Meatless madness! My beginning of becoming a Vegetarian...well Flexitarian anyway.

It's been a year after my heart surgery and my appointment went well.  But she recommend I become a Vegetarian.  So I looked into it...and looked some more...I found a couple recipes.  Heck! I so could do this!  But what is a Flexitarian?  Someone mentioned semi-vegetarian to me.  So I looked it up.  I found the term Flexitarian and Semi-Vegetarian.  I of course like Flexitarian better.  It is someone that follows a mostly vegetarian diet, but will occasionally eat meat.  That is more to what I could follow.  Because I just can't give up bacon. Not to mention I know I will not always be able to follow it.  Because I like to eat out and I don't always like some items.  But I do plan on following a meatless diet at least 98% of the time.

While looking for recipes, I also found a bunch of sites that give suggestions on transitioning.  I found a few very helpful.  Some suggest to do it gradually, but I am in the smaller group that in order to do it, I go full force.  So this starts my first week of meatless eating(May 15 to be exact)  

I wanted to make sure that I had protein in my meals as well as flavor.  Quinoa and black beans seam to be the biggest way to get protein in. And tofu of course.  And I have to say, there are so many ways to prepare it that there is no way of getting tired of it.

I started off easy with just some normal pasta dishes.  The slowly adding in more interesting meals.  I did throw together some Lentil and  Tofu Burritos.  They actually turned out well.  I used about four recipes to piece mine together, so sorry, I have no recipe for it.  But I have found some that I will be trying and will Dougafi(it is a word in my world) them for my spin. 

After gathering my recipes, making my shopping list and doing some price comparison of items, I'm ready.  
My first recipe of my new meal plan is Cashew, Tofu and Broccoli Stir-Fry from Organic Gardening.  I like tofu, but it is going to take some trail and error in order to perfect cooking it.  I like it crisp, but mine was sticking to the pan, so I just warmed it up.

 14oz firm light tofu
2 tbs low sodium soy sauce
2 tbs honey
1 tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp cornstarch
3 cups broccoli florets
3 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 red bell pepper
1 tbs minced ginger
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup unsalted cashews
3 scallions, chopped
2 cups brown rice

 If you can find it, Gourmet Garden Ginger!  It's way easy.  It's like tomato paste in a tube. They have other versions also.


Sesame oil is great.  If you like it spicy, I recommend a sesame chili oil

 First you need to press the tofu to get the water out of it.  Place between 2 dinner plates and paper towels.  The recipe said 20 minutes, but I did it for 30.  I still don't think it took enough water out.  I'm thinking extra firm tofu may be better to use.

Fast and easy!

 Garlic peeling and mincing is so easy!  Pampered chef has a garlic peeler that is simple to use. Just place a clove into it and roll it a few times.

A friend got me the best garlic mincer.

  I just used a bunch of broccoli and cut the florets off.  But don't throw away the stems.  They can be used for vegetable stock.  Recipe for that comes shortly.

 Place broccoli in boiling water for about a minute or until it is a bright green.  Drain and set aside.

 Dice up the red pepper and green onions.

 Dice up the tofu into 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch pieces.  In a small bowl, mix soy sauce, honey, vinegar and cornstarch.

 Heat two tsp of the sesame oil. Cook tofu, string occasionally.  About   4 minutes to lightly toast each side.  Remove from pan.  Heat remaining oil with red pepper for about a minute.  Add ginger and garlic to cook 30 seconds.  Stir in the broccoli and tofu. and cook for 90 seconds.  Stir in the sauce mix and cashews.  Cook for one minute.

 Remove from heat and add scallions.

So freaken good!

I have never made vegetable stock.  But I found a recipe to help out.

It's from The Kitchen and made a good guide for me.

 I actually looked at many recipes.  The staples are onions, carrots and celery.  And if they are old, that's great.  Since all you are doing is getting the flavor out of them.  So I used an older onion, almost limp celery and some carrots.

 And remember those broccoli stems?  I roughly chopped them along with the other stuff.

 I threw in a few sprigs of parsley and some dried parsley.  Also some fresh thyme.

Threw it all in a large stockpot.

 Filled up with water just above the veggies.  I brought it to a boil and then lowered the heat.  I let it simmer for around an hour.  The house smelled great!  I turned the heat off and let it cool off a little.  Then fished out the large chunks.

I strained the stock into a large container.  If you don't want any bits, use a cheese cloth or coffee filter.  I just strained it a little as I figured the bits of herbs will just add more flavor to the stock.

I used a large jar to store my stock in the fridge.  It was a large pickle jar.  I tend to keep a lot of jars.  

I found a couple recipes from the program that former President Bill Clinton used.  It's called The Ornish Spectrum.  There are a couple salsas that I thought would be good to go on Mexican food and burgers. Not to mention raw veggies or chips.

First is a sweet Chipolte Salsa. 

 It uses chipolte peppers in adobo sauce.

 The problem with them is that you rarely use the whole can at once. I've seen a couple things people have done.  You can use small plastic baggies, or put them in a lightly greased ice trays.  One pepper and some sauce in each and store them in the freezer.  I had some small storage containers, so I just used them.

 I had six peppers left to store.










Now for the Sweet Chipolte Salsa.  It sounded strange, but I had to try it.

I even pulled out my rood processor, which I had to clean in order to use it.  

It's just Roasted Red Peppers, pitted prunes, water, chipolte peppers in adobo sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic and salt(I didn't use any). And it is GOOD.

I tried it on MorningsStar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burgers.


 And I ate on a Sponge Bob plate.

The other salsa I tried is Mexican "Romesco" Salsa.

 It called for a can of crushed, but I used diced fire-roasted tomaotes.  It also had roasted red peppers, garlic, soy nuts, red wine vinegar, paprika, salt and oregano.

 It's a whole cup of garlic!  YUMMMM

Just threw it all into the food processor and mixed. This is good with chips and carrot chips.  So far that is what I have tried it on.

I had some Black Bean & Quinoa Veggie Burgers.  This takes some time, so I recommend preparing the burgers in the morning or the day before, as they need to sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.  

 I love my Tupperware burger press.  And it works great for these burgers.

I let them sit in the fridge for a few hours.

 Now it's time to bake them at 400 for 15 minutes.  Or until golden brown.

For a side, I made some carrots with almonds.  Place one frozen bag of carrots, 2 tbs water and microwave for 4-5 minutes or until heated.  At 2 tbs butter, 2 tbs slivered almonds, 1 tbs sugar and a dash of salt.

The yogurt sauce with the recipe was good, but I also added some of the Sweet Chipolte Salsa.  It's really good with both.

It's hard to get a good photo with the sauces.

I have plenty more recipes coming.  One for sure is a Quinoa Vegetarian Chili.  It's packed with black beans, quinoa and veggies!  I'm excited for it.