recipe: roasted vegetable pot pie

I'm hosting my first Easter dinner tomorrow and I'm cooking up individual veggie pot pies for everyone! I decided to do a test-run of my recipe to make sure it would be peak delicious, and so I would have time to tweak anything that needed to be changed before I make the actual dinner tomorrow. One great thing about this recipe is that you can make the filling the day beforehand, and refrigerate it. So that will cut my actual cooking time on Easter in half! I also did my test-run with pre packaged pie crust but tomorrow I'll be using my mom's homemade crust recipe, which I'm including below.

This came out exactly how I wanted it to. The roasted vegetables make this different from a normal pot pie, but it still has the kind of classic comfort food feeling that I was going for. I think this will definitely be my go-to recipe for Easter every year now!

I wanted to make sizable individual pies, so I used these 24oz baking dishes. This recipe will make six 24oz pot pies.

Vegetables
1 bag of carrot sticks
2 large zucchini
2 pounds asparagus
2 bags of frozen green beans
2 leeks (white and light green parts only)
2 pounds of potatoes, skin on
1 pound of sweet potatoes, skin on
1 c. corn
1 head of garlic

First chop all of your fresh vegetables and garlic into small bite sized pieces. Toss them with a little olive oil and sea salt and then roast at 400' for 30 minutes. I pre-microwaved my potatoes and my frozen green beans and corn before roasting them so that they were fully cooked before going in the oven to get crispy.

Filling
3 c. vegetable broth
6 tbsp. flour (or corn starch)
1/2 tsp. tarragon
1/2 tsp. parsley
pink sea salt to taste

Whisk the ingredients for the filling on low/medium heat in a saucepan until the mixture starts to thicken. Keep stirring so that it doesn't get clumpy! When it's nice and thick, take it off the heat and mix it with all of your roasted vegetables. Then fill your baking dishes with the mixture.

Crust
1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. oil
3 tbsp. water

Mix flour, salt, and oil and then add water. Combine to form your pastry dough and then roll out. I cut out my crusts by placing an empty baking dish on top of the dough and tracing around the circle with a butter knife. Then just use a fork to create ridges along the edge of the pie crust in the baking dish.

Bake for 20 minutes in a 400' oven and let cool before enjoying!



I'm also making a gluten free crust for my Grandmom, who has Celiac. This is the recipe for the pie crust that I make for her:

Gluten Free Crust
2c. gluten free flour
4 tbsp. melted coconut oil
1 egg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. water

It's difficult to roll this out so I just sort of piece it together. But it tastes very close to the real thing!

recipe: quick spanish rice with sun dried tomato polenta

I was in the mood for a paella-esque dish the other day but really didn't feel like taking the time to make it. My go-to recipe (from my favorite cookbook, The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen) is very time consuming and it uses arborio rice which dilly dallies and takes all day to soak up broth. I also wanted to add something with a little bit of crunch and flavor for a vegan chorizo substitute and I'm so glad I decided to try sun dried tomato polenta! All in all this dish was done in about 20 minutes but it tasted like I had spent hours slaving over a hot stove.

Ingredients for the rice:

1 bag frozen brown rice
1 c. vegetable broth
1/4 tsp. saffron threads
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, grated
4 tsp. minced garlic
1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
2 c. frozen baby lima beans
1 c. frozen green peas
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. smoked paprika
scallions
1 lemon

Start out by microwaving your frozen rice according to the directions on the bag. Meanwhile, combine the saffron and vegetable stock in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile still, heat up the olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion and garlic until it's making your house smell AMAZING.

After the onion and garlic have softened, add the peppers (I specify a yellow pepper and a red pepper just for the sake of making the dish pretty - if you can only get one color it'll still taste the same!) and sauté until they're soft. Then add the cooked rice, the soy sauce, the paprika, and a little salt and pepper. Stir it all together to combine and then add the frozen lima beans and the saffron-infused broth. Let everything cook, stirring occasionally, until the broth is all gone. While it's cooking, you can whip up your sun dried tomato polenta:



Ingredients for the polenta:

1 package of sun dried tomato polenta
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. smoked paprika

In a small bowl, combine extra virgin olive oil with smoked paprika. Cut the polenta into round slices, as thin as you can get them, and then brush each side with the paprika olive oil marinade. Heat in a skillet over medium heat until they start to get crispy. Make sure to flip them over and cook both sides!

