Recommended Veggie Dish: Mexican Lasagna

"Mexican" and "Lasagna".  When I first saw those two words forming a vegetarian recipe I thought I was seeing things.  Who ever would have thought that someone combined my two favorite things into a meatless entree?

I was skeptical at first.  I just didn't think that Mexican and Italian flavors could ever happily marry.  But, a couple weeks ago I was struggling to find a dinner to make and happened upon this one on my Pinterest board.  I casually brought it up one night to my husband, thinking he would side with me and immediately brush it off as crazy.  When he piped back that it not only sounded good but that the combination was intriguing, put my bandanna on and declared the challenge accepted.

I mean, really... when faced with this picture, how could you not?

Picture and Recipe from Annie's Eats blog - http://annies-eats.com

This was most definitely a successful dinner.  Tonight was actually the second time in a couple weeks that I've made it.  It's so easy to put together - for this nights rendezvous I seeded and diced up a jalapeno pepper and it took about 20min total to chop, dice, mix and layer.  I was singing while I put everything together and in between my mash up of Enya songs I accidentally put in too much cumin.  I stopped dead, suddenly remembering something I'd heard before about how too much cumin could kill a dish... but then I concluded that since I'd added the jalapeno it would counter the cumin.  I have no idea if that logic even makes sense, but the end result was most definitely not killed.

I put it in the oven for 40min, then another 5min with the foil removed, but you could probably get my with less time.  I didn't use a lot of cheese this time in it either and it was still very good.  Dave also had the idea to use some green salsa as a condiment with it and that added a flavorful touch.

So go on - try it, I dare you!  You'll be happily surprised!!  My other favorite aspect of this dish is its one that is even more delicious the next day, after the flavors have had a chance to meld together.

Now I just need to get the courage to try my recipe for Vegan Enchilada Casserole...  It's basically the same concept, yet the farfalle pasta instead of lasagna noodles is really throwing me for a loop...

♥

Recommended Veggie Dish: Quinoa & Black Beans Stuffed Peppers

I have this strange obsession with quinoa (keen-wah).  I'm not quite sure why it's developed the way that it has, considering I've only had it three times in my life.  But early last year when I was researching protein options for a low-carb lifestyle, I ran across this strangely named, ancient seed-grain-whatevertheheck.

Quinoa is packed with protein, and a complex carbohydrate.  It's so versatile - I've seen recipes for it's use in breakfast dishes (replacing oatmeal), pilafs, and salads.  It starts off this tiny little seed-like grain, and after cooking (boiling like rice), it sprouts this little curl that I have read is the germ.  You can also eat quinoa raw (replacement cornmeal in recipes) or you can encourage the sprout by just soaking in cold water for a few hours.  Quinoa.... healthy, protein packed, and cute!

Tonight was actually the first night that I cooked quinoa.  I've had a bag of it in the pantry for a little while, trying to gear up the nerve to cook it.  It's not hard at all, but you have to rinse it first and that's what was intimidating me.  It's so tiny that I knew it would be disastrous if I tried using any of my strainers - including the wire mesh ones I own.  Then I came across someone's suggestion of using an oil-splatter guard... GENIUS!!!

I have so many recipes involving quinoa.  This week I'm feeling Mexican-cuisine inspired, my absolute favorite before turning veg, and so I decided to pull up some Mexican flavored veggie dishes.  I chose to use this one from Emily and Micheal's "One Lovely Blog" (they are just the cutest, by the way), with this picture serving as the catalyst:

Photo from http://www.onelovelylife.com/?p=4854

I don't have a picture of them, but I also served a Southwestern-inspired side of Zucchini "fries" that turned out to be absolutely fantastic; I was very pleased!

For the stuffed peppers, I followed Emily's recipe of cooking the quinoa with a rough diced onion.  Once that was cooked I followed her method of throwing it in a bowl, with a can of drained and rinsed black beans, a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis (along with the liquid), and about a third of a can of a tomato & green chili sauce.  I forgot to add salt, and I never cook with black pepper because I don't like it.  I actually had cilantro, but forgot that as well (darn memory).  I poured the rest of the sauce into a baking dish, put in the pepper halves - I loved halving them instead of just cutting off the tops, by the way, great idea - then spooned in the quinoa mix and topped with a little freshly shredded Monterrey/Colby and Sharp Cheddar cheese.  I lightly covered the dish with aluminum foil, then put them in a 375 degree oven with the timer set for 30min.

