Vegetarian Chili & Cornbread

Day 365

Vegetarian Chili & Cornbread

Vegetarian Chili

I wasn't actually home when Laura made this so there aren't a lot of pics of the process, except the beans, which were soaking before I left. However, we've made chili one other time in the past year of doing this blog so there are lots of pics on that page.

Beans cooking

Last Time We Made Chili

If asked, I would have guess we had chili 4 or 5 times in the past year. Nope. Only once. I find that weird. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Pot of chili

Directions

(As provided by Laura)
Quick soak and cook different types of dried beans, total of 2.5 cups dry. Drain and set aside.
Saute one onion and one red pepper in stew pot.
Add 2 cups cherry tomatoes and 1 can Italian diced tomatoes and half can crushed tomatoes.
Add 2 cups veggie broth and simmer until you can pop cherry tomatoes.
Add 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, 1/4 cup fresh chopped oregano, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 2 tbsp. chili powder, 2 tsp chipotle powder, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1/2 c. brown sugar and 7 cloves garlic, minced.
Simmer for 1/2 hour, add beans until heated through and serve.

Cornbread

Original recipe
Laura's cornbread tonight was super good. I had good cornbread at work earlier this week too, brought to our potluck by Caroline Davidson. Laura doesn't always use the same recipe, but the one she used tonight was a good one. Cornbread is good with chili. And I just realized that I used "good" four times in this paragraph. Good writing, there.

Cornbread

Reviews/Comments

This is about as awesome as it gets for comfort food with tons of flavor and a bit of kick. I love chili! I give it a 10.

Laura rates it a:"Hmmmm really good chili....9!"

Last Day of This Blog

This is the last entry for this particular blog. I committed to doing it for one year, and followed through! There were times I had to dig deep to keep going and times when I allowed myself a break (like most of the summer). There were also days when it just didn't seem worth it because we were having the same leftovers for a third night or just ate sporadic things throughout the evening rather than a proper meal and I allowed myself a pass sometimes. But altogether there are 272 posts, and that is 75% of the year.

I want to thank my most avid followers: Carrie Weeks, Missy Savoy, Devin DeGray, Stephanie Watson, Kenzie Connelly & Caroline Davidson who actually went in and read many (if not all) of my entries. Your comments, feedback and support were everything to me and if not for you I may have quit last November once the realization of what I had committed to set in. Missy actually tried some of our meals and would always give honest feedback for the blog. I'm sure Devin is super jealous of that since he wants us to adopt him. Carrie tried something Mexican we made not too long ago.Thank you all so much for the part you played in this project. It's more than you even know.

Honorable mentions to:  Molly Westcoat, Lisa Lyon, Robert Frenette & Gisele McClafferty for liking my posts on FB; your support was very much felt and appreciated.

Most of all, I want to thank Laura, who made many of these meals, clicked that link I tagged her in every night and proofread and helped make corrections to errors and omissions, and kept me encouraged throughout the life of the project. Thank you, Laur!

Final Thoughts

It was a fun project, looking back, and most times it was an enjoyable task. I had a lot of laughs at myself (because I'm hilarious) and enjoyed the feedback and comments very much. The blog was never about what a great cook I am (actually, Laura's pretty darn good) or how healthy we eat (I've proven that to be false). It was meant to track what we're eating for our own records, as well as show anyone who was wondering what vegetarians eat since people would ask me. As can be seen by the blog, we eat pretty much what you do, but either without meat or with a substitute. I think it will be a resource I will refer to sometimes, when I'm trying to think of something to have for supper, or remember how something was made.

I will continue to post all the best stuff on my Favorite Recipes blog.

UPDATE: New blog: E&L's Vegan Favorites

Best Beans on PumpernickelToast

Day 364

Best Beans on PumpernickelToast

Jamie Oliver Recipe for Best Beans

Today, I was flipping through the flyers and I noticed a Jamie Oliver recipe for Best Beans. The beans looked really good, so without really reading the recipe at all, I perused the ingredients, checked the pantry and picked up what we needed for it while I was out.

