Tag Archives: dinner

Pad Thai

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Pad Thai

Pad Thai

After traveling most of this week, I was really excited for some home-cooked food on Friday night and decided to make vegan pad thai.

Carrots, Red Pepper, and Broccoli

Carrots, Red Pepper, and Broccoli

I started off by getting my veggies ready…thinly slicing some carrots and red peppers, chopping broccoli, washing bean sprouts, and dicing up some green onions and garlic.

Garlic and Green Onions Sauteing Away!

Garlic and Green Onions Sauteing Away!

While the water was heating for the rice noodles, I started sauteing the garlic and green onions in some peanut oil with red chili pepper flakes until they were softened and fragrant with peanutty spiciness. Then, I added the carrots and red peppers. After a little bit I added the broccoli with some soy sauce and lime juice, and covered the veggies to let them steam.

Pad Thai Sauce

Pad Thai Sauce

While the veggies were steaming and the noodles were boiling, I started the sauce for the pad thai. Of course it contained a good amount of lime juice (mostly out of a bottle, but a little bit fresh squeezed). I also added in some lime zest, soy sauce, sriracha sauce, and a little brown sugar for some sweetness.

Veggies Steaming Away!

Veggies Steaming Away!

At this point, everything was ready to be combined together! I mixed the noodles and bean sprouts in with the veggies, topped it with the sauce, and then mixed in some chopped green onions and peanuts.  I always think the hardest part of making this dish is getting everything mixed together and coated with the sauce, and last night was no exception! After serving, I topped it with a few more peanuts and a lime slice. It is so good to be home and back in my kitchen! :-)

Freshly Made Pad Thai

Freshly Made Pad Thai

Black Bean Tacos

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Black Bean Tacos

Black Bean Tacos

After traveling all week, Jon wanted some “spicy Jen food” so I decided to make black bean tacos. I started off with some diced onions and minced garlic (what else!), then added in two cans of diced green chile peppers. After everything had sauteed together for a little while, then I added in lots of cumin, some red chili pepper flakes, and a litttle bit of cayenne pepper.

Beans, Tomatoes, and Onions Simmering Away

Beans, Tomatoes, and Onions Simmering Away

After the cumin heated up a little bit, then came the black beans. I took the easy route of using canned beans (a lot of times I will start with dried beans), and then added in some diced tomatoes, as well. Last, I grated some lime zest into the mixture to give a little bit of a sour kick.

 

Homemade Guacamole

Homemade Guacamole

While the bean mixture simmered away, I decided to make some guacamole. I diced up a green onion, an avacado, and some baby tomatoes. After adding in some fresh squeezed lime juice, a little salt, pepper, and hot sauce, the guacamole was ready to go!

I chopped up some romaine lettuce, spooned the bean mixture into taco shells, and dinner was ready. Yum!

Black Bean Tacos

Black Bean Tacos

 

Rotini with Zucchini and Cannellini Beans

. Pasta . , , , , ,
Rotini with Zucchini and Cannellini Beans

Rotini with Zucchini and Cannellini Beans

It might still be a little early for zucchini, but it looked yummy at the grocery store the other day so I decided to make one of my “pasta concoctions”…this is one of the creative moments that causes Jon to call me the McGyver of the kitchen (because I can seemingly concoct a dish out of string and a tin can)!

Zucchini with Garlic

Zucchini with Garlic

I started off by sauteing some onions and slivered garlic. To add in some savory spice, I put in a good amount of allspice and a little nutmeg.

After the onions were all soft and flavorful, I added in the sliced zucchini and the cannellini beans.

Zucchini with Cannellini Beans

Zucchini with Cannellini Beans

After tasting it, I decided it needed a little bit of a sourness so added in a small amount of rice wine vinegar, plus some red chili pepper flakes to give it a little kick. I mixed in the rotini pasta plus some of the pasta cooking water to thicken the sauce and it was ready to eat. It was like a little bowl of early summer! Yum!

Rotini with Zucchini and Cannellini Beans

Rotini with Zucchini and Cannellini Beans

Spinach “Feta” Pie

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Fresh Baked Spinach Pie

Spinach Pie Fresh from the Oven

At the end of another gorgeous spring day, I decided to make a spinach “feta” pie for dinner. The filling for the pie was the inspiration for my homemade spinach ravioli I made several weeks ago.

Spinach

Spinach Seasoned with Nutmeg

I started with the filling by defrosting some frozen spinach and then squeezing out all the water from the spinach while trying not to send half of it down the drain! I mixed in some nutmeg, salt, and pepper to season it.

Then, I made the “feta” by mixing some white vinegar and salt into crumbled tofu.

Preparing the Spinach Pie

The Best Way to Get Jon to Eat Spinach...Hide It!

