Vege recipes for meat-lovers
Bleepin’ Awesome Black Beans ‘n Rice
May 22nd
Ingredients:
- Large can of Black Beans (I suggest Bushes–they are usually vegetarian, but I always check just in case.)
- 1 Tomato thickly diced
- 1 White/Yellow Onion chopped
- 1 Green Pepper chopped (Green, but part of a Poblano will add some spice.)
- Corn off the cobb (if you like)
- Mexican Spice combo (or Chili Powder, Cumin, Salt and Pepper)
- Fresh Cilantro
Method:
- Saute the onions for a few minutes to soften onions
- Put beans in pot, with their juice
- Add tomato, corn, onions, peppers
- Add Mexican Spice–I use taco or chili seasoning. One packet of Taco or Chili seasoning is perfect–and super easy. If I don’t have this I used a mixture of chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper.
- Add Cilantro (finely chopped) after all other ingredients have been added.
- I cook the mixture on low to medium heat for about 10 to 20 minutes. If the heat is too high, the beans stick.
- It only take a few minutes, because the mixtures only need to heat through; the longer you cook, the more the flavors combine.
- I usually make rice to go with it. Most often I use Steam Fresh Frozen Rice because it can be heated quickly in the microwave.
- I top everything with fresh, smashed avocado, a little sour cream, and Mexican mix cheese.
- Plantains are nice with it too, if you like plantains.
- We like to bake some cut up tortillas in the oven (like chips) on 400 degrees for about 5-7 minutes for dipping.
- If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, or don’t want to buy them, Rotel Tomatoes and Chilies are great in the place of fresh tomatoes.
Restaurant Recommendation: Curry Leaves
Mar 6th
Tonight we enjoyed a great take-out meal from “Curry Leaves” — a vegetarian Indian restaurant in Morrisville, NC.
It was great. Called it in, everything is numbered (in case you aren’t comfortable with Indian cuisine pronunciations), and it was ready for pickup within 20 minutes. The staff were super friendly, and the food was great.
We ordered:
- Alu Tikki
- Samosas
- Mixed Vegetable Pakoda
- Tandoori Paneer Wrap
- Puri Bhaji
Superb food, great price, awesome portions. We’ll be going back to this place for sure and certain. If you’re vegetarian or not, this place is worth checking out. You won’t be disappointed.
Stuffed Peppers with green beans and smashed potatoes
Feb 1st
Stuffed Peppers Ingredients
- 3 large green bell peppers
- 1 bag of sausage flavored crumble
- 1 bag of beef flavored crumbles
- 1 small white onion
- 1 tbsp of canned fire-roasted tomatoes (so get the smallest can possible, unless you really like these…then add more)
- 1/2 cup of ketchup or tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp Milk
- 3 or 4 tbsp plain breadcrumbs
- 1 packet of meatloaf seasoning
- Cheese — your choice, but shredded mexican mixture works well (cheddar + monterrey jack)
- Also…Cookie Sheet/Baking tray, Parchment Paper, Salt, Pepper
Stuffed Peppers Method (45 minutes)
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Mix crumbles together, then cook in microwave until the mixture is warm all the way through (check bags for instructions and time). You don’t want to cook it fully, because this will go in the oven later.
- Cut up the onion and saute in a pan with a small amount of butter, until brown.
- Add onion to crumble mixture and mix through.
- Add the fire-roasted tomatoes (1 tbsp is normal, or more if you like this flavor) to the crumble and mix through.
- Add half a cup of ketchup or tomato sauce, your choice, mix through.
- Add 2 tbsp of milk & 3 or 4 tbsp of breadcrumbs.
- Mix the milk and breadcrumbs through to bind everything together, so keep an eye on this as you’re mixing to see if you need more (or less).
- Add and mix 1 packet of meatloaf seasoning.
- Cut the peppers in half, remove seeds and stems (you should have 4 pepper halves now, ready to be filled).
- Add the crumble mixture to the pepper halves till they are barely overfilled (just over the level of the half).
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, put the peppers on it, and place into the oven.
- Cook until the peppers brown/crisp a little on top, which should take about 10 minutes.
- Then add the cheese on top…not too much…and cook again until browned/melted to your liking.
- This will only take a couple of minutes, so stay close.
Green Beans Method (10 minutes)
- 2 cups of green beans (or enough for however many people you’re cooking for)
- Cut ends off green beans and place into a microwave -safe bowl
- Add 1 tbsp of butter, 1 or 2 tbsp of honey, 3 tbsp of water to the bowl
- Cook in microwave on high for 2 minutes (or longer depending on your liking and microwave’s power)
Potato Method (30 minutes)
- 3 russet potatoes, cut and boiled in water until they are soft, which will take around 15 minutes after the water starts boiling
- Take a fork, and see if you can mash one of the pieces easily…that’s when you know they’re done.
