Vegetarian Meals Part 2 (Photo Heavy)

ghsfitnesspal

Oh gosh, please can people not picture quote everything? It takes ages to scroll past all the images!

I made the ricotta and tofu lasagne last night - it was lovely and so much quicker than making the white and vegetables sauces, both in prep and layering-neatly-time I used cottage cheese, quite a bit more spinach, mozerella, tofu and basil, as someone had (seriously) bought ALL the soft cheese from the shelf in the supermarket!Thank you very much for sharing your idea!

pocketmole

thanks, everyone!

ghsfitnesspal - that's awesome to hear you tried the lasagna and liked it. that's one of my most shared food photos (via tumblr, pinterest, etc) so it always makes me a little nervous because it has tofu in it. i know tofu is one of those things that freaks people out but i think it's so great in a lasagna.

another batch of food posts....

two pizzas for weekend gorging, yet they are still fairly low calorie because of the crusts i use (hand stretched crusts by pizza romana). one has vegetarian chicken, asparagus (cooked in brown butter and garlic), and smoked gouda cheese - sliced into 8ths was 107 calories per slice. the second had a layer of vodka tomato sauce, white cheddar, feta cheese, kalamata olives, tomatos, oregano, and fresh basil - sliced into 8ths is was 90 calories per slice. I used 2 ounces of full fat quality cheese on each pizza. not a great photo but i just wanted a quick pic because i thought they were rather pretty.



made the semifreddo again to perfect the recipe. vanilla bean and rum swirled with caramel and pecans. absolutely not a low calorie recipe but it's very easy to make and it tastes divine. the recipe is on my blog now for anyone that cares to try it out (goudamonster.com).




on labor day i grilled vegetarian sausages to eat on hoagie rolls with tomato sauce. we ate them with cheddar dill mashed potatoes and a sweet and spicy slaw. the slaw is very easy and only 136 calories for 1/4 of the recipe. the calorie content could probably be reduced with the use of light mayo (i used veganaise).



i'm not super crazy about tomatillo sauce but someone gave me a lot of tomatillos so i decided to roll with what i had. seitan and avocado enchiladas with roasted tomatillo and poblano sauce.



this was my first time making anything with dates and i think it could have been better. the bars are super soft and not as low calorie as i had hoped. they still taste great though. coconut date oatmeal bars with dark chocolate drizzle.



i made homemade buttermilk biscuits for breakfast and they were incredible. i'm a southern girl so i love a good biscuit. this has high potential for being the next recipe i post on my blog (though the slaw is high on the list since i'm overdue for a "healthy" post). the whole recipe makes 5 or 6 giant biscuits that are about 300 calories a piece. i ate mine with some vegetarian sausage and havarti cheese. later i split another with my boyfriend. we topped it with strawberry jam. so gooood!

pocketmole

I've gotten pretty comfortable with making reduced calorie macaroni and cheese dishes, so I like to take what I learned and explore new flavor profiles. That's where this rosemary mac comes in. I made this last week but wanted to make a few tweaks before sharing the recipe. After the changes my boyfriend and best friend both said it's awesome and that they can't wait for me to make it again.

First off, here are a few of the things I do to make my baked pasta dishes lighter:

1.) Subbing a good portion of the pasta with some kind of vegetable or low calorie protein.

2.) Using high quality pungent cheeses so I don't need as much.

3.) Opting for lower fat milk as opposed to whole milk or cream.

I calculated 1 serving as 1 quarter of the entire baking dish, which is quite a lot of food considering I used an 8x8" pan. It comes out to 413 calories per portion. You could add an extra ounce of cheese and it would be 450. If you wanted to serve it as a side and eat smaller amount then 1/5 of the dish is 334 calories and 1/6 of the dish is 279 calories. I used roasted cauliflower because I love it's mild, nutty flavor - but also because I wanted the dish to maintain a uniformly cream, cheesy sort of color. You could sub in whatever veggie you like and you could always replace the rosemary with a different herb.

Pic from dinner tonight:



Recipe:


Cut 1 head of cauliflower into bite sized pieces, toss with 1 teaspoon of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and pop in a 425F oven for 20-25 minutes. It will be golden brown and a little crisp around the edges when it's done.

While that roasts cook 2 servings of pasta according to package instructions. I weighed out 110 grams of torchio myself, but anything with nooks and crannies for holding sauces is great.