Meanwhile, I started my Zucchini fries.  I cut a medium-sized zucchini into spears and put them into a medium sized bowl, then tossed in a little canola oil (enough to coat), some seasoned salt, chili pepper, and ground coriander.  Mixed that all together so it was coated and layered on to a baking sheet, covering with a little Monterrey/Colby cheese.  When the timer for the peppers hit 20min I popped the zucchini in.

The smells coming from my kitchen were amazing.  I had a really good feeling about this one.

When the timer beeped zero I checked the zucchini and deemed it needing just a few more minutes, took the foil off the peppers and then left everything in the oven for another 5min.  After letting everything cool off a little bit, I plated dishes for both my husband and I, and took the first intrepid bite...

DELICIOUS.

Quinoa has such an interesting texture - it's like grainy yet tender all at the same time.  The spice from the chilies in the sauce and the chilies themselves added just the right amount of heat.  The flavor was just spot on Mexican, so comforting for me.  The peppers were a definitely win.  But the zucchini fries.... they were a knocked-outta-da-park HOME RUN! 

Even better, the meal - which really was a culinary stretch for my husband - was a keeper in his eyes as well.  When the man asks if there's more zucchini and goes for seconds on the peppers, that's a meal well cooked.

**Note - this meal as stated in the recipe made A TON.  I've got about half of the quinoa mixture left over, so I threw it in a ziplock baggie and froze it.  Hoping that it holds well for next use.**

***Next time I'm going to try my hand at my own enchilada-style sauce, and since fresh is always better than canned, I'll chop up my own tomatoes and chilies.  Can't wait!***

Virtual Pinboard

Most of you have heard of Pinterest.... if you haven't, you've either been living under a rock (I will always think of the Geico commercial now when that phrase is uttered), or you have an actual life that doesn't consist of being online several hours a day.

I have a life, but much of mine is spent online.  Hence, this blog.

Being on line a lot translates to - I eventually came across the virtual pinboard, Pinterest.  I love Pinterest.

Since discovering the internet in high school, I have spent countless hours researching and connecting.  Pinterest brings both of these wonderful things together.  Before when researching, I would either write things down, bookmark them, or try to remember... which never works, because I have the worst memory ever (and it keeps getting worse as I age... and I'm only 30 at the moment, so that's a little scary!).  Now that I have Pinterest, I don't have to rely on memory to remember sites, or even to remember that I bookmarked them (or where I put the piece of paper that I wrote them down on, which also saves paper, and I'm all about Green!).  Now all I have to do is log on to my Pinterest account and look through my bookmarks.  I feel like the site was created for me (never mind that I'm about two years behind the unveiling).

One of the biggest things I pin is recipes, which makes sense, as I have been collecting recipes since I moved in with my Dad and started cooking for myself.  Which is in no offense to my Dad - he just didn't keep a house stocked with food, and as befitting a woman in her early 20's, while my Pop provided shelter, I took care of myself in all other aspects.  But I digress.....  Being able to pin a recipe to one place is so revolutionary for my being.  I try to live my life as paperless as possible, and if I don't have to print something out, and can reference the recipe on my phone - PERFECT!

With that being said, my Recipe Board on Pinterest has gotten very large.  I have pinned hundreds of different recipes.  As I look through it, I find myself thinking.... Will I ever make all of these??

At the time of this writing, I have exactly 365 recipes pinned.  My analytical mind immediately thought well, there are 365 days in a normal year.... maybe I should make an effort to make one recipe out of my board a day.  Then I started thinking  well back up a second, a lot of these recipes only I will eat, and some of the earlier ones are not vegetarian, so I won't eat them anyway.  Which led me to the latest thought, and the purpose of this blog.

Once I get to 400 recipes, which should take care of the ones I have that focus on meat, I am going to make one recipe - maybe two, depending - a week from my Pinterest board.  I'm going to write a blog entry for as many as I deem worthy (meaning, for as many as I make that I actually have the motivation to post on).  My husband is actually going to be home this weekend on both days (yay!), so tomorrow we're planning a trip to Whole Foods, where I can get some good, wholesome ingredients to start my Pinterest Recipe Board journey.

I raise an imaginary glass of wine (Girl's Night with my bestie was tonight, so the wine has already been drank) to my latest project!