The Return of Meatless Mondays...the sizzling edition!

It has been a long while since we have delved into the word of Meatless Mondays, but from this point on it will be continued, and hopefully even be posted earlier than today so people can try their own versions of the recipes as well. I am also always looking for visitor suggestions and their own photos of recipes, so let me know.

With Spring upon us, and with summer coming up, a lot of people have started breaking out the grill and started summer BBQing. This is usually a meatavore's dream. Time to put raw meat directly in fire and watch it cook. Well, this is usually a problem for vegetarians and vegans. The problem is the whole meat part. Well, I am here to tell you, that many of you already probably know, that grilling veggies on the grill is just as delicious as meat! Well, wonder if you still want a meat type taste. I love grilled veggies, do not get me wrong, but some people (especially new vegetarians, or people that don't want to be left out of the family BBQ) just want something that resembles meat even if it is not.

Well, that is where my experiment a few weeks ago was all about. I had just started grilling, and I thought to myself, how are the so-called "veggie burgers" and "tufo-dogs". I had never had them. I think I have had bocca burgers back in the day (like fifteen years ago), but I feel that healthy eating and vegetarianism and veganism has really stepped up in the last decade or so. So I journeyed to the local store to see what I could find and try them out.

Yves and Gardenburger!I bought two things: Yves Veggie Cuisine Jumbo Dogs and Gardenburger Portabella Veggie burgers. First off let me mention how many different choices there were now in just the "healthy" food section of vegetarian options there were at my Krogers. I was very impressed and surprised to be honest. Regardless, these are the options that I picked, and I was going to grill them up and see how they were.

Both items grilled up very similary to how the real things would grill. One of the Jumbo Dogs broke off a piece and that was a small bummer, but over all they grilled exactly how real hamburgers and hot dogs would grill.

On the grill!Once they came off of the grill, I let them cool, and then prepared them as I would normal hot dogs and hamburgers. On buns with my choices of cheese and condiments. I first tried the Portabella Veggie Burger from Gardenburger, and was honesty surprised with how good it was. My only slight complaint was that it was really thin (as I am used to thick burgers). The portabella taste was really great, and I even enjoyed the pieces of spinach circulating through out the patties. I was pleasantly surprised.

Now, on to try the Jumbo Dogs. The taste was pretty much the taste of a hot dog, even though it wasn't the taste of a superior hot dog. About half way through, I realized what wasn't sitting well with me...it was the texture. It just didn't have the same texture as a hot dog, it was more powdery and crumbly, which in the end kinda grossed me out. I did end up eating them through out the week to finish them up (I hate wasting food), but near the end of the week I was pretty glad that I didn't have to eat anymore of the Yves Jumbo Dogs.

Even though the experiement was about a 50% success, I wouldn't be opposed to trying a different brand of veggie friendly hot dogs, and even some different brands of veggie burgers, even though I liked these pretty well.

Over all I do think that the burgers at least should make any vegetarian BBQ a great experience, even though sometimes you just can't beat straight up grilled veggies (I did grill Eggplant last year, and it was amazing). This is something I continue to be playing around with all summer.

What else do you guys and gals grill out there?! Let me know, take some picutres, and send me a review, always looking for different options!

The finished product!

---Justin J. Stewart

Double Meatless Monday!!!

Well, it has been awhile but we are back, and on track now! To make up for the lack of posting last week, today we will have a double Meatless Monday, from last week and this week. Both Mondays had very creative things and exciting food and both were delicious. I can tell you for lunch and breakfast both weeks I had Cheerios and Grilled Cheese. I do not think anyone needs recipes for either one of those, but just to let you know we did add homegrown tomatoes to our grilled cheese both weeks, and yeah, only I am eating the Cheerios, Laura is eating Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch!

Monday 10.11.2010

Veggies getting ready for ratatouille!So for this day we had some Eggplant that needed to be picked from the garden, and we also had some zucchini that needed to be cooked. As I racked my brain trying to figure out that to do about this situation of combining both of these veggies. Well, after some recipe searching! I found it! Ratatouille!