Jamie Oliver recipe for Best Beans

When I was ready to start making it, I realized that the recipe was actually kind of complicated AND took long time to cook - longer than I was prepared to wait. After a moment of panic (NOW what do I do with the beans I just cooked?) and a discussion with Laura, I decided to make it, but make it our way, not Jamie Oliver's way.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup pinto beans (instead of a can of white kidney beans like his recipe)
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 onion, chopped fine
6 plum tomatoes, chopped
2 small Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes, chopped
10 small cloves of garlic, minced fine
1/3 orange pepper, chopped fine
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1/2 tsp salt

Onions, pepper & tomatoes

Directions

Cook the beans and set aside. Sauté the onions and peppers in the oil just until they begin to soften but not brown. Add the tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and 1/2 cup water.

Beans & sautéing veggies

Once most of the liquid has cooked out and the vegetables are soft, add the garlic, cumin, chili powder, chipotle powder.

Adding spices to tomato mixture

Stir it up then add 1/2 the beans and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil and then begin mashing the beans.

Adding beans to tomato mixture

Mix the other half of the beans in and continue cooking on medium low heat until they are heated through.

Erin's Best Beans

We went with pumpernickel and it was a great choice. Toast and butter the bread and serve the beans on it.

Pumpernickel bread

Sprinkle a bit of grated cheddar over top like Jamie Oliver does. ;)

Best Beans on toast 

Reviews/Comments

Laura gives it a 12. I agree, the beans were probably the best ones we've made. Total 10. Inspired by Jamie Oliver, but not his recipe. Might try his some other time, when I'm feeling like fussing over dinner. It called for rosemary infused oil, and while we still have rosemary in the garden, I just wasn't feeling it...way too friggy for my mood today!

Found Sauce Burgers

Day 363

Found Sauce Burgers

So, I found the sauce. And it wasn't at work. It was in the fridge, where I put it the minute I got home. Sooo, that's not embarrassing at all! Really, I'm used to it. It's standard Erin stuff.

Reviews/Comments

The sauce was good on the burgers, and in general a very good sauce. It tasted very much like peppers and had a bit of kick. I definitely need to get the recipe from my friend. I give the burger a 9.

Forgotten Sauce Burgers

Day 362

Forgotten Sauce Burgers

So, today, a friend at work kindly gave me a jar of something red and told me it was an eggplant/pepper sauce or spread. I asked her how she uses it and she said she normally has it on burgers. I decided then and there I would be having some veggie burgers tonight with my friend's sauce.

SOL Sprouted Quinoa Chia Burgers

These are one of my favorite frozen patties. They're also one of the few soy-free veggie burgers. They cost $5.99 when they're not on sale, which they weren't today, but the price seemed fair since I was very excited to try my friend's sauce.

SOL Sprouted Quinoa Chia Burgers

Burgers cooking; buns toasting

Mushrooms & Onions

Wouldn't be awesome without our favorite toppings. Picked up some mushrooms with the burgers to make sure we would have the perfect combo to try out my friend's sauce.

Mushrooms & onions frying

Quinoa burger

Reviews/Comments

The burgers were really yummy. And that sauce? Still sitting on top of my locker at work. WHAAAAAAAAAA!!! :( I suck.

I give the burger an 8. Could have been a 10 with that sauce...crap.

Broccoli Barley Bowl

Day 361

Broccoli Barley Bowl 

Appetizer: Pancakes

On Monday I made pancakes from scratch and discovered a recipe worth keeping so I thought I'd post it here for the record, so we can always find it. I'll probably put it in my Favorite Recipes blog as well.