Melt three tablespoons of butter, stir in 2 minced shallots, and 1 minced sprig of rosemary (in case you weren't sure you don't want to eat the stem ). When it bubbles whisk in 3 tablespoons of flour. Let that cook for a couple of minutes, whisking occasionally, then pour in 2 cups of milk. In this instance - and for how the calories are calculated - I used 2%, but I've done it with unsweetened almond milk and skim and it works fine both ways. The calorie count will be a little less in those instances as well.

Bring that to a simmer, season with salt and pepper (I used a scant 1/2 teaspoon of salt and probably 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper), reduce heat, and let the sauce thicken for a few minutes. You'll know it's ready when it coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and stir in about 2/3 of your cheese (I used 2 ounces of sharp white cheddar and 1.5 ounces of grated romano) reserving the other third for the top. Stir in the pasta and cauliflower until well coated, transfer to a baking dish, top with remaining cheese, and pop under the broiler until the top is nice and browned and bubbly.

sybrix

I just had multiple veg-gasms. These meals are like... art.

Kitpurr

Oh man, the Mac, Cauliflower and Cheese thing, why didn't I think of that? I love cauliflower and cheese but it's usually just a side, add it to the macaroni and suddenly we have a party of two awesome things that both love cheese sauce!

By the way I just made the green bean fries you have on your blog with your veggie burger. Insanely good! Sweet and caramelized and crunchy.

meeper123

amazing pictures looks yummy somethings I def would want to try

jillbinct

I'm just starting here and your food look amazing. You should write a cookbook or become a professional chef. Yummy ideas.
Thanks!

pocketmole

thanks! :]

this afternoon i made amaretto banana muffins. 200 calories each as shown or 175 calories each without the sugar almond crumble on top. the flavor of the liqueur really comes through but i think i want to make them again to play with adding a little almond milk to the wet ingredients.

keem88

i love your blog! also i made the spinach artichoke dip pasta and it was freaking BANGING totally a new favorite i need to make at least once a week :] the recipe made like 6 servings too which was awesome so leftovers, chyea! i love your recipes thanks for all of the ideas, i wish i had the time and patience to cook all that lovely stuff, i make lazy meals mostly like pasta with sautee veggies

pocketmole

i'm glad you liked it! i actually bought makings for the spinach and artichoke pasta this week. i've been craving it

pocketmole

just throwing in another pic of the muffins, because i always like to show how they look on the inside.



ENHANCE

pocketmole

Decided to experiment a little tonight and make a cabonara style pasta dish - vegetarian of course. Since my boyfriend doesn't eat eggs it also meant making it egg free. I boiled two servings of pasta while I prepared the sauce. For the sauce I melted 2 tablespoons of butter and sauteed 3 minced cloves of garlic and 4 chopped vegetarian bacon strips until the garlic started to get a little golden. Added in 2 servings of cubed veggie chicken (I used Beyond Meat) and let it absorb some of the flavors of the butter and bacon a little. After that I stirred in a half a cup of protein almond milk and two tablespoons of cream. Once hot I stirred in an ounce of smoked gouda (not traditional but I wanted to play up the smokiness from the bacon) and 3 tablespoons of grated parmesan. To get a little bit of egg flavor in the sauce I decided to season it with black salt (available in Indian grocery stores; it has a high sulfur content) and a generous amount of fresh black pepper. Transferred the cooked pasta to the sauce - only slightly drained because the pasta water adds to the sauce - along with half a cup of frozen green peas. Once the green peas were warmed through I served it out with a little extra black pepper. It turned out really nice and was quite easy to throw together. 429 calories for 1/3 of the pan. I think I could have scaled back the calories a bit but given how many vegetarian substitutions I was making I wanted to try and keep it fairly rich and especially flavorful.

sarah44254

i'm just gonna say something to post this to my topics to refer to later
tasty looking stuff here

willnorton

wow

Ampedette

Bump

shortchick19

Friending, we have issues with making good vegetarian food that the non-veg in the house will eat.

pocketmole

Starting tomorrow I'm going to be trying to curb my sugar addiction a bit. Right now I eat way too much sugar, especially on the weekends. I figured I needed to go out with some style, so for breakfast I made lemon poppy seed pancakes with strawberries and fresh whipped cream. Not low calorie but definitely delicious!

xkaylaxmichellex

Can I have it all? Oh my gosh...

pcotter54

Looking at these pictures right before dinner-- a bad decision on my part, because I almost drooled on my own computer! Delicious-looking! Love the non-pasta options.

inshapeeasy

This is great, but unfortunately everyone isnt a vegan. For those who want additional healthy meals to try cooking from home, visit this link. There is plenty of good information on here about healthy eating.

http://www.isefitness.com/eating-clean-healthy--meals