Now the recipe was fairly easy, and it tasted great! It took a little bit of time, with all of the simmering, but it was absolutely delicious. We served the Rataouille over some farfalle pasta, and it worked great! The recipe can be found here, or here it is written out for everyone:

Ratatouille With Eggplant and Zucchini

By Diana Rattray, About.com Guide

Ratatouille

This delicious combination of vegetables is easy to prepare. Serve this fabulous side dish with grilled, roasted, or broiled meat, fish, or poultry.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) diced tomatoes with juice
• Red, yellow, and green bell pepper, cut in 1-inch pieces, about 1 to 1 1/2 cups
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil, about 12 large leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Dash dried leaf oregano
• 3 small zucchini, halved lengthwise then sliced
• Fresh shredded Parmesan cheese, optional

Preparation:

Peel eggplant and cut in 1-inch cubes; put in a colander and sprinkle with the salt. Let stand in the sink for about 20 to 30 minutes to drain.

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion is tender. Add the tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, pepper, and oregano. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Add zucchini and eggplant; cover and continue simmering for 10 to 15 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Taste and add salt, if needed. Serve with fresh shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Serves 4 to 6.

Here are some photo's of how it turned out for us!                                                                                                

  Ratatouille simmering, with fresh picked basil and oregano getting ready to go inLet the simmering begin!

Finished product!

Monday 10.18.2010

Ingredient Volcano!Laura with a ball of doughCutting the dough log.   Noodles unrolled and ready to cook!

So, Laura and I have always talked about making our own pasta. We have been talking about this for about five years now. Well, about a month or two ago, we finally did it! It was pretty easy and very delicious! So we thought that it would only be appropriate to use this for an excellent meatless Monday.

We Used:

2 1/2 Cups of Flour
3 Eggs
1 tablespoon of butter
and milk for consistency

You mix all of the ingredients together and kneed them until you get an even consistency and get a nice large ball of dough. Then you quarter you ball of dough into four balls of dough. You take each ball individually and with a rolling pin, flatten as thin as you can. From there you roll up your dough into a log type shape. Cut your dough into slice of desired with of the pasta. Then unroll your slices, and you have a noodle! This pasta when fresh takes about 4 minutes to cook in boiling water!

We also added an Alfredo sauce to the pasta. To make the sauce, start with 1 table spoon of butter and melt it in a saucepan, add in 4 oz of heavy whipping cream, let them cream and butter get hot and intermingle, then add 3 to 4 oz of shredded parmesan cheese, until desired consistency. We then added in some fresh cut broccoli and then you add the sauce into the pasta.

For this meal we also had a side of grilled Eggplant, and grilled crooked neck squash. These were left over from the other night, but I will tell you really fast how to make it, since it is super easy and super yummy.

Take a whole eggplant, or desired amount or desired amount of squash. Cut into 1/2 inch slices length wise. Brush both sides with olive oil, and salt and pepper. The on just the eggplant brush both sides also with balsamic vinegar. You throw those on the grill, cook each side for 10 minutes, only flip once, and your done, and it's delicious! 

Sorry about the long delay of your Meatless Monday fix, but I hope some homemade pasta and some Ratatouille made up for it! If you have any suggestions let me know, or energy saving ideas!

Pictures of the complete product below!grilled eggplant and crooked-neck squash

---Justin J. Stewart

complete homemade broccoli Alfredo.

Meatless Monday 10.4.2010

So once again, this Meatless Monday started off without myself eating breakfast. I did have breakfast food today though, but it was for lunch. For lunch I had Cheerios. Honey-Nut and Multi-Grain Cheerios to be exactly. Even though it would not have been my premier choice for lunch, it was meatless, and fast for today's busy day.

Dinner was another story though. Tonight we had a delicious stir fry, all supplied from a local market in Bryan, Texas called The Farm Patch. The stir-fry included: zucchini, broccoli, onions, mushrooms, bok choy, garlic, cayenne pepper, green peppers, yellow peppers, and bean sprouts. We also included Chinese vermicelli in our meal (aka cellophane noodles).