- Strain the water off, place potatoes into a bowl that you can mash in
- Add some milk, a little at a time, and mash through with the potatoes. Add milk until you get the potatos to your liking. Remember, you can always add more, but you can’t take it out. Our suggestion is to start with 1/4 cup of milk, and then add from there if you’d like.
- Add 1 tbsp of butter and mix through as well.
- Add salt and pepper to taste
A Filling Vegetarian Breakfast (or Brinner)
Jan 24th
Ingredients
- Eggs
- Bread (for toasting)
- Morning Star Meatless Sausage Patties (the variety with Maple Syrup flavoring are awesome)
- Vegetarian Baked Beans
- Olive Oil
For home fries / potato scramble
- Small red rotatos
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 x Green Pepper
- 1 x Shallot
- Garlic salt (or other spices to your taste)
Method
You don’t really need to know how to make breakfast (we assume), so here’s the easiest parts:
- Start cooking your sausage patties first on the griddle, or in a pan with very little olive oil or non-stick spray. These will take the longest out of the simple ingredients.
- Cook your eggs any way you want them. We prefer fried Sunny Side Up (Nick’s Favorite) or fried Over Hard (Melody’s Favorite). This style goes much better with the other items on this breakfast plate.
- Vegetarian baked beans can be heated in the microwave fairly quickly…they only take about 3 minutes at the most.
- Don’t forget the toast.
Now for the potato scramble…
- Pre-heat the over to 400 degrees
- Cut up the potatos into small bite size pieces. If the red potatos are small already, you may be able to just quarter them.
- Dice the pepper and shallot, or at least cut into very small random pieces.
- You want the potatoes small enough so they won’t take too long to crisp up in the oven, and you want the peppers and shallot to cook very quickly in a frying pan.
- Dry the potato by placing onto a paper towel, and pressing as much of the moisture out as possible.
- Put the potatoes in a mixing bowl, and add enough olive oil to get all the pieces coated
- Then add the salt, pepper, garlic salt, and any other spices you want. You really can’t go wrong at this stage, but remember, you can always add some spice after cooking.
- Place the potatoes onto a baking sheet, and put into oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the pieces get crispy on the outsides. This will depend on how small the pieces are.
- While they are cooking, place the peppers and shallot into a frying pan with just a little olive oil or non-stick spray.
- Saute them until they are not quite caramelized, but this is your choice too. This will take about 10 minutes at the most, so start this step when the potatos are about half-way done.
- When the potatoes are done, remove from the oven, and place onto a plate (with the other breakfast elements that you’ve made).
- Add the peppers and onions to the potatos and mix around a little, making a nice scramble.
- Salt and pepper to taste, and you’re done.
Meatless Meatloaf
Jan 20th
Ingredients
- 1 large shallot
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1/2 green pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 x 12oz package of vege-crumble
- 1 x 12oz package of sausage-flavored crumble
- 2 eggs
- 4oz tomato sauce (with Basil, Oregano and Garlic for extra mmmmm)
- Ketchup
- 2 tbsp milk
- 3/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
- 1 x packet of meatload seasoning
- Non-stick baking spray
- 8″ x 4″ x 4″ baking pan (for making the loaf)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Dice the green pepper, shallot into tiny pieces
- In a small frying pan, saute the pepper, shallot with the butter on med/high heat until pieces are slightly browned
- At about 5 minutes into the sauteing, add the garlic powder, then cook for another 5 minutes (that should be enough time to brown the pieces)
- While the pepper and shallot are cooking, mix the vege-crumble and sausage crumble in a microwaveable-safe bowl. Heat this in the microwave for 4-6 minutes.
- Add two eggs to the crumble mixture with the tomato sauce and milk. Mix very well.
- Add the breadcrumbs to the mixture, and mix well again.
- Now add the sauteed vegetables, and meatloaf seasoning and mix throughout.
- Spray the baking pan with the non-stick spray, then pour/spread the mixture into the pan. It should fill almost to the top of a 8×4x4 pan.
- Smooth the top of the mixture…this will help make a crust on the top.
- Place into the oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on how crusty you like the top to be. You could always broil at the very end if you’re brave enough.
- Remove from the oven when you’re happy with it, cut into 1″ slices, add ketchup.
These meatloaf slices go really well on sandwich rolls, potato rolls, or just plain without bread. Salt and Pepper to taste as always…but this one is probably good without any extra seasonings.
Remember, experiment with the veges you add, the flavors you mix in, and you’ll be easily able to make this meatloaf your own.