Pancake

Over the years, we've tried several pancake recipes, but we always come back to, "It's no better than the mix" so we generally save ourselves the hassle and buy the "just add water" mixes. However, Monday I wanted to make pancakes to go with the vegan bacon I bought and found that we were out of pancake mix. Since it was Thanksgiving Day and everything was closed, I just looked a recipe up and happened on the best pancake recipe we've ever tried. Thanks Pete!

Today, Laura waited too long to eat and was too hungry to wait for real supper and made a 1/2 batch of these to tide her (us) over. So we each had a pancake about 2 hours before real supper.

Now for the broccoli barley bowls.

Broccoli Barley Bowl

Original recipe

I like barley; it's one of my favorite grains. I found this recipe online by googling barley recipes. Laur harvested the last of the broccoli tonight - and the third harvest, in fact - so this one grabbed my attention and I decided to try it. We had everything on hand except for feta, and while I was out grabbing some I got a can of chick peas to move things along a bit faster because all we had here were dried ones.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked barley

2 cups broccoli, steamed

1/2 cup chick peas (canned)

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup feta

Dressing, feta, sunflower seeds, chickpeas

Dressing

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp maple syrup

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp sea salt

It takes about 40 minutes to cook barley to the tenderness I like, so that's the part that took that longest. I started cooking it before heading to Sobey's.

Barley simmering

How to Cook Barley

1 part barley : 2 parts water

Simmer 40 minutes.

While the barley was cooking, I steamed the broccoli and measured out the chickpeas and sunflower seeds. I mixed up the dressing. When the barley was cooked, everything was combined together and served in bowls.

Broccoli Barley

Reviews/Comments

This was quite yummy. It was exactly like mac & cheese but with a different taste and different texture. Just kidding, haha. It seriously was tasty and all the flavors were good together. It was sort of nutty and cheesy, but also had that lemon pepper dressing. It doesn't sound like a good mix, but it worked. It was also really filling. The pic at the top of the page was my bowl and I was stuffed and couldn't finish it. That could have had something to do with the appetizer, too, I suppose. I rate the broccoli barley bowl an 8.

Laura gives it a "solid 8.5".

Mac & Cheese

Day 360

Mac & Cheese

When you want comfort food, you want it. We had a bit of sharp cheddar, some Havarti leftover from our sandwiches and about a quarter cup of parm to be used, so no shopping necessary to give in to my mac & cheese whim.

Ingredients

Little a this....little a that...yada yada cheese...yada yada yada noodles...etc

Cheese sauce

Shells cooking in brine

Directions

Shred cheese...cook noodles...so on, so forth...panko on top...etcetera, etcetera...bake it awhile...voila, donesies.

Cooked shells

Shells in cheese sauce

Garnish

Throw a little Italian parsley on that beauty and toss it in the oven. It'll only wilt and won't look real pretty after it bakes, but it'll make you feel like you're cooking something fancy for the 25 minutes it's in the oven.

Mac & cheese before baking

Baked mac & cheese

Reviews/Comments

Laura has made better ones...but it was a'ight...glad I didn't put onions in it. I give it a 9.

Laura: Glad I stopped you from putting onions in it and that you listened when I compared the gravity of that error to the time I put garlic in the chicken stew. I give it a 9. Solid 9, enjoyed it, considering I'm not a fan of pasta. With onions it would have been a 5. I'm glad you listened to my expert advice. HAHAHAHA It was good (serious tone).

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Day 359

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Reheating Dinner

We reheated the potatoes, carrots, stuffing and gravy for supper. I sliced the stuffing and put it in a casserole dish with a couple tablespoons of water and put the potatoes in another baking dish with a bit of water as well, then baked in the oven for about 15 or 20 minutes on 350 F. Turned out nice and hot and perfect.

Stuffing, carrots and potatoes

Mushroom Gravy

The gravy was just added to a small pot with three or four tablespoons of water and reheated on medium low heat, and occasionally stirred.

Reheating gravy

Reviews/Comments

I don't know if it was actually better reheated or if I was just hungrier, but I enjoyed it even more than I did last night. So, so good.

10 again.