Our bounty of veggies!Chinese vermicelliThe meal was pretty easy to make, and I will give you a quick recipe on how to do it, but most of it came from the gut and what just felt right. I put the Chinese vermicelli in a pot of water to soak for 20 minutes, while doing that I chopped up all the veggies. In a wok, I added enough Peanut Oil just to coat the wok with a thin layer of oil. I first added the bean sprouts, zucchini, and chopped up garlic cloves to cook. I then added some spices. I used ground black pepper, chili powder, szechuan pepper, crushed red pepper, ginger, onion power, and a dash of curry.
YUM!

Now, I can't tell you what amount I used, like I said I was cooking from the gut tonight and just rolling with it. I pretty much added seasoning to taste. I then added in the chopped cayenne pepper, some soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, szechuan sauce, and a dash of Frank's Red Hot. I stirred this up and let it simmer for a few minutes, then added in the rest of the chopped vegetables. Which I tossed around in the wok for about five minutes.

When the vegetables looks slightly steamed, yet still crips, I added in the Chinese vermicelli to the wok and let that settle to the bottom of the wok to soak up all of the juices and flavors floating around in their. I then stirred around everything a few more times, to get a good mix. Sprinkled some sesame seeds on the meal in the wok. Let it simmer for about two minutes. then pull it out to serve. It was delicious and very quick and easy to make. Also, thinking about all the vegetables that I ate with this meal, kidna blows my mind!!

What did you have this meatless Monday?! Feel free to share if you tried it out this week!

---Justin J. Stewart

Meatless Monday 09.27.10

Ok, this is our third installment of Meatless Monday! Today, most of the food is food featured from the local farmers market, or from our own garden. I also promise, after today, there will be other updates besides Meatless Monday, I have a whole bunch of links and ideas coming! Regardless, on to the food!

For breakfast, as usual, I had nothing. Laura had some Cheerios. So on to the lunch!

Crazy Cucumber!    For lunch we tried something different, that I have seen in many restaurant, so decided to try it on my own. We picked up a Armenian Cucumber at the Brazos Valley Farmers Market. I must admit that we bought this vegetable due to its strange shape. For lunch it was a simple pita sandwich. We cut up the cucumber, but a few slices inside of the pita (which was cut in half), and added some homemade baba ganoush, which I also made for a previous meatless Monday, and the recipe can be found here. I must say it was a delicious and refreshing pita sandwich, and I do plan on trying it again sometime. Even Laura, who is not a huge fan of Cucumbers, though that this sandwich was tasty.

 YUM!

 For an in between snack, we went to our favorite Frozen Yogurt Bar, Spoons Yogurt. Needless to say, there was not any meat involved in this. But there were nuts, kiwi fruit, and strawberries!

For dinner we decided on an recipe that we tried a few weeks ago for the first time. Now yesterday, we harvested from our garden over forty banana peppers, so we had to do something with them. We pickled two jars worth, but then with twenty-two of them, we decided to make stuffed Banana Peppers. We make two variates. One is stuffed with a rice mixture, and one is just stuffed with cream cheese and shredded parmesan cheese.

RICE!First to make the rice mixture, I make one cup of white rice. I cut one large lime in half and squeeze both sides worth of juice into the rice, add about 1 tablespoon of butter, some chopped up cilantro, and some salt and pepper. I mix it up together, and there ya have it. I usually also put in some sour cream for flavor, but this time, alas, our sour cream was bad, and we went with out it. It was equally delicious and better for us anyways.

Sliced peppers...

I then cut the top off of the banana peppers, and slice them down the middle. For the cream cheese cheese and parmesan peppers. I add just enough cream cheese in each pepper to fill it, and then take a pinch of parmesan and press it into the cream cheese. (With both the cream cheese and the rice, I use my hands to handle the filling and to stuff the peppers. Way easier than trying to use a spoon, but more messy).