Rather than using pie crust, I use phyllo dough for this dish. My favorite is actually a whole wheat phyllo dough. I layered some down in a pie tin, brushing it with olive oil. I have rarely been able to master the art of separating each thin sheet of phyllo, and this time was no exception!

I layered in some vegan cream cheese (which gets all warm and gooey in the oven), the “feta”, and the spinach, topped it with some dollops of the cream cheese, then folded in the layers of phyllo dough.

Spinach Pie Ready for the Oven

Spinach Pie Ready for the Oven

After brushing it with olive oil, sprinkling it with chunky Celtic sea salt and freshly ground pepper, it was ready for the oven! It takes about 25-30 minutes to cook, allowing Jon to get in a little video game time before dinner. :-)

When it came out of the oven, the crust was browned and crispy and the filling was warm and gooey. A perfect healthy meal for a spring evening!

Fresh Baked Spinach Pie

Spinach Pie Fresh from the Oven

Spinach Pie Served

Spinach Pie Served on My Favorite Dragonfly Plates

Beans Bourguignon…The Vegan’s Version of Beef Bourguignon

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Last night, I decided to make “Beans Bourguignon”, a vegetarian version of the Julia Child classic. I roughly followed a recipe from The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes cookbook (I say roughly because I really just use recipes as inspiration!), and decided to accompany it with a loaf of fresh-baked bread.

Fresh Bread

Bread Fresh Out of the Oven

Sauteed Mushrooms

Sauteed Mushrooms Hanging Out on a Plate

Sauteed Veggies

Veggies Sauteeing Away!

I started the dish by sauteeing some mushrooms. Once they were brown and yummy, I put them on a plate to hang out.

Finding pearl onions is really difficult when it’s not the holidays, so I did a large dice on an onion, minced some garlic, and added some whole carrots to the pan, in addition to salt, thyme, and pepper.After the veggies had sauteed for awhile, I added in veggie broth, bay leaves, and tomato paste, and let everything simmer together to get soft.

Finally, I added white navy beans, the mushrooms, and some red wine. While the beans finished simmering together with the veggies, I cooked some whole wheat noodles to serve the beans over. Served with the homemade bread, it was a pretty gourmet meal for a Wednesday night (though perhaps not the most photogenic dish ever)!

Beans Bourguignon

Beans Bourguignon...A Gourmet (if not photogenic) Meal for a Wednesday

Vegan Dirty Rice

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I saw a yummy photo of dirty rice, and decided to make a vegan version for dinner tonight.

Vegan Dirty Rice

Vegan Dirty Rice

I started off by cooking some brown rice…exciting! ;-)

Brown Rice

Cooking brown rice

Then, I got all my veggies ready. Almost all of my cooking includes onions and garlic, and this dish was no exception! I also included green onions, a green pepper, 2 jalapenos, some celery, and fresh thyme.

Green onions, Green pepper, jalapenos

Veggies for the dirty rice

Diced jalapenos

Diced Jalapenos...spicy goodness

While the rice was cooking, I sauteed the onions, celery, and the white parts of the green onions, then added the celery, green pepper, jalapenos, and fresh thyme. I also added in some spices: red pepper flakes, dried oregano, cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper.

After everything had cooked together for a while, I added in some diced tomatoes left over from last night’s black bean enchiladas, vegan spicy sausage, and black beans. Normally, I would have added in a lot more spiciness, but kept it toned down tonight at Jon’s request.

Veggies, black beans, vegan sausage

Veggies, black beans and vegan sausage

Finally, I mixed in the rice and sprinkled it with green onions to serve.

Vegan Dirty Rice Ready to Serve

Vegan Dirty Rice in the Pan

Jon said “Good, but not too spicy. I couldn’t tell it was fake [vegan] sausage.” (Yes, this is a good thing in our recently vegan house!)

Homemade Creamy Spinach Ravioli

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Homemade Creamy Spinach Ravioli

Homemade Creamy Spinach Ravioli

Recently I was in the mood to make an “involved” meal, so I decided to make homemade ravioli with a homemade sauce…it certainly qualified as “involved” from a time standpoint!

The filling was inspired by a vegan spinach “feta” phyllo pie I had made about a month ago. I soaked crumbled firm tofu in white vinegar and salt to give it that yummy feta-type taste, then mixed in frozen spinach (after defrosting and squeezing out all the water). Add in a little vegan cream cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and you have a spinach filling that gets all melty and gooey as if there were real cheese in there.

Next, on to the pasta dough. I used semolina flour, salt, a little olive oil, and enough water to make a dough, then rolled it out using my Kitchenaid mixer. Of course, flour was flying around the kitchen! Then I made the ravioli by placing small amounts of the filling onto the pasta dough, sealing it, and cutting out the ravioli with my rolling dough cutter. Of course, if you didn’t want to make the dough you could use wonton wrappers.

The sauce is just a simple tomato sauce with onions, tomatoes (of course!), basil, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper.