Vegetarian Meals Part 2 (Photo Heavy)

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  • MrsFowler1069
    MrsFowler1069 Posts: 657 Member
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    You need to write down your recipes, publish it, then tell me where i can buy that book.

    I am not even joking.


    Not a bad idea!
  • christelberg
    christelberg Posts: 5
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    I'm in love with this sweet chill baked tofu! My friend Krystle has a blog where she puts up veggie recipes and I'm obsessed with this. Def could go easy on the sauce due to the high sugar.

    http://www.vegucatedinvancouver.ca/2013/06/27/baked-sweet-thai-chili-tofu/
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    Thanks:drinker:
  • Jettisson
    Jettisson Posts: 24 Member
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    Did I just die and go to veggie heaven???
  • plantgrrl
    plantgrrl Posts: 436 Member
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    Veggie food porn you say?! Why thank you.
  • Angeloftheshore
    Angeloftheshore Posts: 227 Member
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    I want to follow you! Seriously I have wanting to go the direction of vegetarian and your recipes look delicious!!
  • Kennedyjules84
    Kennedyjules84 Posts: 4 Member
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    This is amazing. I wish ALL of this were on your blog. Especially all the soups, casseroles, polentas, enchiladas, and other hot comfort food-like recipes...because recipes for those types of meals are sometimes hard to come by in the salad-y world of vegetarian cooking. It's also nice to find a food blog that contains recipes with calorie counts--very helpful for MFP people.
  • tm82001
    tm82001 Posts: 133 Member
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    Do you want to adopt me?? Yummy stuff!
  • pocketmole
    pocketmole Posts: 614 Member
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    Thanks, everyone! Seeing all of this positive feedback really inspires me to update my blog again. I tend to fall behind on it because I feel like nobody cares about my silly food, haha. Whenever I hear someone propose the idea of me releasing a cookbook it makes me feel like maybe I'm wrong, and that people really are interested. :)

    Dinner a couple of nights ago - asparagus and green pea risotto - turned out amazing. Could be made vegan by swapping in olive oil for the butter and either omitting the parmesan or submitting a bit of nutritional yeast. Risotto doesn't get it's creaminess from the cheese and there is only 1/4 cup in the recipe - so leaving it out shouldn't have a big impact. I used 3 tablespoons of butter in this recipe, which is a little on the high side, but I think you could easily reduce it to one. Just cook the onions and rice in the butter and then steam or roast the veggies, and skip adding the extra tablespoon of butter at the end.

    1/5 of the recipe was 395 calories. We ate it along side the caprese salad, but if you're not eating anything else a more filling dinner portion would probably be 1/4 of the recipe (494) calories.

    asparagusrisotto2_sm.jpg

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    Process: I cooked about 1/2 a small onion and 3 cloves of minced garlic in a tablespoon of butter then stirred in 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice. After a couple of minutes I added 1/4 cup of white wine and stirred until absorbed. This is the beginning of the process that most people hate about making risotto, but it's really not so bad. Add in 1/4 cup of warm, prepared vegetable stock every time the previous batch is absorbed into the rice. I would say I ended up using 4 cups of stock, but I had 6 cups on hand just in case. Stir often for ultra starchy goodness. In another pan I cooked about 2 cups of chopped asparagus in a little butter - not too soft, leaving it green with a little bit of crunch. I turned off the heat and added in 1 cup of frozen green peas - the residual warmth of the asparagus will thaw them and the chill of the peas will stop the asparagus from overcooking. It works out nicely. When the risotto is finished (taste for doneness, it will be creamy but still al dente) stir in a tablespoon of butter, 1/4 cup of grated parmesan, the cooked veggies, 1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley, 1/2 cup of toasted walnuts, a generous crackling of fresh black pepper, possibly some salt depending on the sodium level of your stock, and if you like (i do!) a bit of fresh grated nutmeg. Traditional risotto is usually a bit "soupier" than this, in which case you could always add a little more stock than I did - but the guys preferred eating it in this style. :)
  • gemdenham
    gemdenham Posts: 12 Member
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    You need to write down your recipes, publish it, then tell me where i can buy that book.

