As far as chilis go, this was not my favorite. However, not comparing it to chili and judging it on its own, this was really good. We all really liked it. Between the sweet potatoes, beans, and quinoa it was very filling and rich with flavor. The quinoa texture balanced the mushiness of the sweet potatoes and the avocado on top really made it sing. I paired it with a salad with pecans and strawberries. Not bad eating. Now for dessert. Vegan cupcakes!
RECIPES:
A friend came over for lunch who supported participating in vegan week, so I whipped up this simple pasta dish. My photo doesn’t look as delicious as the website I got the recipe from, but that’s ok. This was a simple light dish. I didn’t have fresh basil on hand though, so it fell a little flat. The artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, and olives were great. But I think it really needed the fresh basil to make it a better dish. It was still tasty, just a little bland.
RECIPES:
This is our first dinner for vegan week. We don’t plan on turning vegan, we just wanted to try some new recipes. So why go vegan though? Well, one reason is we decided we wanted to reduce the amount of meat and dairy we consume. We’ve heard a lot about the benefits of a wholefoods plant based diet and wanted to see how we could incorporate more of that into our current eating habits.
Also, when I think about vegan food, I think about tempeh burgers, bean burgers, mushroom burgers, and soy hot dogs. I like vegetarian meals, but going vegan seems so much more restricting. I know my perception of a vegan diet is a little flawed. There is so much more to this cooking I don’t know about and I really wanted to explore and educate myself.
I have also been bored, unmotivated and uninspired in the kitchen lately. I wanted to try something new to reignite my efforts in the kitchen.
I know eating vegan doesn’t necessarily mean healthy. I could eat french fries all day and be vegan, but that wouldn’t be very healthy. So I wanted to avoid the soy cheeses, soy hot dogs and a lot of those types of processed imitation products. I wanted to focus on fresh natural ingredients as much as possible. I tried to select a diverse menu from simple typical dishes, to some of the more complicated unique (in my eyes) recipes. I also didn’t want to break the bank either. I had in my head that eating vegan would be expensive. But I came in under budget for this week’s grocery shopping even after I had to by some specialty products I don’t have in stock.
So hopefully after a week we’ll get a good idea of what we like, don’t like, and what we think is practical for us to incorporate into our regular habits. And hopefully learn a thing or two in the process.
First up for dinner was potato broccoli soup, portobello mushroom paninis and a salad. Day one went really well! Everything had a ton of flavor and was very filling. The soup was great, but definitely better as a side. I couldn’t eat the soup and a main dish just because it had such a strong flavor. I know Ellie loves mushrooms so I thought starting with the mushroom sandwiches was the way to go. She ate her whole mushroom and most of the bread. She said she liked the soup but only ate a few bites. The artichoke tapenade for the sandwich was great. Extremely flavorful. Prepping and preparing these meals were very simple and not super time consuming either. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.
RECIPES:
A friend posted this recipe on Facebook and it looked so good. Aya eats oatmeal everyday for breakfast and this has pretty much everything she already adds to it anyways. It’s just blended and cold. So we had to try it.
This is an awesome alternative to her regular bowl of oatmeal. And since she’s tried it, she’s been drinking it everyday for breakfast. It’s super tasty and very filling. I’m not going to lie and say it tastes just like a chocolate milkshake, but as far as breakfast shakes go, it has a great texture and is very tasty.
We used almond milk to soak the oats and used agave nectar as the sweetener. Using a frozen banana as it calls is essential for the frosty milkshake texture. I did it once without a frozen one and it just wasn’t the same.
This is from the site, OhMyVeggies. She has many variations on this, and we’ll definitely try all of these out.
RECIPES:
We visited our friends for the weekend and they cooked some fabulous food for us. They made freshly ground homemade burgers when we arrived Friday night, and then we were treated to this fantastic home-cooked Pakistani food on Saturday.
This is normally a pretty spicy dish, but Aya has been very sensitive to spicy things she got pregnant with Chloe. It’s very strange because she usually loves hot spice. The hotter the better she usually prefers. So to accommodate Aya’s fragile taste buds (and mine, I’m not a huge fan of big spicy hot) they made this dish pretty mild.
This was so good. We ate thirds and I think Aya had fourths. The kabobs were awesome too with the yogurt sauce. The kabob recipe is easy enough that I’ll make these myself at home soon. We had such a good time and thoroughly enjoyed the food.
RECIPES:
Biryani
2lbs beef cubed
3 cups rice
2-3 medium onions chopped
3 Tbp plain yogurt
3-4 tomatoes
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp garam masala
3-4 dried plums
2 large green peppers
fresh cilantro
half a lemon
Fry the onions to a golden brown. Add garlic and beef. Then add the rest of the ingredients through the green peppers. Cook until meat is bully cooked. If the sauce is still really watery after meat is cooked, remove meat and cook sauce until it’s thickened. Then return meat back to pan. Add chopped cilantro and a the juice from half a lemon.
Next, boil the rice until the rice is 3/4 the way cooked. Add 1/2 tsp salt per cup of rice. Then strain rice.
In a large wide pot or oven proof pan, layer the rice and meat mixtures. Layer half of the rice, then add all of the meat, and then top with the other half of rice.
In a separate pan, heat a little oil and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds. After about a minute or two, pour this on top of the rice.
Mix 1/4 tsp orange or red food coloring to 1/4cup of water. Also pour this over the rice. (I was told this is just for decoration).
Bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.
Chapli Kabobs
1 lb ground beef
1 onion finely chopped
1 serrano pepper finely chopped
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp garam masala
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro
Combine all ingredients into a large bowl and mix together. Form meat into kabob size pieces and pan fry with a little oil until done.
Yogurt Sauce
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup diced cucumbers
1/2 cup diced seeded tomatoes
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 bunch chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients together. Serve.
