Meatless Monday–Salad Jars

If you are on Pinterest, you might have seen this link or one like it.  The basic idea is to layer a salad in a jar, with your salad dressing at the bottom, your more robust veggies towards the bottom, and your greens on top.  Since the greens don’t touch the salad, they stay good, and you can just dump the whole thing out onto a plate when you are ready to eat. 

That link was one of my very first “pins” over a year ago, and I just finally got around to trying it a couple of weeks ago.  Some of you saw this picture on Instagram:

So let me tell you a little bit about my “salad jars"-

I made two different salads.  The ones on the left had the following ingredients in this order:

• Cranberry –Orange dressing
• Red bell peppers
• Red Quinoa
• Raisins
• Peanuts
• Zucchini
• Mixed lettuce and spinach

Here is a picture of the salad on day five or so.  As you can see, it was very fresh still.  I did find that the quinoa slipped down into the dressing and absorbed a lot of it.  Just something to keep in mind if you use quinoa – you might to put it up closer to the lettuce so it won’t slip down.  The peppers sat in the dressing the whole time and they weren’t crisp when I ate them, but they just tasted kind of marinated.  I liked it.

The second row had the following ingredients:

• Sundried-Tomato Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Yellow bell peppers
• Mushrooms
• Cannellini beans
• Cherry tomatoes
• Lettuce greens

I think both Chad and I liked the second salad better.

I really loved these salad jars and I am definitely going to make them again.  It will be fun to try lots of different combinations – I think a southwest version with black beans, corn, salsa and cilantro will be good. 

They stayed surprisingly fresh too!  We made eight salads and ate the last one a week after it was made and it wasn’t slimy or icky at all.  I liked the way that these jars put the pressure on me (and Chad ;o) to eat our veggies.  It really doesn’t leave you with any excuses not to – all you have to do is dump it out. 

Meatless Mondays–Bulgur Pilaf with Roasted Vegetables

Have you tried bulgur?  I bought some awhile from Amazon and finally got up the courage to try it out.  Turns out, there was nothing to be afraid of.  It is fast and mild tasting and easy!  I made a recipe from another book my in-laws gave me – Fresh and Fast Vegetarian. I really enjoyed this recipe, and although it is somewhat time consuming to chop everything up, it really comes together easily. 

 

 

Cook time: 25 minutes        Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients:

• 3 red bell peppers, diced (I used red, orange and yellow because Aldi sells the three together)
• 3 zucchini, diagonally sliced (1/4 inch)
• 2 large carrots, diagonally sliced (1/4 inch)
• 1 large red onion, cut into wedges
• 4 tablespoons olive oil (I didn’t use this much)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 1/2 cups coarse grain bulgur
• 1/4 cup raisins (this way one of my favorite parts)
• 1/4 cup chopped pitted Kalamata olives
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts or 1/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts or skin-on almonds (I used walnuts)

1. Place a heavy baking sheet in the oven and preheat to 450 for 10 minutes

2. Meanwhile, combine the peppers, zuccnini, carrots and red onion in a bowl. Drizzle the vegetables with 3 tablespoons of the oil and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and a generous grinding of black pepper.

3.  Carefully remove the hot pan from the oven and spread the vegetables on the pain.  Roast the vegetables for 15 minutes.  Stir with a spatula, turning the vegetables and moving them around on the pan so they’ll brown evenly.  Roast until browned and tender, about 10 minutes.

4.  Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet.  Add the chopped onion and cook, stirring over medium heat until golden, about 10 minutes. Stir in the bulgur and raisins.  Add 2 cups water and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil.  Stir once to blend.  Cover and cook over low heat until the water is absorbed, about 10 minutes.

5. Add the olives, mint, dill, parsley, and orange zest to the hot roasted vegetables.  Add half of the vegetables to the bulgur and fluff with fork.  Spoon the bulgur into a serving dish and mound the remaining vegetables on top.  Sprinkle with the nuts and serve.

So, let me tell you that this was a meal that I had to force my kids to eat.  They were NOT fans.  Also, Chad was sick that night, so he didn’t have any either.  I ended up having a lot of leftovers.  I used some of it to make wraps for my lunch the next day – the bulgur with lettuce and hummus on a tortilla.  YUM!  If I didn’t have kids to fight, this is the kind of food I would want to make every day. 

If you wonder now and then about whether or not to eat those grains or starches, here is a great article that talks about it.

Meatless Mondays–Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki

 

Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki with an Easy Pineapple Salsa

I made this recipe last week and my kids went crazy for it. I served the chickpeas over basmati brown rice with the salsa on top for Chad and I, and fresh pineapple on the side for the kids.  The next time I make it I think I will add a side of spring rolls.

I went just as crazy for this recipe because it is just about as easy as it gets.  THREE INGREDIENTS!  Teriyaki Sauce, chickpeas, and raw sugar, which I actually usually have around, but I was out, so I used brown sugar.  You can buy raw sugar at SprawlMart, FYI.  I also found thisVeri Veri Teriyaki sauce there, which is super yummy and has only ingredients you can pronounce.

So here it is, from The Happy Herbivore:

• 1 15 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed – I used dried beans that I had soaked and cooked – go ME!
• 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1 tbsp Szechuan sauce or hot sauce (optional – I obviously didn’t use it)
• 1 tbsp raw sugar (optional)
• 2 cups cooked brown rice (or cooked greens)
• pineapple and/or mango salsa – I just chopped up some red onion, cilantro and pineapple.  I think this really made the dish!

