Sweet Chili Eggplant & Zucchini with Tofu

 

 If only eggplants didn't take so long to cook...I love eating it otherwise. Smooth and creamy. This made for a great veggie and protein compliment when the meat dish I prepared was on the small side.

Eggplant

Zucchini

Medium firm Tofu

Thai Sweet Chili sauce

Green onions

I tossed the veggies in oil and then pan seared them. I like my eggplant soft so I cook it until it's turns a bit translucent...same goes for the zucchini I also sear the tofu. Then I layer everything into a dish and drizzle as much or as little of the thai sweet chili sauce as you want. Garnish with some fresh green onions. Enjoy!

Quick stir fry

I've forgotten how easy it is to make veggie stir fry. It's so easy there isn't much to say about it...

Red yellow orange peppers
Zucchini
Onion
Szichuan Spicy Noodle Paste by Lee Kum Kee

Only tip is to sautee in the order of whatever takes the longest to cook to your liking.

Green Chives & Eggs

A super easy dish to make when lacking ingredients and/or inspiration. And it tastes good.

Eggs
Green Chives
Tomatos
Ketchup squirt
S&p to taste

Beet & Brussels Sprouts Salad

There are SO MANY ways to do a good meal-worthy salad. I personally believe that raw nutrients are better than cooked stuff...even if the calories and vitamin/minerals are reportedly the same whether cooked or raw. Being Asian, I still eat a lot of COOKED vegetables....but I'm exploring the raw side now. I'm used to eating raw spinach salad....but beets and brussel sprouts were always consumed cooked. After seeing a few recipes for eating these items raw, I came up with this salad to see how it goes:

Beets - peeled and cut into matchsticks
Brussels sprouts - sliced very thinly, like slaw
Apple - thin slices
Spinach
Pine nuts
 
Dressing:
Mustard
Garlic
Tahini
Apple cider vinegar
Maple syrup

The dressing was completely eye-balled and adjusted to taste....but I really really liked the dressing. And when tossed with the salad...I thought it was a very tasty, earthy, hearty salad. My husband mostly agrees...until he realized I used raw brussel sprouts. "No wonder!! Something tasted off. I don't like that earthy bitter taste." Well, to each their own. Maybe next time I'll blanche the sprouts first?

Baked Potato Hash

We needed a carb item to round out our dinner. Actually I'm perfectly ok not eating carbs at dinner, but my husband doesn't feel a meal is complete without carbs. So, I rummage through the kitchen and come up with this:

Potatoes
Basil
S&p
Mozzarella
Plain greek yogurt

Basically toss the potato chunks in everything and then top with mozzarella. It was pretty good...you know what would've made it better? Sour cream instead of the Greek yogurt. But yes, yogurt is healthier. =)

 

Baked Portobello Caps

The picture doens't look like much...but those are baked portobello mushroom caps. I've always wanted to try cooking portobello...this was my first time! I didn't know it's actually a tedious process to scrap the brown gills looking stuff from the underside of the caps first. It ended up taking way longer than I expected so the stuffing for the caps overcooked on the stove (and then I had to bake everything afterwards.) Oh well...live and learn.

Stuffing:
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Onion
Diced mushroom stalks (cut from the portobello)
Panko
S&P
Dried herbs
Cumin

Sides were couscous and Shanghai bok choi.
It tasted good...but yeah, stuffing was over cooked. Next time!

Hot or Cold Pasta with Okra

I had never cooked with okra before and wanted to try. I heard it was pretty versatile and could be eaten cooked or raw. It's also supposed to be pretty nutritious. So one Vegetarian Vednesday I whipped this up:

Pasta
Cooked chick peas
Okra
Onion
Premade pasta sauce...from Trader Joes
Pan seared egg tofu

And it was pretty tasty! The okra was crunchy...with a bit of sliminess at the same time. The tastes went well together. And the next day, I ate the leftovers for lunch as a cold pasta salad. Perfectly tasty as well! Love a meal that keeps giving.

