Spicy Chickpea "Ratatouille" - Vegan

Are you ready for a yummy vegan meal? This has great flavor and cooks up really quick!  The hardest part is slicing the veggies!

Ingredients:
6oz Mushrooms
2 medium Zucchini
2 Tomatoes
2 Cups  Chickpeas
Cumin
Chili Powder

Clean and slice the mushrooms.  Add a touch of oil, or spray (or butter for non-vegans) to your pan and cook until browned.

Lookin good, add some salt and pepper!  In the meantime, cut the tomatoes into bite-size pieces and the zucchini into slices.

Next, add your chickpeas and tomatoes with a pinch of each: salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder.

Let that cook for a minute and then add your zucchini.  My pan got a little crowded, but it's OK.  Add some more seasoning too!

Let cook for a few minutes until the zucchini are the consistency you like.  I prefer mine with a bite to them, but feel free to add them earlier in the process if you like them softer!  Before you're done, make sure to test the spices again and add more if you need to!

Serve and enjoy.  I'm so happy with how this came out!  Garlic would get a great addition but I was out!

Pumpkin Spiced Nuts

What a great autumn snack!  Slightly sweet and deliciously seasoned almonds with cranberries!  These are a great addition to your coffee table when you have guest over for the holidays.  And they're so easy to make!

Ingredients:
2 Cups Almonds
1 Cup Dried Cranberries
1 1/2 Tbsp Butter Melted
2 Tbsp Agave
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Cloves
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar (not shown)

Add everything to a bowl and mix well

Spread onto a baking sheet in a single layer and bake at 350 for 10 minutes

Let cool and try not to eat them all before your guest arrive!

Pesto Crunch Salmon

The wild caught Salmon at my local store has been a great price lately.  I'm really excited to share this recipe with you!  I wanted to try something new because I eat Salmon a lot and don't want to eat the same thing all of the time.  I came up with this rather quickly because I wanted a pine nut topping and what goes better with pine nuts than basil!  I didn't want to make a pesto marinade so instead decided to make a crunchy panko topping for the fish instead. 

Ingredients:
1 cup Rice
1 lb Salmon
10-15 leaves of Basil
4-5 tsp Pine Nuts
3-4 cloves Garlic
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
6 oz bag Baby Spinach
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Cook the rice to package directions, I use a small rice cooker. 

I started by mincing the basil.  I stacked the leaves and rolled them up.  I sliced down the leaves making julienne cuts and then ruffly chopped them. 

I added very little oil to my pan and tossed the pine nuts in.  Keep them moving so they don't burn, they cook quickly!

Once the pine nuts are lightly toasted, mince the heck out of them.  After you're done with the pine nuts, mince the garlic as well.

Add the basil, butter, panko, 1 Tbsp pine nuts, about half of the garlic, salt and pepper to a bowl. 

Mix well until uniform

Lightly salt and pepper the Salmon and top with panko.  Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes

Heat a pan and add about a tsp of olive oil to it.  Brown the garlic and then add the rest of the pine nuts.  Toast lightly again.  Remove the garlic and pine nuts from the pan and set aside. 

Add the spinach to the pan and continually stir to cook thoroughly.

In about a minute the spinach will be wilted.  Add the garlic and pine nuts back and toss to coat.  Depending on how much spinach you want per person you may want 2 bags, but 1 was enough for The Husband and myself. 

Remove the Salmon from the oven when it's toasty and brown!  It will continue to cook slightly still.

This was a really great meal with lots of flavor!

Lentil Stuffed Peppers

I had a lot of lentils left over since I made the whole bag instead of half.  I ran out to the store and grabbed some peppers and mushrooms and went home to whip something up. 

Ingredients:
1/4 Cup Sauce
2 Cups Lentils
2 Cups Rice
6 oz Mushrooms, sliced
1/4-1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
Seasoning to taste, I used the below:
Red Pepper Flakes
Ground Mustard
Italian Seasoning
Salt
Pepper
4 Medium-Large Peppers

I suggest cooking the sliced mushrooms first to sweat out some of the water in them.  Then just mix all of the ingredients together.  Try not to eat it all right then. 

Cut the stem out of the peppers and clean out as many seeds and membranes as you can without breaking the pepper.  Stuff with the mixture until full and top with cheese.  I only stuffed two peppers and I used the left over lentils as a side for Salmon on another day. 

Cook, covered in foil at 375 for an hour.  Enjoy!

