First, confession: after three days of successfully eating a vegetarian diet, I fell off the wagon at the holiday party on Thursday. Mrs. T makes this wonderful Buffalo dip that contains chicken and I fall for it every time. As of Friday I am back on the wagon, but I predict I’ll probably buckle again during the Filipino Christmas party tomorrow. This is difficult. 

Second, I made a version of this soup back in August, the recipe for which I found in The Clear Skin Diet. This time around I had to wing it because I returned that book to the library, and, well, I didn’t bother to run an internet search. 

Dinner 12/23/11

Ingredients:

• 1 Sweet Potato (large)
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 stalks of celery
• handful of cranberries
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil

I cut my sweet potato and set it to boil in about 1.5 inches of water. Meanwhile, I sliced up the cauliflower and laid that on a cookie sheet, brushed them with olive oil. I “roasted” for 10 minutes (did not flip them) at 350 degrees. When the potatoes were boiling I added the celery and cranberries to the pot. I mashed the potatoes up coarsely (celery and cranberry tend to rise to the top so they don’t get mashed), then added the cauliflower to the pot. Finally, I put about half of the mixture in the food processor and liquified until smooth. I re-introduced that half into the chunky half. Salt and pepper until it tastes the way you want it. 

Served with a bagel pizza and Leinenkugel’s Fireside Nut Brown Beer. 

In my efforts to practice being vegetarian in the safe environs of home (rather than the precarious environs of the college dining hall), I have made another wonderful dish, local food movements be damned!

12/21/11 Lunch

Ingredients:

• 2 avocados
• 1 jalapeño
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tomato
• handful cranberries
• juice of one lime
• sugar and salt to taste

With my French Chef knife I cut up the jalepeño, onion, and tomato to medium size chunks. Pan fry the jalapeño and onions until the onions are translucent.  In the food processor I chopped these vegetables with my handful of cranberries. Emptied those into a bowl and squeezed the lime juice all over them. Then I mashed my avocados into this mixture with a fork (I prefer my guacamole chucky rather than smoothe). Since the cranberries are tart, add some sugar (about 3 tsp) and salt until you like the taste. Served with Stacy’s Simply Naked Sea Salt Pita Chips. 

Inspired by this.

12/20/2011 Dinner

I’ve recently decided that I don’t like beef very much, save perhaps for actual hamburgers, and so when I went to make spaghetti yesterday, I was pleased to know that we did not have any ground beef in the house. I grabbed all the vegetables I had recently purchased and made a vegetable spaghetti. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 Onion
• 1 Green Pepper
• 1 carrot
• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 package fresh mushrooms
• handful of grape tomatoes
• 2 boxes whole wheat pasta
• 2 jars Ragu Sauteed Onion and Garlic pasta sauce

Cut up all of your vegetables to your liking and sauté them with a combo of olive and garlic oils. Salt and pepper to taste. They are done when your onions are translucent. Bring the water to boil and cook your pasta while you are cutting and cooking the vegetables. When the vegetables are done transfer them to the pot you’ll use for the sauce. Simmer the sauce with vegetables in it for 10-15 minutes. Serve over noodles and garnish with parsley if you like! Yum, yum!

Have been an obsession of mine since Winter Break this past year. I guess it all started with Yam fries served with a chipotle dipping sauce at Seva vegetarian restaurant in Ann Arbor. I’ve been ordering yam fries and sweet potato fries at countless restaurants around Ohio since then. 

I made some at home on June 16:

Cut the sweet potato into thin fry-sized strips. Toss them in a large mixing bowl with olive oil. I doused mine with cinnamon, chili powder, salt, and brown sugar. Of course you can deep fry or pan fry them, but I decided to bake mine. Put them in for about 45 minutes at 350. Yum!

[Unfortunately, I forgot about the time and I left mine in a little bit longer than 45 minutes. The thinner fries are a little burnt, but the others taste just fine!]

My lunch on June 6:

• 2 whole wheat tortillas
• hummus (pine nut)
• cheese (extra sharp cheddar)
• black beans
• corn
• salsa
• plain yogurt

I mashed up the black beans and corn, spreading them on one tortilla; I put that tortilla in the fry pan first, so that the black beans could warm up (they’d been in the refrigerator). Spread the cheese over that. Spread the hummus on the other tortilla and put that on top. Cook on low heat until each side is golden and the cheese is melty. Top with the salsa and plain yogurt (which is as tasteless as sour cream, much better for you, and serves the purpose of balancing out the spicy salsa). 

This tastes great with an iced green tea, too!

This would be the most clever thing I could manage to say when my father said, “so there’s no taco meat. these [potatoes] don’t taste like tacos…do you not eat meat anymore?” This about the 400th time this question has come up in some form or another since I went to college, three years ago. At the center of this kitchen debate was the dish I decided to cook tonight: Potato Tacos. My father ate them and said they were good, but it’s hardly a triumph. One step at a time, though. 

So, I was inspired by my friend A.M. who ordered a potato taco at t-bell late one night last week. I have never tried t-bell’s potato taco, but I was intrigued by the idea. I’m not a vegetarian, as we’ve established before in this blog, but I am not a huge fan of meat, especially taco meat. On taco tuesday at the school dining hall I fill my taco shells with beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, and tomato usually. And the boca meat they provide on the vegetarian station has the texture of gummy bears rolled in seasoning salt. 

My improvisation in the kitchen resulted in a delicious meal, if I do say so myself:

Nico’s Potato Tacos—

• 5 potatoes, peeled and diced small
• 1 can black beans, rinsed of all the can-juice
• 1/2 onion, diced
• taco seasoning
• all your favorite taco toppings and tortillas

Put your potatoes in a saucepan and bring them to a boil to soften them up; drain out the water and stir fry the potatoes (to make them crispy on the outside) along with the onion and black beans. Add two teaspoons of the taco seasoning. When the potatoes and onions have browned a bit, it should be done. Assemble tacos as you normally would! MMM :)