1. Combine chickpeas, teriyaki sauce, Szechuan sauce, and sugar in a large frying pan.

2. Allow to marinate for at least 5 minutes.

3. Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until most of the liquid has absorbed, about 10 minutes.

4.  Spoon over cooked rice and top with salsa.

The next time I make this I think I might add a layer of steamed kale between the rice and chickpeas – and I will definitely be making it soon!

Meatless Mondays–Quinoa Tacos

This was our baby-steps recipe. It is easy to make and has familiar tastes and textures.  You can eat it as a main dish, side dish, or on tortillas. 

The first time we made it, on tortillas, we loaded sour cream, cheese and/or ranch on top.  Our kids ate it up without complaint and it was declared a “make again” recipe.

After four or five months, I stopped buying sour cream.

After a couple more months, I stopped buying cheese.

Now we all eat these tacos with lettuce, tomatoes, maybe olives or onions, salsa, but no cheese or sour cream.  It is still just as satisfying and well received.  It is also good as leftovers.  If you make this as tacos and you don’t care how naughty your tortillas are, try buying the uncooked ones and cook them in a hot pan with no oil.  Sooooo good.  If you do care, try corn tortillas or whole wheat ones, if you can manage to find some that don’t have a million ingredients.

So, here it is, from allrecipes.com, Quinoa and Black Beans

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil 
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa  - I buy our quinoa at Costco. 
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper – I put way less than this because I want Carina and Ollie to be able to eat it easily
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels – do use frozen instead of canned for a fresher taste
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,
3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and cilantro.

Also, I don’t use the oil at the beginning anymore.  You can just put a little bit of water in instead. 

Oh, and did I mention that this recipe takes around a half hour to cook?  I think that is the best part. 

Meatless Mondays

Since we are now mostly meatless, I thought I would share a recipe or two every Monday (or every other, or every Monday I feel like it :) that doesn’t meat. Even if you have no intention of giving meat up, it is always good to eat more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, right?  I think I will start next Monday with a recipe. Before I do that though, let me answer some questions from my post about going vegan.

What do you eat?

When I first read The China Study and felt like I wanted to go vegan, I thought the same thing – what the heck do vegans eat all day?  At the time we considered ourselves pretty healthy eaters – we hardly ever ate thing like bacon and sausage,  and I never kept cookies, chips, or fruit snacks in the house.  But we ate dairy or meat in some form for every single meal and a lot of snacks, as I think most people do – cheese, eggs, milk, lunch meat, string cheese, yogurt, chicken, hamburger…..we ate it all.  Weaning the kids off of it was not easy, and we really did it slowly because there is only so much whining I can take in one day :) Here are some examples of vegan foods I can now get everyone in my family to eat.

• Breakfast: vegan whole-wheat pancakes with maple syrup, healthy vegan muffins, smoothies, hashbrowns cooked with no oil, breakfast burritos made with those hashbrowns and black beans on whole-wheat tortillas (no cheese, of course), fruit, steel cut oats with almond milk and fruit, and when we are in a hurry, some whole-grain cereal with almond milk
• Lunch: This has been the toughest one because it has to be something I can make quickly and it has to transport well in the kids’ lunches for school.  I make pasta salads with lots of veggies and a light Italian dressing, bean and brown rice burritos, natural peanut butter and honey (which is technically not vegan, but….yeah) sandwiches.  For the side I always pack at least one helping of fruit, and sometimes some nuts.
• Dinner: Quinoa tacos is the favorite vegan meal of the family.  Black bean burgers, chili and vegan cornbread, pasta with marinara or pesto, salads, soups, sweet potato fries, curries, tostadas, meatless and cheeseless enchiladas, stir-fry.  Every couple of weeks I will cook either salmon or shrimp. All of this with lots of veggie side dishes.
• Snacks: FRUIT and lots of it.  Ollie and are both big hummus fans so we also eat that with just about everything.  Nuts.

The main thing I have tried to remember is that I don’t want this lifestyle to just be about abstaining from animal protein.  It’s not just about what we don’t eat, it is also about all the good things we do eat instead. 

How do you get enough protein?

Let me just quote directly from Rip Esselstyn of the Engine 2 Diet:

 Ample amounts of protein are thriving in whole, natural plant-based foods. For example, spinach is 51 percent protein; mushrooms, 35 percent; beans, 26 percent; oatmeal, 16 percent; whole wheat pasta, 15 percent; corn, 12 percent; and potatoes, 11 percent.

What’s more, our body needs less protein than you may think. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the average 150-pound male requires only 22.5 grams of protein daily based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet, which means about 4.5 percent of calories should come from protein. (WHO recommends pregnant women get 6 percent of calories from protein.) Other nutritional organizations recommend as little as 2.5 percent of daily calories come from protein while the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board’s recommended daily allowance is 6 percent after a built-in safety margin; most Americans, however, are taking in 20 percent or more.

Once I gave up meat I started paying attention to how much protein could be found in plants and I was surprised.  Lots of plants are full of it.

If you want to know anything else, again, feel free to ask.  There are also some very interesting books and documentaries out there.  I would start with this film Forks Over Knives, which is on Netflix :

You can also watch it here on Hulu.

You have already heard me mention the book The China Study  – I also highly recommend it.  If you are local, you can even borrow my copy.