When everything is done, just squeeze a bit of lemon juice on top of the rice, top with polenta and some chopped up scallions, and enjoy! I love that this was still super flavorful and packed with so many good veggies, too! It's one of those meals where it feels like you're being indulgent but it's actually incredibly healthy :)

recipe: three variations of vegan pesto!

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I've been trying to eat a healthier diet the last several weeks and one thing that has been making all those healthy meals taste amazing is homemade vegan pesto. I've been trying a bunch of different varieties, with different nuts, seeds, and greens. It's so fun to play around with this recipe!

I use this pesto in so many different ways -- on wraps or sandwiches as a spread, diluted with a little extra virgin olive oil as a salad dressing, or (my favorite!) with zucchini noodles and roasted vegetables for dinner. Yum!! I usually use about 1-2 tablespoons at a time. It's packed with flavor and you really don't need all that much to make a difference.

Each batch that I make comes from the following recipe --



In a blender combine:

1/2 cup nuts or seeds
1/2 cup vegetable broth (add more if it's too thick)
a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
6 cloves of garlic
a pinch of sea salt
1 cup of greens (herbs or vegetables)

My favorite combinations are:

Sunflower seed - Parsley pesto (perfect if you have nut allergies!)
Basil - Walnut pesto (my favorite!)
Roasted asparagus - Cashew pesto

For the roasted asparagus pesto, just cook asparagus tips on 400' for 20 minutes and then wait until it's cooled to room temperature before adding it to your blender.

And that's it! It's SO easy to make this, and it's so healthy! (And so yummy!!)

recipe: eggs verde

Whenever I go to Hollywood, there is one thing that I look forward to the most. It's not the Hollywood sign, the movies, the chance celebrity sighting, the proximity to Disneyland, no. It's the Eggs Verde that I get at Mel's Drive In. I was going out there for the TCM Film Festival every spring, but since I'm not planning on returning I figured I better try to make my own version of this dish at home. It's either that or pay for a plane ticket to LA *just* for this restaurant (which I would 100% do if I could afford it, lol!!) or cook at home.

And this was so simple to whip up! I just fried a couple of eggs and put them on a bed of kale, then topped it with chopped tomatoes, corn, and fresh parsley. Add some roasted asparagus (400' for 20 minutes) and voila! This tasted so fresh and healthy and it's so filling. At Mel's they poach the eggs, use arugula instead of kale, and the corn mixture is more like salsa than just fresh vegetables. But this was so easy to whip up, and I made so much corn and asparagus that I had enough for leftovers the next day. I just had to make the eggs, and chop up some tomatoes!



This is sort of unrelated, but I was meeting with a career counselor this summer and for this one exercise she showed me a couple of recipes and asked me to choose the one that stood out to me. They were all for the same dish, but one was spelled out with very precise instructions in a numbered list, one was more casual but it still included specific measurements and times, and the last one (the one that I went for) was more like a conversation about a recipe. It reminded me of the recipes I grew up with, the kind that my mom and grandmom have written down. Stuff like "combine salt, flour, water. Bake." lol! Recipes that require eyeballing it, and just trusting your own instincts. Obviously those recipes don't really work for more science-y foods like cookies or cakes, but when you're throwing together an egg dish or biscuits or pasta sauce it can be fun to wing it!

Anyway, my whole point is that after I got home and was looking over the paperwork she gave me, I realized that the recipe reminded me a lot of the ones I've written here. I don't know if I've ever actually typed out a numbered list of steps. It's usually casual and leaves room for tweaking. Sometimes I still get messages from people telling me that they have tried my chickpea and tomato dish (still one of my favorites!) or my cranberry walnut pasta and it makes me so happy! Not just that I've helped you find a meal that you like, but because it meant my instructions were somewhat follow-able! ha!

recipe: rice and red peppers

Like I've said on basically every "recipe" post here -- I'm REALLY lazy about cooking, so my recipes are almost always as easy as throwing a few things in a frying pan and heating it up. This has been one of my go-to dishes lately. I got a really fantastic tomato basil dressing at a roadside farm stand nearby that makes this perfect, but store-bought would be good too (or your own local dressing, or just whatever is currently in your fridge, going with the whole lazy theme here.)