Ready to put in the ovenFor the rice stuffed peppers, I fill as much rice as possible into the pepper. Then when all the peppers are stuffed, I sprinkle some cheddar cheese and chili powder on top of the peppers. I then put all of the peppers into the oven set at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Pull them out, serve the rest of the rice stuffing with them, and your done. Quick and easy, and also delicious!

Finished peppers!!!

Look out this week for some mad posting! I have link and suggestions from everyone out there! Thank you! Plus I will finally look at my electric and gas bills and tell you how I've been doing. Remember, if you have any suggestions or ideas, send them my way! Thank you!

---Justin J. Stewart

Meatless Monday 9.20.10

2 for 2! We stuck with it! No meat! I hope you guys did too! Today was a pretty easy day, since yesterday we went to our favorite place to get vegetables (besides our own garden), the Farm Patch, in Bryan, Texas. It was easy to create meals today from veggies only! Let me tell you, I am excited to share today's adventure with you, because they were delicious!

Once again there was no breakfast, so we are going to go straight to lunch.

 For lunch I steamed a whole cauliflower head for about 15 minutes in a closed steamer. Once it was near tender, I pulled it out. I mixed 2 tablespoons of honey mustard (I guess I was supposed to use regular mustard, but we are out of that) 2 tablespoons of tahini. I then spread the whole mixture over the cauliflower head and sprinkled cheddar cheese on it. Put it in the over for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, and it was done! Let me tell you! It was delicious. Next time for sure we will be using regular mustard, but besides that it was a perfect lunch, with plenty of left overs.

 YUM!Out of the Oven!

Chopped Eggplant

That was my contribution to the day. The big star ofthe day was Eggplant Parmesan. We bought 8 Chinese Eggplants for a killer deal yesterday and decided today would be the day they would be eaten. Laura used this recipe, but did not use the breadcrumbs, used real tomatoes and simmered them down into sauce instead of using a food processor. She also substituted shredded mozzarella for real mozzarella. Laura also added a lot of fresh oregano (picked from the garden fresh) to the sauce, and is telling me that she did not use ground pepper. Now, you have to remember all of the adjustments, but here is the receipe:

Eggplant Parmesan Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 lbs (about 2 large) eggplants
• Kosher salt
• 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• Olive oil
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 lbs of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
• 1 cup grated high quality Parmesan cheese
• 1 packed cup fresh basil leaves

Method

1 Cut eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange one layer in the bottom of a large colander and sprinkle evenly with salt. Repeat with remaining eggplant, salting, until all eggplant is in the colander. Weigh down the slices with a couple of plates and let drain for 2 hours. The purpose of this step is to have the eggplant release some of its moisture before cooking.

2 While the eggplant is draining, prepare tomato sauce. Combine tomatoes, garlic and 1/3 cup olive oil in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper to tasted and set aside.

3 When eggplant has drained, press down on it to remove excess water, wipe off the excess salt, and lay the slices out on paper towels to remove all the moisture. In a wide, shallow bowl, combine flour and breadcrumbs. Mix well. Pour beaten eggs into another wide shallow bowl. Place a large, deep skillet over medium heat, and pour in a a half inch of olive oil. When oil is shimmering, dredge the eggplant slices first in the flour mixture, then in the beaten egg. Working in batches, slide coated eggplant into hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

4 Preheat the oven to 350°F. In the bottom of a 10x15 inch glass baking dish, spread 1 cup of tomato sauce. Top with one third of the eggplant slices. Top eggplant with half of the mozzarella slices. Sprinkle with one third of the Parmesan and half of the basil leaves.

5 Make a second layer of eggplant slices, topped by 1 cup of sauce, remaining mozzarella, half the remaining Parmesan, and all of the remaining basil. Add remaining eggplant, and top with the remaining tomato sauce and Parmesan.

6 Bake until cheese has melted and the top is slightly brown, about 30 minutes. Allow to rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving.

I also made a side salad that included romaine lettuce, feta cheese, red peppers, and crutons. We also had a delicious freshly juiced juice made from pears, oranges and grapes.

---Justin J. Stewart