Enjoy!
Faux Sausage Breakfast Bites
Jan 3rd
Ingredients
- Biscuit mix (jiffy or bisquick works well)
- Any extra ingredients called for by your biscuit mix
- Cheddar cheese
- Morning Star meatless sausage crumble, or meatless crumble (beef version)
Method
- Preheat oven according to biscuit recipe
- Follow directions to make one batch of biscuits from your mix
- Defrost about half a bag of the meatless crumble (sausage works better than the beef variety)
- After meat is defrosted, add to biscuit mix
- Add about 1 cup or 1 1/2 cup of cheese. Mix well.
- Take spoonfuls of mixture and place onto cookie sheet (make them the size according to the biscuit mix)
- Bake (usually at 400-450 degrees) for about 10-15 minutes
For added deliciousness, split the cooked biscuits and add egg, or a slice of cheese. Ketchup also goes nicely..
Fake Philly Cheesesteaks (or Chicken Philly)
Jan 3rd
Ingredients
- Soy Steak Strips OR Vege Burger Patties OR vege-chicken patties
- Large Green Pepper
- Large White Onion
- Hoagie Rolls
- Velveeta Cheese
- Worchestershire sauce
Method
- Cut pepper and onion into long thin pieces
- First, warm up the fake meat in the microwave, about half of the required cook time (according to box instructions)
- Warm olive oil/spray in frying pan on medium heat
- If using chicken or burger patties, cut into strips. If using steak strips, leave as is
- Put pepper, onion, fake meat into frying pan (when pan is heated up)
- Splash in some worchestershire sauce (to taste)
- Put hoagie rolls in microwave to warm, or in oven if you prefer a crusty roll (instead of soft)
- Cook until onions and peppers are soft, and fake meat is 98% done
- some of the fake meat may crumble or clump together. This is totally okay.
- add velveeta for a few minutes until melted fully
- remove from pan, put desired amount onto rolls
- add ketchup if you want, salt and pepper to taste…serve with sweet potato chips, fries, whatever you want…
Strawberry Vinegarette Salad
Jan 3rd
Ingredients
- Baby arugala & romaine lettuce
- strawberries
- goat’s cheese
- olive oil
- red wine
- candied walnuts
- balsamic glace vinegar (thicker than regular balsamic vinegar dressing)…(these are also available in pre-flavored varieties, like raspberry, strawberry etc if you prefer)
Method
- Chop lettuce into bite size pieces, mix together well
- slice strawberries thinly
- top the lettuce with strawberries, crumble goat’s cheese on top
- add walnuts if desired
- add dressing, salt and pepper to taste
Dressing Method (this will make enough for several salads)
- in bowl, add 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar glace, 1/2 cup of olive oil
- add splash of wine (or more if you prefer)
- Mix well, and quickly drizzle on top of salad before it seperates
Super Simple Bruschetta
Jan 3rd
Ingredients
- Fresh baked loaf of bread
- Organic tomato sauce (canned)
- Italian Seasoning
- Basil
- Garlic Salt
- 1/4 white onion
- 1/2 large tomato
- mozzarella cheese (grated)
- parmesan cheese (grated)
- butter
- red wine
- garlic salt
- olive oil
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
- Cut tomato into large chunks
- dice onion
- sautee onion with butter in pan
- mix italian seasoning, basil, garlic salt, splash of wine into the tomato sauce in a bowl (excess of this is great on pasta)
- brush the bottoms of the bread with olive oil (if you have an olive oil with basil, this is good too)
- put desired amount of sauce mixture, then onions, then tomatos, then cheeses on top (unbrushed side) of bread
- bake at 400 degrees until cheese melts and turns golden brown. This should take around 5-10 minutes at most
- Remove from oven and enjoy!
Baked Beefy Spaghetti
Jan 3rd
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped green pepper
- 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
- 1 can (28 ozs.) tomatoes with liquid (cut up)
- 1 can (4 ozs.) mushroom stems and pieces (drained)
- 1 can (2 ¼ ozs.) sliced ripe olives (drained)
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 pound veggie crumble, browned and drained (optional)
- 12 ounces spaghetti cooked and drained
- 1 can (10 ¾ ozs.) condensed cream of mushroom soup (undiluted)
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a large skillet, sauté onion and green pepper in butter until tender.
- Add tomatoes, mushrooms, olives and oregano.
- Add cooked veggie crumble (soy) if desired.
- Simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Place half of the spaghetti in a greased 13” x 9” baking dish.
- Top with half of the vegetable mixture.
- Sprinkle with 1 cup of the cheese.
- Repeat layers.
- Mix the soup and water until smooth; pour over casserole.
- Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
- Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until heated through.