Lentils and Pasta with Homemade Pasta Sauce

 After a long weekend camping The Husband and I came home hungry and wanting something filling.  Our friends had made some Lentils and sauce for us to eat while camping.  We added some pasta to it and it kept us going on our long hike.   Once home, I decided to recreate it for dinner.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
4-5 Cloves Garlic chopped
1 Small Red Onion chopped
1 Red Pepper chopped
6 Tomatoes chopped
6-10 Leaves Basil
Salt, Pepper, Fennel
1 Cup Dried Lentils (or cook the whole bag and have leftovers for another meal!)
1 lb Farfalle pasta 

Start cooking lentils and pasta according to the package directions.  Add salt to the water for each to add to the flavor.  Heat the oil in a sauce pan and add the garlic.  It doesn't have to be minced since we'll be blending the sauce later.

Add the onion and cook until slightly translucent.  Add the pepper and cook until it starts to soften. Add salt and pepper and some crushed fennel seeds.

Add the tomatoes and cook them until they are soft and start to break down.   Add more salt, pepper and fennel to taste.  Meanwhile, stack the basil leaves and roll them together.  Slice the basil into strips. 

Add the basil to the sauce and using an immersion blender, blend until you reach the consistency you prefer.  

I like my sauce a little chunky so this is where I stopped.  Add more salt, pepper or fennel to taste.  You can also add crushed red pepper for a little heat.  Simmer the sauce for another half hour or so. 

 Set about half of the sauce aside and add the pasta and lentils to the pot.  Stir together and serve. 

Stay tuned  later this week for what I do with the leftover sauce and lentils!

Homemade Hummus and a Quick Meal Greek Wrap

Now that you know how to roast a bulb of garlic I can tell you some great recipes to make with the roasted cloves!  They give a milder garlic taste then raw garlic. 

There are so many different varieties of Hummus in stores today, but do you know how easy it is to make FRESH hummus at home?!  I have a great recipe for a basic hummus, try experimenting with different flavors like Kalamata Olive or Roasted Red Pepper!

Ingredients:
1 Can Chickpeas or 1 1/2 Cups Re-hydrated dried Chickpeas.
3 Roasted Garlic Cloves
3 Tbsp Water or Liquid from the Chickpeas
2 Tbsp Tahini (sesame paste)
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Lemon Zest
1/2 tsp Salt

We like a slightly chunkier hummus so I add half of the chickpeas to the blender and then add all of the other ingredients.  Once everything is well blended add the rest of the chickpeas and pulse until incorporated.  If you find any chickpeas still intact, mash them with a fork and mix by hand.

If you like a creamier hummus, just add everything to the blender at once and blend until creamy. 

Now that you've made your own hummus, here's a quick meal to make with it.  Or you could just eat it with a spoon :)

Quick Meal: Greek Wrap
Whole Wheat Wrap
Hummus
Feta Cheese
Kalamata Olives
Lettuce

Spread the hummus on your wrap, don't be shy about it... It tastes great and counts as your protein for this meal, that means it will help to make you feel fuller longer.  Top the hummus with your cheese and olives (I decided not to cut them, but do what ever makes you happy)

Top everything with your lettuce, fold and enjoy!

Pumpkin Everything - Crockpot Chili and Pumpkin Cornbread

Or maybe just Pumpkin Chili and Pumpkin Cornbread.  I love everything pumpkin so when my friends decided to have a fall party at work I jumped at the chance to make something new.  I will admit though that I cheated and used butternut squash instead of pumpkin for the chili since ShopRite sells it already cubed. 

Chili Ingredients:
2 Packages Cubed Butternut Squash (20 oz each)
1 Red Bell Pepper Chopped
1 Medium Onion Chopped
3 Cups Broth (could have used less, maybe 2 cups)
1 Cup Beer
4 Tomatoes Chopped (about 1-2 inch cubes)
1 Jalapeno Diced
2 Cans Black Beans drained
1 1/2 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 Tbsp Paprika
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 tsp cinnamon
Salt and Black pepper to taste
 

Once everything is chopped and diced just throw it in your 6qt Crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours

Once this was finished it was a bit more watery than I would have preferred.  As I noted in the ingredients you can remove a cup of broth or even remove the beer.

Next up is the Pumpkin Cornbread!  Yup, you heard me right and it's just as awesome as it sounds!

Cornbread Ingredients:
1/2 Cups Brown Sugar
1 Cup Cornmeal (I used corn grits for more of a bite)
1 Cup Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
1 Tbsp Molasses
2 Whole Eggs
1 Egg White
1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
1 Stick Butter softened (minus about 1 Tbsp to grease 8"x8" baking dish)

Add all of the dry ingredients to one mixing bowl and the wet ingredients to another. 

Stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture until smooth. Do this by hand so you don't over work the batter.  Pour the batter into baking dish and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. 

This is a great fall meal!  Or if you like pumpkin (or butternut squash) this is a great all year round meal!