The Veggies Strike Back! I have some new favorite recipes.

This week I think I liked every recipe I have tried. But there are a couple that are now my favorites! I made Chorizo Tacos with my TVP Chorizo. This week I also made Curried Cranberry Couscous, with a few tweaks. Japanese-Style Braised Tofu thanks to a good friend. Pineapple Cashew Quinoa Curry Bowl and the best recipe, Jalapeno Popper Pasta.  And Black-Bean and Quinoa burgers.

Chorizo Tacos

The Chorizo Tacos were very simple.  I used the TVP Chorizo I had premade and frozen. I took it out the night before, but you could use it right out of the freezer also.  I added a little oil to the pan and heated the chorizo up a little.

 Just need meat, shells, lettuce, cheese, onions, taco sauce and some re-fried beans.

 I made my own refried beans.  I took a cam of black beans, added some garlic, onion and taco sauce.  Heated it up and used a potato masher to smooth them out.

 Heat the tortillas in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.  Top with some beans and a little cheese.

 In a hard shell, add chorizo, taco sauce, onions, cheese and some lettuce.

 This is just like Taco John's Taco Brovo.  Only better.

Can just be a taco, hard or soft shell.

Curried Cranberry Couscous Pilaf. 

 Do you know how hard it is to find cranberries in May/June?  Impossible.  So I did a few changes to this recipe. It isn't exactly the same recipe, but pretty close.

  I used Whole Cranberry sauce in place of the cranberries.  I also added some golden raisins.  I had planned on adding some pecans also. But was distracted by the great smells of this dish.  Next time I will add pecans.

 I prepped all my ingredients.  And started the couscous.  Pearl Couscous is bigger then the usually couscous.

Garnished with a little parsley.  I'm thinking next time maybe some mint.














Japanese-Style Braised Tofu
This is now one of my favorite recipes!  It was really flavorful and nice and light.  It made for a great spring/summer dinner.  And it was pretty good next day as leftovers. Thanks Isabelle for the great recommendation!

 Miso paste it turns out is harder to find than I expected.  I went to three stores, but I was happy to find a ginger miso, so I used that. I also found some white miso paste, so I will be having this again with that one to compare.

 Really, this is simple to make.

 Mine turned out kind of dark, but the miso I used was also a darker miso.

To reheat, I heated the tofu in a storage container for a couple minutes or until hot.  Then placed fresh spinach leaves and returned the lid.  Let stand for a minute and enjoy.

Pineapple, Cashew, Quinoa, Pineapple Curry Bowl

 This is a simple recipe, with a big name and big flavors.  It also has lots of texture.

 Diced up all the veggies at once and began to saute them.

 I started the quinoa first thing because I hate to wait.

With the veggies and spices this dish smells so good.

I will be making this again.  Lots of protein in here with the quinoa and tofu.

Jalapeno Popper Pasta

This taste just like a jalapeno popper.  Next time I make this I plan on making some chicken flavor seitan to add to it.  Or maybe some bacon alternative.

As usuall, I added more garlic.  And I used 3 jalapenos.  I also used pepper cheese to add more heat.

The toasting of the breadcrumbs we done first.  Because I was scared  I would burn them.  I didn't, so this worked well.

I cooked the peppers and onions together.

I started the noodles first thing. I used whatever I had on hand.

The sauce will thinken a bit when the pasta is added..

I'm wasn't sure about the breadcrumbs, but they do make the dish.

I have tried another burger recipe.  Black Bean and Qunioa burgers with Baked Zucchini Fries. 

The burgers were pretty good.  And I followed the recipe totally.  The mix was very loose, so it was hard to make the patty.  I would ether let them sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.  But I used my Tupperware burger makers, but with a little difference than normal.

Pampered Chef has this great Manual Food Processor.  It's perfect to mince onions and garlic.  I was feeling lazy and wanted to make sure they were finely chopped for the burgers.  So I used it.  It's also great for cracker crumbs.




 Cooking the onions and half the beans at first seamed odd.  But then you but that in the food processor.  I used my big one for this.  Since I wanted the mixture to be smooth.

 The fries are great for a side.  And healthy.  I didn't have Parmesan cheese, so I used Nutritional Yeast Seasoning since in vegan recipes that is what is used.

Just slice up the zucchini and run through the egg bath and breadcrumb mixture.

Bake and enjoy.  I served them with a side of pasta sauce for dipping.

 I formed the burgers right on the greased pan using the burger smasher and ring.  After I pressed, I just had to twist the smasher and lift up so the mixture didn't stick. The recipe says 8 burgers, 1/2 of mixture.  but I got 4 and a thick 5th.

 The fries turned out perfect!

I also topped the burger with a little pasta sauce.  All was very good.

Meatless continues and hasn't disappointed me yet.

As with trying anything new, some things work and others don't.  And I of course tweak the recipes to my liking.

I try not to get bored with anything.  I have realized I have some things I want to make, I just have a vegetarian twist to them.  I have found Mexican and Asian seam to be the easiest to find a vegetarian option.  Here I have 5 recipes and 3 meat substitutes

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One of my favorite recipes so far, Vegetarian Quinoa Chili.  It was so good and great for left overs. It's from a fun blog with some great sounding recipes.  Two Peas in a Pod.  There is a Greek Tortellini Salad that sounds like a great spring/summer recipe.

On to the Chili...

I cooked up the quinoa the day before and chopped all the veggies.  I followed the recipe pretty much.  I just added some cayenne pepper and some hot sauce.  I used green onions, avocado and some cheese for toppings.

It isn't that many ingredients really.  It's pretty simple

   

 There is a lot of chopping, but with a big cutting board, it's a breeze.

 For toppings, I chopped up avocado and green onions.  I just did the avocado before serving to prevent it browning.  And the quinoa I cooked up the day before

 I took a tip from Rachel Ray and used a garbage bowl.  Since I as not feeling like going back and forth to the garbage can.

 I also opened the cans of tomatoes and drained the beans.  I also got my spices ready to just drop in.

 After cooking the veggies just a bit, added the beans, tomatoes and spices.  That is when the smell started to really get me going.

It is a very feeling chili.  One of my favorites, if not they favorite.

I will be making this again!

Another blog I found is Food Doodles.  I came across a recipe for Pizza Quinoa Casserole.  I had to try it.  It not only looked simple, but promising.

 Pretty easy ingredients.  This is my first time using nutritional yeast.  I don't recommend smelling it.  It doesn't smell bad, but it doesn't smell anything like Parmesan cheese.

 Quinoa really doesn't take too long to cook, but I can see me making up a few batches ahead of time.

After mixing it up, just spread into a 9x9 pan.  The recipe called for ramekins, but I don't have them.

 I almost forgot to take a photo of it after adding the cheese.

Next time, I'm adding some onions and bell peppers.  And of course, more garlic.

It's a keeper.  It was good and with some added veggies, I think even better.  Might even make a good eggplant parmigiana casserole.

 It also was a good recipe, but I plan on changing some things for next time.
Quinoa Fajita Burritos.  This blog also has some others for me to try, The Garden Grazer.

 This was a good recipe for taco seasoning and I plan on using it as a starter.

I plan on increasing the cayenne pepper to 1/2 tsp, upping the Chili Powder to 1 1/2 tbs and using a spicy one also.

 Slicing the peppers and onions was done a head of time.

 Just after adding the spices to the warm quinoa, I got hit with a great smell.

 A little bean/qunioa mix, some peppers and some salsa.  I used the Sweet Chipolte Salas I had made.  It was perfect!

I believe folding burriots is an art.  An art that I don't have.
It made 8 burritos and I put them on a lightly greased pan and baked at 350 until they began to get a little brown. and crisp.

Next time, more salsa.

Tofu Teriyaki...This was a FAIL.  I didn't care for it at all.  I'm not big on mushrooms. I don't mind them diced, as long as they are the baby portabella ones. I used only 3 cups and increased the zucchini and summer squash adding an extra combined cup. And I can't where I got the recipe, but since I didn't care for it, I also didn't look very hard.

 I did get to try soba noodles.  I liked them.

 I didn't have to do much to the tofu.  It was pressed to get the moisture out of it.

It was just added to the sauce with the veggies

 It simmered for a while

It looked good, just didn't have any flavor. Leads me to finding a better recipe or different sauces.

Kung Poa Tofu.  Now this was good! I will be making this again.  With only a couple differences.

 I used broccoli instead of Chinese broccoli. Next time, I'm adding some red and green bell peppers.  Also some carrots.  This time I had some left over veggies from the other recipe.  So I just added them.  I also doubled the sauce since I had more veggies.

 I added the broccoli to some boiling water to make it a bright green.  I also mixed up the sauce in a bowl.

 Extra firm tofu seams to be a lot easier to use.

It didn't brown up like I had hoped, but I think I need to get a wok.

 I added the veggies to the tofu after it browned a little and was heated.

Then added the sauce and 1/4 cup chopped peanuts

 I added 1/4 cup more of peanutes, unchopped and the green onions.

Served over brown rice.  MMM  It was better than take out.

I've been wanting to try TVP to make meat substitutes.  Tonight I made up three batches of different TVP unmeats.  Unmeats is my new word.  Cause meat substitute isn't as fun. I found substitutes on different sites.

Here is my Ground Unmeat   I used my homemade vegetable broth. I also bought a couple different liquid smoke flavors for next time. I plan to use this in some tacos.

 These were way easier than I thought.  I just mixed them up, let it sit for 15 minutes and put it in a ziplock for later. I froze mine since I wasn't going to use it for a couple days.

Looks pretty close to meat crumbles.

Unmeat Chorizo  will be used in an enchilada casserole.  With a homemade enchilada sauce. But the site I got it from has a Cinnamon Cocoa Mole that I want to try someday soon.

 The chorizo I added 1/2 tsp of cayenne.  I like mine spicy.  I also let it sit and froze it.

It smelled a lot like chorizo.  Next week we will find out how it tastes

And lastly, Sweet, Hot Italian Sausage. I actuall found this on Food.Ccm. It will be in pasta bake, but should be interesting.  I'm hoping this is good, cause I love Italian Sausage.  I like mine spicy, so I also crushed red peppers to my mix.

 This is a little odd, but I'm open minded about trying it.

 I didn't roughtly chop the fennel.  I also mixed the egg whites and honey together before adding.

 The unmeats are sitting in my freezer waiting to be used in the coming week.

I will be having some of my own recipes coming soon along with some experiments.  Also a recommended Braised Tofu that I"m looking forward to.