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen brown rice, heated up
2 roasted red peppers, diced
1 can of chick peas, rinsed
a drizzle of dressing
a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
chopped garlic

I just heat up the olive oil in a frying pan and then add the garlic until it's sizzling a bit. Then I add the rice, chick peas, red peppers and dressing and keep on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the rice and chick peas have gotten a bit crunchy. And that's it! It seriously takes like 10 minutes tops but you feel like you're eating an actual meal instead of a quick snack! Serves 2-3, or 1 if you're really really hungry.

black sesame ice cream

Last year I tried black sesame frozen yogurt at Yogurtland and it was one of the best flavors EVER. It might seem kind of insane if you're used to chocolate and vanilla (or in my case, strawberry and coconut) but the only crazy thing about it is how good it tastes. It was unexpectedly amazing, and (hooray!) my at-home version came out just as fantastic! :D

I found a few recipes online, but they were all either too fatty or required equipment I didn't have (like a coffee grinder) so I made some adaptions, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best. Luckily the ice cream gods were in my favor and it's pretty perfect.

I used this recipe, with the following alterations:

- 2% milk instead of whole milk
- 3 egg yolks instead of 6 egg yolks
- add 1 tsp. vanilla in step 2

I also used a food processor to grind the seeds, since I don't have a coffee grinder. I'm not sure how fine the sesame powder gets with the grinder but mine still had little bits of sesame seed that ended up making some pretty speckles in the finished ice cream. The ice cream was still incredibly rich and creamy without the added fat from the eggs and whole milk. I'd love to keep testing different ingredients to find the perfect low-fat base for all of my ice cream experiments! :)

recipe: mashed potato pasta sauce

Let's just get this out of the way first -- I really love carbs. I also love my green veggies and fruits and try to eat as healthily as possible but I'm not one to shy away from a meal that includes multiple carbohydrates all living happily together in one single dish.

Initially I wanted to make a creamy tomato sauce without using any dairy to make it creamy, and came up with the idea to put a mashed potato in my sauce. It ended up making it more hearty than creamy but it was SO good, I definitely filed this in my "do-again" file.

You need: 1 crate of cherry tomatoes, a few tbsp. olive oil, 4 cloves fresh garlic (minced), 1 tbsp. olivio (or butter), some parsley, one baked potato (mashed), pasta

While your pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil on low heat and add the minced garlic. Cut up the tomatoes into slices (I cut about three slices per tomato) and add them to the pot with the olivio. Let it all simmer on a low heat until the juices from the tomatoes are starting to fill up the pot. Then add the parsley and the potato and stir until it's all well blended. Serve over the pasta and eat up! :)

One of my personal resolutions this year is to cook more often instead of always eating out or eating pre-packaged foods and so far I'm doing really good! I've been having waffles or eggs for breakfast every morning and cooking lunch or dinner every day. Yesterday I used the leftover pasta from this dish (I had some extra that I tossed with olive oil & put in the fridge) and combined it with butter beans and green beans in a skillet, and it was so yummy!

recipe: pumpkin pie ice cream

Last weekend I got a text from Yogurtland saying they had a new pumpkin pie flavor of frozen yogurt and I was dying to try it! I went on Wednesday and the cashier told me the flavor was already gone for the season (what?!) so, heartbroken, I went to the grocery store to see if they had any. They didn't! Then I remembered that I got my dad an ice cream maker for his birthday this spring and we had yet to try it out.

I did a quick google search on my phone but couldn't find any recipes that used real pumpkin pie. Most have pumpkin filling and graham cracker crumbs or something like that, but I wanted actual pie in my ice cream. So I decided to just wing it and BOY am I glad that I did. I used the milk measurements from a peanut butter ice cream recipe that came with the ice cream machine and then eyeballed the rest. It came out so great I can't wait to try other flavors now! I want to try apple next but my dad is campaigning for garlic (yup, garlic!) We'll see..

Here's my recipe for pumpkin pie ice cream:

1 pumpkin pie, pre-cooked
1 cup fat free half-and-half
2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup brown sugar
red and yellow food coloring (optional)

Cut 1/4 slice of the pie and eat it. If you want to save it for later or give it away that's fine too, but I recommend eating it immediately. Then scoop out the entire center of the pie, including the bottom crust (leaving only the crust edges in the pan) and mash it up in your mixing bowl with a fork. Add brown sugar and mix. Then add the half-and-half and combine with a hand mixer on low speed. Then add the heavy cream and continue mixing on low for about a minute. Cover your bowl and store in the fridge for a couple hours (I left mine in overnight.)

When the batter is cool, add it to your ice cream machine and watch the magic happen! My ice cream maker (this one) is open at the top (I don't know if all of them are? I'm new to this) so I could see the batter transforming into ice cream right before my eyes. It was SO cool! While it was churning I added 3 drops of yellow and 3 drops of red food coloring to make the ice cream a little bit more pumpkin-looking. I was also planning on adding some crumbs from the leftover crust edges a few minutes before the ice cream was done but it ended up getting too thick for me to add anything! I definitely want to try that in my next batch for some added texture.

recipe: late summer salad

First, can we all have a nice hearty chuckle at my pitiful attempt at blogger food photography? One of these days I'm going to take a good food photo. It's going to happen.

Anyway... one of my favorite eat-out foods this summer was the strawberry poppyseed salad at Panera. I ordered mine without chicken or dressing and then added shredded coconut when I got it home. SO good! This afternoon I was craving the salad something awful, but to my utter horror I got this reply when I placed my order: "we're sorry, that salad has been discontinued for the season." Noooooooooooo!!! I reluctantly ordered an iced tea and sulked for a good ten minutes before I realized I could easily whip this up at home.

I used baby spinach, fresh strawberries and blueberries, a rinsed can of mandarin oranges and heaps of shredded coconut. The salad usually came with candied pecans too, but I made this for my whole family and my brother is allergic to nuts, so I left them out this time. Personally I love having that extra crunch so I'll probably be adding some when I go back for leftovers :)



I usually like kind of plain food, so everyone in my family thought it was just Kate being Kate when I said I was serving this without dressing. But I begged them to try it as-is and they all agreed it didn't need anything else. The juices from the fruits add just enough liquid and the coconut gives each bite just the right amount of flavor. If you try it, I'd recommend just giving it a whirl without dressing first -- you can always add it later. I think something like sesame ginger might be interesting though!

It's kind of a pet peeve with me (at least in my own family) that nobody ever wants to try things the way they come. They always have to be adding heaps of salt or cheese or dressing or butter when some foods have absolutely amazing natural flavors that just get buried under all that extra goop. I don't eat everything totally plain (I'll be the first to admit I can be heavy-handed when it comes to garlic!) but I think it's nice to try foods as-is before adding anything extra. You might be surprised at how good something tastes without any assistance from the condiment aisle! ;)

recipe: taco salad

It's time for another installment of "recipe that came about because Kate was lazy."

I've been on a bit of a taco kick lately, but I always seem to face a shortage of taco shells. This problem paired with my unwillingness to drive out and buy shells resulted in this amazing new salad recipe that I can't stop eating. As usual, it's super easy and perfect for lazy people who don't like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, like me!

Just combine a can of dark kidney beans (rinsed), one cucumber (cut into little pieces), two small tomatoes (cut into little pieces) and one pre-cooked ear of corn. Combine with a generous drizzle of flavored olive oil (I used garlic olive oil and it was delicious!!)

I took my last remaining taco shells (and any little broken bits that were stuck at the bottom of the package) and crushed them to make taco croutons. Sprinkle some croutons on top of each serving and you're done! I didn't mix the croutons into the salad because I didn't want them to get soggy while they were sitting in the fridge, but if you're planning on eating the whole salad immediately then, by all means, mix away! :)

I actually normally just make rice and bean tacos (see: laziness) but now that I tried salad-ifying tacos I want to include veggies in them more often!

recipe: chick peas with green beans and tahini

I love change and trying new things, but honestly when I'm home the only reason I ever make something new is because I'm missing the ingredients I need to cook my usual fare. Such was the case the other day when this new recipe was born. And I loved it so much that it's going to be a regular on the menu now. Maybe one day I'll be out of green beans and their absence will spawn a new favorite dish ;)

Oh, also, I am a completely, totally, horribly lazy cook and usually use canned or frozen ingredients. If you're not as lazy as me, then this meal would probably be even more delicious with fresh veggies and herbs!

