Vegetarian Fare

B has decided to cut out the red meat and chicken for a bit so this has given me the perfect opportunity to experiment with some vegetables.  Plus people at work keep bringing tons of veggies in for me to have.

Jumbo green peppers were on sale at Harris Teeter last week so I decided to attempt some stuffed peppers.  I have only ever made stuffed peppers with ground beef in them so I decided to try something different.  I have been using Pinterest a lot lately and used it as an inspiration for my peppers.  I went for a Mexican theme and they ended up pretty good.

Mexican Style Stuffed Peppers
3 jumbo green peppers (or 4 regular)
1 cup instant brown rice
1 can tomatoes with green chillies
1 can black beans
1 envelope of taco seasoning
pepper jack cheese
salsa-optional

Preheat oven to 400.  Cook rice per directions.  Cut peppers in half and seed them and then microwave them for about 5 minutes.  Then in a sauce pan add rice, tomatoes, black beans and taco seasoning and cook until heated.  Put peppers cut side up in a baking pan and stuff each pepper with rice mixture.  Top each pepper with a slice of pepper jack cheese.  Then cover the whole pan with foil and cook for 15 minutes.  Take the foil off and cook for 5 more minutes.

These came out pretty good.  I would have liked my peppers to be a little softer (maybe microwave them more) but B really enjoyed them.  The next day I microwaved one of the leftover peppers with some salsa and extra cheese.  It was really good.

Yesterday Harris Teeter had lemon artichoke pesto on sale so I decided to make some pasta salad out of that.

Lemon Artichoke Pasta Salad with Veggies

1/2 box of shell pasta

1 medium zucchini

1 medium yellow squash

sun dried tomatoes

Parmesan cheese

lemon artichoke pesto

Cook pasta.  Slice and seed the zucchini and squash and then blanch them for a couple minutes.  Mix pasta, squashes, chopped sun dried tomatoes, some fresh Parmesan cheese and some of the pesto.  I also added in garlic salt, pepper and some red pepper flakes.  My vegetarian sister approved this recipe.

Do you use Pinterest?

What is your favorite vegetarian dish?

Potato-less Salad...

The other night I found myself with an abundance of cauliflower.  I was going to make this broccoli/cauliflower salad but the broccolli appeared to be pretty old so I tossed it.  So I was left with cauliflower.  I decided to 'google' it up and find something I could make with cauliflower and the stuff I already had in my house.  I really wanted to make this roasted cauliflower soup but I didn't have half of those ingredients.  Then I found this recipe.  To be honest with you, I thought it sounded kind of gross but it was pretty much the only thing I had most of the ingredients to make.  So I went for it.

It's basically a potato salad but instead of using potatoes, you use cauliflower.  I had to make a few changes and substitution (took out the hard-boiled eggs, cut the mayo down, etc) and I know many of you are going to think this is really gross but I actually ended up liking it.  I would definitely use it as a potato salad subsitution at a picnic or what not.

Cauliflower Salad (adapted from here )
1 head of cauliflower (rinsed and cut in to bite sized peices)
handful of frozen peas
1/2 red onion chopped
2 dill pickle spears chopped
1/2 cup of mayo
1/4 cup mustard (any kind but I used honey mustard because I like it a little sweet)
salt and pepper

1-Boil the cauliflower for 10 minutes until it's tender
2-Mix the mustard, mayo and salt and pepper together
3-Add everything else and mix

So, this wasn't bad for a kitchen experiement (again, I know some of you will think this sounds disgusting).  And I didn't have to waste my cauliflower. 

Have you ever made something weird just to use up ingredients you had in the pantry?

Easy Last Minute Thanksgiving Dishes

pic from wikipedia

Are you still looking for the perfect side dish or dessert to take to Thanksgiving Dinner?

Well here are some ideas...

I was feeling a little under the weather on Friday evening and Saturday morning so I spent a lot of time watching the Food Network in my bed.  I found this awesome show called 5 Ingredient Fix.  The host made a full 9 dish Thanksgiving Meal with all items having 5 ingredients or less.  Pretty amazing.  Now I haven't tried any of these but here were some of my faves that looked pretty easy to do.
-Brie and Onion Puff-Seems very simple as long as you have access to an oven and would make a great appetizer.
-Spicy Cranberry Chutney-It might sound weird, but she adds some jalapeno in to her cranberry sauce and I'm all about a little extra spice.
-Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic Chips-She actually fries the garlic in some oil before adding them to the green beans.
-Pecan Bars-These seemed easy to make and would be a great alternative to Pumpkin Pie (if there must be an alternative to pumpkin pie).

Now, if you are in charge of the dessert and want something a little different (or extra desserts), I definitely recommend the Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.  These were a hit when I brought them to work.  Plus Shanzie made them for her work the other day and they were gone by the end of the day.

If you have vegetarians or vegans coming to dinner, quinoa salad is always an option.  Here is a vegan one and a vegetarian one (with feta).

I also really like this salad I made a few months ago that has apples, granola, cranberries, and blue cheese in it.  It's ingredients are Fall themed and therefore would make a great addition to Thanksgiving Dinner.

Mac and cheese is always good.  I loveeeee the kind my mom (Gammy's recipe) makes but if you want something a little healthier, here's a recipe for one that has some squash hidden in with the cheese and noodles.

These rich and creamy cheesy potatoes are also a great option and a nice alternative to regular mashed potatoes.

But really if you can't figure out anything to make but want to take something to a Thanksgiving dinner, there's always the classic pumpkin pie.  It's really easy to make.  The recipe is on the back of the can of pumpkin and people typically like it (unless they have a weird aversion to pumpkins).  Plus I made two different pies this weekend and I'm pretty sure pumpkin pie is not that bad for you as far as pies go.  It doesn't have a ton of sugar in it and pumpkin has a lot of vitamins.  (This is in comparison to the other pie I made which had 2 sticks of butter in it and multiple kinds of sugar.)

So Happy Thanksgiving week!
Are you hosting Thanksgiving or going somewhere for Thanksgiving or do you live in Canada and have a whole different day for Thanksgiving?
What are you making for Thanksgiving?
What is your favorite Thanksgiving Dish?