th entry(skipping my own comments about your favorite meals of course) is Lindsay from The Lean Green Bean!

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See, those extra twitter entries really helped!  I’ve already emailed you, Lindsay.  Let me know if you didn’t get the email!!

On to the spaghetti squash!

Have we all had Spaghetti Squash before?  If not, you should most definitely try it!!

Spaghetti squash is a winter squash, and when it’s cooked the flesh falls away in strands that look like spaghetti.  And it clocks in at only 42 calories per cup!

I’m about to give you THE perfect way to cook a spaghetti squash. 

Are you ready?  I mean really get ready, because this will possibly blow your mind…

 

Take your spaghetti squash…

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And cut it in half widthwise, NOT lengthwise (this is where my tutorial differs from others!). 

 

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Scoop out all of the seeds and the stringy things.  Place both halves on a plate and cover with saran wrap.

 

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Place in microwave and cook for 10-15 minutes until you can easily pierce through it with a knife. (depending on the size of your spaghetti squash it may take a little longer)

Let cool for a few minutes until you can handle the squash, then carefully scrape out the strands with a fork.

 

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My favorite way to eat spaghetti squash is with steamed veggies (usually broccoli) and covered in my favorite spaghetti sauce!  And with a big hunk of bread on the side of course!!

 

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I know what you’re possibly thinking right now.  But every other tutorial on spaghetti squash says I should cut my spaghetti squash in half LENGTHwise!  And to that I say no no no!

Here’s why you should cut your spaghetti squash in half widthwise instead of lengthwise…

  • you’ll get longer prettier strands!!  (look at the inside of a spaghetti squash- have you ever noticed that the strands don’t run lengthwise?  They run in a circle around the width of the squash)
  • it’s easier to cut in half when you cut it this way.
  • it cooks faster (when I cut it lengthwise it takes me around 30 minutes to cook it, this took me 10!)
  • you can cook both halves in the microwave at once! (you can’t really do that when you cut it in half lengthwise- unless you have a really big microwave)

 

We eat spaghetti squash like it’s going out of style around here!  So much food for so few calories- I can totally get on board with that!!

What does everyone else top their spaghetti squash with??

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Meatless Monday: My Favorite Vegetarian Cookbooks + GIVEAWAY!

September 12, 2011 by 69 Comments

I’m not going to lie- the recipe I was hoping to have for this week’s Meatless Monday was a total fail.  It needs some major tweaks, but hopefully I’ll have it for next week!

In the meantime, how about a giveaway??  Keep reading to find out the deets!

I’m a bit of a cookbook hoarder.  When I went veg I actually got rid of quite a few of them that I knew I would never use again.  But I still have a lot.  Some are not vegetarian, but are fairly veg friendly or easy to make the recipes veg with a few simple substitutions.

But let’s talk about my favorite vegetarian cookbooks!  I get asked that question a lot- besides “where do you get your protein?!”, this is the most asked question I get… “what are some good vegetarian cookbooks?”

I am SUPER picky about my cookbooks.  They have to include a simple ingredient list.   I prefer cookbooks with pictures, but I’ll make exceptions for this if it’s gotten really great reviews.  They also have to have ingredients that are accessible to me and easy to find- NO obscure items that I would have to order online!

Here are a few of my faves that have passed the test!

All my veg cookbooks (I have many more that are not totally veg though…).

 

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My favorite vegan dessert cookbooks…

 

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I use this one time and time again- it has never failed me!  It’s worth buying just for the apple cake and cinnamon roll recipes alone.  To. Die. For.

 

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This one is fantastic, but honestly I prefer my own cupcake and buttercream recipes.  I do always come back to this book for inspiration and ideas though!

 

My absolute favorite overall veg cookbooks…

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Want a cookbook that’s PACKED with nutrition and some seriously delicious and simple recipes??  These are the cookbooks for you!  I can’t say enough about both of them. They’re both based on the findings of Dr. T. Collin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s research and the book “The China Study”. (Also, I really encourage you to see Forks Over Knives- it’s available on Netflix!)  P.S. don’t be fooled by the word “diet” on the engine 2 cookbook.  It’s not a “diet”.  I promise.

 

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I have made many many recipes from this book (including a holiday meal!) and it has never lead me wrong!  LOVE it, and love the author!

 

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This one is my newest obsession!  I have a major crush on Mama Pea and I just love this book.  This book is SO perfect for vegetarians and meat eaters alike.  It’s great for someone that’s just wanting to add a few more vegetarian meals to their arsenal!  I’ve tried several recipes from this cookbook and haven’t been disappointed yet!

 

And now for the GIVEAWAY!

I’m giving away a vegetarian cookbook of your choice!  It does not have to be one that I listed above- the sky is the limit! 

Is there a cookbook that you’ve been wanting to try but you weren’t sure you wanted to spend the money on it?  Are you wanting to try more meatless recipes but aren’t sure where to start?  Well, here’s your chance!

This giveaway will be running from the moment I hit publish until 5:00 pm CST on Friday September 16th! 

