vegetarian – Page 2 – Peaceful Reader

Weekend Cooking; I'm not actually cooking …but stop by anyway!

I haven’t cooked it yet but in a moment of relaxing after school I found this recipe while paging through my new Vegetarian Times magazine. I’m plan to cook it; maybe just not this weekend. My plan is to put my feet up a lot this weekend. Starting now.

Potato and Cauliflower Burrito

1 15-oz can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, drained
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tsp. canola oil

1 small onion, halved and sliced (1 cup)

1/2 tsp. dried oregano
3 cups small cauliflower florets
1 medium Yukon Gold or russet potato (6 ozs), cut into 1/4-inch cubes
3 T. chopped cilantro
4 8-inch flour or whole-wheat tortillas, warmed
1 cup cooked brown rice, warmed
1 cup grated vegan Monteray Jack cheese

1. Pulse tomatoes, chipotle chile, and garlic in food processor until coarse puree forms.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and oregano; saute 2 minutes. Stir in cauliflower, potato, and tomato mixture, and season with salt and pepper, if desired. Cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Uncover, and simmer 5 more minutes, or until cauliflower and potato are tender. Stir in cilantro.

3. Divide cauliflower mixture among tortillas, top with rice, and sprinkle with cheese. Roll up tortillas, leaving one end open.

***I’m going to use regular (real) cheese when I make this.

This burrito is only 360 calories with 10 g. of protein. There are 4 other burrito recipes included in this article, Better Burritos which states “forget those monster restaurant burritos that may be yummy, but are anything but low-cal. (A typical veggie burrito from a chain offering fresh ingredients clocks in around 750 calories-and that’s without guacamole.) (35-VT, June)

Golly, that’s a lot of calories for a veggie burrito!! I do love Chipolte’s burritos-not so much knowing this. I’m not much of a calorie counter but that’s a large number for one item. Perusing Chipotle’s website I have to say I’m still a fan as they do use good ingredients and they have a handy nutritional guide-I rounded up and only got about 500 calories so I wonder which big burrito VT is talking about.

Hope your weekend is lovely. Happy Mother’s Day to all. I dropped hints to Groovy Girl and Teenage Boy about taking me for a long walk at our local nature reserve, if its not raining that is. Either way it will be a beautiful day.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Everyone can play along with any food related post. Click over and see what she’s cooking up-it’s always informative.

Spinach and Feta Lasagna wins over chicken

The chicken was tender and good but the hands-down favorite at last night’s dinner was The Grit Restaurant’s lasagna so I decided I would share the recipe here so everyone else could make it too! Today was our day to eat leftovers and my husband and son both ate the leftover lasagna, which I had planned on taking for lunch tomorrow-that’s how good it was. I was really incredulous since they are the big meat eaters!! Now I will be combing through this cookbook looking for other delicious recipes to tantalize them.

Spinach and Feta Lasagna

6 ozs lasagna noodles, freshly cooked
4 quarts water
1/2 block firm tofu, crumbled
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
1 pound frozen spinach, thawed and drained
4 cups Grit Marina (I used two jars of organic sauce-no time to make the sauce, this time.)
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tsp dried parsley, oregano, and basil

Preheat oven to 350. Oil a 9 x 13 in.baking dish.
Boil lasagna noodles in water until barely tender; Drain and seperate the noodles, set aside.
Combine tofu, soy sauce, mustard, pepper, feta cheese and spinach in a large mixing bowl.
Lightly coat bottom of prepared pan with marina sauce. Cover the sauce with layer of noodles, running the long way. Spread 1/2 of spinach-feta mixture, 1/3 of the marina sauce, and 1/2 of the mozzarella. Cover with second layer of noodles and on up, repeating but this time put the noodles crossways (so you have to cut them to make them fit). Cover with a third layer running the longway and top with remaining marina. Sprinkle with Parmesan and parsely mixture. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until well browned on top. Cool slightly before serving.

I do usually make my own sauce when I make other lasagnas but this time since I was preparing another meal practically with the chicken/roast potato combination from Jamie Oliver, I just didn’t have the time. I also used fresh parsley mix on top and I did not have any dry mustard so I just squirted in some stone-ground mustard from my refrigerator-it worked out fine. I never preheat my oven until I’m almost finished with a recipe-it just doesn’t make sense to have it on for the 30 minutes or so it takes me to make a recipe. Viola-it was easy to put together and even easier to eat!
Our evening with friends was great even though it was snowstorming outside. We were toasty warm inside with our wine, food and holiday music playing. Our Christmas entertaining is off to a fantastic start. Through the weekend I did manage some reading; I finished Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay and stared the Everafter by Amy Huntley, which I am fascinated by! I need to review Sarah’s Key as well as A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce.

