Chick'n Salad

Tonight's dinner:
- Broccoli rabe and spinach, wilted in a pan with sauteed garlic and red pepper flakes and tossed with lime juice, salt, pepper and vinegar
- Vine-ripened tomatoes stuffed with "Chicken" salad

Vegan Chicken Salad Ingredients:
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 package Morningstar Farms soy chicken, chopped
1 cup carrot, choppeds
2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 c veganaise
several sprinkles of celery seed
8 medium, hollowed out tomatoes

All ingredients were mixed up in a bowl using a fork and then stuffed into hollowed out tomatoes.

This made 4 servings (220 calories/serving including the tomatoes and the salad). Perfect for dinner tonight and lunches tomorrow.

Sweet Delicious Atonement

Moving right along with our low-cal week, tonight I made pan-seared tofu with roasted asparagus and tomatoes in a balsamic garlic glaze.

Ingredients:
1 block of extra firm tofu, cut into 1/4" thick rectangles
3 cups asparagus cut into 1" pieces
1 cup grape tomatoes
1 Tbs garlic, minced
3 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs olive oil

Spray a skillet with cooking spray and place over high heat. Arrange tofu inside the skillet, cover and cook until browned on one side. Flip the tofu and brown on the other side. Then set the tofu aside.

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and coat the veggies with the marinade. Then arrange the veggies on a baking sheet covered with foil and cook them under a broiler set to high for about 10 minutes or until the skin on the tomatoes is wrinkled.

While the veggies cook soak the cooked tofu in any marinade that remains at the bottom of the bowl you marinated the veggies in.

When the veggies come out of the oven sprinkle them with salt and black pepper, to taste. Then put the tofu on plates and pile the cooked veggies on top. Serves 3, 196 calories, 7.3 carbs, 4.13g sugar, 5g sodium per serving.

Pasta Imposter

Since Matt and I are trying to watch our calories this week, I came up with this low calorie version of spaghetti with chunky tomato sauce. Matt, who adores pasta, remarked that the eggplant substitute was almost like noodles. Mission accomplished!

To make this dish you will need:
1 large eggplant
1 Tbs garlic, minced
1 cup onions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, cut into very thin strips
3/4 c diced fire roasted tomatoes
3/4 cup white button mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup tomato sauce
1/2 bag of baby spinach
2 Tbs fresh oregano, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
salt and black pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and as it heats peel the skin off of the eggplant with a vegetable peeler. Once the skin is removed peel the eggplant with a peeler so that you produce long thin strips of eggplant. Once the entire eggplant is in peels arrange it on a baking sheet covered with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle salt over the raw eggplant (arranging the eggplant on the baking sheet in layers is fine). Bake the eggplant for 15 minutes.

While the eggplant bakes coat a large deep frying pan with cooking spray, and cook the garlic and onions over medium high heat until the onions start to soften. Add in the bell peppers and tomatoes and cook for a few minutes more. Then add the mushrooms and tomato sauce, cooking until all the vegetables soften. Stir in the spinach and herbs, allowing them to wilt. Remove from heat and add the salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, arrange a pile of eggplant on a dish and top with the tomato mixture. Serves 3, 175 calories per serving.

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.

I Want To Make Love To These Cinnamon Rolls

I made these cinnamon buns over the weekend. They were totally amazing. I could have eaten all of them in one sitting. The only thing that stopped me was packing up half of them and taking them to friends.



Matt and I are feeling rather fat after all the baked goods and we've decided a week of "penance" is in order. We have a week of soup and salad consumption planned and a temporary moratorium on baking in effect.

Peanut Stew and Greens

OK, here's the conclusion of my week of cooking recipes from the current issue of Veg Times magazine. I made their Out of Africa dishes including their Peanut Stew with Cucumber Sauce and Flash Cooked Greens. I added 1 tsp of brown sugar to the cucumber sauce which the recipe did not call for but it really needed. The stew was nice and the greens were divine. Here's the grub:

Holy Mother Of Nachos!

Last night Matt and I made a giant plate of super decadent nachos. I feel like I gained 10 lbs but they really were the most spectacular nachos of all time. We used a big pile of Tostitos chips and topped with them half a can of Amy's Organic Refried Beans. We covered that with half a block of melted Follow Your Heart Cheddar. Then we topped that with homemade guacamole, homemade salsa and Tofutti Sour Supreme (vegan sour cream).

For the guacamole I tried following the mock guac recipe from the current issue of Veg Times which calls for some boiled shelled peas (processed in food processor), chopped tomatoes, minced garlic, salt, pepper, hot sauce, cilantro, lime juice and chopped scallions but the peas alone were not quite Guacalicious so I added in some mashed Avocado and it turned out to be the best guac I have ever had.

For the salsa, Matt chopped a bunch of vine ripened tomatoes, garlic, a jalapeno pepper, scallions, onions, and cilantro and then added in some lime juice, olive oil, and chili powder.

Eat your heart out, Taco Bell.