I used -- a 15oz. can of chick peas (rinsed), 1 bag of steamable green beans (cooked), 1/2 of a fresh tomato, 2 tbsp. sesame tahini, 2 tsp. dried chopped garlic (yup, I don't even use fresh garlic. I know!) 1/4 c. panko flakes, some olive oil and a little parsley. I sauteed the garlic in the olive oil for a few minutes, then tossed everything in the pan except for the tomato and parsley. Stir it every few minutes until the chick peas get a little crispy, then serve it with the fresh tomatoes and a little sprinkle of parsley on top!

spaghetti à la lady and the tramp

In Disney World we ate at the Lady and the Tramp-themed Tony's Town Square Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom. Most of the items on the menu included meat or cheese (which I don't eat) so I asked our server if I could have a spaghetti dish that combined ingredients used in some of the meat dishes. He had the chef visit our table (Disney is super accommodating, by the way, if you have any kind of special diet. I was very impressed!) and he put together one of the best pasta dishes I've ever had! I made a humble recreation this week and thought I'd share the recipe!

First snap the asparagus (you bend the asparagus so it snaps in the middle and only keep the tops) and then chop those up into bite-sized pieces. Spread them on a greased cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil, then roast at 350' for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil water for spaghetti. In a frying pan, combine some extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 can of drained and rinsed chick peas (in Disney I had pine nuts instead, but now that I'm home with access to my beloved garbanzo beans I had to include them!) chopped garlic (to taste -- I'm a little heavy-handed with the garlic myself) and 1/4 c. chopped sundried tomatoes. Let those simmer on low heat until the spaghetti and asparagus are done, and then combine. Then eat it all quickly before any family members notice that you cooked...

after eight cupcake recipe [guest post]

What do you do when you're having a really, really bad day? You know, one of those days where the universe seems to be working against you, and everything is going wrong, and you end up crying because you can't work out how to turn up the volume on your laptop. When I'm having a very bad day, cupcakes are the answer.

These cupcakes are, for lack of a better word, ridiculous. I mean, look at them...they've got green edible glitter on them for goodness sake! But sometimes needs must.

I loved After Eights before going vegan, and thankfully Divine now do a vegan version! Hurrah!

Makes 12 large cupcakes

1 1/2C self raising gluten free flour (I use Dove's Farm)
1C sugar
1/2C dark cocoa powder
1/3C oil
1C water
1tsp balsamic vinegar
1tsp peppermint extract

1/2C vegan margarine
2-3C powdered sugar
Dairy free milk
1tsp peppermint extract
1/2tsp natural green food coloring

150g dark chocolate
Edible glitter
12 Divine mint thins

Preheat the oven to 175/350. Line a muffin pan with 12 muffin cases and set aside. In a large mixing bowl combine all the cupcake ingredients and mix until no big lumps remain. Using a tablespoon or ice cream scoop, fill the muffin cases 2/3 of the way full and bake in the oven for 20mins. Place on a wire rack to cool while you make the frosting.

In a stand alone mixer or using an electric hand mixer cream together the margarine, peppermint and coloring. Then add the powdered sugar 1/2 a cup at a time, adding milk when the mixture gets too stiff. Once everything is combined whisk on high speed for around 3mins, until the frosting becomes light and fluffy. Transfer into a piping bag and carefully pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. I like a lot of frosting on my cupcakes, but you can use as little or as much as you want!

Once each cupcakes is frosted, melt the chocolate in the microwave for around 1 1/2-2mins, and drizzle over the top of each cupcake. Then sprinkle over a little edible glitter and finish each cupcake with a mint thin.

Enjoy xo
Charis, from Floral Frosting

cadbury flake frozen hot chocolate

The other day I was really in the mood for a frozen hot chocolate (perfectly natural when it's 40' outside, right?) but also very impatient about melting the chocolate, waiting for it to cool... oh and going to the store to buy the chocolate to begin with. That's when I saw some cadbury flake bars sitting on the kitchen counter and the wheels in my head started turning!

We get flakes every year for Christmas from the local Irish import store. They're my absolute favorite candy bars in the entire universe. The chocolate is just SO much better than any other chocolate that exists. It's not just the texture (which is amazing) but the taste. It's very mild, sweet and perfect.  Anyway, long story short, I decided to make a lazy version of frozen hot chocolate using cadbury flakes.



You'll need: 3 flake bars, 2 tsp of powdered hot chocolate, 1 cup of skim milk (or you can use whole milk or soy milk, whatever floats your boat!) 1 tbsp of sugar, and about 1.5 cups of ice cubes.

In a blender combine the flakes, hot chocolate, sugar and skim milk until it's not lumpy anymore. The first time I made this I didn't blend it well enough and kept getting chocolate bits stuck in my straw. Then add the ice and blend it again. Pour it into a cup and drink up! Easy peasy! I know there are probably very specific reasons for most frozen hot chocolate recipes calling for melted chocolate instead of just throwing candy bars into your blender, but this turned out SO fantastic I really can't imagine that it would have been improved if I had waited to melt the chocolate first.