Buy The Grit cookbook at their website-you won’t be disappointed!!

I am an IndieBound affiliate and some of my links will take you there. I’ve earned nothing as of yet from this association but one can always have hope.

In other news-we have a two hour school delay so I wll be sleeping in and reading in my toasty bed. I may pad down to the kitchen and whip up some German Pancakes for my children if I feel up to it. I would love it if they would just cancel the whole day-it is FREEZING out there!

Next week’s topic-fresh bread!

German Pancakes

My sister-in-law made thee most delicious German pancakes for us while we were visiting over Thanksgiving. My kids loved them and she said they were easy to make so I googled and found a great recipe on a blog called Adventures in the Kitchen by Cheri. I read around a bit on her blog and found other recipes I liked so now you can find her on the right-hand side bar Food and Wine section. Thank you Cheri-I used your recipe tonight and my children ate them all up.

We did have a very relaxing holiday with my mom and two of my brothers (oldest and youngest) and their families. My youngest brother and I love to cook-a skill we attibute to both our mother and grandmother. Throughout my childhood we had Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at my grandmother’s house (over the snow and through the woods to Amity Drive we go) and she cooked up a storm. She used an old gas oven in the basement to keep up with the demandsof cooking a turkey, sweet potatoes, bread and pies for many of us. It has always been tough to get down her timing of getting everything to the table at the same time. We did it this year though between my mother, sister-in-law, brother and myself. Yeahhh, Grandma Bruch-we did it. And then we sat down and ate it (almost) all up.

The holidays of my childhood will live on through this yearly celebration but I still miss her and her cooking terribly. My grandmother was somewhat of a health nut but she was definetely a meat and potatoes women. She balanced it out with oatmeal every morning. My brother and I tend to cook more vegetarian now but we did have a 13 # locally-raised (right here in Iowa) turkey so the little ones, my husband, teenager and my oldest brother’s family would not miss the big bird. It was yummy-all of it. Yes, I tasted a little of everything. Even the dressing was worthy (thanks Mom).

Okay, I digressed from German Pancakes to our holiday time but we did have such a good celebration and it was all food-related. I didn’t blog once while gone as I just enjoyed my extended family. I hope you had a lovely holiday time as well.

No Hurry Vegetable Curry

What a catchy title for a recipe! My in-laws are in town to see Legend of Sleepy Hollow and I love having them here. My mother-in-law, Phyllis, is a reader, knitter, master quilter, makes wonderful meals, drinks wine with me and is lovely with my children. My father-in-law is very, very smart, loves to talk politics, and loves his son, my husband, deeply. I scored well in this regard.

Having them come to town is a good time to try new recipes. My husband’s family spent time in Malaysia and Sierra Leone as part of the Peace Corps. so they enjoy a wide variety of cuisines and are happy to eat vegetarian. A few years ago, Phyllis, gave me Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker; 200 recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals That Are Ready When You Are by Robin Robertson. I’ve made several recipes from this book and they’ve all been easy and tasty.

This one is my second favorite from this book. My fav. is a sweet potato chili.

No Hurry Vegetarian Curry

1 T peanut oil
2 large carrots, sliced diagonal
1 med.-size yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 T curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
8 ozs green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1-in. pieces
1 1/2 cups slow cooked or one 15.5-ozs can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
One 14.5 can diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
Salt

1. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the carrots and onion, cover, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, curry powder, coriander, and cayenne, stirring to coat.

2. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a 3 1/2 -to 4-quart slow cooker. Add the potatoes, green beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, and stock; cover and cook on Low for 6-8 hours.

3. Just before serving, stir in the peas and coconut milk and season with salt. Taste to adjust the seasonings.

I used small potatoes from my mother’s garden, cut into fourths and I didn’t peel them. I added a second can of chickpeas because we love them. I served it over Jasmine rice with sprinkles of cilantro on top. It was yummy-everyone loved it, even the teenage son!

Check it out; the author has a food blog, Vegan Planet. Right now she is hosting a giveaway of cookbooks!

I hope everyone is having a peaceful Saturday…it is 80 degrees here and I’m going outside to either read or knit!

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads…pop over and see what other delicious food-related posts she has listed.