Lazy Vegan Tofu and Broccoli

My friend and I had a very nice dinner last night. I didn't take any photos of my delicious vegetarian combination plate (think: grape leaves, spinach pie, hummus, baba, falafel, etc.) because I just happened to be seated next to one of the local television personalities in this area... and I didn't want her to think I was pulling out my camera to take a photo of her! LOL Despite that excitement, the biggest news of the night was that I asked my friend to be my maid of honor for my wedding next year... and she said yes! :) I'll be so happy to have her by my side; we've known each other since high school!

Instead of sharing last night's dinner with you, I'm pulling out a dish I prepared a while back but never got the chance to blog about it. It's a Vegweb.com dish that's super easy yet delicious. Titled "Lazy and Hungry Tofu Plus Broccoli" on Vegweb, this dish is simple and a quick dinner if you need something made in a short amount of time. The only change I made was that I used peanut oil because I didn't have sesame oil on hand. I chose to serve this with brown rice that I cooked using veggie broth instead of water. Deelish!

4th of July lunch

My BF and I decided to have an impromptu burger lunch today. An omni, he grilled a meat burger for himself, while I enjoyed the Black Bean Chipotle vegan burger by Gardenburger. I topped my burger with an onion/mushroom/garlic mixture that we sauteed in a pan on the grill, and added cold tomato, more onion, red leaf lettuce and mustard on a sesame seed bun. We chose to have cucumber slices as a side (I sprinkled mine with a little bit of salt, yum!). Simple and quick!

On a side note, I was at my BF's house, which is near a Whole Foods. I get excited when I visit him because I do not have a Whole Foods near me... so every chance I get when I visit, I stock up on veggie items my local grocer doesn't carry, like nutritional yeast. Today I bought a few new-to-me items to try... Vegan Gourmet's Mozzarella and Lightlife's wild rice organic tempeh. I'll most likely blog about them once I give them a try!! :)

Jamaican Veggies with Spicy Chik'n

Tried to keep it simple last night. My local market had fresh veggies cheap this week, so I bought a lot. I decided to chop up peppers, eggplant, onion, yellow squash, zucchini and sunflower seeds and sautee them. I used a Jamaican seasoning blend I found here. Funny story behind that. I made some homemade seasoning blends for my Daddy-O for his birthday. I had tiny amounts left over from each batch, so I put them in sandwich baggies, figuring I could use them down the road. Well, the next night, when I had finished cutting up a yellow pepper for a salad I was taking to work the next day, I realized that in my haste, I tossed the half cut pepper into the baggy with the Jamaican spice blend, instead of the empty baggy just a few inches away. D'oh! Therefore, last night's dinner became Jamaican so I could use that half pepper with the spice all over it. :) I served the veggies over a Boca Spicy Chik'n patty (have I mentioned how much I love the spicy patties?) for a quick, delicious veggie meal!

I spy... a new veggie convenience food for hiking!

This past weekend, while cruising the aisles of my local Meijer store, I did some lollygagging in the "world cuisine" aisle. You see, they just built a Meijer near me, so I'm in love. I haven't had the time to properly browse all the nook-and-crannies yet. But, I spent a few extra moments looking at the ethnic foods.

The Indian Tasty Bite meals caught my eye. Mainly, because the packaging claimed that no refrigeration was needed, it cooked in just five minutes AND they were vegetarian/vegan. Awesome! I was tickled with this because I love to camp and hike. Last year, Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpacking by Christine and Tom Conners, was the bible that my boyfriend and I worshipped to get us through the week in the woods. We have a trip coming up at the end of August, and I've been meaning to flip through the bible again to start getting our meal plans in order. BUT, these Tasty Bite meals intrigued me because if they were good, they also could be used on our trip and could save me a little bit of preparation! So, I bought two meals--"Kashmir Spinach" and "Peas Paneer & Basmati Rice"--to try.

Over the past couple of days, I have tried both meals. And while not extremely stellar, restaurant-quality food, I could definitely see us eating these meals in the woods. They were uber quick to prep. Basically, boil water and then drop the meal pouch into the boiling water for five minutes. Then, carefully slice open the pouch, pour into a bowl (or, if in the woods, you could eat right out of the pouch) and enjoy!

Personally, I found the Kashmir Spinach to be a bit on the light side (I had it for dinner). Nothing wrong with that, necessarily, but if I was eating this out in the woods after a day of hiking, it might leave me hungry. What would've made this dish much better would've been a big hunk of bread for dipping into the spinach, since it had a soupy texture to it.

The Peas Paneer was more filling. I don't think I cooked the rice correctly though. The peas and rice were in two separate pouches, and when I dropped both of them into the pot, the rice pouch was sticking out of the water more than the peas. I think this is why the rice was a little hard... half the package seemed to feel softer. But, with the peas and sauce over it, it really wasn't a big deal.

The packaging claims that technically, you can eat the contents of these meals without heating them up. This would make the Tasty Bite meals ideal for vegetarians to have on hand in case of a power outage or an emergency situation/emergency stash of food.

Overall, a really cool find! I will definitely be buying these meals for camping, etc. Can't wait to try the vegan versions. Meijer had a decent selection, so if you have a store near you, check them out!

Using leftovers before they go bad...

After such a well-thought out dinner last night, I discovered I had some leftover food in my fridge that was going to go bad if I didn't use it.

So, I sauteed some onion, green pepper and mushroom till soft. Added some seasoning and sunflower seeds. Finally, some rice and black beans leftover from the wonderful taco ring recipe yesterday. Topped it all off with a bit of soy cheese and mmmm. Yum! Easy and quick dinner for one! :)

Catching up: Lemony Asparagus Pasta

Sorry for the lack of posts. It's been busy since getting back from Michigan's lovely U.P. I made this recipe a few days ago and am finally getting around to posting it.

Very easy and quick recipe. I chose this one in particular because my folks gave me and my sister A LOT of fresh asparagus that they got recently from a local farm. I hate wasting food, so I knew I needed a recipe where asparagus was the focal point, and this one was the winner because it seemed uber easy... and it was! The recipe called for whole wheat Penne pasta, but I used whole wheat Rotini because it was what I had on hand.

Five stars for ease of preparation, but I dunno... seemed like it was missing something to me. If I make this again, I may add in other fresh veggies, too, for variety. Really mix it up!

Quick Mexi Veggie Dish

Didn't follow a special recipe for this one, just used things I already had in my cupboards. I cooked up some brown rice. While that was cooking, I heated up a frozen mix of red/green peppers and onions as well as a Spicy Black Bean Burger. Love, love LOVE the spicy black bean burgers. They are my favorite of the Morningstar brand. Tossed it all in a dish with some organic salsa on top for a little kick and voila! A quick and easy one-person veggie meal. :)

I really don't like cooking for myself. I much prefer to make meals that others will enjoy with me. But I'm trying to be better about it and get more creative for my solo meals so I'll have more entries to post here, LOL.