Wild Rice, Chik'n nuggets and roasted cauliflower

 

 

One staple anyone wanting to cook vegetarian food should have: Meat substitutes that are just as good (or even better!) than the real thing.
From a health point of view, things like BBQ Chik'n nuggets (as shown here) are easy to find and pack similar amounts of protein and other nutrients from a regular chicken breast without much fat.

This meal I made with some help from my mom (my mentor for the project), and it's a meal I remember her making all the time when I was younger and even now when she was pressed for time but still wanted to make a balanced meal. Now, for times sake you don't have to make the cauliflower, that's just an added bonus to this meal. If you want a quicker vegetable you can make steam-in-a-bag veggies and toss those with oil and some seasoning (another trick my mom taught me).
 Now for the ingredients and recipes (I've separated them based on each component of the meal)
--Chicken:
- Morningstar Meatless Grillers BBQ Chicken
-Basically all you do is put the frozen patties in a pan, cook them and then add the sauce that comes with them, simple right?
--Rice
-1/2 onion diced

2 to 3 stalks of celery diced

1 to 2 carrots peeled and diced.

(This mixture of onions, celery and carrots is called mirepoix)

olive oil

1/2 pkg Trader Joe's wild rice and  basmati mix

dried thyme

salt, pepper

olive oil

In a sauce pan, add olive oil and mirepoix and saute. Add 1/2 pkg of rice mix and follow package instructions for the  amount for water needed. Add thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, close the pot and let simmer till the rice absorbs the water. Just as most of the water is absorbed, test the rice to see if its done. You can add 1/4 cup water at a time if needed.

Turn off the stove when the rice is still a little moist. Leave the lid on the pot and keep it shut for about 10 minutes. Lift lid, gently fluff the rice with a fork and serve with BBQ chicken.

--Cauliflower

- Separate cauliflower into florets

-Place on cookie sheet

-Sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika and add garlic cloves to the pan

- Roast for 25 minutes or so in an oven at 350 degrees

-Check periodically to see if browned

-Serve!

Enjoy :)

Paneer (dry, without sauce) and Roti

This is one of my all-time favorite Indian dishes to eat. I come from a Southern Indian family, and while paneer is more of a North Indian dish, I've learned to cook this one because I love it so much. And, I'm hoping to show people that cooking Indian food isn't nearly as daunting as one might think. This was my first time really doing it though, so I had my mom help me out.

Ingredients:

1/2 onion sliced

1 colored pepper (red/orange/yellow) sliced

1 green pepper sliced

1 block of paneer cubed

canola oil

salt

haldi

paprika

garam masala

jeera and fennel seeds

Recipe:

Cube the paneer and set aside. In a wok/large skillet, add oil and fennel and jeera seeds. When seeds splutter, add onions and peppers and saute. Add cubed paneer, salt, paprika, haldi and garam masala (to taste) and cook until vegetables are cooked (not crunchy anymore) and paneer is soft and warm. Serve with roti or rice.

How to cook pre packaged roti:

You can find all sorts of pre made rotis at Costco or your local Indian grocery store.you can also substitute whole wheat tortillas.

Paneer is found at your local Indian grocery store as well. 

Basically, heat up the roti in a skillet until it looks "dry" (cooked) on the surface. Then, heat it over an open flame until it puffs up.

Enjoy! :-)

Lemon Pepper Parpadelle Pasta and Onion with Caprese Salad

This is one of my favorite dishes to eat and now to cook :)
And, its not too hard to make either.
A few years ago my mom found this amazing pasta at the local Trader Joes, and while it sounds a little strange its absolutely delicious.

Ingredients:
Lemon Pepper parpadelle pasta from TJs
An onion, cut into strips
For caprese:
Olive oil
Balsamic vinaigrette
Whole tomato
Mozzarella, cut into slices
Fresh basil

Recipe:
1. Follow instructions on package for cooking pasta, they are standard: boil water, add pasta, boil pasta, drain.
2. Sautee onions in a pan when pasta is draining
3. In a pot add together the pasta and onion.
4. Voila, pasta is done!
For caprese:
1. Cut the tomato and mozzarella into round slices
2. Cut basil into strips
3. Arrange nicely on a play (or not nicely if you prefer :) )
4. Drizzle thoroughly with oil and vinegar mixture making sure to have a decent amount of all the components of the salad.
Enjoy!

Black Bean and Rice Casserole

An easy way to re-purpose leftover black beans, or any type of beans with a Southwestern flavor.





Ingredients:
- Black beans, previously cooked with Southwestern spices
-Brown rice
-Mexican cheese blend
 Recipe:
This one's super simple:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
Using old flavored beans and plain brown rice, layer the bottom of a casserole dish (or individual dishes as shown above) with the rice, add the beans on top, then sprinkle with Mexican cheese.
Place the dishes in the oven, cook for about 10 minutes give or take depending on your oven
Enjoy :)

Tofu Stir-Fry

So this was the first meal I cooked for my project.
For this post I have the pricing information, so I'll include it. All prices are how much it costs for this particular meal
**the picture above shows water chestnuts and bamboo shoots as well, but when I originally cooked the meal I used the ingredients listed below**
It's pretty simple:
Tofu--$4
Snowpeas--$2
Stir-fry flavoring (bottled)--$1
Rice--50 cents
Total price=$7.50, $1.25/serving
Serves 6
Recipe:
1. Heat up a wok
2. Add frozen snowpeas, sautee
3. Drain and cut tofu into cubes
4. Add to wok, stirfy together with snowpeas.
5. Add stir-fry flavoring, if needed add salt
6. Serve with rice

Enjoy! :)

First post

So this is my first post on the blog, and I'll use it to explain why I'm doing the blog and give a little background on it.
I'm 17 and a senior in high school, so for my senior project I decided I would cook about 50 vegetarian meals. The meals are all economically pretty cheap, they're healthy and they taste good too! My "mentor" is my mom who has been cooking vegetarian meals for practically all her life, and she's taught me pretty well. My goal is to spread easy vegetarian recipes to people who want to cook healthy and tasty food on a budget, people like me who in the next year are going to be launching into college or working life.
I'll post pictures and recipes of all the meals I cook along with a little description of the food.
Hope you all enjoy!
-Mallika