    I am not even joking.

    Agreed!
  • pocketmole
    pocketmole Posts: 614 Member
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    Vegetarian chicken enchiladas with avocado cream sauce.

    avocadoenchiladas_sm.jpg
  • blah2989
    blah2989 Posts: 338 Member
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    Your plating is amazing, soo beautiful, and looks really yummy! About how many calories in each dish?
  • pocketmole
    pocketmole Posts: 614 Member
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    Your plating is amazing, soo beautiful, and looks really yummy! About how many calories in each dish?

    It varies - but I generally try to keep my dinners less than 400-450 calories. Last night the enchiladas (for two of them) was 327 calories. Adding in a half a cup of black beans brought it to 436 calories.

    And thank you! :)
  • pocketmole
    pocketmole Posts: 614 Member
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    I went to a local shop that makes fresh pasta and bought some fettuccine noodles. I knew I wanted to keep my dish pretty simple so that the freshness of the pasta wasn't overwhelmed by a robust, heavy sauce. I ended up doing a more traditional style fettuccine alfredo (originally it was made without cream - just parmesan and butter) and I added in a bunch of fresh herbs (parsley and thyme) and a heap of mushrooms sauteed in garlic and white wine. 397 calories per plate.

    mushroomfettucine_sm.jpg
  • kristafb
    kristafb Posts: 770 Member
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    I'm only 2 weeks into this vegetarian/vegan way of eating and I also made it a point to not focus on rice & pasta dishes. I'm eating tons of veggies and tofu but was running out of ideas. Until now! WOW!!! Your food looks amazing!! Thank you for sharing! I'm also a little jealous of your photo posting ability. I've yet to master that skill.
  • zombiesalad
    zombiesalad Posts: 123 Member
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    Yep. I am in love. :blushing:

    Seriously, all of this looks AMAZING and your photography is beautiful.
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
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    You need to write down your recipes, publish it, then tell me where i can buy that book.

    I am not even joking.

    Me too and I'm not vegetarian but these look amazing!
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    Just out of curiosity OP what kind of faux meat are you using in these recipes?
  • Bibianna2012
    Bibianna2012 Posts: 88 Member
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    wow those look fantastic! Thanks for sharing and for the inspiration..
    and to think i was so proud of my tofu on the grill tonight with soy sauce and sesame seed oil. LOL!

    The photos are fantastic too.. I see a recipe book in the making!

    congrats on all of you success!
  • pocketmole
    pocketmole Posts: 614 Member
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    Just out of curiosity OP what kind of faux meat are you using in these recipes?

    It varies quite a bit. I have tried several different things and I'm slowly settling into specific products that I prefer or think work best in certain types of dishes. For chicken substitutes I tend to use seitan and quorn roast (the actual roast - not the tenders or cutlets). Seitan has a really nice firm and chewy texture that I like in stir-frys. Quorn is softer and shreds really well for things like chicken salad. For hamburger I prefer morningstar crumbles and really like combining them with toasted walnuts when I have the calories - boost of protein, flavor, and texture. I prefer morningstar brand for sausage and bacon substitutes as well, though I really wish they made their bacon look more appealing. Bacon salt is pretty awesome too if you've never heard of it. For Italian style sausage I like the Tofurky links as well as Trader Joe's Italian sausages. Tofurky also makes andouji, chorizo, and a few other things. At Thanksgiving I cook up a tofurky as well. People have mixed feelings about the Tofurky but I love it (especially the wild rice stuffing inside). I always felt like the texture reminded me more of ham than turkey, but that doesn't bother me. Whole Foods recently put out a product called Beyond Meat that I tried for the first time and I think it's really good. Very nice texture and flavor, loads of protein - I used it in enchiladas last week and they were a big hit.

    Yesterday marked 365 days of consecutive calorie logging for me, so I celebrated with a raunchy dessert. :) Caramel pecan semifreddo on a chocolate pecan crust.

    semifreddo4_sm.jpg

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