I think this would work amazing with pretty much any candy bar, actually! Imagine a frozen Twix hot chocolate, or a frozen Kit Kat hot chocolate!! The yummy possibilities are endless! :D If you really want to use flakes but aren't lucky enough to live in a country that sells them or near a store that imports them, they're also available on amazon here! :)

spaghetti with chickpea meatballs and sweet tomato sauce

I've been trying to cook new recipes lately since I've been in a terrible rut for the last couple months. I eat the same thing every day and it just gets a little monotonous. My diet for most of 2012 consisted of baked sweet potatoes, chickpeas mixed with tomatoes (recipe here) and cucumbers with hummus. Not much variety at all. I guess this is technically still a variation on chickpeas and tomatoes, but it was super yummy and tasted different so I think it counts as a new dish for my cooking repertoire.

I adapted the recipe for the meatballs from this one from Cookin' Canuck. I used chickpeas instead of cannellini beans (partially because they're my go-to bean for everything and partially because I was hungry and didn't have cannellini beans in the cupboard.) and pre-packaged everything. I also made my meatballs 1tbsp instead of 2tbsp so they would cook through faster. The recipe below made about 20 meatballs so next time I'm going to halve it. I ended up putting most of them in the freezer. (I feel like Andy Bernard when he makes his New Years resolution to "learn how to cook for one.")

For the meatballs you need:
1.5 cans of chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
about 1/4 c. roasted red peppers
2 tbsp. onion powder*
1 egg
1/2 c. breadcrumbs (or panko)
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp. dried parsley
1 tbsp. dried oregano

Preheat the oven to 350. In a food processor, combine chickpeas and peppers until they're combined but not pureed. Then mix with all of the other ingredients, and form into 1 tbsp balls. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Mine needed some extra time and I ended up cooking them for 35 minutes.

For the sauce, I just combined canned tomato sauce with oregano, parsley, garlic and olive oil and then added honey to taste. Let it simmer for a while, and then add the meatballs. Let the meatballs cook in the sauce for a few more minutes, then add them to pasta and enjoy!

I think this recipe would also taste delicious with the chickpea mixture sauteed on the stove and then added to the sauce for a chunky meat sauce instead of meatballs!

*I love the taste of onions but hate the texture so I always use onion powder. You'll probably want to use real onions :)

BBQ chickpea burgers

It is so hard to take a flattering photo of a burger, isn't it? I mean, they aren't the prettiest food to begin with, but if, like me, you aren't too skilled in the art of food photography, it's especially tricky to make a burger look appetizing. Anyway... suffice it to say, these were absolutely scrumptious no matter what they look like in my photo ;)

I adapted the recipe from this one for coconut-curry chickpea quinoa pineapple burgers. The only thing I kept the same was the chickpeas, panko flakes and the basic process, but I needed some sort of guide for making burgers from scratch since I've never done it before! I usually go for Morningstar Grillers Originals (which, by the way, are SO tasty!) but I was in the mood for something more home made :)

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup skim milk (or soy milk)
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon parsley (I used dried, but fresh would be great!)
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash no-salt onion seasoning
1/2 cup brown rice, cooked
2/3 cup panko flakes
Sweet BBQ sauce
Pineapple slices

Combine chick peas, milk, garlic, parsley and onion seasoning in a food processor until it's all mashed together. Stir in rice and panko, and then form into 6 patties (the original recipe called for 4 but they were too ginormous to fit onto my burger rolls so next time I'm going with 6.)

Oil your pan and then grill until they're nice and brown on both sides. If you've ever had a homemade veggie burger, you probably know that unless they're well-done it can be hard to tell the difference between the burger and the roll, since they're so mushy. So I let mine get nice and crispy before taking them off the grill. I topped it with a slice of grilled pineapple and about a teaspoon of sweet BBQ sauce! Deee-lish!

chick peas with broccoli & tomatoes

Last week I was trying to come up with a healthy lunch and concocted this dish that I've been having pretty much every day since. My mom has basically the same thing except she substitutes 1 piece of grilled boneless, skinless chicken for the chick peas, and has green beans instead of broccoli.

It's SO easy. I just combine 1 bag of steam-in-the-bag broccoli, 1/3 can of rinsed chickpeas, 1/2 a tomato cut up into little pieces, some parsley & oregano and 1 tbsp of Italian dressing. The total time is however long it takes to steam the veggies, then you just toss together the ingredients and dive right in! :)

ps. Maybe I'm just way too obsessed with The Office, but does anyone else automatically think of Michael Scott when they have steam in the bag veggies? "They have these bags of vegetables that steam right inside their own bag. So I'll get a glass of sangria, sit down in front of the TV, pop a bag of vegetables, before you know it I'm ready for bed!"

confetti salad recipe

Here it is, one of the most delicious salads you'll ever eat. It's just so fresh and summery! And tasty! :D Here is my mom's recipe, although if you're impatient like me you might want to skip cutting everything into itty bitty pieces and just use the food processor instead ;D Also, using purple onions is important, because part of the charm of confetti salad is all of the different colors sprinkled throughout the dish! :)



Here's a text version in case you'd like to print it :)

4 c. Jasmine rice (made w/5c. water) .. let cool
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1/2 large purple onion
1 cucumber (remove seeds)
1 carrot
1 bottle Good Season's Italian Dressing

Dice the peppers, onion and cucumber into teeny-tiny pieces and dump them on the rice. Grate the carrot over everything. Pour the whole cruet of dressing into the bowl, stir and let it get cold.

vegetarian cassoulet fit for a queen

In Disney World we ate at Cinderella's Castle one night, and I had this amazing vegetarian cassoulet. Absolutely mouth-wateringly stupendously fantastic! So this weekend I decided to try to make it at home myself! After searching around a bit, I found this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, and used it as the basis for my own version. I'm a really lazy cook, so you might want to switch out all my canned/dried stuff for fresh instead but I can never tell the difference myself. I also hate the texture of onions but love the taste, so I use onion powder in the recipe. You'll probably want to switch that out for real onions if you don't have a similar pet peeve ;)

You'll need: 3 medium zucchini, cut into 1" pieces, 3 stalks of celery, cut into 1" pieces, 4 cloves (or more if you're like me and really love it!) of garlic, 4 cups of broth, a 15oz can of diced tomatoes, two 15oz cans of small white beans (or cannellini beans), 3 tbsp of tomato paste, dried parsley, dried basil, powdered onion and 1/3 c. olive oil.

Directions: In a large pan, add the oil, zucchini, celery and garlic and then sprinkle with some basil, onion powder & parsley to taste (I personally like a lot!). Let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the celery and zucchini are soft. Then add the broth, beans, diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Bring to a little boil (I have no idea what the right term for that is?!) and let it cook for about 40 minutes, stirring often. I wanted mine to get a really thick consistency to mimic the meal I had at the castle, so I let mine cook about 10 minutes longer than the Smitten Kitchen recipe said, and I also left mine uncovered so more of the liquid would boil off faster.

While the bean & tomato mush is cooking, cut up a loaf of day old French bread into little cubes. Toss with olive oil, garlic and parsley and then cook in the oven at 350' for about 15 minutes. If the croutons finish before the rest of the meal, try VERY hard not to eat them all before everything else is done cooking. It's hard, but try. They're pretty darn good. Once the veggies and beans and such have cooked down so that there isn't much liquid left in the pot, scoop some out into a bowl and top it with a heaping helping of your fresh-baked croutons! It's so delicious, I swear!!

Now, I obviously have no idea what I'm doing when I cook (are you even supposed to let something boil without a lid on the pot? I have no clue) but it worked for me, and I ended up with a really scrumptious dinner that tasted a heck of a lot like the meal I ate at Disney World! :)

cranberry walnut pasta

In 2008 I went on a trip to Vermont, and the highlight of the vacation was definitely the food. While I was in Burlington I ate at a great restaurant called Sweetwaters, and had this amazing pasta dish with nuts and dried cranberries. It was incredibly unique, and probably the best pasta I've ever had! But I can't for the life of me remember the exact ingredients, and googling their menu online hasn't helped much, since they've changed it. For three years I've been trying to recreate this recipe -- or at least what I think was the recipe -- and this week I finally nailed it!

I just cooked angel hair pasta, and tossed it with some olive oil, chopped glazed walnuts, dried cranberries and chopped spinach with salt. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! As much as I love traditional spaghetti with marinara, I think this is my new favorite pasta recipe! I highly recommend giving it a go... it's just bursting with flavor, and feels a lot healthier than most pasta dishes!