Also, this giveaway is limited to the United States and Canada only because of shipping expenses.

To enter the giveaway:

You can get up to three entries in this giveaway. 

  1. Simply leave a comment below stating your favorite meatless meal! 
  2. Tweet about this giveaway or facebook it if you don’t have twitter (and then leave a comment here telling me that you tweeted/facebooked it)
  3. Link to this giveaway in a blog post (and then leave a comment here with a link to your post)

That’s it.  No games to play, no hoops to jump through (don’t you hate it when there’s a giveaway on a blog and you have to jump through hoops just for one entry?  So silly!)

Good luck!!!

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Meatless Monday: Tempeh Sloppy Joes

August 29, 2011 by 6 Comments

 

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Sometimes it’s fun to get sloppy and a little messy when you eat- and these sandwiches definitely fit the bill!  If you aren’t sure what tempeh (pronounced tem-pay) is, check out this post. I’ve seen people crumble up tempeh and use it in tacos and sloppy joes so I thought I would give it a try. Don’t forget you’ll need to steam the tempeh a bit before you crumble it up(see the same post if you want to know why)!

These tempeh sloppy joes are amazing- tempeh is the perfect texture for crumbling up and using in this type of recipe.  If you don’t like tempeh you could just use portabella mushrooms instead.  I really think the meaty-ness of the tempeh fits perfectly with the sauce.  This recipe is perfect for a casual Meatless Monday dinner!

Oh and by the by, any time I make (or think of) sloppy joes I can’t help but sing that Adam Sandler song. (Sloppy joe, slop sloppy joe)

Let’s get sloppy, shall we?

Tempeh Sloppy Joes
makes 6-8 sandwiches
(print this recipe)

Ingredients:
1 package tempeh
1 small onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 cup chopped mushrooms (I like cremini mushrooms)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetarian worcestershire sauce
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
Salt and pepper
Whole wheat burger buns

 

Directions:
Steam tempeh for about 10 mins- I do it on the stove in a steamer basket.  Let tempeh cool before crumbling.

Over medium-high heat, sauté onion and bell pepper together in a little cooking spray until tender (veggie broth works nicely for sautéing veggies too).

Crumble in the tempeh (it should crumble easily) and add the mushrooms and garlic.  Cook until the mushrooms are tender, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the tomato paste, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, and tomato sauce.  Simmer until sauce is thick.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Spoon the mixture onto your burger buns and top with your favorite garnish- I love pickles on sloppy joes!  I also like to serve these with sweet potato fries.

 

mmmmmm…….

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Hope you had a great Meatless Monday!!

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Meatless Monday: Quinoa Stuffed Hatch Chiles

August 8, 2011 by 4 Comments

Happy Meatless Monday friends!  After you read this head over to Liz’s blog to see my first ever guest post!  Oddly enough that recipe also feature’s quinoa- and I didn’t even plan it that way!

So if you know me, then you know that I’m completely obsessed with not only extremely spicy things, but also with Hatch Chiles!    See last year’s Hatch Chile post if you want the deets on this amazing pepper (or if you want to make the awesome Hatch Chile Rellenos that I made last year- trust me, you do!)

It’s not quiiiiite time for the Hatch Fest at Central Market yet, but they have already put their chilies out so I grabbed some!  I’ll be out of town during the Hatch Fest this year so this may be all I get!  Sadface.

I’ve been contemplating for months what my first Hatch recipe was going to be this year, and after seeing the Vegan Zombie make stuffed poblanos I knew I had to make Stuffed Hatch Chiles!  This recipe is inspired by that episode of The Vegan Zombie!  Stay tuned for more Hatch recipes over the next few weeks- I’ve already got a Hatch Sourdough in mind, and who knows what else my crazy brain will come up with!

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Without further ado, I give you…

Quinoa Stuffed Hatch Chiles
(Print this recipe!)

Ingredients:
6 large Hatch Chiles (you can use poblanos if you can’t get the Hatch)
15 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (+ 1 cup water for cooking the quinoa)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder(optional, but if you want a little extra spiciness you should add this!)
1/2 cup pepperjack cheese (I like Daiya!)
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F and spritz a baking pan with cooking spray.

Rinse your quinoa and cook it- I use a 2:1 water to quinoa ratio and cook it in my rice cooker, but you can cook it on the stove too! 

While quinoa is cooking, slice your peppers in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds out (tip: I use a grapefruit spoon to scoop the seeds out so I don’t have to worry about touching them with my fingers!)

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Sauté onion and bell pepper over medium heat until tender. 

Add garlic and continue to cook until fragrant.

In a large bowl, stir together the sautéed veggies, beans, quinoa, spices, and cheese.

Scoop the mixture into your peppers- don’t be afraid to get your hands in there and really mound up the filling in those peppers!

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Pop the stuffed chiles in the oven for around 20 minutes, or until the peppers are soft. (start watching them when you get to the 15 minute mark- you don’t want them to burn!)

If you’re awesome like me, you’ll top your stuffed peppers with some vegan queso and a big scoop of guac!

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mmmmmmmm……

 

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