Yam Latkes and Egg with Tomato Salad

Sorry the lighting wasn't very good on this one. I saw something about sweet potato latkes in a magazine somewhere so I thought I'd give it a try. SUPER DELICIOUS...especially with a fried egg on top and when the yolk oozes over the crispy yam latke!!

Latke:
Shredded yellow yam
Eggs
Flour
Cumin
Paprika
Curry powder

Tomato Salad:
Regular tomatoes on the vine
Some kind of darker heirloom tomatoes
Yellow bell pepper
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Dried herbs
S&P to taste

Crustless Quiche

I was too lazy to make a crust...so I made one of my regular quiches in a cast iron pan, then put the whole thing in the oven to bake. Lovely.

Kale
Mushrooms
Onion
Cheese
Eggs
Almond Milk (remember it's 3 eggs to 1 cup milk)
Cumin
Paprika
Salt/Pepper



One of the best parts was that I did the whole thing in the same pan from start to finish. A couple less dishes to wash. =)

Beet Salad

The problem with salads is that it's hard to get full on them. Well, it used to be. I came across this salad in the book "Meals that Heal" by Julie Daniluk. I didn't have all the ingredients but I had the key item: Red beets.

So I went to work in grating and chopping up a bunch of different fruits and veggies:
Red Beets
Carrots
Apple
Celery
Salt and Lemon Juice to season
 

Put a big scoop of it onto some greens, sprinkle some Tamari almonds and voila, a very hearty salad. I can eat it without the greens...but it's prettier with some contrasting colors. Enjoy!

Zucchini Pasta with Kale & Tomato

I've been seeing posts about a gluten free zucchini pasta...and what makes it gluten free is because you're actually using whole fresh zucchini pieces cut into pasta shaped noodles as opposed to processing zucchini with other ingredients to make noodles. It's a bit labour intensive...I used a mandolin then stacked and sliced the zucchini down to fettuccine sizes. And then I made "pasta sauce" by just sauteeing and simmering the rest of the incredients together. Season to taste.

It's REALLY good. =) Hope you'll enjoy it too!

Zucchini

Pasta sauce:
Garlic
Onion
Basil
Savory
Salt
Soup stock
Kale
Tomatoes
 

Baked Miso Tofu on Salad and Burnt Tomato Soup

I can't remember where I saw a recipe for baked miso tofu, but it sounded interesting. I had both medium firm regular and soft egg tofu. I've been buying organic since I hear soy is a major GMO product now.

Miso sauce:
Miso paste
Soy sauce
Sugar
Grapeseed Oil

Mix this all together and then spoon over the cut tofu in a baking sheet. Bake at 350-385 F until the liquids dry and it starts to brown. Serve over salad with a garlic balsamic vinegar dressing that you can also easily throw together.

Tomato Soup....sadly was a bit of a fail. I was browning the onions and had added cut tomatos to simmer with it, except I didn't include enough liquids in the pot...or maybe the stove was on too high. Anyways....the bottom burnt. I picked out what I could, added veggie stock and then put the immersion blender in until I got the desired consistency. My husband said it tasted good...so I'll go with that. But I'm not aiming for a repeat performance for sure. =)

Tomatoes
Onion
Garlic
Basil
Oregano
Vegetable Stock

Leftover Makeover: Kimchi Edemame Fried Rice

Apologies for the half eaten bowl of rice....I forgot to take the photo first. I've mentioned before how I hate wasting kimchi juice left after eating a tub of the spicy goodness. Well here's another way to use it up. Use it in fried rice! Fried rice is also a great way to use up hard leftover rice. Instead of adding water to reconsitute the rice, I poured in the kimchi juice. I also had leftover buckwheat. And leftover cooked edemame beans. Perfect. For added protein I cut up a medium firm block of tofu into strips...you can't really see them in the photo though.

I let everything simmer under a lid, then stir every now and then until the liquids have dried up and the rice gets a little browned. Yum.

Leftover grains
Kimchi juice
Edemame
Tofu
Salt/Sugar to taste

Roasted Cauliflower

This is a new favorite!
I'm not a cauliflour fan usually...but I heard all this talk about roasted cauliflour being delicious so I had to try.



