Spicy Chicken Salad and Miso Eggplant

I loved this salad. We used Morningstar Farms soy Chicken and soy sauce instead of fish sauce. The salad had a really nice crunchy texture and the contrast of the sugar, chilies, vinegar, garlic and mint made for a really excellent flavor.

We served the salad with Jaden's miso eggplant which was also really good and even approved by the eggplant skeptic Matt.

My Big Fat Greek Salad

I had vegan feta around from a recipe I made last week (I made the vegan feta using the recipe in the Uncheese Cookbook) so I had to put it to use. I made a giant Greek salad. It was delicious. It was so good that, although Matt and I planned to eat the left overs for lunch the next day, we gobbled them all up as a late night snack.

My salad contained:
1/2 lb vegan feta
1 package grape tomatoes, sliced into halves
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 small seedless cucmber, cut into bite sized chunks
1 small cubanelle pepper, seeded and diced
1 small jar of pepperoccini peppers, sliced
1 cup kalamata olives
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
8 oz package of vegetarian chicken strips, chopped (I used Morning Star Farms)
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped

I stirred up all of the above ingredients into a giant salad bowl. Goes well with pita bread but I didn't bother with it since the salad was so good, I didn't want any bread cluttering valuable space in my stomach for this salad.

Let the Penance Being

This week Matt and I are to eschew chips, cakes, cookies, pastries, candy, fried anything, etc. We had too many baked goods and we are feeling very unattractive. We kicked our week off with soup and salad.

The Salad:
1/4 c chickpeas + 2 Tbs
1/4 c carrots, diced + 2 Tbs
1/2 package of baby spinach
1/4 cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup cubanelle pepper, diced
1/2 cup grape tomatoes
1 tsp veg bacon bits
2 Tbs light balsamic dressing

Serves Two, 70 calories/serving



The Soup:
1/2 Tbs garlic, minced
1/2 c carrots, chopped finely
1/2 c onions, chopped finely
1 c celery, chopped finely
3 cups vegetable stock
1/2 c beets, chopped finely
1/6 c bulgar wheat
1/4 c chickpeas + 2 Tbs
3/4 c diced fire roasted tomatoes
2 c kale, julienned
fresh basil, chopped -- to taste
fresh oregano, chopped -- to taste
pepper, to taste
salt, to taste
cumin, to taste
chili powder, to taste

Heat a bit of cooking spray in the bottom of a large soup pot. Cook onions, garlic, carrots and celery on medium high heat until they just start to soften. Add the vegetable stock and bring to a rolling boil. Add the beets, bulgar, and chickpeas and boil for a few minutes. Reduce to a simmer and add the tomatoes, kale and herbs and spices. Allow the soup to simmer for about 45 minutes or until all the vegetables have become soft.

Serves Four, 120 calories/serving



So that was our less-than-200-calories dinner. The soup was delicious and filling and we had enough left over for lunches the next day.