The Dog Ate My Pistachios

vegan, Vegetarian

No practice tonight! The girls and I got to pick anything we wanted for dinner…they just wanted to chill and eat Cheerios. I don’t blame them!  I choose to chill and cook one of my Purple Carrot meals. Right now I am doing this vegan meal delivery service every other week; I am really LOVING all these recipes! Tonight was no exception!

It was supposed to have pistachios in the title and dish, but they fell on the floor on accident and Brutus ate them. Oh well…

This is not my recipe. I am giving you all the ingredients and cooking directions, but Purple Carrot sends me everything. I change a few things in the process. They are awesome, and I am loving trying new things! Just sharing, because I did not make this up, but kinda make it my own and may possibly tell you how I might change it 😉

Ingredients- butternut squash cubes (6 oz.), thinly cut radishes (3), orange, tofu (1/2 block), olive tapenade (3 tablespoons- good luck finding that much), 3/4 cup fregola, pistachios (the dog ate my pistachios), 1 tbsp champagne vinegar (a bit leaked out on accident, but that is fine bc it was the perfect amount). za’atar (I love this stuff, but a little goes a long way. I thought the 1 tablespoon was going to be too much, but it was fine). 2 oz. Arcadian greens (basically a lettuce blend like romaine and butter lettuce)

Cooking- Roast the butternut squash with olive oil and salt and pepper on 425 for 16-18 minutes. Boil salted water for fregola and cook for 8-12 minutes. Drain the tofu, pat dry, and cut in to 1 inch squares. Slice the radishes thinly, orange in quarters.

Side note- I am allergic to the flesh of citrus; Makes my whole mouth break out. But no pulp is not too bad…I used the half the orange, instead of the entire one.

Add the olive tapaenade to a small bowl and add 2 tbs orange juice and 1 tbsp olive oil. Stir.

Once the fregola is cooked, drain and add the champagne vinegar, 1 tbsp olive oil, and 1 tbsp of orange juice, and pinch of salt. Stir.

***IF YOU HAVE THE PISTACHIOS (or walnuts or pine nuts is how I would change this) cook in a nonstick skillet over medium heat (change- LOW HEAT) Toast until fragrant for about 2-3 minutes. Keep the oil.

In the same pan as pistachios, cook the tofu that has been tossed in the za’atar. Cook on each side about 3-4 minutes on medium- high heat.

Spoon the fregola into large shallow bowls and top with roasted butternut squash, sliced radishes, orange wedges (no for me), tofu, and Arcadian Greens. Drizzle with orange-olive tapenade and sprinkle with toasted pistachios (no for me).

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Ramen with Fall Veggies

Asian, Vegetarian

I forgot how much better I feel when I eat vegetarian! I am super spunky and have loads of energy! Don’t worry; I haven’t abandoned meat. I will still eat bacon, chicken (fried nuggets are my favorite), and as much seafood as I can. I am still eating pork and beef as well, just limiting myself to a couple times a week. Last night I made this yummy Purple Carrot meal. I left out the Thai sweet chili, because I wasn’t feeling masochistic. I also left out the scallion, because it is not my friend. “The scallion and green pepper are super yummy, but they are not good for my tummy.” This is a solid principal that you learn when you eat a plant based diet. Too many veggies are not really a good thing sometimes!

Here is how this went down…

Ingredients–

prepared butternut squash-  a bitch to break down. Spend the extra money for someone to do it for you!

Handful of Brussels Sprouts, trimmed and halved

3 stalks of Swiss Chard, chopped

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 servings of fresh ramen noodles (but lets face it, just use the kind in the package bc they are super cheap. Throw out that flavor packet).

2 tablespoons of tamari- (or soy sauce)

1 tablespoon of red miso paste (in the Asian section you can usually find a small container).

1 lime

2 teaspoons of smoked nori spice (I don’t know what is in this blend. It just came in a little package. I would guess if you went to Super H Mart (local Asian Supermarket), you could easily find something similar.

 

Directions-

Preheat the oven to 425 to roast the squash- salted and a touch of oil. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until for tender. Boil salted water for the ramen.