I tossed the cut cauliflour in grapeseed oil (which doesn't burn or get rancid under high temperatures), salt, paprika and cumin. Then just baked them at 400 F until it started to brown. Turned/stirred once.

It was SO GOOD. I'm converted! I was going to save the leftovers for lunch but my husband and I just ate the rest with our fingers like it was popcorn. Enjoy!!

(Apparently, if you do the same with cheese instead, kids will even love it.)

Warm Sweet Potato Broccoli Salad

What do you do when you have a little bit of a couple different veggies but not enough of any for a good meal size serving? You throw it all together and call it stew or soup or in my case, salad. The yams take longer than broccoli to cook so I started with them in a pot with some butter. Added a tiny bit of water to get the steam going. Then I cut up the broccoli and added it. BUT, I didn't watch the timing so I ended up with overcooked broccoli. Ah well...still tasty. With the added water and moisture from the broccoli, there ended up being enough "sauce" to coat the salad so I didn't need to make a dressing. The contrast of soft warm veggies with the crisper cooler leaves was quite nice. The heaviness of the yam made it possible to be full as well.

Yam/sweet potato
Broccoli
Box mixed greens salad
Paprika
Cumin
Sugar

 

Caprese Salad

I wasn't sure whether to post this since the idea is not original or inspired at all. ha ha. But here it is...one of the easiest and yummy salads to make.

Sliced tomatoes
Sliced fresh mozzarella
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Basil (fresh basil would've been WAY better)

Leftover Makeover : Bean Patty

Remember the nine bean patty? I decided I would throw it into a salad. It's flavorful and good protein. So...there it went. And the Salad was a very good one because of it.

Bean patty
Fresh mozzarella
Avocado (half)
Walnuts

Dressing: Honey Dijon Summer dressing...minus the garlic this time

 

Sautéed Kale with Onions

I found this Italian kale at the grocery and thought I'd give it a try. The leaves are softer than the regular kale I'd find at Superstore so I wanted to see how it'd taste. Usually we're asked to cut away the stalks of the regular kale and it feels like such a waste but these ones, I could throw everything in to cook. Super simple side for anything.

Kale
Onion
Cumin
Paprika (this Cumin paprika mix is totally one of my favorites as you can probably tell)
S&P

Covered it for a bit and then sautéed until the moisture was gone.

Bean Patties

Yup still going strong on the vegetarian kick. I still really love a good marbled piece of rib eye steak, med rare with a nice sear...but a much smaller piece now. Less is more! Anyways, as summer is swinging in, visions of bbq's and grills and burgers and wings start to float in. I realize the picture is of patties in a frying pan, but that's really only because we hadn't filled up our propane tank for the bbq yet.

So, patties...I've tried veggie burgers and I really don't like the ones that imitate beef patties. If I wanted beef patties, I'll eat beef patties. In this case, I wanted to try making bean patties....see if it can taste good. And also because that huge tub of nine-bean mix I bought at Costco isn't being used up fast enough.



I kinda followed this recipe for a Black Bean Veggie burger. I used a nine bean mix instead of just black beans. Sriracha instead of chili powder. Added paprika to the mix. And used flour instead of bread crumbs...because I didn't have any and didn't want to waste my bread to make some.

Everything was mashed/mixed by hand because we don't have a food processor. And maybe it could'e used more flour (or bread crumbs) because it wasn't holding together very well. The cooked result was quite crumbly too so it's a good thing I didn't put it on the grill. BUT, it was very tasty indeed. Yay!

Saucy Veggie Omlette...not really

I don't know what this is called....when you crack eggs into sautéed veggies. It's not a fritata, it's not a Spanish omlette, it's not really an omlette either....meh. It was tasty! And an easy way to use up various veggies in the fridge. I served it with some garlic naan to soak up some of the sauce.



I sautéed everything until it was nearly done, made four "wells" that I cracked the eggs into. Covered it for a few minutes then served it.

Button mushrooms
Yellow Pepper
Broccoli
Onion
Eggs
Cumin
Paprika
Sugar
Basil flakes
Garlic
S&P