Trim the Brussels sprouts and cut them in half. Stack and thinly slice the Swiss chard leaves and stems. Mince the garlic.

Cook the noodles. Fresh- 2 minutes Package- follow the time. Drain and cool under cold water to stop cooking process.

In the same saucepan you cooked the noodles, cook the garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat. Add one cup of water, tamari, red miso paste, and whisk well to dissolve the miso. You really need to commit to the whisk. Once it looks mostly combined, add 1 1/2 cups more water and bring to a boil.

Add in all your veggies, smoked nori spice, half of the lime juice and noodles. Combine together. Serve with the other half of lime cut in half.

Guys! It was SO good! It is supposed to serve 2, but since I am the only one eating it, I get 3 meals out of it!

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Vegan Asparagus and Chickpea Fettuccine with Tomato Butter

Pasta, Vegetarian

I am notorious for watching, reading, and changing recipes. I love the idea of taking someone’s idea, and making it my own. Sometimes I am good and follow it if I have all the ingredients. Sometimes I improvise and use what I have when I want to make something similar to what I see. Sometimes I take a meal kit like Purple Carrot and replace or change ingredients for what I think I would like better. Only makes sense to me, I guess???

This recipe was supposed to have garlic, scallions, and parsley, but I omitted them. First, I used the scallions in the last dish, because it was Asian and made more sense. I left out garlic, because I just wanted to. I left out the parsley, because honestly I don’t really like parsley that much and it looked a little sad.

So here is what I did…

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas
1/2 pound of fettuccine
1 small bunch of asparagus
3 tbsp of vegan butter- SO GOOD! But regular butter is totally fine if you are not a vegan.
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions-

1. Boil salted water for fettuccine. Drain the chickpeas, rinse, and pat dry with paper towel. After the pasta is done, make sure you save the pasta water to add what you need to.

2. Asparagus- snap the bottom section that naturally snaps. If you are confused, just cut about an inch about off the bottom. Then cut them in half.

3. In a non-stick pan, cook the chickpeas and asparagus in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil for about 6 minutes. Stir every minute or so. They will crisp up just a bit.

4. Add the butter and tomato paste to the skillet and reduce to low heat. Then add in the fettuccine and slowly add in a bit of pasta water. Then let it thicken just a bit and make sure you toss everything to coat all the sauce.

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Seitan Stir Fry with Cauliflower Rice

Asian, One pot meal, Vegetarian

I don’t know if a lot of you know this, but I used to be a vegetarian; a vegan even! 13 years of vegetarianism with 3 years of those being vegan, I learned to love all veggies, fruits, and different types of fake meats (but vegan cheese was not very good at all). It has been a long time since I have been a vegetarian, but I still eat vegan and vegetarian food a lot, and it has gotten increasing better over the years. I have recently discovered a new food box company called Purple Carrot, which is 100%vegan. I decided to give it a try to cook dinners and lunches for myself when the hubby is out of town and the girls are at practice, which is a lot.

The portion is for 2 people, so I get 6 meals instead of just 3. So far, I am really loving it. It can be expensive to buy a lot of vegetarian and vegan food, especially just for myself, and then some of the vegetables and fruit end up going bad. This is so much less wasteful, because they give you just enough for the recipe. I love that it comes with a little recipe book of all the recipes (6 recipes to choose from and you select 3). That way I can always go back and try the other recipes that I did not choose.

Ingredients-  seitan cut in to strips, cauliflower rice, snap, bok choy sugar snap peas, garlic, scallion, cornstarch, , sesame oil , tamari (soy sauce), rice vinegar , turbinado sugar , and sesame seeds. It was really easy to make and so good!

Directions-

  1. Crisp up the seitan in a a bit of olive oil. Take it out of the pan.
  2. Cook the cauliflower rice for about 4-5 minutes, stirring around a bit. Put in a bowl.
  3. Add in all the sauces and veggies (cut beans in half, chop bok choy and scallions) put in seitan and mix with the cornstarch. Cook until combines and starts to thicken up.
  4. Top the cauliflower rice with the veggies and seitan. Top with sesame seeds. YUM! Vegan take-out made at home!